| "Something Wicca This Way Comes" | |||
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| Charmed episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
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| Directed by | John T. Kretchmer | ||
| Written by | Constance M. Burge | ||
| Production code | 1498704 | ||
| Original air date | October 7, 1998 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Charmed episodes | |||
"Something Wicca This Way Comes" is the first episode of the drama series, Charmed, which was broadcast on The WB network. This is the series premiere of Charmed and the second (and only aired) pilot for the series. The original pilot never aired. The unaired pilot was shot in the actual manor that is shown on the show. After replacing Lori Rom, the show moved to a sound studio. Lori Rom left Charmed because of personal reasons. Executive producer Aaron Spelling asked Alyssa Milano, whom he knew from Melrose Place, to replace Rom as Phoebe and she accepted. Alyssa Milano played Phoebe all eight seasons of the successful long run of the series.
The name of this episode is a play on words from Shakespeare's Macbeth. There are three witches, known as the Charmed Ones. The line is: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."
This is the highest rated episode of Charmed in the entire series. The episode scored a 3.7/10 in adults 18–49.[1]
Contents |
The show opens with a witch sitting at an altar and lighting candles with the tips of her fingers. She then turns around and is startled by someone who is not identified to us. She acts as if she knows him and there is nothing to fear around him but then she screams. We see him stab her in the stomach with a two-sided knife and she crumples to the floor.
Phoebe Halliwell returns to the San Francisco Manor house of her grandmother where she was reared through her childhood after living in New York for six months. The manor is where her two older sisters, Piper Halliwell (middle) and Prue Halliwell (oldest), currently live. There is some friction and "history" between the bossy, confident Prue and Phoebe, the youngest and most impulsive, as well as a little tension between Prue and Piper.
Prue does not know that Phoebe is moving back home until moments before she arrives, to make an unpleasant situation worse. Before the arrival of her little sister Phoebe, Piper finds an old Spirit board that was found in the basement while Prue was looking for a circuit tester. That reads:
"To my three beautiful girls may this give you the light that will lead you to find the shadows. The power of three will set you free. Love mom." Piper then makes a comment to Prue, "We never did figure out what this inscription meant." Prue makes a comment on how that should be given to Phoebe since her life is so in the dark maybe some light would help. The two sisters then begin to have a discussion about Phoebe. Piper becomes upset that Prue is so hard on Phoebe and ultimately leaves the living room. As she leaves the Spirit board begins to move.
The scene switches to the police investigating the murder of the witch at the beginning. Two police, one black and one white, are discussing the case, and the white policeman seems to believe the woman was a "witch" saying she was stabbed with an athame. The black policeman ridicules this and tells him not to do any investigating without consulting with him first. Just then, a reporter comes to speak to them, and the white cop simply says another woman has been killed. (The irony here is that the black cop is Darryl Morris, who later becomes a strong ally of the sisters.)
Switch back to the Manor. It is pouring with rain outside. Piper suggests to Prue that they should have another roommate (knowing that Phoebe would show up at any minute). Prue's mounting suspicion leads Piper to break the news that Phoebe is moving back from New York to live with them. As Prue asks when Phoebe will arrive, Phoebe opens the door with the "spare key" that she found outside. The two sisters have an altercation which causes both sisters to storm out of the room.
Phoebe is listening to the news about the murder when Piper brings her dinner on a tray. They talk about Prue's lack of welcome, and we find out that the news reporter is Piper's boyfriend Jeremy. They talk about just letting Prue have time to get used to the return of Phoebe, and we segue again to the two police talking. Morris' partner is still trying to tell him about witches, and Morris is still unbelieving. The other policeman finds a cat in the room, and notices that there is an odd three-cornered symbol on his collar (the Triquetra).
Phoebe and Piper are playing with the Spirit board from the beginning while Piper tells Phoebe how she met Jeremy. As Piper goes into the kitchen the pointer on the Spirit board starts making out a word. Phoebe freaks out and calls in Piper to see. She tries to convince both sisters that the pointer is moving and making out a word but they do not believe her since Phoebe is known to have moved the pointer in the past. The Spirit board finally spells out the word "attic" and Phoebe writes it down on paper.
