Brain Drain

Brain Drain is the 7th episode of the fourth season and the 73rd overall episode of Charmed.

Summary
The Source sends Piper into a deep coma, where she perceives an alternate reality. Phoebe and Paige must find a way to return her to reality and save her from giving up her powers while she is delusional, while Cole and Leo fight through The Source's forces to save her from the Underworld.

Main Cast

 * Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell
 * Rose McGowan as Paige Matthews
 * Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell
 * Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt
 * Julian McMahon as Cole Turner

Guest Stars

 * Alastair Duncan as Alastair and Shapeshifted Source of All Evil
 * Rachel Wilson as Becca
 * Krista Allen as The Source's Oracle
 * Bennet Guillory as The Source of All Evil

Co-Stars

 * Whitney Dylan as Wendy
 * Tom Billett as Bounty Hunter #1
 * Eric Ware as Orderly #1

Featuring

 * Sheila J. Cavanaugh as Patient #2
 * Angela Oh as Patient #3

Book of Shadows
The Mind Link spell page exists out of two pages; Mind Link spell and To Break A Mind Link.

Spells

 * Piper casts the Chameleon Demon Vanquishing Spell. (failed)
 * Phoebe and Paige cast the To Find a Lost Witch spell for Piper. (failed)
 * Piper casts the Relinquish Our Powers spell but ends before finishing it.
 * Phoebe and Paige cast the Mind Link spell.

To Vanquish a Chameleon Demon

 * Evil hiding in plain sight,
 * I use this spell with all my might,
 * to stop you changing form and shape,
 * this vanquish seals your fate.

Mind Link

 * Harness your mental energy
 * by reciting this spell whithin
 * a circle of candles
 * Life to Life
 * And Mind to Mind
 * Our Spirits now
 * will intertwine.
 * We meld our Souls
 * and journey to
 * the one whose thoughts
 * we wish we knew.

To Break a Mind Link

 * Recite this spell
 * Life from Life
 * and Mind from Mind
 * Our spirits now
 * will disentwine.
 * We part our souls
 * and journey home
 * to let our thoughts
 * be on their own.

Powers
Piper tried to use one of her powers on The Source but it didn't work.
 * Shimmering: Type of Teleportation used by Cole and Alastair.
 * Molecular Immobilization: Used by Piper to freeze the Living Room.
 * Molecular Combustion: Used by Piper to blow up Paige's chair and the Grandfather Clock. In Phoebe's premonition, The Source used it to blow up Phoebe and Paige.
 * Transmogrification: Used by Alastair to turn into a lamp.
 * Telekinesis: Used by Alastair to fling Phoebe and Piper.
 * Energy Balls: Used by Cole to attack Alastair, to attack The Source, and to vanquish a Bounty Hunter and The Source's Oracle. Used by the Source to attack Piper.
 * Regeneration: Used by Alastair to heal himself after Cole's Energy Ball hit him.
 * Flaming: Type of Teleportation used by The Source.
 * Shapeshifting: Used by the Source to shapeshift into Alastair.
 * Incineration: Used by the Source to vanquish Alastair.
 * Divination: Used by the Oracle to show The Source which one of the sisters was the most vulnerable.
 * Mind Manipulation: Used by The Source to create an alternate world in Piper's mind.
 * Premonition: Phoebe got a premonition in which she saw Paige and herself getting killed by the Source.
 * Telekinetic Orbing (premonition): In Phoebe's premonition, the Source used this power to orb the Book of Shadows to him.
 * Orbing: Type of Teleportation used by Leo.
 * Electrokinesis: Used by Bounty Hunters to attack Cole and Leo. Leo dodged the bolt, causing one hunter to vanquish his partner.
 * Healing: Used by Leo to heal Piper and Phoebe.

Artifacts

 * Scrying Crystal - A magical pendant used for scrying. Phoebe scrys for the Chameleon Demon

Evil Beings
Alastair - a Chameleon Demon: Hired by The Source to watch the Charmed Ones and to find Belthazor. Vanquished by The Source because he was discovered by the Charmed Ones (with help from Cole). The Source - has black blood and red hands. The Oracle - vanquished by Cole. Bounty Hunter #1 - vanquished by Bounty Hunter #2. Bounty Hunter #2 - vanquished by Cole.

Book of Shadows
When Piper tells the girls they need to check the Book of Shadows, Phoebe leds Piper to the attic where there is a notebook form of the Book.

Grandfather Clock Count

 * 1) Piper Blows Up the Clock

Quotes

 * Paige: What the hell happened?
 * Piper: The freakin' furniture just attacked!


 * Piper: I'm gonna be so happy when I vanquish your sorry ass.


