Size Matters
Piper has hired a new manager, Treat Taylor, at P3. P3 is struggling and Piper discusses her worries with Phoebe. Treat is the most successful promoter in the Bay Area, and thinks he can repeat his success with P3. He ends up radically altering P3's look, which gives Phoebe pause; everything she's read cautions against making major changes in their lives. Piper, however, is desperate to give P3 a shot in the arm, since it's now the sole source of the family's income. Paige arrives and tells her sisters of a house that gives her the creeps. However, attractive man named Finn, whom Paige met at a supermarket, lives there. Phoebe and Piper have their doubts about Paige's "creeps", but think Paige should stay away from Finn.
Finn rides up to the creepy house with a young woman, Claudia, on his motorcycle. He leads her into the house and they find it dark. Finn says he should check the circuit breaker, and leaves Claudia alone. A shadowy figure, Gammill (Robert Englund), fires lightning from a rod, and Claudia is now only a few inches tall.
Phoebe interviews for a job, and does very poorly. She is reluctant to answer some of the questions honestly, fearing she might out herself as a witch.
Paige talks to Leo about the creepy house. She suspects that her Whitelighter side is being stirred by the house. Leo agrees it's worth looking into, and suggests that Phoebe check it out, as Paige needs to return to work.
Treat has changed P3's name to "The Spot," based on polling that suggested most people thought "P3" was a parking garage. Piper is reluctant to take such a drastic step, but goes along.
Phoebe checks out the house, and spots a closet full of dolls with petrified looks on their faces. Gammill walks in on her and shrinks her. Gammill pursues her as she runs among the clutter, and he chases her through the house with a vacuum cleaner.
Leo and Paige orb to P3; Paige was worried after Phoebe didn't meet her at the creepy house. Leo can barely sense Phoebe, so Piper and Paige head for the house. They leave just as workmen tear down the P3 sign. Piper isn't all that concerned, in her view, P3 doesn't exist anymore.
Gammil is about to suck Phoebe into the vacuum when Finn interrupts him. Phoebe sees Claudia on a shelf, covered in clay and feebly calling for help.
Piper, Paige and Leo arrive at the house. Finn's motorcycle is in the driveway. Piper offers to freeze whoever answers the door, but Leo doesn't like the idea; she still doesn't have a handle on her powers and might blow him up instead. Leo's reluctant to orb in, fearing exposure. Paige offers to lure Finn out. Piper is reluctant, but Leo convinces her to let Paige try.
Phoebe levitates up to Claudia and knocks some of the clay off of her. Before they can flee, however, Gammil traps them. Paige knocks on the door and Finn answers. He invites her in, but she is reluctant. Finn, however, is developing a guilty conscience and decides to leave with Paige instead.
With Finn out of the house, Leo and Piper orb in. They find a collection of figurines of young women in terrified poses. Phoebe calls out to Piper and Leo, but is too small for them to hear her. They leave empty-handed. Gammill hears Leo speak of the Power of Three, and is delighted to have a Charmed One in his power. He covers Phoebe and Claudia in clay, intending to catch and shrink Piper and Phoebe before throwing them all in his kiln.
Leo and Piper consult the Book of Shadows, and find the entry on Gammill, known for collecting one-of-a-kind figurines. He was once very handsome, but one of his intended victims, a witch, cursed him and made him hideous. Finn goes back to Paige's apartment and tells her about Gammill, and himself. To Paige's shock, Finn reveals that Gammil made him.
Piper and Leo go to The Spot to look for Paige, and are shocked to discover that Treat has hired scantily-clad waitresses who are dancing on the bar. A bouncer almost kicks Piper out before Treat recognizes her. Treat tells them that Paige left, because The Spot isn't the kind of place she wants to be in, and Piper and Leo go to Paige's apartment. They arrive to find Paige examining Finn. It turns out that Finn is a golem made out of clay. He reveals that Gammil's stock in trade is shrinking women and turning them into dolls for his collection. Piper is horrified; the figurines were actually real women. Piper wants to storm the house and have Finn distract Gammil, but Paige is unwilling to use an innocent as bait. She wants to find a spell to reverse Gammil's shrinking spell, but Piper thinks by the time they do, Phoebe will be dead. They ask Leo for help. However, Leo, thinking the sisters rely too much on him and not enough on each other, orbs away.
Stretched for time, Piper and Paige flip a coin. It comes up tails, so Piper, Paige and Finn head for the manor. Gammill is waiting for them. He kills Finn with an energy beam and shrinks the sisters with his shrinking ray. He covers them with clay and stands them up next to Phoebe.
Gammil fires up his kiln, and gets ready to throw Claudia in it. Piper suggests Paige orb out of the clay; it's still wet enough that it'll collapse off her if she does. Paige isn't sure she can pull it off; she's never consciously orbed before. However, with Piper's encouragement, Paige orbs out long enough for the clay to collapse. She kicks the clay off of the others and calls for Gammill's wand. Piper activates the wand with her blasting power, and the sisters shrink Gammil. The three then vanquish him with a spell that Phoebe created, and the sisters and Claudia return to full size.
The sisters and Leo meet at The Spot, where Dave Navarro is playing. They decide to get the old club back. Leo heals the P3 sign.
Tropes
- Cassandra Truth: Paige trying to convince Piper and Phoebe that there might be something to her creeped-out feelings about the run-down house. Turns out she was right.
- Collector of the Strange: Gammil makes statuettes out of witches.
- Continuity Snarl: Leo had previously stated he couldn't heal non-humans, yet here he can "heal" a neon sign.
- Danger Sense: Paige gets a very creepy vibe from the dilapidated house.
- Golem: Finn is a clay golem that somehow looks and feels like an ordinary human (except for the lack of a belly button).
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: Finn had recently begun questioning why Gammill was kidnapping girls and he can't just free them. Gammill is surprised Finn suddenly has a conscience when he wasn't made to have one. Why this happened is never explained.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Gammill gets shrunken by his own wand, making him vulnerable to the equally-shrunk Power of Three.
- Incredible Shrinking Women: All three sisters get downsized.
- No Navel, Novel Birth: A demonic construct who demonstrates to Paige that he's not like ordinary people by showing her that he lacks a belly button. Leo and Piper walk in just as Paige is on her knees, leaning in for a closer look.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Piper and Leo arrive at Paige's loft they find her kneeling in front of Finn who has his shirt almost off. Piper and Leo assume they Orbed in on something intimate, but Paige is just examining Finn's lack of a belly button.
- Resized Vocals: Upon being shrunk, Phoebe's voice becomes a high-pitched squeak. For the remainder of the episode, her voice (and her sisters) is heard at a normal pitch.
- Taken for Granite: Gammill, a Collector of the Strange who shrinks witches and turns them into clay figurines.
