Who was running the Underworld post Source and pre Zankou?

[Deleted]

This has always baffled me.  Did it many ANY sense that demons attacks still happened in Seasons Five and Six?  How was this possible?  Who was sending them?

The Underworld had no leader between the final vanquish of the Source at the end of S4 and the emergence of Zankou in S7.  More than two years!  WTF?

At the end of Season Four, the whole leadership of the Underworld was wiped out.  By that reckoning, the whole regime should have collapsed. 

Look how the Empire collapsed once Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader were out of the picture.  Well, the same should have applied to Charmed.  With the Underworld leadership gone, logically the Halliwell sisters should have been safe, as there was no one in any authority left to issue orders to attack them.

Of course, since Kern assumed that the show was being cancelled at the end of S4, that is no doubt the reason he had it end that way.  Too bad that wasn't the case.

[sol]

Without a leader, in the Underworld, several groups of power will set up, as historically happens after the fall of a strong leadership

Random groups who want to seize power are in any case dangerous, to succeed they need strong action and the Triad was still active, even if hidden

[Melinda Halliwell]

Yeah there called factions which one occurred during season 4 whilst the Source was still alive and then there were a couple of other mentions of some demons maybe starting up another one sometime after he died later on.

But other than Cole there was no real leader until Zankou then.

[adzpower]

I don't think it's that surprising really.
When a leader falls lot's of smaller groups form or elect leaders to lead their particular groups.
In absence of a leader they had no choice, I'm guessing once The Source was vanquished the groups that formed attacked the witches who killed The Source to try and gain some sort of claim to the throne.

[Deleted]

These witches not only got rid of the Source, but they wiped out the whole leadership of the Underworld. 

If I were those demon factions, I'd be running the other way.

[Chrisaholic]

I think that's why there were so many battles back in S5 and S6 where no leader could be established, only when Zankou stepped in in S7. Maybe that's why Chris had it easy with vanquishing as many threats to Wyatt as he did.

[adzpower]

Actually that makes sense Chrisaholic, I seem to remember their being no over-arching huge demonic plots from seasons 5/6, just lots of smaller ones that were dealt with quite quickly, even the main villains for those seasons weren't demons.
It was only when we got to season 7 and the demons started banding together that they revived Zankou to help bring in some kind of order and leadership.

[Deleted]

Another reason to despair at S5 & 6 (aka 'Twice-Blessed: The Early Years'). Those two seasons saw a bit of quiet after the storm that was the Source, which is why the plots became more focused on the Halliwells' personal troubles with magic. I suppose the coming of the Avatars was what reunited the Underworld back to some semblance of order, under Zankou, but I see the whole 8 seasons as being the midst of 'the Final War', after which Good held the balance of power for a significant period of time (around 20 years), so it made sense for Evil to being going through a major upheaval/transition.

[erikamarie]

Easily the demons, even the upper levels, don't keep up: only Cronyn knew about Wyatt's prophecy, only Jeremy was keeping an eagle eye on the sisters

The first two years, the Charmed Ones save innocenst and deal with magical creatures, more and more powerful until they draw the attenziond of the power elite of Evil, in the successive two years the sisters'll live appalling and agonizing days
After the storm there is the calm, after dealing with the Source I believe they were no longer so afraid of the magical evil creatures, they'ld, as in the early years, to take up their lives
The power vacuum in the underworld would allow a life according to the old schem: innocent in dangerous- Phoebe's vision - rescue and way back to their occupations-without Leo's mess with the Avatars

[thepowerofnicki]

I have also wondered this! I wish they explored the underworld's hierarchy some more, and set up something interesting and unique. In my imaginary world after Cole is vanquished, the Seer takes the Crone's role from Season 5 and continues to try and solidify her power base. She will be vanquished at the end of Season 6.

[jondre91]

hey new to the site this is my first post but

i was thinking the Crones was the 3rd best future teller so when the oracle and seer die she takes over in season 5 an the season 6 you have Gideon manipulating demons to do work for him and Barbas coming back from the dead

[Sadrick]

This really begs the question on who the most powerful demon was between the reigns of the Source and Zankou during that time period. Power is everything in the demonic hierarchy, after all. Most of the ones we saw were generic leather clad minions. I really couldn't give you any distinctive names.

[Deleted]

The most powerful demons post-Source and pre-Zankou were Cole (with the powers from the Demonic Wasteland); Barbas and the Crone, but none of them had the focus, or desire, to organise the Underworld as they were blindly obsessed with their own goals; Cole (getting Phoebe back); Barbas (getting revenge on the Charmed Ones) and the Crone (kidnapping Wyatt). I suppose the Crone had the most potential as she could've stole Wyatt's powers for herself.