As the storm continues, the power goes out. Piper and Prue head off for the fuse panel, but Phoebe follows the spirit board's prompt and heads to the attic. She struggles to open the door, but as she gives up and walks away, the door opens to let her in. Phoebe slowly walks in the attic with her flashlight looking around. Suddenly the moon emerges from behind the clouds, a beam of its light illuminating an old wooden chest. Phoebe cautiously approaches the old chest, wondering if she is being directed by someone beyond the grave. Opening the chest, she discovers a large, apparently ancient book. As she pulls out the book it is bathed in moonlight revealing in dark letters "The Book of Shadows". On the book is the same figure the policeman noticed on the cat's collar. Unaware of the powers involved, but overcome with curiosity, she reads a page aloud, inadvertently bestowing herself and her sisters with their destined powers: Phoebe with premonitions, Piper with molecular immobilization, and Prue with telekinesis. The other two girls enter just as she finishes, and she is explaining to them what she was doing, and telling them what she read in the Book about powers. Prue is angry and contemptuously calls it a "book of witchcraft." But as the sisters are descending the stairs, the hooded figure who killed the first witch is seen outside the house. He walks down the sidewalk as Prue looks around and says "and look, nothing has changed". The power is still out, but everything "shimmers" revealing the presence of "powers."
Phoebe has stayed up all night, and is sitting on the front steps. She's spent the night reading the Book of Shadows, and tells Piper about their ancestor Melinda Warren, who handed down the powers and predicted the advent of the Charmed Ones. Piper disagrees with all she is told, and tells Phoebe that they are not witches.
The scene changes to Prue at work. Her boss is changing the setup of the job, and demotes Prue and puts himself in her place. Roger, her boss and ex-fiancé, has been giving her a very hard time. Although she is not aware of it she uses her power to make a pen explode in his pocket. Prue is oblivious, and walks out. Later, she comes in as he is touting himself on the phone, and quits cold. As she leaves he insults her, and she tightens his tie until it chokes him around his neck, although she is leaving and is again unaware of it. Piper learns of her power when she gets frustrated and accidentally freezes the chef of the restaurant she is trying out for; although she is surprised, she quickly puts the last ingredient into her tryout recipe. Needless to say, he loves the dish, and she gets the job. Phoebe is riding her bike when she has her first premonition of two boys on skates getting hit by a car. She yells out when she sees them and skids her bike in front of them to stop them and she falls off. Over next to the accident is the other witch's cat, with the triquetra around its neck.
While Phoebe is in the hospital because of her accident, Prue meets up with an old friend, Andy, who is now a police detective. (This is the policeman who thinks the murders are someone killing witches.) They chat over a cup of coffee and it is intimated that they will have a closer relationship later in the series. Later, Phoebe and Prue go out together and talk, after finishing up at the hospital, about being witches. Prue is having difficulty swallowing the idea of being a witch, but when she keeps accidentally using her power it gets harder to ignore. Phoebe reminds her that they were born witches and need to learn how to deal with it. Prue emptying the shelves of the drugstore while thinking of their father convinces her she has a power she needs to learn to control.
Meanwhile, Piper is on a date with Jeremy, who is actually a warlock, an evil wizard who steals the powers of good witches. Just before he stabs her with an athame, Piper freezes Jeremy and, even though he unfreezes and grabs her, escapes and runs home. The cat has shown up in the house, as Piper bursts through the door, asking for a spell to get rid of a warlock. Although together the sisters cast a spell to get rid of Jeremy from Piper's life, Phoebe has a premonition that he has been wounded but not defeated. He bursts into the house and threatens them with his dark magic. At this point, the sisters race back to the Book of Shadows, and find the one thing that will save them, the Power of Three Spell. They realize that they must recite the incantation from the back of the book. 'The power of three will set us free'. They chant the incantation as Jeremy threatens them and a huge storm appears in the attic, but eventually he explodes and is gone. The next day, Andy shows up to ask Prue out, and she is a little hesitant, not because of him, but because of becoming a witch. She doesn't know he believes in witches, and puts him off. She speaks to her sisters, and together the three realize that they won't be able to get rid of their destiny, but have to embrace it.
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