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fandomhigh_ooc2007-02-25 02:53 pm
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Spotlight on Fandoms: Charmed
"Charmed" is a show that ran for eight seasons and was the brain child of Constance Burge and executive produced by Brad Kern. It was set in San Francisco and the concept was simple: Three sisters are the latest in a powerful line of witches. Not only that, these three sisters are to be the strongest force of good that the world had ever seen -- The Charmed Ones. They will be the ones to take on the demons and warlocks and other evils that are out there in the world...
... At least they will be if they can learn to get along.
CHARACTERS
We'll be focusing on the Charmed Ones, people who appeared in the opening credits, and the Halliwell family.
Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty) - Prue was the eldest sister of the Charmed Ones and possessed the power of telekinesis (later adding astral projection). Prue was very popular and outgoing in high school, and after college worked for the Museum of Natural History but eventually quit to become a photographer. She helped raise her younger sisters after their mother's death and continued to see herself as the "head of the household" and the responsible one when they were older. She and the more carefree Phoebe frequently butted heads, forcing Piper to act as mediator between them. Unfortunately, at the end of S3, Prue suffered "Death by Alyssa," as it's said that Shannen and Alyssa didn't get along at all, and the producers choose to keep Alyssa and get rid of Shannen.
Piper Halliwell (Holly Marie Combs) - Piper was originally the middle sister (but took on Prue's role after her death) and possessed the power to freeze objects in time. This power later expanded to "molecular combustion" as well -- in short, she could blow things up. Much more meek and shy than her sisters, Piper trained as a chef and later opened her own club, P3. Of all the Charmed Ones, she desired a normal life the most and was frequently reluctant to embrace her destiny. She fell in love with the Charmed Ones' Whitelighter, Leo, and eventually they were married and had two sons, Wyatt and Chris, and later a daughter, Melinda. Piper frequently had to mediate between the more serious Prue and the emotional Phoebe, and was the sister most reluctant to deal with some of the wackiness that was thrust upon them over the years. She was often the voice of reason and was the best potion maker of all the sisters.
Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) - Phoebe was the baby of the family (since Paige was an unknown younger sister through her childhood). She was born in the Manor, which made her prone to the pull of evil. Her first power was premonitions, but she later developed levitation and empathy. She was wild child in high school and was frequently in trouble. After a fight in which Prue accused her of hitting on Prue's finance, Phoebe ran away to New York. She returned after Grams's death, and it was her discovery of the Book of Shadows that triggered the girls' powers to reawaken. In the beginning of the show, Phoebe was very open and warm-hearted and emotional, but after Prue's and Cole's deaths, she became, well, an evil selfish hag. Seriously, her character became very unlikeable. Toward the end of the series she began to regain some of her lost compassion, but in the meantime we had to suffer through her endless parade of slampieces of the week, awful fashion sense, and all-about-me attitude.
Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) - Paige was the result of Patty Halliwell's affair with her Whitelighter, Sam. Fearing punishment from the Elders for their forbidden relationship, Patty and Sam left the newborn baby at a church and asked that her first name start with a P. Paige was subsequently adopted by the Matthews family and was raised completely ignorant of her witch/Whitelighter heritage. She worked for a social service agency and frequently visited Piper's club, feeling a connection to the Halliwells but never approaching them about it. After Prue's death, Piper cast a spell to find a lost witch, which drew Paige to her and Phoebe. At the same time, the Source of All Evil realized there was another Charmed One and attempted to kill Paige or turn her to evil. Piper and Phoebe protected her and learned she was their half-sister. For the longest time Paige suffered for insecurity at being compared to Prue and strove to prove herself as a witch. She possessed the power of telekinesis but instead of just moving objects, she could "call" for them and orb them to herself. As a Whitelighter, she could also orb, glamor (change her appearance), and eventually heal. She also possessed a sometimes questionable sense of fashion.
Penny "Grams" Halliwell (Jennifer Rhodes) - Grams raised Prue, Piper, and Phoebe after Patty's death but died of a heart attack shortly before the series began. She was a powerful witch with the power of telekinesis and was responsible for many spells in the Book of Shadows. She bound the girls' powers when they were children, and after her death, the binding wore off. After her death Grams watched over her family and would sometimes flip the Book of Shadows to a spell they might need. Eventually the COs learned how to summon her spirit and she would frequently appear to help them out.
Patty Halliwell (Finola Hughes) - Patty possessed the power to freeze time (like Piper). She and her husband Victor divorced when the girls were young due to Victor's issues with magic and demons. Patty had an affair with Sam, her Whitelighter, which produced Paige, who they gave up at birth to protect their secret. When her daughters were still very young, Patty was killed while she was attempting to vanquish a water demon. Like Grams, her spirit makes occasional visits to her daughters.
Victor Bennett (James Read) - Victor walked out on Patty and their daughters because he couldn't handle the supernatural nature of their lives. He was absent for most of his daughters' lives and only reconciled with them after they learned they were witches. When the COs faked their deaths at the end of S7, he took custody of Wyatt and Chris.
Wyatt Matthew Halliwell (Wes Ramsey [adult], Jason and Kristopher Simmons [toddler]) - Piper's womb was a rocky place where Leo's seed could find no purchase, but at the end of S4, Piper found herself miraculously pregnant. The baby was prophesized to be the "twice-blessed child" and the most powerful force of magic the world has ever seen (something once said about Phoebe and Cole's child, hmmm). Everyone expected a girl (as seen in a glimpse of the future in S2), but when Wyatt was born, he obviously wasn't. Like Phoebe, he was born in the Manor, making him prone to the pull of evil. In fact, in the future he did turn evil, due in no small part to the Elder Gideon attempting to destroy him out of fear of his power. His younger brother Chris came back in time to prevent this from happening, and subsequent appearances of future!Wyatt showed him to be on the side of good. Except when he wasn't. Toddler Wyatt, on the other hand, frequently used his powers to cause mischief, including summoning a dragon out of a movie, shrinking his parents, orbing his infant brother around, and bringing his action figures to life.
Christopher Perry Halliwell (Drew Fuller [adult]) - Many people believe (but the producers deny) that Chris was originally future!Wyatt, but when Holly Marie Combs got herself pregnant IRL, there was a rewrite to the storyline to make him Piper and Leo's second son. At any rate, Chris first appeared at the end of S5, claiming to have been sent from the future to protect the Charmed Ones. His real goal, however, was to prevent baby Wyatt from turning evil. One of his first acts was to arrange for his father to be promoted to an Elder, partially creating the circumstances that would turn Wyatt evil, which makes no sense, but this is Charmed after all. Through S6 Chris helped the Charmed Ones fight demons and protect Wyatt from threats on his life. The COs eventually learned who he was, and at the end of the season, Chris was killed by Gideon. However, moments later baby Chris was born, and his infant self was frequently seen in S7 and S8. Adult Chris was pretty neurotic and paranoid and had some jealousy issues with his older brother and serious daddy issues, but he was devoted to the well-being of his family. In his first appearance, he introduces himself as Chris Perry and, though it's never stated in canon, fanon holds that Perry is his middle name, keeping with the family tradition of "P" names. (He was apparently named Christopher after Leo's father.)
Leo Wyatt (Brian Krause) - Leo was the Whitelighter assigned to watch over the Charmed Ones. In life he'd been a medic in World War II, and in a past life he'd had a fling with past!Piper. It was forbidden for a whitelighter to become emotionally involved with their charges, but Leo and Piper fell in love and were eventually given permission to marry in S3. Due to Chris's machinations, however, Leo was promoted to Elder. He intially chose duty over family, though he did pop in from time to time to help care for Wyatt. When Gideon, his trusted friend, tried to kill Wyatt and did kill Chris, Leo murdered Gideon in revenge. In stepped the Avatars, a race of beings who sought to create their version of Utopia. They manipulated Leo into becoming one of them. Due to this, Leo was stripped of his powers and made a mortal. He and Piper reconcilled until Leo was marked for death to enable the Charmed Ones to face their Greatest Challenge Ever in S8 (just go with it). Piper managed to convince the Angel of Destiny to freeze Leo in time instead, and by the finale they were happily reunited.
Andy Trudeau (Ted King) - Andy, a police detective, was Prue's boyfriend in S1. He grew up with the Charmed Ones but frequent spells from Grams ensured he didn't remember them using their powers as children. He was eventually clued in to the wacky wiccan hijinks, but he died during a demon attack on the Manor at the end of the season.
Cole Turner/Belthazor (Julian McMahon) - At the start of S3, Cole/Belthazor, a half-demon, half-human, was sent to pose as an ADA to get close to the Charmed Ones and destroy them. He came close, but at the last minute he couldn't bring himself to do it because he'd fallen in love with Phoebe. He went on the run from the Underworld for a short time, then returned to Phoebe. Her sisters grudgingly accepted him at first, but he proved himself to be a useful ally against demons. Mid S4 he was nailed with a power stripping potion and became human. He and Phoebe planned to marry, but before they could, the Source of All Evil tried to destroy the Charmed Ones once and for all. In a successful attempt to prevent this, Cole became possessed by the Source, and Phoebe and her sisters were forced to vanquish him at the end of S4. Then things got ridiculous as Cole came back from the dead and the Charmed Ones started treating him as if he'd become the Source on purpose. Cole tried unsuccessfully to win Phoebe back and eventually went stark raving bonkers. He tried to create a reality in which he and Phoebe were still together and got vanquished again for his troubles in an episode that made absolutely zero sense BUT I'M NOT BITTER AT ALL. Cole reappeared for an episode in S7, trying to atone for his sins by saving Piper and Leo's relationship and making Phoebe believe in love again. He's still out there somewhere, chilling in limbo, or possibly running a thriving plastic surgery practice in Miami.
