Recap / Charmed S8E22 Forever Charmed

After the final battle between the Charmed Ones and the Jenkins sisters has been fought with disastrous results, Piper and Leo go back in time to change its outcome.

Tropes

• Actor Allusion: Patty says "how do I look?" when she arrives at Victor's apartment. Finola Hughes was presenter of a TV show called How Do I Look?
• Alas, Poor Villain: Christy's death is played very sadly, with Billie collapsing into a sobbing mess afterwards. Phoebe can be seen wiping her eyes, while Paige and Piper seem troubled by it too.
• All There in the Manual: You'd have to look up a script or the Charmed Wiki to see that Piper's granddaughter is named Prudence. Phoebe's children are PJ, Parker and Peyton. Paige's are Henry Jr, Tamora and Kat. It seems that Phoebe is the only sister to continue the P theme naming. Piper's daughter is likewise named Melinda, the same name of the child she had in "Morality Bites".
• Anger Born of Worry: For his one scene, Henry is a bit frustrated since, as he says, his wife didn't come home the previous night and no one bothered to tell him what's going on.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Piper, Leo, and Patty end up at some unspecified time, where an elderly couple is playing Scrabble. As the group tries to process this, the old man asks how "Zankou" is spelled, but his wife says to stop cheating.
  Future Leo: I'm not asking you. I'm asking me.
• Babies Ever After: The epilogue shows that Piper had another child (a daughter), Phoebe had three daughters, and Paige had a son and twin daughters, so each of the three Charmed Ones has three children. And the presence of lots of grandchildren in the last scene confirms that those children had plenty of their own.
• Back for the Finale: Pretty much the entire Halliwell family, except for Prue. Other former main characters (Andy, Darryl, the Gordons, Cole) don't appear and aren't even mentioned.
• Break the Cutie: Patty from the 70s brought to the present can't catch a break when it comes to bad news. She finds out, in order, that she will soon die, that Victor will soon divorce her, and (in an off screen moment) that her eldest daughter will die as well.
• Break the Haughty: Christy must watch the Triad be vanquished, followed by Dumain (who she regarded as a friend and mentor) who even gets blown up twice. Then she's told it's all possible because her sister betrayed her and brought them here.
• Cain and Abel: Billie and Christy officially go their separate ways, and Christy in fact tries to kill Billie.
• Call-Back:
  • One last time, the manor door is closed at the end by a Halliwell witch with telekinetic powers, with a strong implication she might be Prue reincarnated.
  • Unlike her present-day self, Future Piper is unfailingly upbeat and optimistic about all things. Future Wyatt had previously said she was quite an optimist, as he was growing up.
• Call-Forward: Grams tells the younger Piper that she has gifts that will make her even more special than she is now.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Billie had previously used her projection power to go into the past in "12 Angry Zen". She at first uses it in a failed attempt to warn her and Christy not to fight the Charmed Ones. Later when Christy and Dumain get Coop's ring, Billie is able to project the sisters back with her.
• Chekhov's Skill: Coop's ability to travel back in time from "Generation Hex" comes into play here.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Victor in the past is given dark hair, referencing how his past self looked in "We All Scream For Ice Cream".
  • The picture of Patty with Piper as a toddler from "A Witch's Tail" is shown now hanging on the wall in the ending.
  • In "Cheaper By the Coven" Penny asks the teenage Piper if she remembers being given a talk about how special she is. In this episode when they find Penny in her timeline, she's seen giving Piper this talk.
  • Just as in "Imaginary Fiends", older Wyatt cannot stop from letting slip details about the future. The same episode had him saying that Piper becomes an optimist in the future, and indeed her older self is very sweet and idealistic.
  • Chris is asked if he remembers where Victor's apartment is. While it's not outright stated if he has memories of travelling to the past, he is said to have been very close to Victor, and would logically have spent plenty of time there.
  • Penny's curly hairstyle in her timeline evokes the one her younger self had in "Witchstock".
• Darkest Hour: Continuing from the previous episode, this one starts with Phoebe and Paige being dead, and the Manor being blown up.
• Demoted to Extra: Henry (who didn't appear in the previous episode) just gets one scene before the final battle, and a non-speaking part in the epilogue.
• Dope Slap: After Coop arrives in the manor, an item of information about the future is blurted out.
