Recap / Charmed S2E17 How To Make A Quilt Out Of Americans

How to Make a Quit out of Americans

The sisters are asked by a family friend to stop a demon who steals skin from corpses and soon learn that the woman is actually trading their powers for eternal youth and beauty.

In a darkened basement, three elderly witches summon the demon Cryto. He appears in a smoky portal. One, Gail, offers to make him whole in return for youth. Cryto, however, also wants powers, and huffily tells them not to summon him again. Just before he disappears, Gail offers him the powers to move things with his mind, stop time, and see the future. Cryto is interested, and promises to make them young if they follow through. Gail assures the other two witches, Helen and Amanda, that she really can get these powers. Gail has a nasty cough.

Prue asks Phoebe if she has seen the optometrist. Phoebe insists that she does not need glasses, but Prue then turns around the book that Phoebe is squinting at. Piper comes in and says she's going to P3 to break up with Dan; she is still very much in love with Leo and wants to make it work with him.

The doorbell rings, and Prue and Phoebe greet Gail. Phoebe produces an old picture of Gail and Grams together. They were sorority sisters in college; they had just met the day that picture was taken. They had eventually become so close that the sisters consider her like an aunt.

Aunt Gail tells Prue and Phoebe that the "bridge club" Grams held in the manor when they were younger was really a coven. Prue and Phoebe feign surprise, but Aunt Gail says she's a witch and she knows the sisters are the Charmed Ones.

Dan meets Piper at P3 before it opens and presents her with a small box. Piper freezes him and peeks, hoping it doesn't contain a ring; it contains only a pair of pearl earrings. Piper doesn't know what to say, and hesitantly talks to Dan. The phone rings and Prue says that Aunt Gail is in trouble. Dan and Piper agree to meet the next night and Piper leaves. The earrings are still on the bar, much to Dan's chagrin.

Aunt Gail says she knows of a demon that is digging up graves and skinning the corpses. She tells them that she had found a "skinned demon" in the Book of Shadows that could grant youth. Aunt Gail and the sisters find Cryto, who grants youth in exchange for souls. Piper notices Phoebe squinting. The Book has a vanquishing spell. Aunt Gail urges the sisters to come to her home in Santa Costa. The sisters step out of the attic at Piper's whispered urging. Piper thinks there's something fishy about Aunt Gail's story and is frustrated about not having a life apart from witchcraft. Aunt Gail flips through the Book and finds the page with the spell "To Separate a Witch from her Powers." She carefully tears out the page and hides it in her purse. When Aunt Gail comes down, the sisters agree to come to Santa Costa.

Aunt Gail has re-joined Helen and Amanda, the three surround a mannequin covered with patches of human skin. They summon Cryto, and the mannequin comes alive. Cryto demands the powers before he will grant youth.

The sisters reach a 50s-themed gas station in Santa Costa. They're running late because Phoebe could not see a connector road on the map. Phoebe asks two elderly men for directions and writes them down. Phoebe drops an eyeglass case containing glasses but denies owning them to the two gentlemen who gave her directions. The sisters proceed.

Aunt Gail, Helen and Amanda prepare a potion and spike a pitcher of iced tea with it. They serve the tea to the sisters. They talk for a while, and Piper notices something odd about the tea. Aunt Gail urges the sisters toward a furniture warehouse. Cryto had said they were to stay, but the sisters were suspicious and Aunt Gail won't allow a demon to harm them. They decide to just continue to call for the Sisters' powers until the potion takes effect.

The sisters arrive at the warehouse and find nothing. Prue suspects a wild goose chase, as Aunt Gail had been all to eager to be rid of them. The three feel ill as Aunt Gail, Helen and Amanda chant the spell. Cryto now has the Charmed Ones' powers. Cryto makes Aunt Gail young. When Helen and Amanda ask to be made young again, Cryto responds by turning them to dust. As Aunt Gail looks on in horror, Cryto explains that it takes three witches to banish him, and he didn't want to chance Aunt Gail's coven turning on him. Cryto makes Aunt Gail lead him to others who want to be young again, or else he'll turn her to dust as well. "Beauty has its price."

