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Recap / Charmed S8E1 Still Charmed And Kicking

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How the sisters are seen by the rest of the world

At the reception for the Charmed Ones' funeral, the sisters attend, glamoured. Phoebe notices that Dex Lawson, an artist she met at work, is attending and later has a premonition of them getting married. The sisters, as well as Leo, settle on permanent fake identities. Paige gets a new charge, a young witch named Billie Jenkins. Paul Haas, a demon posing as an estate agent, plans on killing Victor and getting the Manor for himself, and the Charmed Ones have to vanquish him without exposing themselves.


At the Halliwell Manor, Victor is holding the reception for the Halliwell sisters’ funeral. Piper and Phoebe are there in new forms while Agent Keyes of Homeland Security is keeping an eye on things. Janice Dickinson shows up crying over Paige. However, Piper and Phoebe recognize "Janice" as Paige in a glamour and bust her on it. Paige is unhappy no one cares that she was dead except for leprechauns but they’re interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious man – Leo in a disguise of his own. Paige is interrupted by a signal from her charge, even though the Elders don’t know she’s alive. There are demons nearby making sure they are dead and the sisters refuse to encounter them. Phoebe notices a guy from the paper that she was attracted to, even though she never knew his name.

Victor is approached by a real estate agent named Paul Haas, who pries into the sisters’ cause of death and Leo’s disappearance, then offers to buy the house. Victor tells him to get lost and he leaves then enters by flame into a sect of demons in the Underworld to announce to them his certainty that the Charmed Ones are dead. A demon assuming leadership over the next band of demons in the wake of Zankou’s defeat, Haas plans to establish a foothold in the mortal world and rise to power by acquiring the Manor after killing Victor.

Agent Keyes is calling off the case over the protestations of his younger partner Murphy – Keyes admits he’s faking calling off the case so that the Halliwells resurface, and Murphy will spot them.

Phoebe in her other form approaches the guy from the office but Piper gets him out before Phoebe blows their cover. Wyatt is concerned about the fact he can’t recognize his mother, so Phoebe comes up with a plan to use the Book of Shadows to cast a spell to fix themselves each in one look but they will look like themselves to their family. They’re interrupted by Paige’s “jingle.” Meanwhile, a leather-clad woman dons a black wig and weaponry, and goes out on some mission.

The sisters come up with their new identities’ histories and cast a spell to “create” them, and Phoebe decides to go shopping now that they’re relieved of hunting demons. Paige suspects Haas of being a demon and Phoebe hauls Piper along while Paige remains behind to “relax.” Piper is reluctant about the “big change” even though she now has the normal life she always wanted. Piper goes to check up on P3 and the guy running it, while Phoebe contemplates the loss of her column. Paige is griping to Grams about her lack of any real life and that she doesn’t know where to start. Grams isn’t thrilled about the fact no one consulted her about abandoning the Halliwell legacy. Grams basically tells Paige to live with her choice and go out and “find her thrill.” Paige is having a cup of coffee when a guy hits on her but they’re interrupted by a purse-snatcher. Paige goes after him, but loses the guy because she didn’t orb, then gets more “jingling.”

The black-clad woman goes into a theater where a patron is having his fear from something he sees in the movie amplified by one of Haas’ demon allies to the point of passing out (and presumably dying). Paige orbs in, following the Whitelighter “jingle,” and the demon attacks and stuns her. They are interrupted by the black-clad woman who does some acrobatic moves and then redirects his fireballs back at him. She flees just as Paige wakes up, wondering who it was.

Victor and Leo are doing household chores and Victor expresses his concerns. After Leo leaves, the Elder Jonnah arrives to console Victor about the loss of his daughters and tell him that the Elders want him to relinquish Wyatt and Chris into their care because, being mortal, he won't be able to protect them from demons who want to turn them evil or destroy them. Leo overhears them as Victor refuses and Jonnah reluctantly accepts his decision. An injured Paige returns and the guys notice her, while Haas confronts the demon who failed, mockingly addressing him as “the great” Elkin before detailing a new plan to kill Victor at home.

Piper is at P3 and notices Victor has been changing the club music and the place isn’t doing well. She covers by saying she’s Victor’s “niece” which is why she has the passwords for the club computers. Leo calls Piper to come back and deal with the situation, while Phoebe drops in at the paper and gets to hear them say nice things about her. She introduces herself as Phoebe’s “cousin” and doesn’t cover very well, then leaves. When she heads out, she runs into the hot guy in the elevator and gets his name – Dex Lawson. When they shake hands she gets a premonition of them marrying and going into the manor.

Back at the manor, the sisters get together as Paige is trying to locate the demon, much to her sisters’ dismay. Paige is feeling bad that she can’t respond to the calls for help, and talks about the woman who attacked the demon. Victor is putting the boys to bed when Haas arrives with Elkin and another demon to kill Victor. Grams arrives to help Paige out, and Paige gets another signal. Haas confronts Victor but the black-clad woman arrives and the sisters hear the resulting battle downstairs. The woman disposes of Elkin and the third demon partner, but Haas makes his escape. It’s clear the woman has some kind of telekinetic powers, and she takes off after thanking the sisters.

