Synopsis of Size Matters
Written by Brandee Mode
The show starts with Piper passing in front of the neon P3 sign to enter the main bar area with a guy who we soon learn is named "Treat" -- he describes himself as "the number one club promoter in all of San Francisco." Piper has hired Treat to manage the club. Treat suggests they decorate with white gauze curtains to give the place flair. He also wants to remove all of the tables, chairs, and sofas to replace them with pillows on the floor so people can lay back and get comfortable.
(getting on the floor does not sound comfortable to me.)
Piper thinks he is changing too much, too fast; She thought the changes were going to be gradual. She doesn't "want to shock the regulars." Treat thinks that's exactly what they should do, he says the way it is now is too safe. Piper gives in and Treat tells the workmen to "rip it all out."
Phoebe enters, sees the guys taking out *their* table and gets a look of panic on her face. She asks Piper about it. Piper introduces Phoebe to Treat. Piper explains that she "hired him to manage the club on a trial basis." Phoebe says... "Well, isn't that interesting," but has this look on her face that seems to say *why didn't you tell me first?* Phoebe says she needs to talk to Piper; she grabs Piper's arm and drags her away to scold her in private.
PHOEBE: "We said we weren't going to make any major changes in our lives. All the books caution against it. After you've suffered a major loss, do not sell the house. Do not get married. Do not quit your job."
Piper tells her "there's been a lot of changes lately, and this is hardly the biggest." That's when Paige arrives and apologizes for dropping by unannounced. She has a quick question but says she can wait until Phoebe and Piper have finished their conversation. Piper tells Phoebe that the changes at P3 are necessary, partly because they are now a single-income household and the club hasn't been doing well lately. Phoebe feels guilty and offers to get a job.
PIPER: "And if you could get a part-time entry level job that pays you about two hundred grand a year that would really make a difference. Otherwise, I'd rather you be free for *other work*."
Paige attempts to interrupt with, "About that other work..." but Phoebe and Piper ignore her, continuing to talk about the source of all evil vs. the source of their income. Paige finally gets their attention and says there's a house she walks past every morning and it gives her the creeps. She never thought anything about it before, but now that she's a witch, she thinks it could be something supernatural. Phoebe asks what she knows about the house. Paige says she only knows...
PAGE: "That this cute guy named Finn lives there. We bumped into each other at the grocery store. Flirted a little. Done the are these melons ripe thing, okay."
PIPER: "Well, that sounds like you have the hots not the creeps." Piper walks away to stand behind the bar.
Paige turns to Phoebe and insists that something is up. Phoebe believes Paige but....
PHOEBE: "... you gotta admit, it's not much to go on." She promised to call Paige later and walks away. "Stay away from that Finn guy!" she adds over her shoulder as she goes.
Paige rolls her eyes and sighs in frustration.
We see Finn and a blonde woman (Claudia) on a motorcycle drive up to an old house, presumably the creepy house Paige was talking about. Claudia comments on how bad the house looks. Finn promises it's nicer inside. The woman hesitates but finally agrees to go inside. We see them enter from Gamill's point-of-view, looks like he is hiding in the wall and he's peeking through a crack in the slats.
(Gamill is the *bad guy* and he is played by Robert Englund -- best known for his role as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street).
Finn flips a switch to turn on the lights but nothing happens. It makes Claudia nervous, he comments that she's a little too old to be afraid of the dark. Finn leaves the room to check the circuit breaker.
Claudia looks around, you can tell she's nervous. She starts to go after Finn but Gamill comes out from hiding and zaps her with what looks like some kind of wand. It looks like electricity shooting out from the wand and it hits her. But at this point she is off-camera so we don't see what happened to her. (We learn later that it shrunk her.)
Opening credits
Back at Finn/Gamill's house. We see Gamill's hands sharpen a sculptor's chisel, then squeeze some water onto some clay. We see him working on a small female figurine. The scene switches to flames in a kiln, then it switches back to Gamill caressing a finished figurine. It's of a woman in a long skirt. Her arms are clamped down at her sides, and her head tilted at an odd angle. Her eyes are black holes, and her mouth forms a perfect O. From outside, Paige watches as Finn speeds off on his motorcycle. She has an involuntary shiver then we go to commercial.
Phoebe goes to a job interview. The interviewer (a woman) asked why she didn't graduate until she was 27 years old. Phoebe says she had to "take a break after freshman year" for "personal reasons". The interviewer says they "need people can handle tense situations" and Phoebe says that's no problem. The woman notices Phoebe needs a flexible work schedule.