 * Piper: Of course that would mean we should stop going after all of his demons, which would be fine by me. It would stop all the constant attacks.
 * Paige: Am I the only one who think she's bumped her head?


 * Paige: Got milk? Oooh, don't think so.


 * Piper: LEO! LEOO!
 * Paige: Would you stop with the "Leo Leo" you're driving me crazier than I already am.


 * Paige: Hurry up Looney Tunes. Get me outta here!


 * Piper: Where's Phoebe?
 * Paige: Who cares?


 * Phoebe: Sorry. I had to grab my broom.
 * Piper: For what?
 * Phoebe: Well, for flying, silly.

Notes and Trivia
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 * The Source's 'dream world' almost mimics the real world, for example:
 * 1) Paige says, "Got milk? Oooh don't think so." Earlier in the episode, Paige forgot to buy milk.
 * 2) When Phoebe comes to help Piper out, she's eating a cookie, and says to Piper "Not your best." Again earlier in the episode, she was making cookies, and they obviously weren't her best.
 * 3) Afterwards, while Piper is yelling at Phoebe to release her from the strapped bed, Phoebe says "stop obsessing." Earlier in the episode, Phoebe tells Piper that she told her to warn her when she began to obsess over something.
 * The Halliwell Hospital is the Manor, devoid of antiques and collectibles, and is painted in aqua and beige, traditional colors for mental institutions. The stain glass windows, the wood stained door frames and moldings, however, have been left the way they were, because it would take too much time for the set crew to restore them back to the original for the next episode.NormalAgain242.jpg
 * Curiously the episode of season 6 of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", Normal Again has a very similar plot: "After being poisoned by a demon, Buffy comes to believe that she is confined to a mental hospital, her mother is alive, her parents are still together, and that her life as a Slayer has all been an hallucination for the past six years." But in this episode, Piper is told that Prue is still alive and has already been released from the hospital. As stated in an issue of Charmed Magazine, the reason for this is because the episode writer offered similar scripts to both shows, with Charmed using the idea first.
 * The "Smallville" Season 6 episode "Labyrinth" also features a similar plot, when an alien being invades Clark Kent's mind and tries to convince him that he has imagined his life as a superhero in order to steal his powers.
 * In this episode, Cole created the biggest energy ball in the Charmed universe.
 * Piper loses her powers for the eighth time in this episode.
 * Phoebe looses her powers eight time
 * Paige looses her powers for the first time
 * This is the last episode of Krista Allen as The Source's Oracle.
 * This is the last episode of Ben Guillory as The Source. He will be replaced by Peter Woodward in Charmed and Dangerous and Desperate Housewitches.
 * In this episode, Cole whistles to get the sisters attention. This is later used in the season 8 episode, Malice in Wonderland, where Piper whistles to get the other two to listen when they keep obsessing.
 * This is the second time Piper has been put into a coma. The first time was in the season 2 episode Awakened.
 * This episode scored 4.8 million viewers and is the third-highest ranked Charmed episode on TV.com after All Hell Breaks Loose and Charmed and Dangerous.

Glitches

 * When Piper was hit by car she is bleeding on the right side of her mouth, but when we see her with the Source, she is bleeding on the left side.

References to other movies, books, mythology, etc..

 * The title is a reference to the " brain drain" -- common phenomenon of talented and educated people from one country leaving to go to another country for better conditions.
 * Paige says, "What do you say we click our heels and get out of this crazy joint?", a reference to the 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz", where Dorothy, the main character, clicked her heels three times in her ruby red slippers in order to go back to her home in Kansas. Curiously, Piper will use the ruby red slippers to come back home in Happily Ever After.
 * Phoebe shakes the nearly empty milk carton at Piper and says "got milk?", a reference to the punchline from The California Dairy Board's hugely successful advertising campaign. The ad focused on an absence of milk and begged a single question: Got Milk?. Phoebe also made a reference to this slogan in the season 1 episode The Fourth Sister.
 * At the end Cole says to Phoebe "Ms. Halliwell are you trying to seduce me?", a reference to the famous phrase in "The Graduate" by Dustin Hoffman.

International Titles

 * French: Le point faible (The Weak Point)
 * Czech: Vymývání mozku (Brain Drain)
 * Slovak: Vymývanie mozgu (Brain Drain)
 * Russian: Igry razuma (A Beautiful Mind)
 * Spanish: Lavado de Cerebro (Brain Drain)
 * Italian: Una Vita Normale (A Normal Life)
 * Serbian: Моздано Mртав (Brain Dead)
 * German: Hirngespinste (Phantasms)
 * Hungarian: Agymosás (Brain Drain)