The sisters suspect the woman knows who they are, or may have a way to home in on the calls that Paige has been getting. Meanwhile, Haas clearly wants to kill Victor so that he can take possession of Halliwell Manor and raise the boys evil. The Charmed Ones figure they have to make a statement so the demons don’t keep coming after Victor and the boys, but wonder how to do it without alerting the demons to their survival. At his home, Victor is confronted by Haas and more underling demons. Haas asks who the women are and promises a painless death if Victor tells him.

Victor identifies the sisters as “cousins” and then Wyatt orbs in. Wyatt blows up all the demons except Haas and Victor tells him to spread the word. Haas suspects that it wasn’t really Wyatt the toddler who masterminded this plan and the Charmed Ones are still alive. We then see that Piper was disguised as Wyatt and Phoebe as Victor, and they think their plan worked. They figure the mysterious woman is Paige’s charge and she’ll have to deal with it.

At her home, the woman takes off her black wig and weaponry and reveals she’s a blonde girl, Billie, who heads off to class.


Tropes

  • Alliterative Family: The sisters' new identities as the Bennett cousins all have J names; Jo, Jenny and Julie. When Piper has to pick a new one, she'll continue this trend as 'Jamie'.
  • Bait-and-Switch: While the sisters talk in the kitchen as their true selves, a man walks in. Phoebe and Paige panic, but it's just Leo's current disguise.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Haas doesn't want to have fun, he wants to sit on the throne and rule all. He sees taking over the manor as a big step towards that goal.
  • Call-Back: Phoebe in "The Honeymoon's Over", when trying to manage P3, lamented she was so incompetent with musical guests she "can't even get Barry Manilow on the phone". Piper sees how Victor is handling the club in her absence and goes Oh, Crap! when she sees he booked Barry Manilow.
  • Cassandra Truth: Paige suspects early on that demons could have come to their funeral to try to sniff out whether the Charmed Ones are really dead, but Piper and Phoebe don't want to hear it.
  • Continuity Nod: Paige's former Love Interest Glen is mentioned as having attended the reception to pay his respects. The leprechauns are also shown to be mourning her at her urn, due to her helping them previously.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Giving up her old responsibilities and having little in the way of mourners, Paige realizes she never bothered to have a life outside magic, so she struggles to find something to do now. She says Piper has a husband and kids, and Phoebe's eager to jump into leading a normal life, but all she has for herself is a persistent Whitelighter jingle reminding her of what she gave up. Grams tells her all she can really do is just head outside and see what awaits her.
  • Didn't Think This Through: The sisters lampshade how faking their deaths and assuming new identities seemed like a good solution to Zankou, but has now raised all sorts of problems, such as the children being confused by their parents' constant shapeshifting, what to do about innocents in trouble, Elders trying to take custody of Wyatt and Chris, and of course demons looking to gain control of the Manor.
  • The Dreaded: Piper points out that the entire Underworld fears Wyatt.
  • End of an Age: One demon muses that with Zankou now dead, the last of the old order is gone and the newer generation is finally free to do as they please.
  • For the Evulz: The demon Elkin whom Haas talks to is simply interested in messing with mortals and nothing more.
  • Irony: Piper has long been the sister most eager to want a normal life, but here, she's the one voicing the most concern about pulling this off.
  • Papa Wolf: Victor refuses to let the Elders take Wyatt and Chris away, saying they'll do so over his dead body. Which Jonnah seems to seriously consider before orbing out.
  • Properly Paranoid:
    • After the sneak attack pulled against him, Haas suspects Wyatt's not old enough to pull it off and that the Charmed Ones aren't dead after all.
    • Agent Keyes openly doubts the sisters are dead, thinking they're just in hiding. He has Murphy stay behind to watch the area in case the sisters are still alive and slip up.
    • Paige thinks her recurring "jingle" will derail the sisters' attempt to lead normal lives. She also suspects Haas is a demon.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Paige glamours herself into Janice Dickinson to dramatically cry at her urn.
  • Raised by Grandparents: People not in on the secret, including Elders and demons as well as the funeral attendees, assume that Victor will now be raising Wyatt and Chris, as their only living relative.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Dex makes his first appearance, and Phoebe mentions that she saw him many times in the elevator at the Bay Mirror.
  • Skewed Priorities: At the Bay Mirror, the others are mourning how much they liked Phoebe as a person. Elise however is sobbing about how she doubled their readership. Subverted however, when Elise turns out to be the most heartbroken because she viewed Phoebe like a daughter.
  • Spanner in the Works: The sisters are content to leave their old lives behind them and start fresh, but then Paige's Whitelighter "jingle" keeps going off.

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