Best Third Episode

[Nerf]

You know what to do.

Thank You For Not Morphing:

It seems like everyone is after the Book of Shadows. The sisters' fun loving neighbors are actually shapeshifters who want to steal the precious tome. Also, the sisters' estranged father has shown up after walking out on the family years ago. Piper and Phoebe are elated, but Prue is suspicious; the sisters just receive their powers and now he comes back into their lives. Coincidence?

The Painted World:

While appraising an antique painting, Prue swears she sees a man living inside it. After finding hidden writing on the painting and speaking the words aloud, Prue is sucked inside and finds herself trapped with the mysterious man. Piper goes on a search for her sister, leading to her becoming trapped as well. The only one who can save them is Phoebe, who has cast a smart spell in her efforts to get a job.

Once Upon A Time:

After Leo is taken away from her by the Elders, Piper decides that she is done being a witch. This decision comes at the worst time, as Phoebe saves an innocent little girl that is safeguarding a fairy from evil trolls. Piper thinks it's all in the young girl's imagination and Prue is having a hard time believing as well. To help the sisters see the truth, the girl uses fairy dust on Prue and Phoebe to bring out their childhood spirit so they can see the fairies and trolls. With two of the Charmed Ones acting like children and one having quit, will any of them stand a chance against the wicked trolls? Or against the ferocious demon that appears in the attic to steal the Book of Shadows?

Enter the Demon:

To get her sister up to speed in the ways of magic, Piper has Paige mixing potions and taking quizzes. Paige wishes she could be like Phoebe, learning how to sword fight with a hot and sweaty Cole. With a potion gone wrong - BAM! - that wish comes true, causing Paige and Phoebe to switch bodies. This causes all sorts of problems, with Phoebe having to go on a date with the son of Paige's boss, and Paige learning that Phoebe's life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Not to mention having to battle an evil samurai that can travel through water.

Siren Song:

Piper and Leo have been fighting non-stop. Time to walk a mile in each other's shoes. Piper's unborn baby switches the couple's powers, in effect switching their jobs. Piper must orb off to save charges, while Leo must fight a demon while dealing with pregnancy symptoms. Meanwhile, Phoebe is forced by her editor to interview Cole after he saves a woman from a burning building, and Paige finds her inner-Whitelighter.

The Power of Three Blondes:

The Charmed Ones are beautiful, successful, and oh yeah, they have magical powers. Who wouldn't want to be like them? Well three evil witches want to be them, and cast a spell to steal their identities and powers. Now the sisters are on the run with no powers and no one they can trust.

Cheaper By The Coven:

Trying to be helpful, Grams casts a spell on Piper's children to eradicate their sibling rivalry. Unfortunately, the spell goes wrong and the sibling rivalry is just moved to the three sisters, making them act like quarreling children. Meanwhile, Wyatt is under attack by a demon that has a startling resemblance to Leo...

Run, Piper, Run:

It turns out Piper's new identity looks just like a model... who is wanted for murder. After Piper is arrested, Paige and Billie have to try and prove the model's innocence. Phoebe has a premonition and is faced with a terrifying question: How do you stop an earthquake?

[Nerf]

*sigh* Well, I didn't do the best job with those summaries, but... whatever.

Anyway, before I say what my favorite is, let's look at something very interesting that I realized while typing that post. S3 and S7 both deal with the sisters acting like kids, S4 and S5 deal with switching places (bodies/powers), and all of them deal with people not being who they seem to be. Weird, huh?

Okay, my favorite is Siren Song. Really, I like pretty much everything about this episode. Has an interesting demon, an awesome fight with a darklighter, Piper's powers going wonky, Piper getting thrown out a window... It's just full of action and fun, with the switching of Piper and Leo's powers. That was done very well in this episode (unlike in S8), actually giving us insight into what Leo's life is like. Man, those voices in his head all the time. How does he sleep? Frankly, how does he have sex? Or do some other... acts? That would just be awkward. But it's cool to know he doesn't only save witches from demons, he deals with other matters as well. Phoebe was also much softer to Cole in this episode, even coming close to giving him another chance. Stupid Paige, cutting her off. I also love this part: "Did you get my flowers?" "Yep. 'Sorry I tried to strangle you'? Probably not a card the florist gets to write everyday." ;D

Now some of these other episodes are good, but none of them top Siren Song.

"Once Upon A Time", "The Painted World", "Run, Piper, Run", "Enter the Demon", and "The Power of Three Blondes" are all ones that I quite like, especially OUAT. But I find "Cheaper by the Coven" to be a bad rehash. They seemed to be quite vague on what age the sisters were supposed to be, with one moment they are acting like they are five, then another like they are teenagers. And in OUAT it was funny, but this time they were just... annoying. What I do like about that episode is the stuff with Wyatt and Leo. Wyatt blamed himself for all the problems his parents were having and actually was going to, in a way, commit suicide. That's a pretty deep story line right there and was actually done quite well. However, it was overshadowed by all the annoying stuff with the sisters acting like whiny brats.

"Thank You For Not Morphing"... I might have to watch it again. Because I remembered 1x02 being bad, but then I rewatched it and really enjoyed it. However... I dunno. This one is pretty bad. Bad acting from the neighbors, the dull Victor who we don't even view as their dad. Thank goodness he was replaced. James Read is a great actor and the real Victor Bennett. Anyway... I don't think I'll rewatch it. I really can't remember anything I even remotely may have liked about it.

I'll make a ranking for these episodes later, but for now, which is everyone else's favorite?

[David]

I think it has to be CBtC, where it's not the best episode, it is incredibly entertaining. I loved the appearance of Grams, Patty and Victor it gave the episode a real family feel to it. The Phoebe/Lesile sub-plot was dull, and that whole "turn around" thing at the end always makes me cringe! But the Piper/Leo stuff was good, especially Wyatt's night terror with Leo and yeah, I just really like it.

TPW would come second, I like the getting sucked into a painting idea, as well as smart Phoebe. It was something a little different to Charmed back then, when the demon of the week formula was very strict.

Also, coming close is RPR, the idea that the sisters dealt with a non-demonic threat, while being a way to save some cash, also made for a really great episode. I think it showed just how resourceful the sisters could be, even when demons weren't involved. Again, like CBtC, I hated the Phoebe sub-plot, this time with Dex and his horrendous art work. But I liked pretty much everything else.

I'm actually pretty neutral on SS, it's not one that's ever really impressed me, but I don't hate it either. I prefer the Piper/Leo stuff, instead of the dire Phoebe/Cole main plot, and from what I remember Paige was on fine form this episode as well. But as I said, it's never left much of an impression on me. Maybe I should watch it more often?

The others, TYFNM, EtD, OUAT and TPoTB, are ones I've never really liked all that much. I have often found that with Charmed, a lot of their weaker stories are in the earlier parts of the season, and these episodes are no exception. TPoTB is just plain bad! Same with TYFNM, which I would love to completely remove from Charmed continuity all together. OUAT and EtD, for me were just not good ideas, executed pretty badly. EtD while funny with the body swap was a bit dull, and Cole was horrible! OUAT was, well just pretty lame really. The whole childish thing wasn't as funny as it could have been, and I just don't think it worked well with Piper's loss of Leo that occurred around that time.