  Future Wyatt: Uncle Coop. [realizes what he just said]
  [Future Chris smacks him]
• Downer Beginning: See Darkest Hour.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The point of the trip to the future is to hint at what the Charmed Ones can have if they succeed in the present.
• Easily Forgiven: Downplayed. The epilogue shows that Phoebe at least forgave Billie for what she did. However she's shown as a babysitter by the time Phoebe is about to have her third child, which allows for several years to forgive her. She is pointedly left out of the big family moment after Christy's vanquish.
• Exact Words:
  • Piper uses Coop's ring to move through time in order to save Phoebe and Paige. The first attempt is to go to Phoebe, which ends up taking her and Leo to when Patty was pregnant. They then try to go to move ahead to Grams, but they overshoot to a point when Piper is the grandmother.
  • When discussing Phoebe and Paige's death, Piper accidentally lets slip that Patty will have more children than she currently knows about. Patty then asks if "we", meaning herself and Victor, have more children. Piper answers that she does, technically the truth but omitting the fact that Paige is Patty and Sam's daughter, not Victor's.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • Penny in her past is distinguished from the past where Patty was still alive by having long curly red hair. In "That 70s Episode", while Patty was pregnant with Phoebe, it was short and black.
  • Patty's highlights distinguish the fact that she and Victor are still together from the full brown from "That 70s Episode" when they were separated.
• Foreshadowing: The older Piper notes how she lost Leo soon after getting him back, but still got him back in the end.
• Generation Xerox: One of the epilogue scenes shows that Wyatt and Chris will indeed take over for the Charmed Ones. No adult version of Melinda is shown, presumably to save on hiring another actress.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Penny makes Wyatt and Chris censor themselves, saying "butts" instead of "asses".
• Hairstyle Inertia: Piper still has her waist-length hair in the future when she's a grandmother. Ellen Geer was even cast because her long hair helped her resemble Holly Marie Combs.
• The Hecate Sisters: The trio used to get rid of the Hollow has Piper as the Maiden, Patty as the Matron and Penny as the Crone. Technically Patty should be the Maiden, since in-universe she is only 25, and Piper is 33, but Finola Hughes was 48 and Piper thinks of her as her mother, so she's the Matron in spirit.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Christy is offered the chance to give up her villainy (though it's not said whether the Halliwells would have allowed it). She responds by trying to kill them one last time, and Billie is forced to kill her.
• Heel–Face Turn: Billie comes back to her senses after Dumain asks her to go back in time and save the Triad.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Billie is left a sobbing mess after having to kill Christy.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Grams' reaction when confronted with the past version of Patty and the future version of Piper and Leo?
  Grams: I need a drink.
• Jumped at the Call: Grams is weirded out by this whole situation, until told the girls grow up to be the Charmed Ones. She is then immediately onboard with helping out.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: It's implied this will happen to Patty and Penny when they're returned to their respective times; they'll be returned to right before they were taken, to prevent them from remembering and thus changing the future.
• Last Minute Hook Up: Phoebe and Coop don't officially get together until the denouement.
• Loophole Abuse: The older Leo cheats at Scrabble by asking his younger self for help with a spelling challenge.
• Mama Bear: Piper is already eager to finish the battle with the Jenkins sisters in order to get Leo back, but learning they used the Hollow to mess with Wyatt's powers intensifies that attitude for her.
• Noodle Incident: Future Wyatt and Chris were busy fighting demons for some unspecified reason when the former's powers suddenly gave out. Investigating the situation is what brings them to the present.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Future Wyatt, after absentmindedly referring to Coop as their uncle. Phoebe's not exactly sure how to process this information, either.
  • Victor over Patty greeting him at the door. He is slightly better at meeting Future Wyatt, but he says this is all extremely confusing.
• Ominous Message from the Future: Billie runs into her and her sister's past selves and tries to warn them about how the battle will end. Past Billie knocks her out and her message is ignored.
• Pet the Dog: It's revealed that the Elders arranged for Phoebe and Coop to meet in order to make up for years of relationship troubles that they contributed to.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: The actual battle utilises everyone. Phoebe is able to summon Coop and, although it's too late to stop Dumain and Christy from getting his ring, it does at least save him and give them an indicator of their next move. Billie then projects everyone to where Christy is, and all three sisters hit the Triad with vanquishing potions. Piper then blows up both versions of Dumain, and Paige orbs Coop's ring off Christy.