Darryl Morris (Dorian Gregory) - Darryl was Andy's partner in S1 and remained an ally of the COs through the course of the series, helping them cover up exposures of magic and pointing them toward possible incidents involving demons. Poor Darryl was frequently used and abused by the Charmed Ones (including having his soul ripped out by Paige so they could have a "hero spirit" to take to Valhalla -- no, seriously) and eventually tried to distance himself from them to preserve his health and sanity. He disappeared in S8 due to budget cuts.
Dan Gordon (Greg Vaughan) - Dan, the Charmed Ones' next door neighbor, was an S2 attempt to create a love triangle with him, Piper, and Leo, playing on Piper's desire for normal life versus magical life. This went over like a lead balloon, and Dan was written out of the show by the end of S2. He was kind of creepy anyway.
Jenny Gordon (Karis Paige Bryant) - Dan's annoying teenage niece. She disappeared mid-S2 and is presumed eaten.
Billie "Maggot Neck" Jenkins (Kaley Cuoco) - In S8, there was a horrible attempt to create a spin-off character in the form of Billie, a Mary Sue witch with phenomenal cosmic power who the Charmed Ones took under their wings. I don't know anyone who liked the character. Seriously. She was on a quest to find her demon-napped sister, who turned out to be evil, and helped said evil sister try to kill the Charmed Ones. Despite this, she's baby sitting the CO's kidlets in the future. What. Ever.
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
The short answer is three sisters who fight evil. The long answer (with spoilers) is as follows:
THE PRUE YEARS
The three Halliwell sisters have completely different personalities -- and the oldest and the youngest didn't get along too well. In the very first episode, we discover that Prue, the eldest, and Phoebe, the youngest, have some bad blood between them. In the first episode, Phoebe moves back home to the ancestral manor after having been living in New York for an undisclosed amount of time. Piper has invited her to come back home and neglected to tell Prue until Phoebe was due to arrive.
The first night back in the Manor, Phoebe manages to open the door to the attic -- a door that until that night had always been locked and no one had been able to open. Inside, she discovers the Book of Shadows. Being the natural curious and adventurous sister that she is, she reads the incantation on the first page out loud. The downstairs chandelier lights up and does a strobing light show.
An lo, the Charmed Ones are born.
Phoebe is more excited about her role as a Charmed One than her two sisters are and in fact, they are angry at her for reading the incantation in the first place. However, it soon becomes apparent that without their powers they are vulnerable and that they are needed to help protect innocents from the evil that waits out in the world.
One of the important differences between "Charmed" and the other popular supernatural show at the time "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was that there was never one Big Bad Evil every season that they had to contend with. Every season it was the same thing they had to deal with -- demons, warlocks and other evils that wanted to kill them and take their powers. In fact, they were such a danger to the forces of evil, that the Source of All Evil even sent one of his most powerful killers into the past to wipe out the entire family line by killing the very first witch in their family -- Melinda Warren.
Needless to say, he failed.
The first season focused mainly on the three sisters learning about their powers and their destiny and also how to work together. They also had to use trial and error -- mainly error, and mainly Phoebe -- to learn the lesson that they couldn't use their magic for any kind of personal gain. Being a witch meant that changes had to made in all of their lives. It was also a stressful secret that they had to force themselves to keep hidden from the people they cared about. Of course, being tight-lipped about who they were didn't keep warlocks or demons from knowing exactly who they were and trying to kill them. (They had been killing a lot of evil, after all.) The best example of this in the first season came in the forms of Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster.
Rex was Prue's boss at the auction house that she worked at, and Hannah was his assistant. It turns out that they were both demons who had been sent to steal the Charmed Ones powers and kill them. By using a very human trait -- blackmail -- they were able to convince the girls to give up their powers. However, right as they are about to be killed at the auction house, back at the manor their very handsome handy man starts flipping through the now blank Book of Shadows with glowing hands. The girls' powers are restored and they manage to defeat Rex and Hannah when Hannah accidentally kills Rex and they are both sucked back into a fiery hell.
The girls spent the rest of the season trying to fulfill their destiny while doing their best to live normal lives. Unfortunately, they also had other stresses that they had to deal with on top of this. Prue had to try to deal with keeping her powers and destiny a secret from her long-time love, Andy; Piper with the fact that she was in love with their handyman-turned-whitelighter Leo; and all three girls had to deal with the sudden reappearance of their estranged father. Phoebe also had to question a great deal about herself when she was turned evil by the Woogy and was wondering if that meant she had a stronger draw to evil than her sisters did.
Season one ended with the girls much closer than they had been...and with the goodbye of someone dear to them.
Season two opened with the sisters dealing with the aftermath of the loss in the season one finale and having to examine everything that was happening in their lives. After vanquishing the demon that stole their book, all three sisters started making changes in their lives. Piper bought a club, Phoebe went back to job hunting and Prue threw herself into her work at the auction house which was now under new management.
The second year of their lives as witches had a new set of challenges that they had to deal with -- both as witches and as women. Phoebe's premonitions got stronger and one led them into the future to find out why her future self was going to be executed for murder. On that trip, the girls learn the lesson that their jobs are to protect the innocent and not to punish the guilty. (It would have been nice if they had stuck to that through later seasons. The writers sometimes had NO CONSISTENCY!) Piper started a new relationship with their new next door neightbor, Prue ended up not being able to handle the less than honorable dealings at the auction house, and Phoebe dealt with finding out that in a past life she had tried to kill her cousins and was an evil witch.
Also in Season Two, the sisters meet their mother's former Whitelighter and discover that he and their mother were in love before her death. In trying to come up with a way to defeat the water demon terrorizing their old summer camp, Prue comes up with the solution on how to see what their mother had planned. Phoebe with her powers to see both future and past is the one who ends up having to relive their mother's last moments in order to figure out how to vanquish the demon that killed her.
This season also carried some difficult lessons for the girls as when Piper contracted a deadly disease, Leo was forbidden to heal her because she hadn't been struck ill by evil. Angry and desperate, Prue and Phoebe cast a spell to save their sister, but it has tragic consequences. However, Leo heals Piper against orders and ends up with his wings clipped. Leo decides that since he is now human he is going to fight to win her from Dan.
Season two ends with the sisters deaing with a genie -- and Piper disappearing with Leo Up There when the Elders call for Leo.
Season Three brings in a whole lot of changes for the Charmed Ones -- including new assistant district attorney Cole Turner.
This was the season that the Source of All Evil stepped up his attempts to destroy the Charmed Ones. He even sent his best assassin after them -- the half human, half demon soldier of fortune, Belthazor. Belthazor tried plot after plot to destroy the sisters. However, when he has the best opportunity to kill one of the sisters and break the Power Of Three... he couldn't go through with it. Something happened that he hadn't been prepared for. He fell in love... with a Charmed One. When he fell in love with Phoebe and couldn't kill her, he was marked as a traitor. When he killed the Triad, well that was just his death warrant.
When the sisters found out who Cole really was, there was outrage and a sense of betrayal. Prue and Piper set out to vanquish him and rescue Phoebe after he ran off with her. After an emotional scene in the cemetery and him killing a demonic bounty hunter that was going to kill her, Phoebe realized that Cole really did love her. She also knew that they couldn't be together and vanquished ... his shirt.
When Prue and Piper discovered that Phoebe had lied to them, they were angry and felt betrayed -- Prue especially. Of course, they really didn't have time to dwell on it much as more and more happenings were going on that they needed to focus their attention on. Between the sisters having a brush with being evil, Piper and Leo trying to get married against the wishes of the Elders, dealing with the reappearance of their estranged father and years of issues, season three just seemed to always have something going on that affected the Charmed Ones on a deep level.
Among all of this, Cole decided that he wanted to turn his back on the Underworld and do good things now so he could be with Phoebe -- and do whatever he thought he had to to protect her. Piper and Prue still didn't trust him and they were afraid for Phoebe. But when Cole took Prue into a time loop from the past to save Phoebe from death by ghostly melding ("The Good, The Bad and the Cursed"), they decided to give him a chance to prove himself to them.
Nothing in the world of the Charmed Ones is easy and the Underworld decided that they wanted Belthazor back at any cost --including casting a spell to make him kill a witch, which also killed Phoebe's love for him. Alas, Phoebe turned into a banshee and Prue turned into a dog. Freaked out and in a panic to save both of her sisters, Piper used a spell to summon Cole. She was convinced that he still loved Phoebe and that love could save Phoebe and Prue.She was proved right.