PHOEBE: "I'll put in the hours. I promise. It's just sometimes, I may just have to leave unexpectedly." She can't explain why of course and does not get the job.
Paige knocks on the door at the manor and calls out hello, she wanders inside and sees Leo floating in mid-air. When Paige says his name, it startles him and he crashes to the floor. She apologizes and helps him up, commenting that the door was open. Leo offers the excuse that if they locked it, demons would simply break it down. The cost of constant repairs would be too expensive.
(This makes no sense to me, especially when I get to explaining the last scene of the episode.)
Leo tells Paige that Phoebe is not there, but Paige says she came to talk to him "whitelighter to part-whitelighter." Paige gets right to the point: If Leo as a whitelighter can sense his charges, that means he can sense *good*. Is it possible that since she is part-Whitelighter, she can sense evil? Leo says maybe.
Paige tells Leo about the creepy house and her unsuccessful effort to get Piper and Phoebe to check it out. Leo correctly guesses that she wants him to talk to Piper and Phoebe on her behalf. He agrees to do so when they are in the right mood. As Paige thanks him, Phoebe comes in the front door, in a bad mood from the interview.
Phoebe complains about the failed job interview but then asks why Paige is not at work. Paige says she's on a lunch break...
PHOEBE: "You're not still talking about the creepy house. Are you?"
Leo says it's worth checking out. Paige smiles at him. Phoebe agrees to go investigate but Paige says she can't right now because she has to go back to work. Paige offers to meet Phoebe and Leo at the house that afternoon at 4:00. She orbs pen and paper into her hand.
Paige writes down the address, and again promises to meet them later. After Paige leaves, Phoebe asks Leo if he really thinks something evil is going on at that house. He tells her that's not the issue; Paige thinks there is and they should support her. Phoebe goes upstairs to change her clothes because she plans to check the house now instead of waiting. Leo offers to go with her but she says she'll be fine by herself.
Next thing we see is a close up of a woman's chest, she is wearing a black T-shirt that has a glittery silver circle with *The Spot* written above it in hot pink. Treat is very impressed. Piper is obviously upset that he's changing the name of the club. He says he's changing it because focus groups thought P3 was a level in a parking garage.
PIPER: It stands for Prue, Piper, and Phoebe. We are P3. We were."
Treat says the new image deserves a new name but if Piper really hates the idea, they won't do it.
PIPER: "No, it's just - it's just another change. So, uh, do what you want."
Elsewhere...
Gamill peeks through the slats of the *wall* as Phoebe knocks on the door, for apparently not the first time. Then she finally turns to leave. The door creaks open behind her. Phoebe is nervous but tells herself to "Show a little spine."
Inside, Phoebe cautiously walks inside and calls out, "Hello? Anybody home?" as Gamill watches. She lifts a conveniently-placed figurine and is flung into a vision. She sees Finn, smiling over a beer in a bar as he turns to face the camera. The outside of Finn/Gamill's house, The front door creaking open. Lots of flames. Phoebe gasps as the vision ends her, dropping the figurine as she does so. It breaks. Gamill screams, leaping from his lair with some sort of wand looking thing. Gamill jumps from his hiding place holding some kind of weapon that looks like a wand. This electricity looking stream of light shoots out and hits Phoebe, causing her to shrink so she is only a few inches tall. Phoebe lets out an "Uh-oh." And then runs to hide.
Phoebe calls for Leo but gets no response, I guess he can't hear her *little* voice. Gamill tries to grab her but she levitates out of his way. Gamill is pleased to discover that she is a witch. He gets off his knees and leaves the room. He returns with a large vacuum. Phoebe complains that "this sucks" then dashes behind the sofa.
Paige and Leo orb into a side room of the club. Leo asks, "What's with the white gauze?" not hiding the fact that he doesn't like it. Piper tells them to ask Treat, then asks what brought them there. Paige and Leo arrived at Finn/Gamill's house to meet Phoebe but she never showed up. Piper thought they agreed not to investigate Finn/Gamill's house. Paige confesses that she took the matter up with Leo.
PIPER: "So you went behind my back to ask Leo?"
Leo defends Paige, reminding Piper that he's Paige's guardian as well. Piper admits that perhaps it was "a smart thing to do as a witch, but an annoying thing to do as a sister." Piper asks Leo if he can sense Phoebe's presence anywhere, but he is forced to admit "she's dropped to the tiniest blip" on his "radar." Piper gathers up her jacket to travel to Finn/Gamill's house with the others. As the three of them head up the stairs, two guys from the crew drop the neon P3 sign. It crashes to the floor, breaking it.