The sisters return to Aunt Gail's place. They notice a stink and find the basement door and find what's left of Helen and Amanda. A rat startles Piper and she can't freeze it. Prue can't use her power either. They discover the potion; it contained hemlock root, which explained the illness feeling they felt earlier. Prue discovers Aunt Gail's medical bills; she had inoperable cancer.At the gas station, the two men who had given Phoebe directions are now young and spry and are tooling around in an antique convertible. They yell "hiya toots" at the sisters and Phoebe recognizes them.

Cryto makes his pitch to an acquaintance of Gail's, Frank. Cryto shows the young Gail to Frank and he agrees. Cryto makes Frank young, much to his delight. Cryto picks up the eyeglass case that Phoebe dropped, and Phoebe's premonition power kicks in: he sees the Charmed Ones vanquishing him. At that time, the sisters pull up and Cryto flings Gail aside. Gail takes cover with Phoebe and returns the page from the Book. Piper and Prue distract Cryto while Phoebe sneaks up behind him. Prue urges her back lest he freeze them. Cryto raises his hands and the sisters freeze. He turns around and Phoebe kicks him, yelling "Good witches don't freeze!" The sisters run away. Cryto flings Gail through a window, accuses her of betraying him, and then turns her to dust.

The sisters reach Aunt Gail's place. Piper no longer wants to be a witch; she doesn't think she'll ever be able to have a normal life as long as she's a Charmed One. Prue and Phoebe try to change her mind. Piper wants to have a life, but her sisters tell her that they need her to banish Cryto.

In the basement, the sisters have prepared the potion from the page. When Cryto comes in, they take positions. Phoebe kicks him and Prue and Piper push a shelf rack onto him. The others yell to Phoebe to get the potion. She takes position and yells back that she found it. The others start chanting, and Cryto astral projects. Phoebe attacks astral-Cryto from behind as the others pour the potion into the unconscious body.

Phoebe then joins her sisters as Cryto returns to his body. The sisters recite the spell and take back their powers. Piper freezes Cryto, and with another spell, the sisters banish Cryto once more.Those made young by Cryto are now restored to their natural age.

Piper goes off to see Dan. Phoebe puts on her new glasses and admits she had in fact been to the optometrist. At P3, Dan realizes that Piper is breaking up with him.

