The Day the Magic Died
The sisters are outside admiring an aurora borealis (something not usually seen in San Francisco). Piper stands up and passes out, and Leo can't help her. The others get her to the hospital. She has toxemia. The doctor orders her on a no-salt diet and bed rest. Leo speculates that this is a state of mind, and that's why he couldn't heal her.
In the woods, a sorcerer named Cronyn speaks of a prophecy as the aurora shines overhead. He sends his underling Stanley to attack the Charmed Ones with fireballs.
Gifts from magical beings pile up, and Paige and Phoebe find a unicorn in the kitchen, they find a present tag, from El to them. Presumably, the Unicorn bit part of the tag off and so they don't know who it is, possibly someone from Spain. Paige tries to orb it out, but can't. Phoebe tries a spell and it doesn't work. Leo can't orb to the Elders. None of their powers work. The Book of Shadows is blank. They try to keep the news from Piper.
Stanley shows up at the manor and tries to attack Paige with a fireball, but the fireball fizzles. He attacks her physically, and Phoebe kills him with a carving knife. She and Paige frantically hide the body when Victor shows up to present them his new wife Doris.
Cronyn arrives at the manor and asks the sisters to help him save magic. He notes that both good and evil magic beings have lost their powers. Paige is skeptical, but Phoebe wants to meet with Cronyn. They agree to meet in a pizza pub. Piper suspects something is up and that the others are hiding something. Leo ushers Victor and Doris out of Piper's room and spills the beans. Piper gestures but Leo doesn't blow up. Right afterwards, Piper's water breaks six weeks early.
At the meeting with Cronyn, Paige and Phoebe find themselves surrounded by demons, but they have come prepared with improvised weapons and a smoke candle, as well as the usual combat skills. Cronyn walks away as the fight continues.
Leo goes to fetch the other sisters, and then Doris stabs Victor with the knife without anyone knowing. She is now alone with Piper. The other sisters interrogate a demon and realize that Cronyn is after Piper's baby. They rush back to the manor. Cronyn gets there ahead of them and Piper is now in labor. Paige scrapes a bit of dust off the unicorn horn. Cronyn hears the unicorn's neigh and goes to investigate. Piper bashes Doris over the head and escapes, still in labor. Cronyn and Doris catch her on the stairs.
Phoebe and Paige come from the basement, where the unicorn is tied up, and confront Cronyn and Doris. Victor comes to and pushes Cronyn away from Piper. Paige throws the unicorn dust and she and Phoebe say the vanquishing spell.
Piper gives birth under light coming from the chandelier above, and to everyone's surprise, the child is a boy.
Tropes
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Paige's list of accessories for Phoebe:"Chainmail top from my club days. Steel-toed boots from my mosh pit days. Handcuffs...from last Friday..."
- Badass Normal: It turns out that even de-powered Charmed Ones are still pretty effective in a fight. Phoebe kills Stanley with a kitchen knife, and she and Paige are able to subdue the demons with their homemade weapons.
- Big Eater: The unicorn eats everything. Including the note that says who sent her.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Wyatt is born right after Cronyn and Doris are vanquished.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Doris is a demon that's posing as Victor's new wife.
- Brought Down to Normal: All magic is erased from the world for the day. Even the Book of Shadows is left blank.
- Call-Back: The light shines from the ceiling when Wyatt is born, just as it did when the sisters first got their powers and when Paige received hers.
- Chekhov's Gag:
- It turns out the unicorn was actually sent by the Elders, and proves vital in vanquishing Cronyn and Doris.
- The handcuffs Paige jokingly gives Phoebe get used to subdue the wizard.
- Chekhov's Gift: The girls receive numerous gifts from the magical community to celebrate Wyatt's birth, including geese that lay golden eggs and a unicorn. When the geese start laying regular eggs, it proves that all magic has disappeared from the world (which was probably unintentional on the gift givers' part), and the unicorn's horn serves as the only remaining source of magic, since unicorns aren't "of this world" and thus are unaffected by the magic drain (which very much was intentional).
- Chekhov's Lecture: Piper is warned that her toxemia can result in an early labour. Sure enough, her baby is born only one day later.
- El Spanish "-o": When the Elders send a Unicorn as a baby present to Piper, Paige reads the tag, which is torn at the "From:" part to say just "El" and assumes the sender is Spanish.
- Funny Background Event: In the opening scene, Leo can be seen trying to catch the geese running around the house.
- Instant Birth: Just Add Labor!: Played with. Piper's water breaks but it's implied to be a couple of hours before the baby is properly delivered.
- Kinky Cuffs: Paige loans Phoebe a set of handcuffs for the meeting with Cronyn and his allies. Her tone when mentioning the last time they were used indicates it wasn't for demon-fighting purposes.
- Mama Bear: Piper gets in a good threat during her labor.Piper: If you do anything to my baby, I will kill you. I will hunt you and kill you. Even if it means coming back from the dead and don't think I won't find a way to do that.
- Maternity Crisis: Piper goes into labor with magic down, a demon posing as her new stepmother and her sisters trapped fighting demons elsewhere. Luckily Phoebe, Paige and Leo get back in time to deal with the demon and help Piper with her delivery.
- My Card: Cronyn hands Phoebe a business card with his cellphone number on it since there's no magic way to contact him.Phoebe: Since when do sorcerers have cell phones?
Cronyn: You think that's bad? I've got a taxi waiting out front. - Papa Wolf: Despite being stabbed, Victor doesn't hesitate to throw himself at Cronyn when he's holding a knife to Piper's throat.
- Pregnant Badass: Piper ups the ante here, becoming a Damsel out of Distress while she's in labour and without her powers.
- Premature Birth Drama: Piper's water breaks six weeks early which adds to an already stressful situation.
- Retcon: "I see a head of dark hair", "What did you expect? A blonde?" - Wyatt becomes blond-haired a few episodes later.
- Samus Is a Girl: Inverted. Piper's baby was assumed to be girl but turns out to be a boy.
- Unicorn: The Elders gave Wyatt a unicorn for his first birthday. The horn is supposedly made up entirely of solid magic, which comes in very useful when the sisters lose their powers.Phoebe: How the hell are we supposed to baby-proof that horn?
- Villains Out Shopping: Cronyn had business cards made up and took a taxi to the Halliwell manor.
- Wham Shot: After three seasons of expecting Piper to give birth to a girl, Phoebe turns around and shows the very obviously male baby to the rest of the family.