PIPER: "It doesn't matter," Piper sighs. "P3 doesn't exist anymore."
Leo glances uneasily at Paige, then turns to go. Piper yanks on her jacket and exits, leaving Paige to stand alone at the foot of the stairs. She gazes at the ruined sign for a few seconds with a hurt expression on her face.
Back at Finn/Gamill's house, Phoebe clings to the inside of the sofa she's under, as Gamill attempts to suck her into his vacuum. Finn enters, distracting Gamill for a moment. Phoebe takes advantage of the break in the vacuuming to catch her breath. Finn asks Gamill what he intends to do to Phoebe once he catches her. "The same thing you did to the other one?" Gamill angrily turns off the vacuum to order Finn to stop asking questions. Finn's mention of the other girl has given Gamill an idea. They walk into another room. Phoebe runs to hide behind a different piece of furniture. She notices that Finn left the door ajar when he came in and gets ready to run through it. She glances over at Gamill to make sure he's nowhere near. Gamill is at a shelf, upon which stands a miniaturized version of Claudia. It looks like she's been covered in a layer of clay. Her hair is matted down with it, and it clings to her face and neck like a second skin. Her hands are trapped at her sides by an even thicker coating of clay that flares out to form a skirt. Gamill places a finger to his lips, warning Finn to remain silent. Phoebe looks up at the blonde woman and locks eyes with her. Faintly, Claudia whispers, "Help me!" through jaws she is barely able to move. Finn notices the open door, and hurries across the floor to close it. Looks like Phoebe is getting an idea.
Out on the street, Piper, Paige, and Leo arrive at the Finn/Gamill's house in the Halliwell SUV. They discuss their options. Piper suggests ringing the bell and freezing the person who answers the door. Leo reminds her that she doesn't "always have control over your powers. You might be blowing up an innocent."
(I think this episode might have been aired out of order because I thought that Piper had started to accept Paige already and had re-gained control of her powers.)
Piper then suggests that Leo orb into the living room. Leo says no to this also because if it turns out that what they are dealing with is not supernatural then he has "risked exposure". Paige has an idea. Since she kind of knows Finn already, she suggests that she lure him out of the house so that Piper and Leo can be free look around. Piper says that's not a good idea either and expects Leo to back her up. Leo unpleasantly surprises her by agreeing to Paige's idea. Piper reluctantly agrees to let Paige try her idea, instructing Paige to take Finn to P3 until she and Leo have had a chance to check out Finn's house. Paige agrees, and unwraps a lollipop. Piper warns Paige not to go inside the house. Paige ignores her. Piper says it's "like talking to a wall. Leo agrees that "she's got the Halliwell hearing" and Piper gives him a dirty look.
Indoors, Phoebe makes her way over to the wall beneath the shelf. She levitates all the way up. Because of her size, she has to make swimming motions through the air to propel herself. Once she lands on the shelf, she babbles a bit about nearly being able to fly because of her reduced size. Claudia gives her a look as if to say, *stop wasting time* Phoebe looks down to find Gamill doing something with the kiln. She turns her attention back to Claudia and instructs her to close her eyes and remain relaxed. Phoebe kicks the hardened clay skirting. The clay form around Claudia breaks apart and falls away. Claudia's legs seem to give out, but Phoebe catches her in her arms, telling her "You can collapse later, I need you to run now.
It's too late though. Gamill brings an empty coffee can down over the two tiny women as they scream. Turning to Finn, Gamill says he knew a witch couldn't resist saving an innocent". Finn's growing more and more uncomfortable with the situation. As the two men stare each other down, Paige knocks at the front door. Gamill orders Finn to lure her into the house. Finn uneasily suggests "let them all go."
GAMILL: "Since when did you develop a conscience? I never gave you one. Now, go! Fetch!"
Finn reluctantly heads to the front porch.
Gamill transfers the tiny women into the unlit kiln and slams the lid closed. Then we see Finn opening the front door. Paige sucks on a lollipop suggestively. She asks if he remembers her, "The girl with the melons?" (pause) "I mean from the supermarket melons." Finn asks why she is there and Paige explains that she's a modern woman. When she sees something she wants, she goes for it. They continue to chit-chat for a bit and he invites her inside. Paige is hesitant and suddenly Finn changes his mind, suggesting they go out instead.
