Witch Trial

Witch Trial is the 23rd episode of Charmed and the Season 2 Premiere.

Summary
On their first anniversary of becoming witches, the sisters face a cloven-hoofed demon called Abraxas, that steals the Book of Shadows and undoes the spells they've cast, releasing old vanquished enemies of the Charmed Ones. If the demon undoes the spell that granted them their powers, they will lose the Power of Three, allowing any demon to kill them.

Plot
Phoebe walks into the darkened manor and calls for her "sister witches", only to find Piper on the couch with a loan officer, Rob. Piper freezes him and scolds Phoebe for speaking of witches. Phoebe hadn't known that a man was in the house. Prue walks in and Piper shoos her out before unfreezing Rob. Rob agrees to meet Piper at the club she is trying to buy.

Phoebe proposes to go to an autumnal equinox celebration, a powerful day that is also their first anniversary of becoming witches.

The Book of Shadows flips, and the page says "Rite of passage: fight it with the Power of One or else" but Phoebe cannot finish reading it before a demon opens a portal in the attic and draws the Book to him. Piper thinks the "Power of One" refers to Prue, as she has the strongest power.

The doorbell rings and Jenny Gordon steps in. She wants to use the phone and is trying to reach her parents in Saudi Arabia. Dan Gordon, her uncle, steps in behind her; the two are not talking, but he persuades Jenny to leave.

The demon chants strangely over a page in the Book of Shadows, and the writing disappears.

Phoebe and Piper go to the equinox celebration (Prue is at Buckland's). About a dozen other young women have gathered around a stone altar. The others all disrobe, but while Phoebe is enthusiastic, Piper is embarrassed. Phoebe hears Grams saying, "The Power of Three", but Piper does not.

Piper drives up to the club and finds Rob already there. Rob says that running a club is risky, but Piper convinces him to grant the loan. Meanwhile, the demon chants over the Book and Jeremy Burns reappears. Grams says "The Power of Three" to Piper just as Jeremy blinks into the club and knocks Rob to the ground. Piper freezes him and conference-calls Prue and Phoebe. But Jeremy unfreezes, and Piper can't freeze him again despite several attempts. By way of speaker phone, they say the spell to vanquish Jeremy ("The Power of Three will set us free").

Rob is in a gurney being readied to go to the hospital, and suggests the crime level in the area could jeopardize the loan. Prue comes to check on Piper, and Piper tells her how she heard Grams.

Phoebe hears Kit meowing outside and finds Jenny holding her. Phoebe starts talking to Jenny. Phoebe, for the first time, notices the triquetra on Kit's collar. Phoebe leaves as Piper drives up, with Kit in her arms, and shows the triquetra to Piper. She thinks this is some kind of symbol of the Power of Three. The two consult the Spirit Board, and Grams says "The Power of Three" again--this time Piper hears it. The Spirit Board spells out "Abraxas". Phoebe finds Abraxas in one of several occult books she has bought; he is a demon of the astral plane that demonizes the powers of good witches.

Abraxas chants over another page of the Book and the Woogyman appears in the manor. The two sisters scramble to remember the spell to vanquish the Woogyman. Piper remembers that the spell to vanquish Jeremy was in the back of the book and that for the Woogyman before it; Abraxas is reading the Book backwards. Phoebe has a premonition of Nicholas killing Prue.

Prue is talking to a customer when Nicholas appears in the hall. Prue escapes into her office, but Nicholas follows her in before she can close the door. He uses his ring to heat Prue up from within. Prue, with difficulty, speaks a spell and Nicholas is vanquished just as Prue falls over unconscious.

Piper and Phoebe visit Prue in the hospital. Phoebe believes the Book is still in the attic, but within the astral plane. She also realizes that if Abraxas reaches the start of the book, they will lose their powers, because the spell that gave them their powers is at the very beginning. Prue, feeling responsible for Andy's death, wants to stop being a witch.

Rob's assistant tells Piper that the loan has been denied.

Prue goes to Darryl and wants to know how much Andy told him about who the Halliwells really are. Darryl says only that he knows they were connected to some unsolved cases and that they somehow help stop killers. He also tells her that Andy told him to tell her that if anything happened to him, it wouldn't be her fault.

The sisters go to the attic and Piper draws a large triquetra on the wall. Prue arrives from the station. The sisters plan to get the open a portal in the astral plane, then Prue will knock Abraxas away from the Book while Piper and Phoebe grab it. Piper and Phoebe aren't sure Prue is up to it, but Prue reassures them by moving a chair. The sisters open a portal in the triquetra, but Prue freezes up and cannot knock Abraxas away from the Book. Abraxas flings them across the room. Phoebe and Piper scold Prue, and she breaks down and cries over Andy. She blames herself for Andy's death. The other sisters tell Prue that Andy had chosen to walk into the manor. As the sisters embrace, Grams whispers again; only this time, all three sisters hear. They determine that the "Power of One" is the three of them working as one.

The three sisters return to the stone altar at sunrise and chant the spell that invokes the Power of Three just as Abraxas is reading the same spell backwards. The Book pops out of a portal onto the altar. The sisters continue to chant and a portal appears, revealing Abraxas. Abraxas is drawn into the altar and disappears into a large glowing triquetra.

The Rite of Passage page reads in full: "Rite of passage: fight it with the Power of One or else...a more powerful Evil that awaits will destroy you."

Prue and Phoebe have taken out a second mortgage on the manor so Piper can buy her club, with her sisters as partners.