Of course, nothing could end that simply or happily, and nothing screwed with them quite as badly as when the Source of All Evil sent the assassin Shax after them. They think they vanquish him and Phoebe goes to the Underworld to save and retrieve Cole. While she's down there, all hell breaks loose topside where a news crew have caught Piper and Prue using their powers and have outted them as witches. Piper gets shot by a crazy lady and dies, and Prue goes ballistic, using her powers on humans for the first time. When Phoebe finds out from Leo what has happened, she and Cole decide to ask the Source to allow Tempus the time demon to reset time and save her sisters. He agrees, but at a high price : Phoebe has to stay in the Underworld forever. Phoebe agrees to that as long as someone is sent to warn her sisters about Shax and what is to happen. It is agreed to and time is reset.
But, demons lie and Shax attacked the Manor and the two Charmed Ones who had no idea where their sister -- and the vanquishing spell -- was.
Season three ended with Phoebe agreeing to stay in the Underworld to protect her sisters and Prue and Piper laying in pools of blood as the end credits rolled.
THE PAIGE YEARS
Season Four opened with Piper and Phoebe dealing with the death of their older sister, Prue, and worrying that the Power of Three was broken forever. There was a lot of concern that evil would continue to come after them now that they weren’t as strong, and both Cole and Leo were determined to do whatever they could to protect the girls.
And, lo, a strange girl showed up at the service and Phoebe had a vision of her being attacked by the demon who killed Prue when she shook her hand. She and Cole decided to keep an eye on the girl so they could prevent the attack, but everyone was surprised when the girl orbed to save herself.
Turns out, that indiscretion of Patty’s with her white lighter, Sam (which was introduced during season two), resulted in the birth of another daughter, Paige. Afraid of the repercussions from the Elders, Patty & Sam gave their daughter up for adoption with the caveat that she be given a name that started with a ‘P’.
So, the Power of Three was re-born and a new sisterly bond was forged. Much of the fourth season revolved around Paige learning her craft and learning to live with sisters after being an only child for her entire life. Piper was initially resistant to developing a relationship with her new sister, but after becoming a Fury thanks to her repressed anger at Prue’s death, did accept her. She did, however, end up clashing with Paige a bit, thrusting Phoebe into Piper’s old role as the peacemaking middle sister.
Midway through the season, Paige began to suspect that Cole (who was Phoebe’s fiancé and then husband) was not quite as reformed as Piper and Phoebe kept insisting. It caused friction between the sisters, but it turned out that Paige was right. Cole was possessed by the Source of all Evil and, after marrying Phoebe in a wedding presided over by a dark priest and impregnating her, he convinced her to renounce her sisters and join him as the Queen of the Underworld (some of this may sound familiar). This led to the sisters vanquishing The Source (and Cole) at the end of the fourth season. They were offered an opportunity to renounce their magic and lead normal lives in reward, but decided to continue with their destiny. Piper also found out she was pregnant.
They hadn’t heard the last from Cole though. The beginning of the fifth season saw Phoebe filing for a no contest divorce since Cole was gone, but he showed up at the last moment and stopped it from happening. The beginning of the fifth season dealt primarily with Phoebe trying to convince Cole that she didn’t want him to be part of her life anymore. It also revolved around Piper and Leo’s preparations for their daughter.
And, of course, the sisters were constantly fighting evil in a variety of bad costumes.
Cole continued to amass power and went a little crazy trying to win Phoebe back. When it became clear that she was over him, he decided that life wasn’t worth living and he attempted to commit suicide via Charmed Ones. Unfortunately, all of the power he had amassed made him unvanquishable.
In the “episode that shall not be named”, he was finally vanquished in a parallel universe he created (which gave us dominatrix!Piper, RAWR).
By this point, Piper was very pregnant and panicking a little about raising her daughter while fighting demons. She began to receive a number of gifts from the magical community (including a unicorn). She was put on bedrest because of high blood pressure. Then, something bad happened. All magic… died (in an episode aptly named “The Day The Magic Died”). Phoebe and Paige ended up trying to work with demons to get magic back, but were ambushed. They used their combined street smarts to escape. Meanwhile, back at the Manor, Victor showed up with a new bride who was eager to assist her daughter-in-law with her birth. Turns out, StepMama was evil and there to take the baby and raise her as a force of evil.
Naturally, good triumphed and they got rid of her and the demon she was in league with before Piper’s baby was born. And, surprise surprise, it was the first Halliwell baby born in generations that wasn’t a girl.
After Wyatt’s birth, the sisters’ faced a number of threats to his safety. Being the “twice-blessed child”, everyone was after his power. The last episode of the season, a mysterious white lighter from the future showed up to save Phoebe from being turned to stone. After convincing Leo to make the girls Goddesses to fight off a powerful evil, Leo became an Elder and Chris, the mysterious white lighter, was assigned to guide the Charmed Ones. The very end of the episode, Leo orbed out and Chris ‘exploded’ the orb trail, leading many fans to believe he was actually evil.
Turns out that Chris had banished Leo to Valhalla to get him out of the way so he could work with the Charmed Ones. The sisters found out where Leo was and ended up saving him, but he had to leave Piper and his son and join the rest of the Elders “Up There”. Chris continued to be a mystery, working with demons and indulging in shady activities. He always had an altruistic reason for his actions, but no one (including the sisters) was sure what to make of him. Phoebe developed a new power this season, empathy. She drove her sisters crazy by constantly talking about their feelings until Chris gave them a potion to block her power.
Paige started working temp jobs that always ended up involving her in something magical. Piper was adjusting to life without Leo and to being a single mom. She decided to try dating again, but Wyatt didn’t like that, making “orb eyes” to scare off his mother’s suitors. (A notable guest star as one of Piper’s dates was the actor who went on to play Sheriff Lamb on Veronica Mars.)
Chris ended up confessing to the sisters that the real reason he had come back from the future was to save Wyatt from turning evil. He told the sisters that in his time, Wyatt was an evil, power-hungry dictator. He was a harsh task master, sending the girls after scores of demons that might be the ones who turned Wyatt.
Midway through the season, Chris got a blast from the past in the form of his fiancée, Bianca, from the future, an assassin witch that Wyatt sent back to bring him home. She attempted to strip his powers, but Piper interrupted and blew her up.
As it turned out, she had the ability to re-form and she tried again to confront Chris, who was growing weak from her previous attack. He managed to orb away from her and back to the Manor, where Leo was confused about his inability to heal Chris.
Bianca cast a spell to release the Charmed Ones inhibitions and they ended up going their separate ways, leaving Chris vulnerable to attack. Leo managed to break the spell and the girls found Chris & Bianca before Bianca took him back to the future, but Bianca threatened to kill Piper if they tried to stop her. Chris went along with her, telling the sisters that Bianca had stripped his powers. He also cryptically told Bianca that if she killed Piper, neither of them would have a future to go back to. Piper attempted to freeze them before they walked through the portal Bianca had created, but her powers didn’t work on either of them. Chris revealed that he was actually half witch, half white lighter.
He was smart though, and had given the sisters a clue on how to help him get his powers back. They slipped a spell under a loose floorboard in the attic. After a fight between Chris and Wyatt, Chris said the spell, got his powers back and reopened the portal to return to the present. He still patently refused to tell the sisters who he was or explain why he lied about being a witch.
A few episodes later, Magic School was introduced and, on a vision quest there, Phoebe learned the truth. That Chris was Wyatt’s younger brother, the second son of Piper and Leo. After she confronted him about this, he confessed and asked for her help. In his efforts to save Wyatt, he had almost forgotten that his conception date was drawing near and if he didn’t get Piper and Leo back together, he would cease to exist.
The end of the sixth season is where things got a little dicey. The Charmed Ones used the powers for personal gain and to punish the guilty instead of protecting the innocent. This led to a trial in front of a council made up of Elders and Upper Level Demons. The result was that Phoebe had her active powers taken away.
During the season finale, the Charmed Ones finally discover who turned Wyatt evil. It was one of the “good” guys, someone they trusted. In the ensuing battle, Chris dies, but the episode ends with Piper giving birth to baby Chris.
The repercussions of these events are still affecting everyone’s lives when the seventh season starts. Leo is obsessed with finding a demon who helped in trying to hurt Wyatt and Piper is afraid to leave the house with the boys.
Paige also battles with the Elders to keep the Magic School open and ends up running it, which puts the sisters into some interesting situations.
The Elders inform the sisters of a brewing threat and tell them it’s unlike any other they’ve faced. And unknown to them, Leo has been haunted to a floating head creature. It’s later revealed that the floating head is one of the Avatars, a group of powerful beings who explain that they are beyond good and evil. They are trying to create Utopia and need Leo’s power to achieve it. He ends up joining them when Phoebe and Piper are killed by a demon because they tell him that they can give him the power to heal the dead.
While this is all going on, the Charmed Ones also meet up with a Homeland Security agent who seems to know more about magic than your average fed. He develops a romance with Paige which is threatened by Leo’s newfound status. Agent Brody believes that the Avatars killed his parents and he has made it his mission to get revenge for that.