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Tropes

• Big "NO!": Gail right before Cryto attacks her at the gas station.
• Brought Down to Normal: The sisters lose their powers to Cryto because of the spell Gail's coven performs.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Downplayed with the de-aged Gail. Cryto kills the rest of the coven without a second thought, but he wants one helper on hand to ensure that he can make more bargains with unsuspecting mortals. However, this is primarily just out of convenience, and he reminds her that he could just as easily get rid of her. He ultimately kills her for betraying him.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The spell to separate a witch from her powers first appears here, and requires a potion that Gail has to trick the sisters into drinking, and then chanting a spell to call the powers. When the Stillman Sisters steal the Halliwells' identities, they just have to say the spell and call the powers, and when Zankou later does it, he just uses the potion without the spell. Could possibly be hand waved with Magic A Is Magic A, as the Stillmans' spell didn't take Paige's powers, and Zankou's potion was implied to be able to, and Gail, Amanda and Helen being witch practitioners with no powers may have needed to do both to ensure the powers went to Cryto.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Piper discovers her powers are gone when she can't freeze a mouse that startles her.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Gail is able to succeed because the sisters had no reason to be wary around the best friend of their beloved grandmother. After finding their powers are gone, Phoebe pieces together how their tea was spiked with the necessary potion. Piper can't believe they got tricked this way, but Prue says their trust in a dear family friend was used against them.
• Everyone Has Standards: Before the powers are called away, Gail sends the sisters to the warehouse because she has a good idea what Cryto will do to them if they stay there. She's desperate enough to make a deal with a demon, but the sisters are practically family, after all.
• Evil Old Folks: Gail, Amanda and Helen, while sympathetic in the former's case, are tricking the sisters into giving up their magic so they can empower a demon.
• Foreshadowing: Gail's coughing while talking to Prue and Phoebe hints at her health problems.
• Forgiveness: Prue is the most understanding of Gail's actions, after reading the medical documents and seeing how little time she had left.
• Freudian Trio: After losing their powers, the sister falls into this. Piper is the Id, so eager and desperate to give into her desire for a normal life. Phoebe is the Superego, calmly stating the facts that they can't change what they are. Prue is the Ego, admitting there are times she wants a normal life (such as after Andy died) but also saying she can't change what's happened.
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Played rather seriously. Seeing Gail gets the sisters thinking about how they're getting older and being witches interferes with what other women their age get to do. Piper openly dreads wasting the best years of her life fighting demons and then spending her elderly years alone and regretful. Phoebe also struggles with suddenly needing glasses, though she comes to terms with her problem better than Piper does.
• Honorary Uncle: Gail was only a friend of their grandmother, so she's not related to the Halliwells, but they called her Aunt Gail anyway.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: The whole experience really crystalizes this for Piper. She can't stand the idea of wasting her youth facing the likes of Cryto and ending up alone like Gail. The fact that the love of her life will never age is another sticking point in that regard. She helps put down Cryto, but she admits nothing has changed. This will be a sore spot for her for the rest of the series.
• I Was Quite a Looker: When Gail and the minor character Mr York are restored to their younger selves, it's shown that they were previously very attractive.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Cryto is defeated because he was unaware of certain key rules about the sisters' stolen powers; they escape him because they still count as good witches and are hence immune to Piper's freezes, and trick him into astral projecting as it renders him powerless and his body defenseless.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Gail coughing throughout the episode. When Prue lists off her medical bills, it strongly implies she most likely had lung cancer.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Seeing Gail old and unmarried gets Piper thinking about how Leo (a Whitelighter once again) will never age, but she will. It's part of the reason she thinks she'll also end up old and alone.
• Mr. Fanservice: Appropriately as the demon of vanity, Cryto is a Pretty Boy who is initially completely naked when he's summoned.
• Not So Similar: Prue says she can understand Piper's desire to not be a witch anymore, referencing how she felt after Andy died. Piper counters it's not the same because there is no specific incident or tragedy that made her feel this way; she resisted being a witch from the start and desired having a normal life instead.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: The first time the sisters exploit Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance, Phoebe attacks Cryto and punctuates each word with a hit.
  Phoebe: Good! Witches! Don't! Freeze!
• Rapid Aging: Cryto kills Amanda and Helen by forcing them through this.
• Redemption Equals Death: Gail has a Heel Realization and secretly returns the page she stole from the Book of Shadows, and is then shortly killed by Cryto when she tries to escape.
• Resigned to the Call:
  • In the end, Piper says nothing has changed about not liking being a witch, but she's willing to stick it out until Prue and Phoebe agree with her.
  • In the face of Piper's questioning, Prue admits she does miss her normal life sometimes, but she's accepted that she can only move forward rather than look back.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Amanda and Helen are killed by Cryto right after summoning him and giving him the Charmed powers.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the first clash with Cryto ends with Gail certain to die, Piper is content to bail on this whole thing and resume a normal life.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Gail says she knew the sisters were witches when they were children and knew what they would become once Grams died.
• Slipping a Mickey: Gail spikes tea with the potion to separate a witch from her powers, tricking the Halliwells into drinking it.
• This Is Gonna Suck: After the sisters find their powers are gone, Prue wonders how this could've happened.
  Phoebe: [realizing] Maybe we should ask Aunt Gail.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After getting what he wants, Cryto kills Helen and Amanda.