* This episode is similar to the earlier aired Charmed episode "Brain Drain" in which Piper finds herself in an asylum and is told that the world she believes to be true is in fact a delusion. "Brain Drain" aired four months before "Normal Again".
Piper is chosen by the Source to give-up the Charmed Ones' powers by sending her dream self to an imaginary mental institution. Piper believes she is awake and tries to escape from the asylum but always fails as the Source is controlling her mind. Seeing that Leo is a doctor in the institution and that Phoebe and Paige are insane patients (not her sisters) in the mental hospital as well, Piper finally raises her white flag from fighting what she believes to be dementia. Her sisters in the real world must then try to find a way to wake Piper before she unknowingly gives in to the Source and relinquishes all of their powers.
Yep it was a ripoff of Brain Drain which aired in November while Normal Again aired in March. Pissed me off then and it pissed me off now. Total throwaway episode except for Martian Manhunter.According to Buffy Summers Normal Again was a rip-off of some Charmed episode.
Sooooo many science fiction and fantasy series have done the "hero wakes up to find it has all been a dream" storyline.
The one that immediately jumps to mind is Wizard of OZ, but there's no doubt precedent for that too. Isn't there something in the Heracles myth about a drug induced hallucination causing him to murder his family, or something.
I think one of the distinctive things about Normal Again was that whole "maybe it's real" feel. Was that in the Smallville episode? It wasn't in the Charmed one.