While babysitting a Seer (played by Charisma Carpenter) who is trying to work out a deal with the Elders to become human, Phoebe shares her vision of an utopian future where her nephews and the daughter she saw in her vision quest (during the sixth season) don’t have to fight demons. She comes around to the Avatars side and later ends up switching powers with Piper, who taps into Phoebe’s power to see the vision for herself. Paige trusts Brody and splits from her sisters. After a trip to the past, Paige & Brody learn that the Avatars did not kill his parents, and the Charmed Ones decide to add their powers to the Avatars to create a new world order.
And, naturally, it turns out that, while not overtly evil, the way the Avatars maintain Utopia is by “removing” anyone who causes trouble. Leo realizes he made a mistake by helping to bring this about and manages to convince the sisters to reverse the magic by joining forces with a demon named Zankou. There will be consequences from the Elders though.
The sisters are disappointed that they have to continue fighting evil, but soon meet up with a quirky, fun ex-demon who made a deal to become human for one full year (at the end of which, he will die). He helps Phoebe open her heart again and ultimately helps the sisters get Leo back after the Elders put him through a trial to determine if he should leave behind his family and completely commit to the Elders or clip his wings and become human.
As the season comes to a close, the sisters are under investigation by Homeland Security again. They are also battling Zankou, who has managed to gain control of the Book of Shadows and takes over the Manor (which is a powerful nexus for magic that can be either good or evil). The Charmed Ones take refuge at Magic School, where the Elders tell them that there is a spell in the Book to destroy the nexus in the event that evil ever gains control of it.
They decide that if they are going down, they’re taking Zankou with them. Around this time, a phalanx of law enforcement officials are moving on the Manor. Piper takes her sons to her father’s, where she signs over custody along with ownership of the Manor and her nightclub, P3.
The sisters manage to get their hands back on the book, but not before Zankou takes over Magic School. He takes the nexus into himself and the sisters use the spell, causing a huge explosion to rock the house. Law enforcement officials saw the sisters in the house and move in, finding no trace of anyone left alive in the rubble.
The final scene shows three young women and a young man walking outside of the house. We learn that the sisters had astral projected into the house and have cast glamour spells on themselves so they look like other people.
And then the WB decided to pick Charmed up for an Eighth Season.
The Eighth (and final) season, introduced a new witch, Billie, who ended up being a protégé to the Charmed Ones once they re-claimed their lives, after spending some time masquerading as their cousins, who came to help Victor with the boys after the death of his daughters.
The Elders take Leo away from the sisters, telling them that they need to focus for the “ultimate battle” that is brewing.
Billie gets their help finding her sister, Christy, who was kidnapped as a child. She has powers, too, but was raised by demons and is predisposed to evil now. She manages to turn Billie against the COs.
When the Ultimate Battle begins, the Charmed Ones recite a spell at the same time as Billie and Christy. Both sets of sisters have called for the Hollow (an intense source of magical power). Unknowingly, it split and entered all five of them. The combined power of all that magic causes an explosion, leaving Piper and Billie as the only ones standing. Piper attacks Billie, but is stopped by Leo, whom the Angel of Destiny returns.
Piper and Leo borrow a magic ring from Phoebe’s new love interest (a cupid named Coop). They travel back in time and find Patty (the girls’ mother) and decide to pick up Grams as well. The three witches combine their powers and return to the Manor just as the Ultimate Battle is beginning. They cast a spell to remove the Hollow from all the sisters, circumventing the explosion. Time catches up to itself, blurring Piper back into her past self and creates a new present with all five witches still alive.
The five Halliwell women figure that there must be some way for their powers to defeat Billie and Christy. As they are making plans, Chris and Wyatt show up from the future. Wyatt has lost his powers and they cast a spell to take them to the cause. Piper realizes that Billie and Christy stole Wyatt’s powers while they were infected by the Hollow.
Billie shows up at the Manor to beg for forgiveness, having realized that she was fighting on the wrong side. She helps the sisters defeat the demons Christy is working with. But when Christy tries to throw a fireball at the Charmed Ones, Billie telekinetically sends it back at her sister, killing Christy.
Then the four generations of Halliwells share a few moments together, celebrating their victory. We get a montage and voiceover that tells us how each sister’s life went after the Ultimate Battle.
NOTABLE GUEST STARS
There have been a ton of meta guest stars over the years on Charmed. Notably:
Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia on Angel) as The Seer (v2.0).
Michael Trucco (Anders on BSG) as Alec, a Darklighter.
Brigid Brannagh (Virginia on Angel and Sasha on Kindred: the Embraced) as an evil witch.
Brian Thompson (Luke on Buffy, Alien Bounty Hunter Guy on X-Files) as War and later Cronos, a god.
French Stewart (Harry on 3rd Rock from the Sun) as a genie.
Arnold Vosloo (Imhotep from The Mummy) as a Darklighter.
Harry Groener (Mayor Wilkins on Buffy) as an empathic priest.
Jason Carter (Marcus on B5) as the demon of rage, Andras.
Daniel Dae Kim (Gavin on Angel, Jin on Lost) as an evil ninja.
Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) as a demon who shrinks people.
Charlie Weber (Ben on Buffy) as, um, a prince.
Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder on Buffy, Quark on DS9) as a wizard.
Bruce Campbell (do I really need to say) as a witch hunter.
Melinda Clarke (Julie on the OC, Lady Heather on CSI) as a siren.
Adrian Paul (Duncan on Highlander) as Jeric, a demon.
John de Lancie (Q on ST: TNG) as Odin, an elder.
Oded Fehr (Ardeth in The Mummy) as Zankou, a demon.
Matthew Glave (Col. Paul Emerson on SG1) as Dr. Williams
Michael Muhney (Sheriff Don Lamb on Veronica Mars) as one of Piper's dates.
Michael Weatherly (Logan on Dark Angel) as Brendan Rowe (priest from When Bad Warlocks Go Good).
Jay Acovone (Kawalsky on SG1) as Keats (from Bite Me).
Tony Amendola (Bra'tac on SG1) as the Dark Priest who married Phoebe and Cole.
Lisa Thornhill (Celeste Kane on Veronica Mars) as Meta, a goddess (how appropriate).
Peter Wingfield (Methos on Highlander) as a Darklighter.
There's also the endless line of guest star slampieces (including Eric Dane, Nick Lachey, Billy Zane, Jason Lewis, Balthazar Getty and Kerr Smith) for Paige and Phoebe, but we'd hit the LJ post limit if I tried to name all them. ;)
We're also not going to talk about the WCW crossover episode.
FUN FACTS
One of the other fun things about Charmed is the punny episode titles. You can find them all listed here, but some notable ones include:
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH
Here's the part where we try to sell this show to all of you. Yes, there are many a continuity issue and the canon changed so much, it was hard to keep up. Still, there are some good things about the show that makes it quite enjoyable and entertaining.
For instance, there's the family aspect. One of our favorite things about the show was the relationships the sisters had with each other. In the earlier seasons, they genuinely cared about each other and protecting innocents. So that's the big sappy reason to watch this show.
Now onto the fun reasons. If you enjoy snark (and we know most of you do), then this is the perfect show for that. Sometimesmost of the time it's so bad and cheesy, you can't help but snark at it. It's sometimes the only way to get through an episode. Besides the alcohol consumption, of course.
The most important reason to watch? The pretty! There is much of that on this show.
Here are a few clips we've compiled that show some of the best Charmed actually has to offer. You can all stop laughing now.
Our Favorite Moments
You can probably guess who picked which scenes.
Phoebe uses her own smarts to save her sisters after a Smart Spell she cast wears off.
Piper grieves over a lost innocent and is comforted by Leo.
Cole tries to kill Phoebe, but he just can't go through with it.
Chris confronts Evil!Wyatt in the future.
Other fun clips
Cole and Piper face off in the attic. Not dirty sadly.
The last part of the episode "Long Live the Queen," which inspired some of the Source plot scenes
Chris the neurotic little freak
HOW TO BECOME OBSESSED
The first seven seasons are all available on DVD. They are sold pretty much anywhere including Amazon.com and Best Buy. They are also available at Netflix. Season Eight will be available soon. It's already available in Australia and some parts of Europe.
If you live in the United States, you can also catch reruns on TNT weekday mornings at 8am and 9am. It's also shown at 4pm and 5pm weeknights, except Mondays when it airs five episode marathons from 4pm-9pm. It airs in other parts of the world as well. A list of where and when can be found here.
We highly recommend avoiding Season Eight as it is heinous. Some of us believe it doesn't even exist.
[co-written by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cookinggeek, demonbelthazor (aka blessed_twice), future_visions and neurotic_witch]
... At least they will be if they can learn to get along.
CHARACTERS
We'll be focusing on the Charmed Ones, people who appeared in the opening credits, and the Halliwell family.
Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty) - Prue was the eldest sister of the Charmed Ones and possessed the power of telekinesis (later adding astral projection). Prue was very popular and outgoing in high school, and after college worked for the Museum of Natural History but eventually quit to become a photographer. She helped raise her younger sisters after their mother's death and continued to see herself as the "head of the household" and the responsible one when they were older. She and the more carefree Phoebe frequently butted heads, forcing Piper to act as mediator between them. Unfortunately, at the end of S3, Prue suffered "Death by Alyssa," as it's said that Shannen and Alyssa didn't get along at all, and the producers choose to keep Alyssa and get rid of Shannen.
