Synopsis of Sympathy for the Demon
Written by Brandee Mode
The episode starts with Cole in a meeting at his law firm. He looks tired and stressed. Cole has a hallucination that the other 2 men are demons, and that they comment how he is trying to deny what he is, but Cole realizes that they are only human and he leaves the room. In the elevator he hallucinates that the other men in the elevator call him an embarrassment to other demons and that he will never be good. Cole thinks he vanquishes them but when he opens his eyes, the men are staring at him and ask if he is OK. Cole enters his office to find Phoebe sitting at his desk with the final divorce papers. She tells him it's finally over, "because you're evil." When Cole denies this, she tells him not to fight it. Cole grabs her by the throat. The camera shows us her feet so we see she is lifted off the ground but then we see he is still having a hallucination. Cole realizes he is really strangling his secretary. He lets go and she runs from the room. Cole wonders out loud what is happening to him. A voice answers that he is evil. Then appears the ghostly image of Barbas, the demon of fear. Invisible-Barbas tells Cole that "it's your worst fear and it's true." Then the opening credits start.
Paige is trying to master a spell that is referred to as "Prue's animal conjuring spell" and curses when it doesn't work. Leo comments that he thought she was done comparing herself to Prue. Paige thought she was too, but the last few days she has been feeling insecure. Piper enters, in a very good mood because she ate breakfast and did not vomit. She comments about beginning the 2nd trimester of the pregnancy. Piper suddenly gets freaked out by a spider and orders Leo to get rid of it.
[That will be important later.]
Piper says that is a sign of bad things to come, then Cole appears and tells them "You gotta help me." But he starts having another hallucination
and throws an energy ball at Leo, who ducks. He prepares another for Piper but before he can throw it, Paige shoves him and he snaps out of it. He apologizes and hopes he didn't hurt anyone. Cole says it's getting worse: before he was just imagining he was using his powers, now he really is. He asks them to help him before he hurts someone.
Phoebe is at P3 with a guy named Miles, she briefly mentions that this is their third date and how they both had bad break-ups in their pasts.
Piper arrives and pulls Phoebe into the office, where Phoebe is not happy to see Cole there. Cole tries to explain about the hallucinations, but Phoebe doesn't seem interested, then Invisible-Barbas appears beside her and tells her that this is her worst fear, Cole is dragging her "back into his world of evil".
After a few more subliminal messages from Invisible-Barbas, Phoebe makes it clear that she is not going to help Cole because it's not her problem anymore. Cole teleports out. Phoebe returns to her date. Piper and Paige begin to discuss how to help Cole without Phoebe, but Invisible-Barbas whispers in Piper's ear that Cole has lied and tricked them in the past. Piper responds to this by telling Paige they should let it go and it's "two against one".
Elsewhere, Barbas has returned to his body, which is in purgatory. In this case that is standing on a small ledge of a cliff overlooking an apparent pit of fire. We learn that the other demon there has taught Barbas how to project out of purgatory, in exchange to helping his get out. Barbas has been "working on" the Charmed Ones for a few weeks now.
Paige lies on her bed, looking through the Book Of Shadows. Leo enters to inform her that the elders did not know anything. Paige is not surprised. Leo tells her that has his whitelighter, his advice is to follow her instincts but as her brother-in-law, going against her sisters would be "suicide". She tells him that doesn't help and he leaves the room. Invisible-Barbas appears and urges Paige to save Cole the way Phoebe did, then Piper and Phoebe will be proud of her.
Paige goes to the pent-house. After getting him to snap out of another hallucination, she tells him she brought a potion to strip his powers, she made adjustments to compensate for the extra powers he has gotten since the last time they used it.
Cole doesn't think it's a good idea to leave himself defenseless but Paige reminds him that at least he wouldn't be hurting anyone. Invisible-Barbas appears and whispers that hurting Phoebe is a fear of Cole's that is bigger that his fear of becoming evil again. Cole takes the potion and a dark cloud emerges from Cole's body. Invisible-Barbas steps into it, causing him to become no-longer-invisible-Barbas.
[I don't understand this myself ~ just having the extra powers brought his body up from purgatory? He doesn't need to USE the powers to get out? Whatever.]
Cole recognizes him and automatically gestures to conjure an energy ball, but nothing happens. Barbas conjures on and throws it at Cole, knocking him across the room and out onto the terrace. Barbas is excited about having new powers and thanks Paige for setting him free.
Barbas teleports out. Then we get commercials and when the show returns, Paige has brought Cole back to the house. Piper is lecturing Paige.
PIPER: "Barbas? You couldn't have brought back Andras, or Shax or somebody we could actually vanquish?"
Leo heals Cole. Phoebe and Piper continue to lecture Paige.
Leo attempts to defend Paige, but it doesn't help much. Paige apologizes repeatedly. At the pent-house, the demon Barbas was in purgatory with, is now sitting at the piano. Barbas tells him how he is going to take vengeance on the Charmed Ones for banishing him before. The other demon suggests that first he should organize the Underworld. Barbas finally agrees and tells him to summon the leaders.
Back at the house, Phoebe complains about being taken away from her third date with Miles. Cole defends Paige's good intentions. Under Phoebe's orders, Leo orbs out with Cole. Piper suggests they use the magical force-field and spell that they used on The Source. Phoebe says she can use the astral projection spell to find him and lure him to the attic. Paige has been offering suggestions and they ignore her. Piper tells her that Phoebe should be the one to go because she conquered her fear. At Paige's questioning, Phoebe reveals that her fear was "losing a sister".
