Meanwhile, on a tiny outcropping of rock halfway down a vast well that ends in a lake of fire -- and I bet Kern's happy he held onto that set -- Barbas's essence returns to his body from its dissension-sowing foray above. A balding demon who bears a disturbing physical resemblance to Robert "Rocket" Romano occupies a nearby ledge. Apparently, Romanot and Barbas forged an alliance during their "eternal banishment" to adjacent ledges in "Purgatory." And here I always thought Purgatory was more of a great big snowed-in Greyhound station. Romanot taught Barbas the finer points of astral projection so that Barbas could flicker topside over the last few days to trick the Glamorous Ladies into giving him powers beyond comprehension, thereby allowing him to destroy them as payback for the two times The Late Lamented wiped him off the face of the earth. Got that? Good. Moving on.

Manor. Raige sprawls across her bed, paging through the Book of Shadows for anything resembling Cole's current affliction. The Dolt enters to admit that his superiors haven't a clue what's going on. "Ooh!" Raige snarks. "The Elders don't know anything! What a shock." That's either a shout-out, or Rose McGowan's ad-libbing again. Raige quickly cuts to the chase: Her instincts tell her there's something very wrong going on, and Piper and Phoebe are allowing their bias against Cole to cloud their judgment. The Dolt admits that as her Whitelighter, he believes she should heed her instincts. However, as her brother-in-law, he believes that defying her sisters is "suicide." Pantywaist. Raige sarcastically thanks him for clarifying the situation, and sends him on his way. Barbas flickers in behind her and, playing upon Raige's need for acceptance, urges her to strip Cole of his powers the way Phoebe did last season. Auuugh! For the last goddamned time, Phoebe did not strip Cole of his powers. Emma The Avenging Fiancée did. Rrrgh. Anyway, Barbas assures Raige that Piper and Phoebe will be terribly proud of her initiative, despite their recent statements to the contrary on the issue. Raige nods her head all, "What a cunning plan!" as Barbas flickers back out.

A lingering pan across the nighttime skyline lands us at Casa Del Cole. Raige wanders through the open door, calling for the demon of the house. He pounces from the shadows to wrestle her into submission, believing she's a Hell-sent beastie there to suck his brain out through his ear, or something. "You idiot!" Raige screams as she clocks him in the head. Heh. Cole snaps out of it and makes with the apologies. Raige brushes this aside and gets to the point. She whipped up a power-stripping potion based on the Demon Be Gone from last year (and the year before, actually), but altered the recipe enough to account for the Wicked Waste Land Mojo. She's now offering it to Cole as a permanent solution to his problems. Will he accept it? Cole frets that without his powers, he'll be unable to defend himself. Raige reminds him that without his powers, he won't be able to hurt anyone either -- especially Phoebe. Barbas flickers in to mumble something about taking one for the Feebs, so Cole shrugs off his reservations and accepts the proffered Demon Be Gone. It looks like a pony bottle of Listermint. He guzzles it down anyway and immediately drops to the floor in a stupor, but I'm sure his breath is minty-fresh. A crappy black CGI cloud wafts out of his chest and meanders across the room. Barbas flickers back in to absorb the lousy effects into his own glowing outline. After a moment, he corporealizes and grins, waving his hands in the air in triumph. Raige, startled, scampers across the room to her former in-law as Cole collects himself from the floor. Cole takes a look at the new arrival and sneers, instinctively drawing back his arm to fling an FBOD. Barbas conjures an FBOD with the purloined Waste Land Mojo and flicks the thing into Cole's jaw. Cole immediately hurtles backwards through the French doors, shattering them and sliding halfway across the balcony outside. Raige must have been whacked in the head with the stupid stick when I wasn't looking, for instead of bounding to Cole's side and orbing away with him immediately, she simply kneels on the shards of shattered glass to cradle his head in her arms while Barbas delivers his next four lines. "Thank you very much for setting me free," Barbas eventually croons. "Your sisters will be very proud of you." D'oh! Barbas, with his fresh mojo, smears out into the commercial break.