Piper Halliwell (Holly Marie Combs) - Piper was originally the middle sister (but took on Prue's role after her death) and possessed the power to freeze objects in time. This power later expanded to "molecular combustion" as well -- in short, she could blow things up. Much more meek and shy than her sisters, Piper trained as a chef and later opened her own club, P3. Of all the Charmed Ones, she desired a normal life the most and was frequently reluctant to embrace her destiny. She fell in love with the Charmed Ones' Whitelighter, Leo, and eventually they were married and had two sons, Wyatt and Chris, and later a daughter, Melinda. Piper frequently had to mediate between the more serious Prue and the emotional Phoebe, and was the sister most reluctant to deal with some of the wackiness that was thrust upon them over the years. She was often the voice of reason and was the best potion maker of all the sisters.
Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) - Phoebe was the baby of the family (since Paige was an unknown younger sister through her childhood). She was born in the Manor, which made her prone to the pull of evil. Her first power was premonitions, but she later developed levitation and empathy. She was wild child in high school and was frequently in trouble. After a fight in which Prue accused her of hitting on Prue's finance, Phoebe ran away to New York. She returned after Grams's death, and it was her discovery of the Book of Shadows that triggered the girls' powers to reawaken. In the beginning of the show, Phoebe was very open and warm-hearted and emotional, but after Prue's and Cole's deaths, she became, well, an evil selfish hag. Seriously, her character became very unlikeable. Toward the end of the series she began to regain some of her lost compassion, but in the meantime we had to suffer through her endless parade of slampieces of the week, awful fashion sense, and all-about-me attitude.
Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) - Paige was the result of Patty Halliwell's affair with her Whitelighter, Sam. Fearing punishment from the Elders for their forbidden relationship, Patty and Sam left the newborn baby at a church and asked that her first name start with a P. Paige was subsequently adopted by the Matthews family and was raised completely ignorant of her witch/Whitelighter heritage. She worked for a social service agency and frequently visited Piper's club, feeling a connection to the Halliwells but never approaching them about it. After Prue's death, Piper cast a spell to find a lost witch, which drew Paige to her and Phoebe. At the same time, the Source of All Evil realized there was another Charmed One and attempted to kill Paige or turn her to evil. Piper and Phoebe protected her and learned she was their half-sister. For the longest time Paige suffered for insecurity at being compared to Prue and strove to prove herself as a witch. She possessed the power of telekinesis but instead of just moving objects, she could "call" for them and orb them to herself. As a Whitelighter, she could also orb, glamor (change her appearance), and eventually heal. She also possessed a sometimes questionable sense of fashion.
Penny "Grams" Halliwell (Jennifer Rhodes) - Grams raised Prue, Piper, and Phoebe after Patty's death but died of a heart attack shortly before the series began. She was a powerful witch with the power of telekinesis and was responsible for many spells in the Book of Shadows. She bound the girls' powers when they were children, and after her death, the binding wore off. After her death Grams watched over her family and would sometimes flip the Book of Shadows to a spell they might need. Eventually the COs learned how to summon her spirit and she would frequently appear to help them out.
Patty Halliwell (Finola Hughes) - Patty possessed the power to freeze time (like Piper). She and her husband Victor divorced when the girls were young due to Victor's issues with magic and demons. Patty had an affair with Sam, her Whitelighter, which produced Paige, who they gave up at birth to protect their secret. When her daughters were still very young, Patty was killed while she was attempting to vanquish a water demon. Like Grams, her spirit makes occasional visits to her daughters.
Victor Bennett (James Read) - Victor walked out on Patty and their daughters because he couldn't handle the supernatural nature of their lives. He was absent for most of his daughters' lives and only reconciled with them after they learned they were witches. When the COs faked their deaths at the end of S7, he took custody of Wyatt and Chris.
Wyatt Matthew Halliwell (Wes Ramsey [adult], Jason and Kristopher Simmons [toddler]) - Piper's womb was a rocky place where Leo's seed could find no purchase, but at the end of S4, Piper found herself miraculously pregnant. The baby was prophesized to be the "twice-blessed child" and the most powerful force of magic the world has ever seen (something once said about Phoebe and Cole's child, hmmm). Everyone expected a girl (as seen in a glimpse of the future in S2), but when Wyatt was born, he obviously wasn't. Like Phoebe, he was born in the Manor, making him prone to the pull of evil. In fact, in the future he did turn evil, due in no small part to the Elder Gideon attempting to destroy him out of fear of his power. His younger brother Chris came back in time to prevent this from happening, and subsequent appearances of future!Wyatt showed him to be on the side of good. Except when he wasn't. Toddler Wyatt, on the other hand, frequently used his powers to cause mischief, including summoning a dragon out of a movie, shrinking his parents, orbing his infant brother around, and bringing his action figures to life.
Christopher Perry Halliwell (Drew Fuller [adult]) - Many people believe (but the producers deny) that Chris was originally future!Wyatt, but when Holly Marie Combs got herself pregnant IRL, there was a rewrite to the storyline to make him Piper and Leo's second son. At any rate, Chris first appeared at the end of S5, claiming to have been sent from the future to protect the Charmed Ones. His real goal, however, was to prevent baby Wyatt from turning evil. One of his first acts was to arrange for his father to be promoted to an Elder, partially creating the circumstances that would turn Wyatt evil, which makes no sense, but this is Charmed after all. Through S6 Chris helped the Charmed Ones fight demons and protect Wyatt from threats on his life. The COs eventually learned who he was, and at the end of the season, Chris was killed by Gideon. However, moments later baby Chris was born, and his infant self was frequently seen in S7 and S8. Adult Chris was pretty neurotic and paranoid and had some jealousy issues with his older brother and serious daddy issues, but he was devoted to the well-being of his family. In his first appearance, he introduces himself as Chris Perry and, though it's never stated in canon, fanon holds that Perry is his middle name, keeping with the family tradition of "P" names. (He was apparently named Christopher after Leo's father.)
Leo Wyatt (Brian Krause) - Leo was the Whitelighter assigned to watch over the Charmed Ones. In life he'd been a medic in World War II, and in a past life he'd had a fling with past!Piper. It was forbidden for a whitelighter to become emotionally involved with their charges, but Leo and Piper fell in love and were eventually given permission to marry in S3. Due to Chris's machinations, however, Leo was promoted to Elder. He intially chose duty over family, though he did pop in from time to time to help care for Wyatt. When Gideon, his trusted friend, tried to kill Wyatt and did kill Chris, Leo murdered Gideon in revenge. In stepped the Avatars, a race of beings who sought to create their version of Utopia. They manipulated Leo into becoming one of them. Due to this, Leo was stripped of his powers and made a mortal. He and Piper reconcilled until Leo was marked for death to enable the Charmed Ones to face their Greatest Challenge Ever in S8 (just go with it). Piper managed to convince the Angel of Destiny to freeze Leo in time instead, and by the finale they were happily reunited.
Andy Trudeau (Ted King) - Andy, a police detective, was Prue's boyfriend in S1. He grew up with the Charmed Ones but frequent spells from Grams ensured he didn't remember them using their powers as children. He was eventually clued in to the wacky wiccan hijinks, but he died during a demon attack on the Manor at the end of the season.
Cole Turner/Belthazor (Julian McMahon) - At the start of S3, Cole/Belthazor, a half-demon, half-human, was sent to pose as an ADA to get close to the Charmed Ones and destroy them. He came close, but at the last minute he couldn't bring himself to do it because he'd fallen in love with Phoebe. He went on the run from the Underworld for a short time, then returned to Phoebe. Her sisters grudgingly accepted him at first, but he proved himself to be a useful ally against demons. Mid S4 he was nailed with a power stripping potion and became human. He and Phoebe planned to marry, but before they could, the Source of All Evil tried to destroy the Charmed Ones once and for all. In a successful attempt to prevent this, Cole became possessed by the Source, and Phoebe and her sisters were forced to vanquish him at the end of S4. Then things got ridiculous as Cole came back from the dead and the Charmed Ones started treating him as if he'd become the Source on purpose. Cole tried unsuccessfully to win Phoebe back and eventually went stark raving bonkers. He tried to create a reality in which he and Phoebe were still together and got vanquished again for his troubles in an episode that made absolutely zero sense BUT I'M NOT BITTER AT ALL. Cole reappeared for an episode in S7, trying to atone for his sins by saving Piper and Leo's relationship and making Phoebe believe in love again. He's still out there somewhere, chilling in limbo, or possibly running a thriving plastic surgery practice in Miami.
Darryl Morris (Dorian Gregory) - Darryl was Andy's partner in S1 and remained an ally of the COs through the course of the series, helping them cover up exposures of magic and pointing them toward possible incidents involving demons. Poor Darryl was frequently used and abused by the Charmed Ones (including having his soul ripped out by Paige so they could have a "hero spirit" to take to Valhalla -- no, seriously) and eventually tried to distance himself from them to preserve his health and sanity. He disappeared in S8 due to budget cuts.
