Spin City
Chris is by himself in P3 before opening, doing a Tarot reading. The Judgement card comes up. An employee named Dennis comes in early to set up for the band while Piper is at the doctor's having a checkup. Dennis disparages Leo for getting Piper pregnant and then skipping town, and says that Piper deserves better. Chris tells him he couldn't agree more.
At the hospital, Piper has frozen a bunch of people because strangers kept wanting to touch her belly. She unfreezes them as she and Paige go into the elevator, Chris orbs in, and they discuss the ultrasound results and both mother and son's tendency to be worrywarts. The conversation turns to the future, with Chris mentioning that it's Paige he goes to in order to borrow money because Piper has a lot to deal with, and that Leo isn't in the picture.
A demon attacks Paige, Piper and Chris in the hospital parking garage. The three fight her off and she transforms into a spider as she flees. Chris is scratched, and worried both for himself and for his younger self in Piper's womb. Back at the manor, Paige finds the demon in the Book of Shadows. The Spider Demon's MO is to cocoon the most powerful magical victim she can find and feed off them for a hundred years. Now she's targeted Piper, since she's both a Charmed One and pregnant with Chris, who's a powerful witch in his own right (but not enough to give his mother a force field from the womb like Wyatt did, to Chris's annoyance).
The Spider Demon, in her lair, talks to an aged wizard cocooned in silk. She has been feeding on him for the past century and he begs for mercy. He notes that she has returned empty-handed, but she says she has found a Charmed One to feed on and that she has infected the witch's Whitelighter and soon he will help her. She finishes the wizard off.
Chris notices that his hands are sticking to things. Phoebe is at lunch with a man named Mitch, the latest in a series of speed dates in hopes of finding the father of the future child in her vision, and Chris calls her away. Chris snatches a fly from the air.
A man in green meets Paige at P3, which is not open yet. He claims to be a leprechaun and to have been turned human by a wicked witch, and that he could no longer bestow luck. Paige says a quick spell and the leprechaun returns to his normal (diminutive) height. He says his name is Riley and gives Paige his shillelagh.
Chris is feeling ill and his eyes are dilated. As the sisters prepare to bless a vanquishing potion, the spider demon appears, wrapping Piper in a cocoon and sticking her to the wall. As Paige throws the potion, Chris turns on her and Phoebe. The demon turns into a spider and flees.
Paige calls for Leo, who recognizes the work of the Spider Demon and assures the sisters that Piper is safe for now. Chris is locked in the basement and Leo tries to talk to him, but Chris attacks with spider silk. Leo orbs away in time. Phoebe admits to Leo that Chris is his son, which is difficult for Leo to accept. Leo says the last victim of the Spider Demon was a wizard, and there might be something helpful at Magic School.
The Spider Demon calls telepathically to Chris and demands the cocoon. Chris tries to resist her call but is having a hard time.
Paige meets three more magical beings that have been turned human: a nymph who has been turned into a balding man, a fairy who has been turned into an old woman, and an ogre who is a shortish man. We see the Wicked Witch, a cackling stereotype straight out of The Wizard of Oz, stirring a cauldron. She disappears in a flash of light as Paige casts a spell and the three beings return to normal form.
At Magic School, Sigmund tells Leo of Rathmere, a wizard who mysteriously disappeared in 1904. Gideon scolds Leo for abandoning the Elders. Leo tells Gideon he is trying to save his son. Not Wyatt, but Chris. Gideon is clearly surprised and, when Leo departs, reaffirms his determination to do away with Wyatt for "the greater good."
Chris turns into a spider and slips out of the basement. Phoebe channels his anger and vocalizes his feelings. After leaving spider form, Chris, with silk, binds the hands of Phoebe, Paige and Leo, and orbs away with Piper. Paige remembers the shillelagh and orbs it, calling Riley. Riley grants Paige some luck (unclear whether it is good or bad given that she crashes to the ground) and her hands slip free.
The Spider Demon begins to feed on Piper's magic, and Chris collapses in pain. The Spider Demon tells him that she's feeding on his magic, too, through Piper's baby.
Leo scries for Piper as Paige walks in with the nymph, the fairy and the ogre. The ogre pounds on the door to the Spider Demon's lair, annoying her. She comes out and the fairy flits in her face. The nymph throws a potion but misses; the demon turns into a spider and tries to escape, but the ogre steps on her.
Leo frees Piper of her cocoon and orbs her away as Chris approaches. He seals the Spider Demon's door with silk and entangles Leo in a web, intending to feed on him for the next hundred years. Leo fuels Chris's anger with mocking questions about why he hates him, and Chris snaps and begins to viciously beat his father, who makes no effort to fight back. Outside, Piper takes an antidote for the Spider Demon's venom, protecting both baby and adult Chris. Chris immediately reverts to normal, but continues to beat Leo until Piper enters and pulls him off.
Piper agrees to stay at Magic School with Wyatt, unaware of Gideon's plans for Wyatt, while Leo decides to remain in San Francisco with the Halliwells on the grounds that he belongs with his family.
Meanwhile, Chris is brooding atop the Golden Gate Bridge when Leo orbs in, begging to know what he did to make Chris so angry with him. Chris explains that while Leo was there for Piper, Wyatt, and half of the world, he was never there for him. Leo suggests that Chris travelled back to save their relationship as well as Wyatt; with tears in his eyes, Chris simply says, "I doubt it," before orbing away.
