Elise makes Phoebe replace her at work when she herself has a family emergency for once. Paige gets sick of running the Magic School. Zankou plans on getting the power of the spiritual Nexus under the Manor. Leo is now mortal, and vulnerable, and Piper insists on hiding him at Magic School after a demon hurts him, but Wyatt has another plan: he shrinks his parents and hides them in a dollhouse.
Tropes
- Badass Fingersnap: Zankou when summoning the mooks to start attacking Phoebe and Paige.
- Batman Gambit: Zankou has Leo injured in the hopes that the sisters will charge into the Underworld for payback, which would leave the manor unprotected and him free to claim the Nexus.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Leo while possessed by the Shadow.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Once everyone is captured, Zankou prepares to kill the sisters, but Phoebe says he still needs them to get to the Nexus. Craven thinks it's a bluff, but Zankou knows it's true because of what he read in Piper's diary.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Zankou admits he likes how the sisters always have clever remarks in the face of danger.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Without his powers, Leo struggles to find something useful to do; he can't participate in fights anymore, and he doesn't have any involvement in the mortal world. In the end, he takes over teaching at Magic School (much to a stressed out Paige's relief).
- Emerging from the Shadows: Zankou's first scene.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Zankou planned on the sisters coming after his team in force, but he didn't account for Piper staying behind to guard Leo. Reading Piper's diary later in the episode helps him realize his error."Humans are slaves to their own emotion, and the strongest emotion is love. That's why Piper didn't leave her husband's side to fight us. That was my miscalculation. They would go through Hell to stay together."
- Extremely Protective Child: Wyatt on seeing his parents frequently tangle and get injured by demons, shrinks them down and locks them in a dollhouse for their own safety.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Piper when trying to get Wyatt to restore her and Leo to normal size. Leo says it's the first time she's ever done that.Piper: Well it sounds better when I'm scolding him.
- Harmful to Minors: Piper worries that Wyatt will become traumatized if he has to keep healing various injuries. He actually shrinks Piper and Leo because he's worried about their safety.
- Heartbroken Badass: Discussed. The diary passage that Zankou reads aloud was written when Piper was still struggling with Prue's death.
- Honor Before Reason: Leo doesn't want to just go run and hide in Magic School whenever something threatens his family.
- I Warned You: Once Zankou is defeated, Craven chastises him for ignoring his earlier warnings. Zankou kills him on the spot for that.
- Jumped at the Call: With Piper wanting to do something about the tribe that attacked Leo, Paige is all in since it gets her out of Magic School.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Elise saddles Phoebe with putting out the latest edition. Phoebe ends up admitting that's fair, given all the times she had to leave work suddenly and expected Elise to cover.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After the initial attack, Piper immediately becomes overprotective, but Leo is generally unfazed by his run-in with a demon.Leo: Well, demons try to kill us almost every week.
- Near-Villain Victory: Zankou is right; he was very close to winning.
- Not So Above It All: Elise left work early to go on a date with Richard, a co-worker. She later dances at the club.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The sisters grapple with how they can no longer rely on Leo to heal their injuries and how they'll instead have to be looking after him instead.
- Oh, Crap!: Piper's reaction to her and Leo being shrunk and placed inside the dollhouse.
- The Power of Love: Whereas other demons believe Love Is a Weakness, Zankou grasps that love is the strongest emotion because people will face anything in the name of it, which is why Piper stayed by Leo's side rather than pursue revenge.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": After the Shadow kills a couple mooks, Zankou realizes good is still in the manor. Craven has this reaction when doubting that.
- Spanner in the Works: Wyatt shrinking Leo and Piper and placing them inside the dollhouse (which he shielded). This prevents anyone from being able to locate them, which ultimately derails Zankou's plan to claim the Nexus. It means there is still some good in the manor, so when a summoning spell is read aloud, the Shadow lashes out at mooks instead of entering Zankou.
- Super Cell Reception: Lampshaded by Phoebe when she and Paige attempted to take out the demons who attacked Piper and Leo.Paige: Will you turn that freaking thing off?Phoebe: I'm sorry, but you gotta admire the range. We're in the underworld. That's pretty good.
- Take a Third Option: When the Shadow is summoned, it hesitates. As Leo later explains, it was torn between going into good witches or an evil demon. It went into Leo since he was effectively neutral.
- Too Dumb to Live: Craven initially thinks Zankou's plan is to just lure the Charmed Ones into an ambush and have them cut down for good. Zankou scoffs at this bit of Underestimating Badassery, saying he now understands why so many demons have ended up dead throughout the run of the show.
- We Meet Again: Down in the Underworld, Zankou greets Phoebe and Paige with a hearty, "Greetings!"
- What Measure Is a Mook?: Craven observes that a lot of demons that work for Zankou end up getting killed. This attitude is demonstrated when he telekinetically deflects a vanquishing potion into two nearby mooks. A couple others get killed when Zankou tries to summon the Shadow. Craven doesn't survive the episode, either.
- You Owe Me: When putting Phoebe in charge for the day, Elise reminds her of all the times she previously had to cover for her abrupt departures.