Dan Gordon (Greg Vaughan) - Dan, the Charmed Ones' next door neighbor, was an S2 attempt to create a love triangle with him, Piper, and Leo, playing on Piper's desire for normal life versus magical life. This went over like a lead balloon, and Dan was written out of the show by the end of S2. He was kind of creepy anyway.
Jenny Gordon (Karis Paige Bryant) - Dan's annoying teenage niece. She disappeared mid-S2 and is presumed eaten.
Billie "Maggot Neck" Jenkins (Kaley Cuoco) - In S8, there was a horrible attempt to create a spin-off character in the form of Billie, a Mary Sue witch with phenomenal cosmic power who the Charmed Ones took under their wings. I don't know anyone who liked the character. Seriously. She was on a quest to find her demon-napped sister, who turned out to be evil, and helped said evil sister try to kill the Charmed Ones. Despite this, she's baby sitting the CO's kidlets in the future. What. Ever.
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
The short answer is three sisters who fight evil. The long answer (with spoilers) is as follows:
THE PRUE YEARS
The three Halliwell sisters have completely different personalities -- and the oldest and the youngest didn't get along too well. In the very first episode, we discover that Prue, the eldest, and Phoebe, the youngest, have some bad blood between them. In the first episode, Phoebe moves back home to the ancestral manor after having been living in New York for an undisclosed amount of time. Piper has invited her to come back home and neglected to tell Prue until Phoebe was due to arrive.
The first night back in the Manor, Phoebe manages to open the door to the attic -- a door that until that night had always been locked and no one had been able to open. Inside, she discovers the Book of Shadows. Being the natural curious and adventurous sister that she is, she reads the incantation on the first page out loud. The downstairs chandelier lights up and does a strobing light show.
An lo, the Charmed Ones are born.
Phoebe is more excited about her role as a Charmed One than her two sisters are and in fact, they are angry at her for reading the incantation in the first place. However, it soon becomes apparent that without their powers they are vulnerable and that they are needed to help protect innocents from the evil that waits out in the world.
One of the important differences between "Charmed" and the other popular supernatural show at the time "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was that there was never one Big Bad Evil every season that they had to contend with. Every season it was the same thing they had to deal with -- demons, warlocks and other evils that wanted to kill them and take their powers. In fact, they were such a danger to the forces of evil, that the Source of All Evil even sent one of his most powerful killers into the past to wipe out the entire family line by killing the very first witch in their family -- Melinda Warren.
Needless to say, he failed.
The first season focused mainly on the three sisters learning about their powers and their destiny and also how to work together. They also had to use trial and error -- mainly error, and mainly Phoebe -- to learn the lesson that they couldn't use their magic for any kind of personal gain. Being a witch meant that changes had to made in all of their lives. It was also a stressful secret that they had to force themselves to keep hidden from the people they cared about. Of course, being tight-lipped about who they were didn't keep warlocks or demons from knowing exactly who they were and trying to kill them. (They had been killing a lot of evil, after all.) The best example of this in the first season came in the forms of Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster.
Rex was Prue's boss at the auction house that she worked at, and Hannah was his assistant. It turns out that they were both demons who had been sent to steal the Charmed Ones powers and kill them. By using a very human trait -- blackmail -- they were able to convince the girls to give up their powers. However, right as they are about to be killed at the auction house, back at the manor their very handsome handy man starts flipping through the now blank Book of Shadows with glowing hands. The girls' powers are restored and they manage to defeat Rex and Hannah when Hannah accidentally kills Rex and they are both sucked back into a fiery hell.
The girls spent the rest of the season trying to fulfill their destiny while doing their best to live normal lives. Unfortunately, they also had other stresses that they had to deal with on top of this. Prue had to try to deal with keeping her powers and destiny a secret from her long-time love, Andy; Piper with the fact that she was in love with their handyman-turned-whitelighter Leo; and all three girls had to deal with the sudden reappearance of their estranged father. Phoebe also had to question a great deal about herself when she was turned evil by the Woogy and was wondering if that meant she had a stronger draw to evil than her sisters did.
Season one ended with the girls much closer than they had been...and with the goodbye of someone dear to them.
Season two opened with the sisters dealing with the aftermath of the loss in the season one finale and having to examine everything that was happening in their lives. After vanquishing the demon that stole their book, all three sisters started making changes in their lives. Piper bought a club, Phoebe went back to job hunting and Prue threw herself into her work at the auction house which was now under new management.
The second year of their lives as witches had a new set of challenges that they had to deal with -- both as witches and as women. Phoebe's premonitions got stronger and one led them into the future to find out why her future self was going to be executed for murder. On that trip, the girls learn the lesson that their jobs are to protect the innocent and not to punish the guilty. (It would have been nice if they had stuck to that through later seasons. The writers sometimes had NO CONSISTENCY!) Piper started a new relationship with their new next door neightbor, Prue ended up not being able to handle the less than honorable dealings at the auction house, and Phoebe dealt with finding out that in a past life she had tried to kill her cousins and was an evil witch.
Also in Season Two, the sisters meet their mother's former Whitelighter and discover that he and their mother were in love before her death. In trying to come up with a way to defeat the water demon terrorizing their old summer camp, Prue comes up with the solution on how to see what their mother had planned. Phoebe with her powers to see both future and past is the one who ends up having to relive their mother's last moments in order to figure out how to vanquish the demon that killed her.
This season also carried some difficult lessons for the girls as when Piper contracted a deadly disease, Leo was forbidden to heal her because she hadn't been struck ill by evil. Angry and desperate, Prue and Phoebe cast a spell to save their sister, but it has tragic consequences. However, Leo heals Piper against orders and ends up with his wings clipped. Leo decides that since he is now human he is going to fight to win her from Dan.
Season two ends with the sisters deaing with a genie -- and Piper disappearing with Leo Up There when the Elders call for Leo.
Season Three brings in a whole lot of changes for the Charmed Ones -- including new assistant district attorney Cole Turner.
This was the season that the Source of All Evil stepped up his attempts to destroy the Charmed Ones. He even sent his best assassin after them -- the half human, half demon soldier of fortune, Belthazor. Belthazor tried plot after plot to destroy the sisters. However, when he has the best opportunity to kill one of the sisters and break the Power Of Three... he couldn't go through with it. Something happened that he hadn't been prepared for. He fell in love... with a Charmed One. When he fell in love with Phoebe and couldn't kill her, he was marked as a traitor. When he killed the Triad, well that was just his death warrant.
When the sisters found out who Cole really was, there was outrage and a sense of betrayal. Prue and Piper set out to vanquish him and rescue Phoebe after he ran off with her. After an emotional scene in the cemetery and him killing a demonic bounty hunter that was going to kill her, Phoebe realized that Cole really did love her. She also knew that they couldn't be together and vanquished ... his shirt.
When Prue and Piper discovered that Phoebe had lied to them, they were angry and felt betrayed -- Prue especially. Of course, they really didn't have time to dwell on it much as more and more happenings were going on that they needed to focus their attention on. Between the sisters having a brush with being evil, Piper and Leo trying to get married against the wishes of the Elders, dealing with the reappearance of their estranged father and years of issues, season three just seemed to always have something going on that affected the Charmed Ones on a deep level.
Among all of this, Cole decided that he wanted to turn his back on the Underworld and do good things now so he could be with Phoebe -- and do whatever he thought he had to to protect her. Piper and Prue still didn't trust him and they were afraid for Phoebe. But when Cole took Prue into a time loop from the past to save Phoebe from death by ghostly melding ("The Good, The Bad and the Cursed"), they decided to give him a chance to prove himself to them.
Nothing in the world of the Charmed Ones is easy and the Underworld decided that they wanted Belthazor back at any cost --including casting a spell to make him kill a witch, which also killed Phoebe's love for him. Alas, Phoebe turned into a banshee and Prue turned into a dog. Freaked out and in a panic to save both of her sisters, Piper used a spell to summon Cole. She was convinced that he still loved Phoebe and that love could save Phoebe and Prue.She was proved right.
Of course, nothing could end that simply or happily, and nothing screwed with them quite as badly as when the Source of All Evil sent the assassin Shax after them. They think they vanquish him and Phoebe goes to the Underworld to save and retrieve Cole. While she's down there, all hell breaks loose topside where a news crew have caught Piper and Prue using their powers and have outted them as witches. Piper gets shot by a crazy lady and dies, and Prue goes ballistic, using her powers on humans for the first time. When Phoebe finds out from Leo what has happened, she and Cole decide to ask the Source to allow Tempus the time demon to reset time and save her sisters. He agrees, but at a high price : Phoebe has to stay in the Underworld forever. Phoebe agrees to that as long as someone is sent to warn her sisters about Shax and what is to happen. It is agreed to and time is reset.
But, demons lie and Shax attacked the Manor and the two Charmed Ones who had no idea where their sister -- and the vanquishing spell -- was.
Season three ended with Phoebe agreeing to stay in the Underworld to protect her sisters and Prue and Piper laying in pools of blood as the end credits rolled.
