The Eyes Have It
Phoebe is having trouble getting premonitions. She doesn't want to worry her sisters and Leo so she seeks advice from a Gypsy fortune teller named Madame Teresa. Madame Teresa tells Phoebe that her work is taking up too much of her life. Teresa has a premonition while she is in hand in hand with Phoebe, something she doesn't normally experience. She quickly ushers Phoebe out the door without explaining. It's obvious Madame Teresa is spooked.
On the phone, Teresa tells another, younger Gypsy, Lydia Nicolae, that Orin (Tobin Bell), a powerful Gypsy Hunter, is coming after them. Lydia is shocked; her family blinded Orin decades ago. Apparently Phoebe originally had this premonition, but Teresa intercepted it. Teresa and Lydia are Shuvanis, the Gypsy equivalent of Wiccan high priestesses, and Teresa thinks Orin might be trying to kill Shuvanis. Suddenly, Orin's son, Cree, walks into Teresa's shop and tells her that his father wants to avenge his blinding. He raises his hands, and red beams shoot out of them toward a screaming Teresa's eyes.
Piper is embarrassed that she likely won't be able to have her baby in a hospital like a normal mother, especially after hearing about other women in her yoga class showing off their sonograms. She's also been feeling nauseous lately. Leo suggests that they watch a home-birthing video he picked up. Phoebe comes in, somewhat tired, and grabs some coffee on the way to work. Piper notices the markings on Phoebe's hand from Teresa's reading, and Phoebe admits she went there for a visit. She hasn't had a premonition in several months, and can barely levitate. Leo isn't happy that Phoebe didn't come to him or her sisters for help, and goes to the Elders to find out what is happening with her powers. Phoebe mentions how Teresa hustled her out of the shop without warning after intercepting a premonition. Paige has been reading about Gypsy magic, and thinks Teresa channelled Phoebe's premonition. Phoebe wants to check on her, but since she has to go to work Paige goes in her place. Cree presents Teresa's eyes to Orin, who puts them into his empty sockets. The eyes burn themselves out in their sockets and Orin is still blind. He seems to be seeking a particular pair of eyes.
Paige arrives at Teresa's shop to find it cordoned off by police, and Teresa's corpse being hauled away. She calls Phoebe and tells her that Teresa is dead, and it's likely a demon was behind it; her eyes were gouged out. While Phoebe is still on the phone with Paige, Elise pops in; she's booked Phoebe for an appearance on a radio show. Phoebe tries to beg out, without success.
Lydia goes to see her niece, Dr. Ava Nicolae, at San Francisco Memorial Hospital and warns her that Orin is after them. Ava walked away from her heritage as a girl; her mother died of cancer and Ava thought she should have gotten chemotherapy rather than rely on gypsy magic. Lydia warns Ava that since she's a Shuvani as well, Orin will still able to sense her. Ava promises to come to Teresa's funeral.
Piper and Leo are watching the birthing video when Paige reports Teresa's murder. She talked with Darryl, and he told her Teresa is the third Gypsy to have been killed in recent days—and all of them have had their eyes gouged out. Phoebe comes in, and Leo tells her that her magical problems may be emotionally related. Paige suggests they go to Teresa's funeral, in hopes that Phoebe can get a premonition of the demon's next target.
At Teresa's funeral, Lydia tries to talk Ava into staying since a gypsy hunter won't dare attack in a crowd. Ava isn't interested, and heads back to the hospital. As Lydia is about to follow Ava, Phoebe bumps into Lydia and has a premonition of her death by Cree's hand.
Lydia tries to find Ava when Cree attacks her. Lydia shoots green beams out of her eyes, causing a dust storm to stir up and temporarily blind Cree. Cree blasts Lydia to the ground, then shoots beams at her eyes. The sisters arrive just as Cree is about to finish Lydia off. Piper blasts Cree into a pile of wood; she expected to blow him up. The sisters orb Lydia back to the manor, where Leo heals her eyes. Lydia tells the sisters and Leo that years ago, the Nicolae tribe cursed Orin with blindness so he couldn't hunt Gypsies down anymore. She's convinced Cree is killing Shuvanis in revenge, and is concerned that Ava won't be able to defend herself since she's rejected her heritage. Piper and Leo orb to the hospital to find Ava; Piper thinks she'll be able to do something about her nauseous feeling. Elise calls with yet another promotion for Phoebe, but Phoebe begs out so she can help Lydia make a vanquishing potion.