Gamill realizes someone is about to orb in and quickly returns to his hiding place. Piper and Leo orb into the living room. Phoebe immediately slaps her hands against the glass of the oven, shouting for help, but they can't hear her and since the kiln is on the floor, they don't notice her either. Piper and Leo split up to search the house. Piper opens a cabinet and finds rows of figurines that look similar to the one Phoebe dropped earlier. They are each have the head tilted at an odd angle with black eyes and the mouth seems to be screaming. They don't find anything and Leo suggests they return to the Manor to consult the Book of Shadows. Piper hopes they don't need the Power of Three for this, then she & Leo orb out. Gamill comes out of his hiding place to talk to Phoebe.
GAMILL: "So you're not just a witch, but a Charmed One. Nothing will make me happier than to collect you all."
Back from the commercial, Gamill has Phoebe and Claudia covered in clay and puts aces them back on the shelf to dry. He says he will put them in the kiln once the coating has hardened, then exits the house with the promise to return when his "collection has been completed." Phoebe takes this opportunity to babble about what a lousy day she's been having. Claudia gives her a look and grunts Phoebe promises to free them, but the words come with increasing difficulty as the clay hardens around her jaw.
Back in the Halliwell attic, Leo stumbles upon Gamill's entry in the BoS. It reads, "Gamill, also known as *The Collector* is known for his passion of collecting one-of-a-kind figurines."
Leo and Piper briefly discuss why he would want to collect figurines.
LEO: "Thirty years ago a witch cast a spell to make him as hideous on the outside as he was on the inside"
The drawings accompanying the text are of Gamill before and after the witch's curse. The before image supposedly looks an awful lot like Finn, leading Piper to wonder if Gamill found some way to shake off the curse and change his name. Leo guesses that the only person who can provide the answer to that question is Finn himself. Piper worries for a moment about Paige being alone with a demon. Leo reminds Piper that Paige took him to P3, so she should be safe.
The scene switches to show Paige entering her apartment, followed by Finn. Finn compliments Paige on her it. She comments on how small it is compared to the Finn/Gamill's house. He reveals that this is his first time he's ever been invited to the girl's apartment. Finn leans in to kiss Paige. She pulls back, because she has a question about Finn/Gamill's house. Finn becomes nervous and walks to the sofa, for he wasn't expecting this. Paige begs him to confess what he knows, because her sister might be in danger. Finn gets up to leave but turns to admit it was only recently that he began to question his living arrangement himself. He admits that Gamill *made* him.
PAIGE: "He made you? Is that like a Mafia thing?"
Finn sighs and pulls his shirt out of his jeans. He asks for Paige's hand and places it on stomach.
FINN: "You feel that? I'm not like you."
Back at the club, waitresses are wearing super-short shorts and half shirts, and they are dancing on the bar. Piper and Leo enter, with Piper quickly becoming stressed. "Look at the waitresses!" then adds, "No, don't look." She covers Leo's eyes with her hand. He shrugs that off, and, tilting his head, wonders, "Can you do that in public?" Piper orders him to find Paige while she heads off in search of Treat. A bouncer stops her, telling her she can't enter the VIP Lounge.
PIPER: "Oh! You're assuming because I not tall, tattooed, or big breasted that I'm not important. That's a bad assumption because I own this club."
Piper discovers from Treat that Paige was there earlier, but left because of the noise. Piper returns to Leo to find him standing between to women that are dancing/rubbing against him. She pulls him away from them and they crawl behind a love seat that's on the side of the room. We see the little blue orb lights float up behind the couch.
Piper and Leo orb into Paige's apartment. Finn stands with his back to them, shirtless. Paige is on her knees before him. Paige pops her head around Finn's hip to ask why they are there. Piper's jaw drops to the floor as Leo intently studies smudges of dirt on the kitchen cabinets. "This is ridiculous!" Piper exclaims. "It's like dealing with a teenager!" Paige rises to her feet, casually announcing that she was just "examining something." Piper yells at Paige for leaving the club to "play doctor with the demon boy."
Paige interrupts point out that Finn has no belly-button. And says they left the club "because it sucks now. Anytime you try to be that hip, it ain't hip," she explains.
Paige explains that Finn lacks belly-button because he wasn't born. Finn confirms this; he was made from clay. "In Gamill's own image," Leo surmises. At Piper's prompting, Finn explains what Gamill is all about. He warns that Gamill will shrink them all if they return to the house. Piper comes up with a plan: Finn will enter the house first to distract Gamill while the others look for Phoebe. Paige objects to using Finn as "a minesweeper," because he is, after all, an innocent. Piper drags Paige to one side to argue. Piper insists that Finn can't be an innocent because he's not "real," and they need to use him to save Phoebe. Paige counters that they should return to the Manor (with Finn in protective custody) to search for a vanquish in the Book Of Shadows. Piper turns to Leo for his opinion. Leo refuses, saying they need to settle it on their own. The problem as Leo sees it, is that Piper will not consider Paige's ideas, while Paige refuses to follow Piper's advice. He thinks the best thing he can do is stay out of it, so he orbs out.