THE PAIGE YEARS
Season Four opened with Piper and Phoebe dealing with the death of their older sister, Prue, and worrying that the Power of Three was broken forever. There was a lot of concern that evil would continue to come after them now that they weren’t as strong, and both Cole and Leo were determined to do whatever they could to protect the girls.
And, lo, a strange girl showed up at the service and Phoebe had a vision of her being attacked by the demon who killed Prue when she shook her hand. She and Cole decided to keep an eye on the girl so they could prevent the attack, but everyone was surprised when the girl orbed to save herself.
Turns out, that indiscretion of Patty’s with her white lighter, Sam (which was introduced during season two), resulted in the birth of another daughter, Paige. Afraid of the repercussions from the Elders, Patty & Sam gave their daughter up for adoption with the caveat that she be given a name that started with a ‘P’.
So, the Power of Three was re-born and a new sisterly bond was forged. Much of the fourth season revolved around Paige learning her craft and learning to live with sisters after being an only child for her entire life. Piper was initially resistant to developing a relationship with her new sister, but after becoming a Fury thanks to her repressed anger at Prue’s death, did accept her. She did, however, end up clashing with Paige a bit, thrusting Phoebe into Piper’s old role as the peacemaking middle sister.
Midway through the season, Paige began to suspect that Cole (who was Phoebe’s fiancé and then husband) was not quite as reformed as Piper and Phoebe kept insisting. It caused friction between the sisters, but it turned out that Paige was right. Cole was possessed by the Source of all Evil and, after marrying Phoebe in a wedding presided over by a dark priest and impregnating her, he convinced her to renounce her sisters and join him as the Queen of the Underworld (some of this may sound familiar). This led to the sisters vanquishing The Source (and Cole) at the end of the fourth season. They were offered an opportunity to renounce their magic and lead normal lives in reward, but decided to continue with their destiny. Piper also found out she was pregnant.
They hadn’t heard the last from Cole though. The beginning of the fifth season saw Phoebe filing for a no contest divorce since Cole was gone, but he showed up at the last moment and stopped it from happening. The beginning of the fifth season dealt primarily with Phoebe trying to convince Cole that she didn’t want him to be part of her life anymore. It also revolved around Piper and Leo’s preparations for their daughter.
And, of course, the sisters were constantly fighting evil in a variety of bad costumes.
Cole continued to amass power and went a little crazy trying to win Phoebe back. When it became clear that she was over him, he decided that life wasn’t worth living and he attempted to commit suicide via Charmed Ones. Unfortunately, all of the power he had amassed made him unvanquishable.
In the “episode that shall not be named”, he was finally vanquished in a parallel universe he created (which gave us dominatrix!Piper, RAWR).
By this point, Piper was very pregnant and panicking a little about raising her daughter while fighting demons. She began to receive a number of gifts from the magical community (including a unicorn). She was put on bedrest because of high blood pressure. Then, something bad happened. All magic… died (in an episode aptly named “The Day The Magic Died”). Phoebe and Paige ended up trying to work with demons to get magic back, but were ambushed. They used their combined street smarts to escape. Meanwhile, back at the Manor, Victor showed up with a new bride who was eager to assist her daughter-in-law with her birth. Turns out, StepMama was evil and there to take the baby and raise her as a force of evil.
Naturally, good triumphed and they got rid of her and the demon she was in league with before Piper’s baby was born. And, surprise surprise, it was the first Halliwell baby born in generations that wasn’t a girl.
After Wyatt’s birth, the sisters’ faced a number of threats to his safety. Being the “twice-blessed child”, everyone was after his power. The last episode of the season, a mysterious white lighter from the future showed up to save Phoebe from being turned to stone. After convincing Leo to make the girls Goddesses to fight off a powerful evil, Leo became an Elder and Chris, the mysterious white lighter, was assigned to guide the Charmed Ones. The very end of the episode, Leo orbed out and Chris ‘exploded’ the orb trail, leading many fans to believe he was actually evil.
Turns out that Chris had banished Leo to Valhalla to get him out of the way so he could work with the Charmed Ones. The sisters found out where Leo was and ended up saving him, but he had to leave Piper and his son and join the rest of the Elders “Up There”. Chris continued to be a mystery, working with demons and indulging in shady activities. He always had an altruistic reason for his actions, but no one (including the sisters) was sure what to make of him. Phoebe developed a new power this season, empathy. She drove her sisters crazy by constantly talking about their feelings until Chris gave them a potion to block her power.
Paige started working temp jobs that always ended up involving her in something magical. Piper was adjusting to life without Leo and to being a single mom. She decided to try dating again, but Wyatt didn’t like that, making “orb eyes” to scare off his mother’s suitors. (A notable guest star as one of Piper’s dates was the actor who went on to play Sheriff Lamb on Veronica Mars.)
Chris ended up confessing to the sisters that the real reason he had come back from the future was to save Wyatt from turning evil. He told the sisters that in his time, Wyatt was an evil, power-hungry dictator. He was a harsh task master, sending the girls after scores of demons that might be the ones who turned Wyatt.
Midway through the season, Chris got a blast from the past in the form of his fiancée, Bianca, from the future, an assassin witch that Wyatt sent back to bring him home. She attempted to strip his powers, but Piper interrupted and blew her up.
As it turned out, she had the ability to re-form and she tried again to confront Chris, who was growing weak from her previous attack. He managed to orb away from her and back to the Manor, where Leo was confused about his inability to heal Chris.
Bianca cast a spell to release the Charmed Ones inhibitions and they ended up going their separate ways, leaving Chris vulnerable to attack. Leo managed to break the spell and the girls found Chris & Bianca before Bianca took him back to the future, but Bianca threatened to kill Piper if they tried to stop her. Chris went along with her, telling the sisters that Bianca had stripped his powers. He also cryptically told Bianca that if she killed Piper, neither of them would have a future to go back to. Piper attempted to freeze them before they walked through the portal Bianca had created, but her powers didn’t work on either of them. Chris revealed that he was actually half witch, half white lighter.
He was smart though, and had given the sisters a clue on how to help him get his powers back. They slipped a spell under a loose floorboard in the attic. After a fight between Chris and Wyatt, Chris said the spell, got his powers back and reopened the portal to return to the present. He still patently refused to tell the sisters who he was or explain why he lied about being a witch.
A few episodes later, Magic School was introduced and, on a vision quest there, Phoebe learned the truth. That Chris was Wyatt’s younger brother, the second son of Piper and Leo. After she confronted him about this, he confessed and asked for her help. In his efforts to save Wyatt, he had almost forgotten that his conception date was drawing near and if he didn’t get Piper and Leo back together, he would cease to exist.
The end of the sixth season is where things got a little dicey. The Charmed Ones used the powers for personal gain and to punish the guilty instead of protecting the innocent. This led to a trial in front of a council made up of Elders and Upper Level Demons. The result was that Phoebe had her active powers taken away.
During the season finale, the Charmed Ones finally discover who turned Wyatt evil. It was one of the “good” guys, someone they trusted. In the ensuing battle, Chris dies, but the episode ends with Piper giving birth to baby Chris.
The repercussions of these events are still affecting everyone’s lives when the seventh season starts. Leo is obsessed with finding a demon who helped in trying to hurt Wyatt and Piper is afraid to leave the house with the boys.
Paige also battles with the Elders to keep the Magic School open and ends up running it, which puts the sisters into some interesting situations.
The Elders inform the sisters of a brewing threat and tell them it’s unlike any other they’ve faced. And unknown to them, Leo has been haunted to a floating head creature. It’s later revealed that the floating head is one of the Avatars, a group of powerful beings who explain that they are beyond good and evil. They are trying to create Utopia and need Leo’s power to achieve it. He ends up joining them when Phoebe and Piper are killed by a demon because they tell him that they can give him the power to heal the dead.
While this is all going on, the Charmed Ones also meet up with a Homeland Security agent who seems to know more about magic than your average fed. He develops a romance with Paige which is threatened by Leo’s newfound status. Agent Brody believes that the Avatars killed his parents and he has made it his mission to get revenge for that.
While babysitting a Seer (played by Charisma Carpenter) who is trying to work out a deal with the Elders to become human, Phoebe shares her vision of an utopian future where her nephews and the daughter she saw in her vision quest (during the sixth season) don’t have to fight demons. She comes around to the Avatars side and later ends up switching powers with Piper, who taps into Phoebe’s power to see the vision for herself. Paige trusts Brody and splits from her sisters. After a trip to the past, Paige & Brody learn that the Avatars did not kill his parents, and the Charmed Ones decide to add their powers to the Avatars to create a new world order.
And, naturally, it turns out that, while not overtly evil, the way the Avatars maintain Utopia is by “removing” anyone who causes trouble. Leo realizes he made a mistake by helping to bring this about and manages to convince the sisters to reverse the magic by joining forces with a demon named Zankou. There will be consequences from the Elders though.
The sisters are disappointed that they have to continue fighting evil, but soon meet up with a quirky, fun ex-demon who made a deal to become human for one full year (at the end of which, he will die). He helps Phoebe open her heart again and ultimately helps the sisters get Leo back after the Elders put him through a trial to determine if he should leave behind his family and completely commit to the Elders or clip his wings and become human.