Cree reports back to Orin, who tells him Lydia has the eyes he wants. Cree doesn't think he'll get another shot now that the sisters are protecting her, but Orin thinks her desire to find Ava will be her undoing.
Piper has a flare-up, and she and Leo are about to track down a doctor when they run into Ava. Ava tells them she walked away from her heritage because of her mother's death. Piper tells Ava she knows how she feels, since she lost her mother at a young age as well. Ava is called away. Piper feels as if she's going to vomit, and insists they see a doctor immediately.
Back at the manor, Lydia cooks a potion with Phoebe and Paige. Phoebe remembers how long it took for them to embrace their powers, and thinks Ava will come around. Lydia isn't so sure, as Ava is the last of the Nicolae line. Lydia realizes that Phoebe stressed and offers to read tea leaves for her. She says Phoebe is "out of balance". Lydia has Paige do a tea-leaf reading for her and discovers Ava is in danger. Ava leaves in a huff. Phoebe gets a premonition from the tea cup showing Cree after Ava at the hospital.
Piper is getting treated for her nausea when Leo gets a jingle from Paige. Piper and Leo meet Paige and Phoebe in the parking lot. Cree attacks Lydia again. Lydia tries to blast Cree, but it has no effect. Lydia is about to throw the potion when Cree blasts Lydia's eyes again. The sisters and Leo arrive, and Phoebe throws her potion at Cree, vanquishing him. Leo tries to heal Lydia but he is too late.
In surgery, Ava has a vision in which she sees Lydia on the operating table in place of a patient who has just died. Lydia speaks to Ava in Romanian, and mentions something called "Waffediyok." Minutes later, a body is wheeled in. Although it's in a body bag, Ava knows it's Lydia, and breaks down while the sisters and Leo comfort her. Ava tells the sisters that she saw a vision of Lydia as a "mulo," or living dead. In Gypsy tradition, it means something terrible is about to happen. With Cree vanquished, Ava thinks Orin is now personally hunting her. Phoebe and Leo return to the manor to make more potion to vanquish Orin, while the others head to Teresa's apartment.
Ava tells Piper and Paige that Teresa was the "holy woman" of her family. Teresa tried to make sure their traditions were passed from mother to daughter. Paige finds a treasure chest that belonged to Ava's mother. It has several gypsy spells, as well as a cross-shaped talisman with the word "Waffediyok" inscribed on it. Ava explains that it represents the Evil Eye, the symbol of her family. They all realize that Lydia was the keeper of the evil eye and this is what Orin was after all along.
Orin plucks Lydia's eyes from her corpse in the morgue and finds that these are the ones he's after. A medical examiner confronts him. Orin blasts him with the same green beams that Lydia used earlier.
Back at the manor, Phoebe blames herself for losing Lydia. Leo, however, thinks that Cole is responsible in that Phoebe has been so beaten down by Cole that she's thrown herself into her work as an escape. Elise calls again, but Phoebe begs out.
Piper, Paige and Ava orb in with the talisman. Phoebe takes it and has a strong premonition of Orin's attack. In her premonition, Piper throws the potion at Orin, but he merely catches it and crushes it in his hand. He blasts Piper, twists Leo's neck and blasts Phoebe. Phoebe comes back from her premonition with a smoking hole in her chest. Leo heals her; apparently Phoebe unknowingly astral-projected into her future self.
Ava fears that Orin will be too much for the sisters to handle now that he has the evil eye. Paige thinks that if she combines her magic with theirs, they'll be able to vanquish him. Ava is skeptical, she doesn't think that she knows any Gypsy magic. Phoebe tells her that she has it inside her, just like the sisters have magic inside them. Paige suggests that she use the spell Phoebe originally wrote to vanquish the Source, only this time, Ava can call upon the magic of her entire line to vanquish Orin.