• The Power of Love: The older Piper explains that use of Coop's ring requires using the heart instead of the mind.
• Primal Scene: Piper's first attempt at using Coop's ring to go back in time puts her and Leo in a room where Patty and Victor are in bed together, the implication being they're in the middle of conceiving Phoebe.
• Redemption Rejection: Christy is offered the chance to "come home" by Billie (although whether the sisters would have forgiven her is seriously up for debate). She responds by conjuring a fireball to try and kill them.
• Reset Button: After Piper and Leo pick up Patty and Penny from the past and change the outcome of the battle between the Charmed Ones and the Jenkins sisters. Both timelines feature the exact same scene where Victor burns himself with his tea when someone knocks on the door.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory:
  • Wyatt and Chris have it in the future, since they both remember Wyatt having powers as an adult and then losing them due to Dumain's actions in the present. Later, everyone has it when Wyatt gets his powers back.
  • It seems that Chris has memories of travelling to the past, since Piper asks him specifically if he remembers where Victor's house is. He also recognises Grams but Wyatt doesn't suggesting that Chris remembers her from the events of "Witchstock".
• Saying Too Much: To Adult Chris's annoyance, Adult Wyatt refers to Coop as "Uncle Coop" before he realizes that he's just spoiled the fact that Coop and Phoebe will get married in the future. Strangely, the way the scene is cut, Coop is actually standing in front of them for several moments before Wyatt randomly notices and greets him as though he's just arrived, only recognising him when Piper hands him his ring.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Two cases in this episode: first to change the outcome of the final battle, then to restore Wyatt's powers.
• Silver Fox: Patty squees that Victor still looks great in the future.
• So Proud of You: While at work on a spell, Grams marvels over the additions to the Book of Shadows and expresses pride in how the sisters really came into their own as witches.
• Stable Time Loop: The older Piper and Leo are aware of everything their younger counterparts are going to say and do during this visit because they remember being on the other side of the encounter.
• Tempting Fate: After Leo is taken away, the group assess the situation thus far and what still needs to be done. The moment Paige asks if there are any other problems to deal with, the future versions of Wyatt and Chris appear to report a problem in their time period.
• Time-Shifted Actor: The elderly versions of Piper and Leo are played by Ellen Greer and Gordon Wells. This was in part because Holly Marie Combs didn't want to wear old-age prosthetics while pregnant.
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: The episode contains the immortal line, "Something very bad has happened in the future."
• Took a Level in Idealism: Piper's future self is a sweet grandmother who baked cookies in anticipation of the past selves visiting, and her and Leo are still madly in love. This is actually more in line with how she was at the beginning of the series, so it's more a case of being able to go back to her roots.
• The Unfought: In the revised timeline, the Jenkins sisters. Billie makes a Heel–Face Turn and she's the one to kill Christy.
• Villainous Breakdown: Christy has one once she realises that Billie projected the Halliwells back in time to stop her.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The final episode scene says what is going to happen to the protagonists' kids and actually ends with a shot of their grandkids.
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: Played for laughs over Grams learning that Piper married a Whitelighter and Paige married a mortal.
  Grams: Oh, good God. Didn't I teach you girls anything?
  Piper: Hey, what can I say? There's always Uncle Coop.
• Worth It: The older Piper and Leo say that every struggle they endured was worth the happy life they have together.
• You Already Changed the Past:
  • Piper and Leo travel to the future and see their older selves resting in the Manor, despite it having been blown up in the present. It is explained as the final battle in the previous episode not ending as it was meant to be.
  • It's implied that Chris and Wyatt's future selves telling Phoebe that her romance with Coop works out, and that the Elders actually intended for them to be together is why they gave it a go in the first place. Finding out it won't be a torturous forbidden love removes the main obstacle to Phoebe pursuing him.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When the group arrives to recruit Grams, they observe her comforting young Piper over the kid's struggles with Middle Child Syndrome. Grams assures her that she has a lot of great qualities that make her special (not the least of which is her ability to keep Prue and Phoebe from killing each other) and that she will go on to great things.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Chris' reaction to Wyatt spoilering that Coop and Phoebe are married in the future.