As Finn stands off to the side, Piper and Paige argue for a bit before agreeing to flip a coin on the matter. Piper calls heads. Paige flips the coin manually, then flips it again with her power to ensure it ends up tails.
Piper reluctantly agrees to return to the Manor. Once there, Finn shyly asks if he can get a glass of water because his skin feels a little dry. Paige directs him to the kitchen, and he heads off down the hall. As he reaches the foot of the stairs, a red bolt slams into his back from off-screen. Finn drops to his knees then explodes in a puff of smoke. Paige and Piper gasp in surprise. Gamill emerges from his hiding place and shrinks Piper and Paige.
Back from commercial we're in Finn/Gamill's house. Paige and Piper are now covered in clay on the shelf next to Phoebe and Claudia. Gamill takes off a rubber glove and takes the blonde from the shelf. For some reason, Gamill is sweating a lot. He tells Claudia it's time to fire up the kiln and then points to the sisters and tells them they are next. He turns a knob on the kiln and we see flames shoot up. "At least we came for you," Piper begins. Phoebe grunts in irritation.
Piper asks Phoebe if she's able to say a spell, but Phoebe can't talk because the clay she's in has dried. Piper tells Paige they need to consider their options.
PAIGE: "Options? We have two: We're screwed, and we're more screwed."
Piper finds this observation less than helpful. Piper says she can't blow up the clay that surrounds her because she can't move her hands but Paige can orb. Even though this allows her only disappears for a moment and reappears in the same place, her brief absence might be enough for the (still-wet) clay to collapse. Paige says she can't orb at will. Piper urges her to try.
PIPER: "Close your eyes, and take a deep breath, feel the magic rising from a place of strength."
It works and Paige orbs out, the clay collapses and Paige reappears. She quickly frees the others as Gamill prepares to place the blonde in the kiln. Piper tries to freeze him, but it doesn't work.
PIPER: "He's too big for my tiny little magic."
Paige suggests that she summon his *wand* from the table. Phoebe and Piper think this is worth a try, but warn her to do it as quietly as she can so Gamill doesn't hear. Paige calls for the wand twice, but her voice is too soft. Phoebe tells her to, "Go for it!" so Paige shouts, "Wand!" and it orbs over to the shelf. Gamill hears her and reaches for the wand but is too late. The sisters aim the wand at him. Paige says they need a spark. Piper says she can handle that, and even though we don't see it, I would assume she uses her exploding power to activate it. Gamill shrinks to the same size as the others. He starts to run across the floor, but Piper freezes him. Phoebe says used her time in the clay cast to compose a spell, so she tells Piper and Paige to repeat after her:
Small of mind, big of woe,
The pain you caused
You now will know.
Gamill twists and turns, howling pain, then disappears into a crack in the floor. We see beams of light shoot up through the floor followed by a little puff of smoke. Then we see the sisters on the shelf quickly grow to their normal size, causing the little shelf to tilt and the sisters fall to the floor. All the women start dusting themselves off. Claudia is impressed and asks how they did that...
PHOEBE: "The power of three."
Piper holds her thumb and forefinger almost together and corrects Phoebe, while smiling she says...
PIPER: "The power of point three."
At the club, Piper makes her way through the crowd to join Phoebe, Paige, and Leo. Leo "still can't get used to the white gauze" and Paige says he doesn't have to because Paige was right. It was trying too hard and she is going to fire Treat. The group sits on the pillows that are temporarily in the place of the table they usually sit at.
Paige is a little sad because the last time she was there, she was with Finn. Paige asks how they "get over these things"? Piper says the good comes with a little bad, and basically you get used to it. Phoebe comments that being in mud all day and left her skin looking good. Piper says that after being shrunk, she'll never complain about her height again. She also says she won't ignore Paige's instincts anymore either. Leo says there is only one thing left to do. He takes the women out back into the alley.
Paige asks Leo what he's looking for. Leo leads them over to the broken P3 sign.
PAIGE: "Broken glass?"
LEO: "Broken glass that needs healing."
Leo looks to Piper for her permission. She nods her head that it's OK. Leo *heals* the sign and it begins to glow.
PIPER: "Well, it looks like P3 is back."
Phoebe gives Paige a arm-around-the-shoulder type hug and Paige smiles.
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