Just as Ava is practicing the spell, Orin shimmers in. Piper throws the potion at him, but just like in the premonition, he catches it and smashes it in his hand. Orin blasts Piper in the chest. Phoebe and Paige join Ava in reading the spell. Leo charges at Orin, but Orin twists his neck and throws him across the room. While Phoebe, Paige and Ava are still reading the spell, Orin tries to blast them. However, by this time the spirits of Lydia, Teresa and Ava's mother are flying around them. They deflect Orin's blasts back at him and vanquish him. Leo comes to and heals Piper. Ava says that she felt her mother's presence there.
Ava has fully embraced her heritage and has started a free clinic at a Gypsy encampment to serve Gypsies without medical insurance. Paige is volunteering to help her. Ava also offers to help Piper through her pregnancy. She also begins to train Phoebe and Paige into being midwifes for Piper. As the episode ends, we see an evil eye painted on Ava's trailer.
Tropes:
- Blind Seer: Orin was a gypsy hunter in the past, but is blind now. He's still able to track the gypsies though.
- Bonding over Missing Parents: Paige and Piper are able to comfort Ava with their own experiences of losing their mothers.
- Call-Back: The sisters help Ava defeat Orin using a modified version of the "To Call Upon Our Ancestors" spell that was used to vanquish The Source. The spell is altered to call upon the Nicolae family's ancestors instead of the Warren-Halliwell line.
- Color-Coded Wizardry: Gypsy-related magic appears to be green.
- Cool Aunt: Lydia was this to Ava.
- Cool Old Lady: Madame Teresa appears to be one, as the matriarch of the Shuvani clan.
- Culture Equals Costume: Teresa and Lydia's traditional clothes contrast with Ava, who is dressed more contemporarily and it codes how she's not in touch with her culture. She gets a Significant Wardrobe Shift at the end that's also justified by the fact that she's not on her hospital shift, and so can wear what she wants.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Male example. Cree is this for Orin, who can't act directly thanks to his blindness.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The 'Evil Eye', not actually evil. Until Orin gets hold of it that is.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Aside from the epilogue, the entire episode unfolds over twenty-four hours.
- Eye Scream: The Shuvanis blinded Orin years ago, and his son is now stealing their eyes.
- Freudian Excuse: Ava has rejected her heritage because gypsy magic couldn't cure her mother's cancer.
- The Hecate Sisters: The three gypsies in the episode. Ava is the Maiden, Lydia is the Matron, and Teresa is the Crone.
- Hot Gypsy Woman: Downplayed. Ava ignores her heritage but it's still Emmanuelle Vaugier.
- Idiot Ball: Piper and Leo meet the skeptical Ava and don't tell her that Lydia was attacked to make her believe. Nor do they demonstrate their own magic to convince her it's real. To be charitable, they may have not wanted to risk exposure doing magic so suddenly in a public hallway, or wanted to inconvenience a doctor about to attend a patient.
- Improbable Infant Survival: The supposed killing of a child is only part of a vision. In Phoebe's premonition, Orin's eye beams are seen going through Piper's midriff, apparently killing her and the baby. Of course it doesn't come to pass.
- Last of His Kind: Ava is the last of the Shuvani line. With Teresa and Lydia's deaths, it leaves her the only surviving member at the end.
- Mama Bear: Lydia's badassery comes out when Cree threatens her niece.
- Missing Mom: Ava's mother has been dead for years.
- One-Hour Work Week:
- Inverted. Phoebe is so swamped with work that she barely has time to do any Charmed duties, and has her boss ringing her cell phone constantly.
- Justified with Ava, since she'd likely be allowed time off work to attend a family member's funeral and it's understandable she'd be sent home and given more time off if her aunt was found murdered outside the hospital.
- Power Incontinence: Phoebe's premonitions have been failing and she can't levitate properly, due to the stress of being overworked.
- Revenge by Proxy: Cree is killing Shuvanis as revenge for his father's blinding.
- Sacrificial Lion: Lydia is killed to show that Orin is quite a threat.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Male example. Orin is a wrinkling old man. His son Cree is a Pretty Boy.
- Took a Level in Badass: Ava goes from a normal surgeon to being able to vanquish her family's Arch-Enemy.
