An entertaining episode, but one that feels like "been there, done that". The sandman legend was too good to pass, I guess, but the defeat-your-worst-fear plot is overdone by now, and the fact that the characters keep alluding to 1.13 From Fear to Eternity doesn't help.
The good thing is that this episode is well-done. Everybody's fears are interesting, sometimes puzzling but always coherent, and contribute to characterization. The demon is right, Freud would have a field day. In particular, Paige's nightmare is very cleverly thought up and explained. Piper's offers a bit of comic relief, although she gets off the hook a bit easily, and Leo is a darling for not objecting more than that. Finally, Phoebe's nightmare is absolutely spot on. At first it seems to be less interesting than the others, just another nightmare about being killed in a hideous way. The killer's mask raises some interesting questions, but Phoebe herself offers a very plausible explanation, so that the final revelation about the killer's identity comes as a good surprise. It isn't that original, but it is in continuity with recent events, and shows that Phoebe's apparent recovery from the traumatizing last year is itself a kind of mask.
The good thing is that this episode is well-done. Everybody's fears are interesting, sometimes puzzling but always coherent, and contribute to characterization. The demon is right, Freud would have a field day. In particular, Paige's nightmare is very cleverly thought up and explained. Piper's offers a bit of comic relief, although she gets off the hook a bit easily, and Leo is a darling for not objecting more than that. Finally, Phoebe's nightmare is absolutely spot on. At first it seems to be less interesting than the others, just another nightmare about being killed in a hideous way. The killer's mask raises some interesting questions, but Phoebe herself offers a very plausible explanation, so that the final revelation about the killer's identity comes as a good surprise. It isn't that original, but it is in continuity with recent events, and shows that Phoebe's apparent recovery from the traumatizing last year is itself a kind of mask.