The Bare Witch Project

The Bare Witch Project is the 136th episode of Charmed.

Episode Guide
Phoebe is supposedly on sabbatical, but still frets over her column. She still doesn't believe that a man can write her column properly. She and Piper are kicked out of a restaurant because Piper had been breast-feeding Chris.

Paige goes to Magic School and tries to convince three Elders to keep it open. Several students become restless and one casts a spell on a history book, conjuring Lady Godiva and a ghostly figure, Lord Dyson. The boy, Duncan, is apologetic to Paige but the others are delighted to see a naked woman. The Elders are worried about this incident altering history.

Lord Dyson is a demon who feeds on repressed emotions. He attacks Duncan, who then starts a small fight.

Phoebe sneaks into the office to plant a letter about the incident at the restaurant. Leslie walks in and Phoebe claims to be looking for a fountain pen. She suggests the letter that she planted, but Leslie isn't willing to answer it.

Paige casts a spell to try to send Lady Godiva back, but the spell doesn't work. In that moment, a small riot erupts at Magic School. An Elder scolds Paige and Lord Dyson attacks him, becoming solid. Godiva recognizes Dyson and he shimmers away. She tells the sisters about Dyson. They ask Leo to ask the Elders, but he is reluctant to face them; and the Elders do indeed suspect him.

The sisters cast a spell and summon Dyson, and then another to send him and Godiva back -- and the lights go out, and they find the world has changed. Everyone is very conservatively dressed, and all the women are wearing headscarves. Ask Phoebe has become Ask Leslie. They find themselves in jail for talking in public. They conclude that Dyson went back stronger than when he was summoned.

Magic-users, even demons, are in hiding. Paige and Leo orb out of jail and find Duncan. He is suspicious, but Paige talks him into revealing his summoning spell. They go to Magic School, in this time closed for years. They reconjure Godiva and Duncan and the world changes back -- but Dyson feeds on Piper and brings out her anger with Leo. The sisters fight him off and he shimmers away.

Dyson attacks at the manor, and Paige orbs Godiva away. He feeds on Leo, who is carrying much anger at Gideon's betrayal -- and this causes Dyson to overdose and explode.

Duncan, at Paige's urging, casts a spell and sends Godiva back. The Elder who scolded Paige earlier offers to let Paige run Magic School.

The episode closes with Phoebe wearing a long blond wig and nothing else, riding a horse outside the restaurant where she and Piper had been kicked out. She protests the manager's decision. Shortly after, Leslie starts writing his response to Phoebe's letter.

Quotes

 * Piper: Woman, (referring to Lady Godiva who has stripped naked) keep your clothes on, this is a family show, really.

Trivia

 * The title is a reference to the movie "The Blair Witch Project"
 * Piper breaks the fourth wall by saying, "Lady keep your clothes on. This is a family show. Really."
 * The spell Duncan uses to send Lady Godiva back to her time is almost exactly the same as the spell used in That 70's Episode to return Prue, Piper and Phoebe to their time.
 * Alyssa Milano rides on a horse naked in an episode of Spin city, where she was a guest star.702.jpg
 * Phoebe says to Lady Godiva "Thank you... for showing us you're more than a box of chocolates". This is a reference to the gourmet chocolate, which the name Godiva is more associated with, rather than the legend.
 * This is the fourth and last time that Alyssa Milano wore a blonde wig. First, as Aphrodite in Oh My Goddess Part 2, then as the Genie in the episode I Dream of Phoebe and the third time, while disguised as a Demonatrix, in the episode A Wrong Day's Journey Into Right. It's however her fifth time being blonde on the show. The first time she had her hair colored blonde for the whole third season.
 * When Leslie first sees the Manor he tells Phoebe that the paper must pay better than he thought. That is the same thing Jack said to Prue when he first saw the manor in the season 2 episode That Old Black Magic.
 * Paige officially becomes the headmistress of Magic School, which is what Phoebe saw in her vision quest in The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell.
 * In this alternate universe, Phoebe is married to Leslie. While Phoebe was at the Bay Mirror, he asks her, "Who's watching our children? Why aren't you home with them?" This indicates she and Leslie have at least two children if not more, though they are never seen on screen and their names are never mentioned.
 * When Phoebe and piper walk into the Manor (after they were at the Cafë), Piper leaves Chris and Wyatt in the Parlor alone in the push-chair whilst she goes to the Kitchen.