Grams whispers once more, and then appears in ghostly form. It turns out that when the Book turns itself, it's Grams doing the turning. After she disappears, the Book turns once more. The page reads: "Happy Anniversary, my darlings."

Enemies
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Jeremy Burns
After Abraxas brought Jeremy back Abraxas sent him after Piper in hopes of killing them. He was vanquished by the Charmed Ones in the club that the sisters just bought.

The Woogyman
After Abraxas brought the Woogyman back Abraxas sent him after Phoebe and Piper in hopes of killing them. Phoebe banished him again in the living room.

Nicholas
It is assumed that Abraxas read the Nicholas Must Die spell backwards to send Nicholas after Prue. However he was vanquished by Prue in her office at Bucklands.

Abraxas
A demon of the astral plane who destroys a witch's magic by demonizing the source of their power. He stole the sisters' Book of Shadows in attempt to undo all the spells that they've cast, thus reviving all the enemies they vanquished over the past year. But before he could get to the first page, the sisters took back the book and vanquished him by casting the Spell to Invoke the Power of Three.

Paramedic
The Paramedic took Rob away from the club that would soon be p3 after he was attacked by Jeremy Burns.

Spells

 * 1) Abraxas read the Love Spell backwards thus erasing the page from the book.
 * 2) Abraxas read the Warlock Spell backwards thus resulting in Jeremy Burns being revived.
 * 3) The Charmed Ones cast the Warlock Spell to vanquish Jeremy at Piper's new club.
 * 4) Abraxas read the Woogyman Spell backwards thus resulting in the Woogyman being revived.
 * 5) Phoebe and Piper cast the Woogyman Spell to vanquish the Woogyman in the Manor Living Room.
 * 6) Prue cast the Nicholas Must Die Spell to vanquish Nicholas in her office at Bucklands.
 * 7) The Charmed Ones cast the A Spell for Invoking the Power of Three to summon Abraxas and vanquish him.

Warlock Spell
See the Power of Three spell.

Woogyman Spell
See Is There a Woogy in the House?.

Nicholas Must Die Spell
See That '70s Episode.

A Spell for Invoking the Power of Three
See Spells Season 2.

Book of Shadows

 * 1) The A Spell for Invoking the Power of Three comes after the title page.
 * 2) The Woogyman Spell is before the Warlock Spell.
 * 3) The Warlock Spell is before the Love Spell.
 * 4) The last page is the Love Spell.
 * 5) The page on Javna is before Dominus Trinus.
 * 6) Dominus Trinus page comes before the Rite of Passage.
 * 7) The Rite of Passage page is before Grams's Happy Anniversary message.

Power Usage

 * ** Piper noted that Jeremy was fighting through her freezes.

Glitches

 * In this episode, when confronted by the Woogyman, Phoebe forgets the spell to vanquish it, and in the Season 1 episode Is There A Woogy In The House? it is stated that she has never forgotten it since childhood.
 * Ironically, this episode has nothing about witch trials, although the next episode (Morality Bites) is about the prospect of modern day witch trials. Brad Kern had gotten the names of these episodes mixed up. When he did eventually realize it, it was too late.
 * Prue vanquishes Nicholas without the use of the material components of The Nicholas Must Die spell: lavender, mimosa and holy thistle.
 * When the book falls out the portal onto the stone altar it is noticeable that it's not the book but a brown something made to look like the Book of Shadows.
 * When the sisters are in the Attic you can see a person crawl pass, when piper reading from the Book Of Shadows.

Mythological references
The term Abraxas derives from ancient Greek mysticism, probably of Hebraic origin. The word is common in modern mysticism and witch lore.

Quotes

 * (Phoebe walks in. All the lights are turned off.)
 * Phoebe: Hello? Anybody home? Sister witches, guess what?
 * (Phoebe walks in the living room and turns on the light. Piper is there making out with a guy on the couch. She jumps up.)
 * Piper: Oh, oh. Are you nuts?
 * Phoebe: What are you doing?
 * Rob: Hi.
 * Phoebe: Hi.
 * (Piper freezes the guy and walks over to Phoebe.)
 * Piper: Ooh.
 * Phoebe: Hi.
 * Piper: Sister witches? I can’t believe you said that. What’s the matter with you?
 * Phoebe: How was I supposed to know that you were gonna be here with anybody? Last I heard that you were meeting a banker friend about the loan. (She looks at the guy and then back at Piper.) Is this the credit check?

:(The girl walks in and picks up the phone. Prue and Piper walk in the foyer.)
 * Piper: (to Phoebe) Are you out of your mind?
 * Phoebe: What was I supposed to do? Say no? Look at that poor girl. (They look at her.)
 * Dan: (outside) Jenny? (A cute guy in his late 20's let's himself inside.) Jenny, come on. Talk to me.
 * Phoebe, Prue, and Piper: Whoa!

:Phoebe: What have we got to lose, okay?
 * (Piper and Phoebe turns around and notice all the women have taken off their clothes.)
 * Piper: Well, apparently we’ve got our clothes to lose.
 * Phoebe: I see that.
 * (Phoebe pulls Piper behind a rock wall and Phoebe starts taking off her clothes.)
 * Piper: No. Whoa, Whoa. Wait. What are you doing?
 * Phoebe: When in Rome.
 * Piper: No-no-no! We’re not in Rome, Phoebe. We’re in California. And it’s illegal here.