Tropes:
- All Your Powers Combined: Shows up twice. The antidote potion to cure Chris requires blood from all three of the Charmed Ones. Later, when the heroes go into battle against the Spider Demon, all of their magical friends use their unique powers to help: the fairy flies in the demon's face to distract her, the nymph blends in with the nearby trees to launch a surprise attack, and the ogre simply crushes her in spider form.
- Berserk Button: It's when Leo mentions playing favorites with Wyatt that Chris explodes. Piper has one about people trying to touch her pregnant belly without permission, as she was with her first pregnancy.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Spider Demon is stopped and everyone is safe, but Leo is pained to have a son that resents him. Also, Piper and Wyatt move to Magic School, unaware of what Gideon's planning.
- Bond One-Liner: After her spell takes out the evil witch, Paige quips, "Ding dong."
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Chris after being infected by the Spider Demon and starting to turn into one.
- Brought Down to Normal: This is the Wicked Witch's M.O.: she transforms magical beings into mortal "opposite" versions of themselves (e.g, a fairy becomes an old lady, and a nymph becomes a cranky balding man). It robs her victims of their natural powers.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Phoebe struggles to keep the big secret from Leo. After the basement encounter, she blurts out that Chris is his son.
- Chekhov's Gun: Riley the Leprechaun rewards Paige with his shillelagh as thanks for breaking the Wicked Witch's curse on him. Later, when Paige, Phoebe, and Leo are trapped in Spider!Chris's webbing, Paige uses the shillelagh to summon Riley to free them.
- Eyes Never Lie: After Chris webs up the others, Leo knows it's not just the transformation driving his anger, due to the look in his eyes.
- False Reassurance: Gideon assures Leo that he will be taking care of Piper and Wyatt.
- Forgot About His Powers: When Phoebe and Paige are trying to stop the Spider Demon in spider form from crawling out of the house, Paige doesn't try orbing her to them.
- Genre Savvy: When Spider!Chris escapes the basement to get to Piper, Phoebe starts empathically channeling his anger and resentment toward Leo. She suggests that the range of her power is expanding, but the savvy Paige quickly realizes that Chris is in the next room.
- Gone Horribly Right:
- Leo tries to get past the Spider Demon's influence to the real Chris by needling him. It leads to Chris pummeling him.
- Played for Laughs when Riley the Leprechaun arrives to free Paige, Phoebe, and Leo from their webbing. He warns them that his luck powers can't be controlled to give good or bad fortune, but Paige tells him to risk it anyway. Riley does so, and Paige is released—and promptly tumbles off the wall and directly onto a side table.
- I Choose to Stay: While dropping off Piper and Wyatt at Magic School, Leo asserts he'll be sticking around rather than go back "up there" in order to mend fences with his Kid from the Future and help with any problems that come up.
- In the Blood: When encouraging Leo to not give up on Chris, Piper points out they're both extremely stubborn people.
- Internal Reveal: Leo finally learns that Chris is his and Piper's Kid from the Future.
- More than Mind Control: Leo can immediately tell it's not just the Spider Demon behind the rage Chris has towards him.
- Mundane Solution: The Spider Demon tries to get away from the sisters by turning into a spider. The ogre then kills her by simply stepping on her.
- No Ontological Inertia:
- Averted. Killing the Spider Demon doesn't reverse Chris's transformation into a spider demon, and he's all set to become the Dragon Ascendant; he's only changed back when Piper uses the antidote.
- Played straight with the Wicked Witch—once Paige successfully recites a spell to destroy her, all of her victims are immediately restored to their rightful forms.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Leo's reaction to first seeing what happened to Chris.
- Gideon when Leo says he's working on dealing with a threat to his son. He's only relieved upon learning that Chris is also Leo's son.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- The transformed wood nymph that Paige talks to is surly and snarky. Paige points out other nymphs aren't like that, to which this one says this bad attitude is part of the evil spell.
- Chris is normally pretty laid back and snarky, but his father issues consistently leave him on edge.
- Rage Breaking Point: Leo mentioning Wyatt leads Chris to start beating him.
- Sibling Rivalry: Chris is annoyed to learn that Wyatt had powers in the womb and he doesn't.
- Slow Transformation: The Spider Demon's venom corrupts Chris gradually. At first he simply looks pale and sickly, but over time, his palms start sticking to surfaces; his fingernails grow longer; his eyes become red; and he gains the ability to produce webbing from his hands.
- Something We Forgot: Paige's subplot is about resolving her temp jobs storyline, which was a recurring item before her relationship with Richard started up. Some of the magical beings even chastise her for not following through on it.
- Tarot Troubles: The episode opens with Chris doing a reading where he draws the Judgement card, seemingly foreshadowing that Leo is about to find out the truth of their relationship and they will be forced to deal with the issues between them.
- This Explains So Much: Sigmund is reeling from the reveal that Chris is also Leo and Piper's son, but Gideon says it actually makes a lot of sense and would explain why the guy traveled through time for Wyatt's benefit.
- The Un-Favorite: Chris feels Leo neglected him in favor of Wyatt and pretty much everyone else.
- The Virus: A scratch from the Spider Demon infects a person with her venom and makes them start to turn into a spider demon themself.
