Witch Wars (episode)

Witch Wars is the 21st episode of the sixth season and the 132nd overall episode of Charmed.

Summary
Aware that Piper, Phoebe and Paige are on the verge of discovering that he is after Wyatt, Gideon conspires with two demons to make the girls part of Witch Wars, a resently started demonic reality television show where demon contestants compete in a series of contests to hunt down The Charmed Ones, with the winning demon acquiring the witches' powers.

Main Cast

 * Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell
 * Rose McGowan as Paige Matthews
 * Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell
 * Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt
 * Drew Fuller as Chris Halliwell

Guest Stars

 * Christopher Neiman as Sigmund
 * Jim Pirri as Corr
 * Elaine Hendrix as Clea
 * Bodhi Elfman as Kyle Donie
 * Vicki Davis as Tali
 * David Ramsey as Upper-Level Demon
 * Betsy Randle as Mrs. Winterbourne
 * Steve Cell as Apprentice Demon
 * Gildart Jackson as Gideon

Co-Stars

 * Kevin Grevioux as Brute Demon
 * Steve Gibbons as Shapeshifter
 * Daniel Blinkoff as Thor
 * James Joseph O'Neil as Darklighter
 * Paul Vinson as Rork

Uncredited

 * Petra Sprecher as Pool Player

Brute Demons

 * Upper-level demons with overwhelming physical strength.
 * They work alone, generally crushing the skulls of their victims.
 * Explosive potions have proven effective in vanquishing them but
 * caution is recommended as Brutes are often fond of camouflage
 * before attacking.

Power-Sucking Athame

 * The unique design of the
 * Athame pictured above is used
 * as a power absorbing channel
 * from its victim. Any magical
 * individual killed by this weapon
 * has their powers transferred and
 * stored within the blade.

To Activate the Ronyx Crystal
Gideon created an entry about the Ronyx Crystal in a Magic School book. The entry included the spell to activate the Ronyx Crystal. Phoebe cast it but because the entry, and thus the spell as well were pretend ones, it didn't work. Gideon however activated the Crystal with a wave of his hand behind Phoebe.
 * Mallock cormon alli-tas!

Potions

 * Paige used a vanquishing potion on the Demon she was torturing in the attic.
 * She later used another vanquishing potion on the Warlock who was attacking Tali.
 * She also used a vanquishing potion to vanquish the Brute Demon.
 * Paige later tried to attack Corr with potions, but he was immune to them.
 * Paige gave three to Phoebe which were exposive, acid and smoke bomb.

Powers

 * Shimmering: Type of Teleportation used by Corr, the Upper-level Demon who was interested in the game show, the Shapeshifter and Phoebe (after absorbing the Demonic Powers).
 * Shimmer-Fading: Type of Teleportation used by the Brute Demon.
 * Telekinesis: Used by Gideon to close the door of his office at Magic School and the let the Scrying Crystal drop. He also made the surveying Ronyx Crystals flying and closed the Magic School doors. Corr used it to fling the box Chris threw at him. Gideon used it to grasp Sigmund.
 * Orbing: Type of Teleportation used by Leo, Paige, Gideon and Chris.
 * Invisibility: Used by Gideon to be invisible while talking to Corr and Clea.
 * Fire Balls: Used by Corr to create a Fire Ball and to attack Chris and Paige. A demon at the café used it to vanquish another.
 * Apportation: Used by Gideon to get the box with cameras into his hands.
 * Projection: Used by Gideon to get the surveying Ronyx Crystals in the walls in the Manor.
 * Shapeshifting: Used by the Shapeshifter to shapeshift into a mattress and Kyle Donie.
 * Camouflage: Used by the Brute Demon to change his appearance, matching his surroundings.
 * Hologram: The Projecting Ronyx Crystals shows what is in line of sight of the Surveying ones.
 * Light Darts: Used by a Demon to play darts.
 * Black Orbing: Type of Teleportation used by a Darklighter.
 * Healing: Used by Leo to heal Chris and Phoebe, after being stabbed with the Power-Sucking Athame (not seen).
 * Divination: Used by Gideon and Sigmund to spy on the Charmed Ones, Leo and Chris.
 * Transformation: Used by Gideon to change two pages in a book into an entry on Ronyx Crystals.
 * Energy Balls: Used by Clea, trying to attack Phoebe and Leo, but she got stabbed before she could. Phoebe used this power to vanquish Corr and several Demons in the café.
 * Power Absorption: Phoebe absorbed the powers from the Power-Sucking Athame.
 * Molecular Dispersion: Used by Gideon to kill Sigmund.