[I can't believe it didn't occur to her that she will always have that fear as long as Piper and Paige are alive.]
At the pent-house, the leaders of the underworld sit around a table and one of them complains about having to follow Barbas' leadership without proof of the extra powers that Barbas claims to have. Barbas kills him with a fire ball. The others are impressed. Astral-Phoebe appears and taunts Barbas, causing him to kill all the demon leaders when he misses Phoebe. Astral-Phoebe disappears. The other demon (from purgatory) warns Barbas that it's a trap, but he doesn't care. Barbas teleports into the attic, right in the center of the crystals. Paige puts the last crystal in place, the force-field takes effect and they recite the spell. Barbas is engulfed in flames, but when the smoke clears, he is still standing there. Everyone is surprised.
BARBAS: "I guess you wanted me. Well now you have me" He throws his hands outward and the windows become covered with brick. "And now I've got you."
Barbas teleports out of the attic and the show goes to commercial. When it returns, each sister has gone to a different part of the house to check the windows; they are all blocked by brick. Paige tries to orb out, but her orb lights just bounce off the brick, causing her to land on her backside in the doorway to the nursery.
Piper calls for Leo, but Paige reminds her that if she can't get out, Leo can't get in. Piper tries to blow up the brick but it only creates a dark spot on the brick instead. At this point, Paige starts having a hallucination about the walls of the nursery closing in on her. Piper and Phoebe didn't know she was claustrophobic. Piper begins having a hallucination about dozens of tarantulas coming at her.
A vision of Miles appears, telling Phoebe the reason she is drawn to him is because he is evil. Phoebe hits him in the nose and he disappears. She is able to convince Piper that it isn't real and the spiders disappear. It takes a little longer for Paige but she is finally able to get the nursery to return to normal. They discuss how to defeat Barbas. Piper and Phoebe think they need to strip the powers from Barbas, the same way they stripped them from Cole. Paige doesn't want to, saying it would be like a death sentence to force him to take them back again. Piper asks if she has a better plan. Paige doesn't, so they go create the potion.
*Leo* orbs in upstairs, claiming that he and Cole had just orbed in downstairs when the windows bricked over. Piper is worried that Cole was left alone downstairs and goes to get him, along with *Leo* while Paige and Phoebe go up to the attic. When they get to the bottom of the stairs, *Leo* torments Piper with a vision of herself as a child. In the vision, they are attacked, Grams kills the demon, but Piper's father argues with Grams. Apparently this was the day that Victor left and never came back. Victor's last words in the vision are that "they'll always live in fear -- they'll never be happy!" *Leo* morphs into Barbas and taunts Piper that happiness will never last, that the pain will last into the next generation.
Suddenly Piper grabs her stomach and falls to the floor, begging "not my baby". Upstairs, Barbas is making Phoebe believe that Paige is really him. He taunts her into attacking him, but it is really Paige she is attacking, she just doesn't know that.
Paige tries to tell Phoebe that she is hallucinating but apparently Phoebe doesn't hear her. Barbas taunts Phoebe further into stabbing him. Once she does so, the image of Barbas fades, so Phoebe realizes she just stabbed Paige in the chest. Phoebe is shocked and the show goes to commercial.
When the show returns, Phoebe is holding Paige's head in her lap.
Barbas torments Phoebe that losing a sister is not her greatest fear anymore. He tells her that "it takes somebody really evil to kill with a vengeance like that." Phoebe is sobbing too much to speak. Barbas picks up the bloody knife and is about to stab Phoebe in the back when Piper enters blows him up. She tells him that "playing on an expectant mother's fears was a good one, but not good enough" but Barbas disappears before she can blow him up again. A few of the bricks disappear from the windows. Piper realizes that Paige is hurt and asks what happened. Phoebe explains that she thought Paige was Barbas. Piper orders Phoebe to tell her what her fear is so she can help Phoebe overcome it. Between sobs, Phoebe admits she thinks she's evil but Piper insists repeatedly that she is not evil. Several more bricks disappear and Piper calls for Leo, who orbs in with Cole.
At the pent-house, the other demon is begging Barbas to forget about the Charmed Ones and work on organizing the Underworld instead. Barbas kills him.
After being healed, Paige wakes up and Phoebe apologizes to her. Piper gets the power-stripping potion ready. Cole agrees to take the powers back but points out that he is not doing it for himself. Barbas arrives and magically knocks everyone down, causing the vial to fall and break. After everyone gets up, Barbas holds them all back with a force-field. Phoebe and Piper tell Paige to orb the potion onto Barbas. Paige says she can't because it's in a puddle. Barbas taunts Paige that she is not as good as Prue. Paige tries forcefully and is able to orb the puddle of potion onto Barbas.
He falls to his knees and a dark cloud emerges from Barbas and enters Cole's body. Barbas tries to conjure an energy ball but nothing happens. Cole conjures an energy ball and asks
COLE: "Looking for this?"
Cole throws an energy ball at Barbas and he explodes in a ball of fire. Cole looks at the others with a sad look on his face. He takes a deep breath then teleports out without saying anything.
The next scene is Phoebe at P3 with Miles, discussing that this is their fourth date. They kiss. Elsewhere in the club, Piper tells Leo that she is going to enjoy happiness while she can. Leo worries about Paige feeling left out by Piper and Phoebe. Piper thinks Paige will be "just fine". Back in the attic, Paige successfully conjures two white doves and smiles as she closes the book.
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