As the season comes to a close, the sisters are under investigation by Homeland Security again. They are also battling Zankou, who has managed to gain control of the Book of Shadows and takes over the Manor (which is a powerful nexus for magic that can be either good or evil). The Charmed Ones take refuge at Magic School, where the Elders tell them that there is a spell in the Book to destroy the nexus in the event that evil ever gains control of it.
They decide that if they are going down, they’re taking Zankou with them. Around this time, a phalanx of law enforcement officials are moving on the Manor. Piper takes her sons to her father’s, where she signs over custody along with ownership of the Manor and her nightclub, P3.
The sisters manage to get their hands back on the book, but not before Zankou takes over Magic School. He takes the nexus into himself and the sisters use the spell, causing a huge explosion to rock the house. Law enforcement officials saw the sisters in the house and move in, finding no trace of anyone left alive in the rubble.
The final scene shows three young women and a young man walking outside of the house. We learn that the sisters had astral projected into the house and have cast glamour spells on themselves so they look like other people.
And then the WB decided to pick Charmed up for an Eighth Season.
The Eighth (and final) season, introduced a new witch, Billie, who ended up being a protégé to the Charmed Ones once they re-claimed their lives, after spending some time masquerading as their cousins, who came to help Victor with the boys after the death of his daughters.
The Elders take Leo away from the sisters, telling them that they need to focus for the “ultimate battle” that is brewing.
Billie gets their help finding her sister, Christy, who was kidnapped as a child. She has powers, too, but was raised by demons and is predisposed to evil now. She manages to turn Billie against the COs.
When the Ultimate Battle begins, the Charmed Ones recite a spell at the same time as Billie and Christy. Both sets of sisters have called for the Hollow (an intense source of magical power). Unknowingly, it split and entered all five of them. The combined power of all that magic causes an explosion, leaving Piper and Billie as the only ones standing. Piper attacks Billie, but is stopped by Leo, whom the Angel of Destiny returns.
Piper and Leo borrow a magic ring from Phoebe’s new love interest (a cupid named Coop). They travel back in time and find Patty (the girls’ mother) and decide to pick up Grams as well. The three witches combine their powers and return to the Manor just as the Ultimate Battle is beginning. They cast a spell to remove the Hollow from all the sisters, circumventing the explosion. Time catches up to itself, blurring Piper back into her past self and creates a new present with all five witches still alive.
The five Halliwell women figure that there must be some way for their powers to defeat Billie and Christy. As they are making plans, Chris and Wyatt show up from the future. Wyatt has lost his powers and they cast a spell to take them to the cause. Piper realizes that Billie and Christy stole Wyatt’s powers while they were infected by the Hollow.
Billie shows up at the Manor to beg for forgiveness, having realized that she was fighting on the wrong side. She helps the sisters defeat the demons Christy is working with. But when Christy tries to throw a fireball at the Charmed Ones, Billie telekinetically sends it back at her sister, killing Christy.
Then the four generations of Halliwells share a few moments together, celebrating their victory. We get a montage and voiceover that tells us how each sister’s life went after the Ultimate Battle.
NOTABLE GUEST STARS
There have been a ton of meta guest stars over the years on Charmed. Notably:
Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia on Angel) as The Seer (v2.0).
Michael Trucco (Anders on BSG) as Alec, a Darklighter.
Brigid Brannagh (Virginia on Angel and Sasha on Kindred: the Embraced) as an evil witch.
Brian Thompson (Luke on Buffy, Alien Bounty Hunter Guy on X-Files) as War and later Cronos, a god.
French Stewart (Harry on 3rd Rock from the Sun) as a genie.
Arnold Vosloo (Imhotep from The Mummy) as a Darklighter.
Harry Groener (Mayor Wilkins on Buffy) as an empathic priest.
Jason Carter (Marcus on B5) as the demon of rage, Andras.
Daniel Dae Kim (Gavin on Angel, Jin on Lost) as an evil ninja.
Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) as a demon who shrinks people.
Charlie Weber (Ben on Buffy) as, um, a prince.
Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder on Buffy, Quark on DS9) as a wizard.
Bruce Campbell (do I really need to say) as a witch hunter.
Melinda Clarke (Julie on the OC, Lady Heather on CSI) as a siren.
Adrian Paul (Duncan on Highlander) as Jeric, a demon.
John de Lancie (Q on ST: TNG) as Odin, an elder.
Oded Fehr (Ardeth in The Mummy) as Zankou, a demon.
Matthew Glave (Col. Paul Emerson on SG1) as Dr. Williams
Michael Muhney (Sheriff Don Lamb on Veronica Mars) as one of Piper's dates.
Michael Weatherly (Logan on Dark Angel) as Brendan Rowe (priest from When Bad Warlocks Go Good).
Jay Acovone (Kawalsky on SG1) as Keats (from Bite Me).
Tony Amendola (Bra'tac on SG1) as the Dark Priest who married Phoebe and Cole.
Lisa Thornhill (Celeste Kane on Veronica Mars) as Meta, a goddess (how appropriate).
Peter Wingfield (Methos on Highlander) as a Darklighter.
There's also the endless line of guest star slampieces (including Eric Dane, Nick Lachey, Billy Zane, Jason Lewis, Balthazar Getty and Kerr Smith) for Paige and Phoebe, but we'd hit the LJ post limit if I tried to name all them. ;)
We're also not going to talk about the WCW crossover episode.
FUN FACTS
- Prue has died three times and was transformed into a man and a dog.
- Piper has died nine times and was transformed into wendigo, a Fury, Little Red Riding Hood, a comic book superhero, a Greek goddess (of the earth), a Valkyrie, a Hindu goddess, the Angel of Death, and a werewolf-like creature. She's also the Lady of the Lake.
- Phoebe had died nine times and was transformed into a banshee, a mermaid, Cinderella, a comic book superhero, a Greek goddess (love), a genie, a mummy, and a werewolf-like creature.
- Paige has died seven times and was transformed into a vampire, Snow White, a comic book superhero, a mummy, a wood nymph, a Greek Goddess (war), and a werewolf-life creature.
One of the other fun things about Charmed is the punny episode titles. You can find them all listed here, but some notable ones include:
- The Witch is Back
- That '70s Episode
- Be Careful What You Witch For
- Sleuthing with the Enemy
- Coyote Piper
- A Knight to Remember
- A Paige from the Past
- Saving Private Leo
- The Importance of Being Phoebe
- The Day the Magic Died
- The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell
- The Bare Witch Project
- The Seven Year Witch
- Malice in Wonderland
- Gone with the Witches
- Kill Billie (vol 1 and vol 2)
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH
Here's the part where we try to sell this show to all of you. Yes, there are many a continuity issue and the canon changed so much, it was hard to keep up. Still, there are some good things about the show that makes it quite enjoyable and entertaining.
For instance, there's the family aspect. One of our favorite things about the show was the relationships the sisters had with each other. In the earlier seasons, they genuinely cared about each other and protecting innocents. So that's the big sappy reason to watch this show.
Now onto the fun reasons. If you enjoy snark (and we know most of you do), then this is the perfect show for that. Sometimes
The most important reason to watch? The pretty! There is much of that on this show.
Here are a few clips we've compiled that show some of the best Charmed actually has to offer. You can all stop laughing now.
Our Favorite Moments
You can probably guess who picked which scenes.
Phoebe uses her own smarts to save her sisters after a Smart Spell she cast wears off.
Piper grieves over a lost innocent and is comforted by Leo.
Cole tries to kill Phoebe, but he just can't go through with it.
Chris confronts Evil!Wyatt in the future.
Other fun clips
Cole and Piper face off in the attic. Not dirty sadly.
The last part of the episode "Long Live the Queen," which inspired some of the Source plot scenes
Chris the neurotic little freak
HOW TO BECOME OBSESSED
The first seven seasons are all available on DVD. They are sold pretty much anywhere including Amazon.com and Best Buy. They are also available at Netflix. Season Eight will be available soon. It's already available in Australia and some parts of Europe.
If you live in the United States, you can also catch reruns on TNT weekday mornings at 8am and 9am. It's also shown at 4pm and 5pm weeknights, except Mondays when it airs five episode marathons from 4pm-9pm. It airs in other parts of the world as well. A list of where and when can be found here.
We highly recommend avoiding Season Eight as it is heinous. Some of us believe it doesn't even exist.
[co-written by
cookinggeek, demonbelthazor (aka blessed_twice), future_visions and neurotic_witch]
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*strips for you ZOMG*
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Okay, so it did have Dominatrix!Piper. And the Bitchslap Heard 'Round the World. But other than that....
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*uses this icon on purpose*
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That would rock.
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*spams your post, whee*
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KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY BROTHER, YOU HUSSY!
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It's also the reason why Leo was only in half of S8 - despite the fact that Alyssa and Holly both offered to take pay cuts to keep Brian around.
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I feel I should explain that I'm a college student with no job so I have that kind of time to spare.
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*clings at first fandom like a clinging thing*