Artifacts

 * Crystals - Used by Paige to torture a Demon.
 * Scrying Crystal - A magical pendant used for scrying. Paige used it to scry for witches under attack and later used Tali's grandmother's ring to scry for Tali's amulet.
 * Power-Sucking Athame - An athame that absorbs the power of the one who is stabbed or killed with it. The participants of Witch Wars each got a Power-Sucking Athame while going after Tali.
 * Darklighter Arrows - An arrow, poisonous to Whitelighters, used by Darklighters to kill Whitelighters. The poison will slowly kill them, if not healed in time.

Magical Beings

 * Corr and Clea - The Game Masters of Witch Wars. After Corr killed the Darklighter and absorped all of his powers (and the ones he absorped), he became very powerful. Clea was killed by Leo, being stabbed by Leo. Corr was killed by Phoebe, after she absorped Clea's powers.
 * Mrs. Winterbourne - The Nursery Teacher at Magic School. Piper was mad at her because she didn't do anything when a girl 'stole' Wyatt's clay.
 * Tali - A witch. After the Brute Demon stole her Amulet, Paige took her to the Manor. She got killed there by a Darklighter.
 * Brute Demon, Darklighter, Shapeshifter and Warlock - Participants of the Game Show.

Mortals

 * Kyle Donie - A reporter at the Bay Mirror, who was in charge of writing crime investigations. Phoebe asked him to help her figure out who could be after Wyatt, how the police would do it.

Notes and Trivia
thumb|300px|right|Witch Wars WB Trailer
 * In the real world, the term 'witch war' is used by the Wiccan community to describe a heated debate about an issue in their way of life.
 * The WB used the promo title "Reality Check" for this episode.
 * This is the fourteenth episode to have the word 'witch' in the title.
 * As Sigmund tries to tell the Charmed Ones the truth, Gideon stops him in his tracks and kills him.
 * There is a reality show in the Underworld, "Witch Wars", where upper-level demons have set tasks to do, in which killing witches and gaining powers from both the witches and some demons are the prize.
 * It's ironic that this episode parodiess and pokes fun at the excessive and ever-growing Reality TV spectrum on television, while this episode was beaten by the Survivor finale, resulting in one of the lowest rated Charmed episodes of the series.
 * This episode features the most demons vanquished in the series.
 * This is the fourth time (and sixth episode) Phoebe possesses demonic powers - first was in the season 1 episode "Is There A Woogy In The House?", second was season 3's "Bride and Gloom", and third was in the season 4 episodes "We're Off To See The Wizard", "Long Live The Queen", and "Womb Raider".
 * This is the last episode of Charmed to feature a warlock (other than in flashbacks of "Generation Hex").
 * While Paige and Chris are scrying for witches under attack, Gideon moves the crystal, Paige says "ooh", but the closed-caption calls her Piper.
 * On a few occasions where demons are vanquished in this episode, the fiery vanquish effect is slightly different. Rather than the demon being engulfed in flames and exploding, we see them engulfed in flames, turning into skeletons and then exploding.
 * After Leo says that Gideon thinks that its not someone they know, Piper says "how do you know its not him?." Ironically it was him.
 * This isn't the first supernatural/fantasy show to have a reality show within the show with demons or monsters going after the good guys. This was also the theme of the 5th Episode of the 3rd Season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Vampires, demons, and even Humans were trying to kill the Slayers.

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

 * The title is a reference to the epic film series "Star Wars", created by George Lucas.
 * Chris says, speaking about Witch Wars "Kind of like Survivor, only for demons". "Survivor" is a reality-based game show in which people stay on an island and compete to stay to win the prize money. Once you're voted off by other contestants you lose. "Survivor" will be mentioned again by Piper in Kill Billie Vol. 2 as she makes fun of the situation she and her sisters are in ("Survivor Underworld").
 * The gamemaster says "Donald Trump has his own show". Is a reference to the highly rating reality television show "The Apprentice", in which a group of young entrepeneurs compete to become Donald Trump's assistant.

Glitches

 * During the scene where Gideon checks out the demonic cameras, the stage ceiling can be seen on the screen behind him.

International Titles

 * French: Jeux dangereux (Dangerous Game)
 * Italian: Reality show
 * Czech: Čaroklání
 * Slovak: Lov na čarodejnice (Hunting for Witches)
 * Spanish (Spain): Las guerras de las brujas (The Wars of the Witches)
 * Spanish (Latin America): Guerra entre brujos (War Between/Enters Warlocks)
 * Serbian: Vesticji ratovi
 * German: Witch Wars