Phoebe Halliwell

Phoebe Halliwell
Charmed character
Alyssa Milano as Phoebe
First appearance	"Something Wicca This Way Comes"
Last appearance	"Forever Charmed"
Created by	Constance M. Burge
Portrayed by	Alyssa Milano Lori Rom (un-aired pilot)
Information
Aliases	Julie Bennett
Title	Empath Charmed One
Spouse(s)	Cole Turner (ex-husband; deceased) Dex Lawson (ex-husband) Coop (2006 - present)
Children	Unnamed unborn son Prudence Johanna Halliwell (daughter; with Coop) Parker Halliwell (daughter; with Coop) Unnamed daughter (daughter; with Coop)
Species	Witch, Charmed One
Notable powers	Premonitions Levitation Empathy Pathokinesis
Extended Family
Grandparents	Penny Halliwell (grandmother) Allen Halliwell (grandfather)
Parents	Patty Halliwell (mother) Victor Bennett (father)
Siblings	Prue Halliwell (sister) Piper Halliwell (sister) Paige Matthews (half-sister)
Other Relatives	Melinda Warren (ancestor)

Phoebe Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Phoebe is introduced in the series as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One – one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Lori Rom in the unaired pilot, and later Alyssa Milano throughout the entire series run. In 2008, AOL named Phoebe the seventh greatest witch in television history.^[1]

During the first three seasons, Phoebe is shown as the youngest and most rebellious of the Halliwell sisters. She later becomes the middle sister after Prue Halliwell is killed and the series introduces her younger half-sister Paige Matthews. One of the recurring struggles for Phoebe as a character is her attempt to find a career and true love while achieving her destiny of defeating the forces of evil in San Francisco. In addition to the television series, the character has also appeared in numerous expanded universe material, such as the Charmed novels and its comic book continuation.

Appearances

Television

Phoebe enters the series as the youngest Halliwell sister and is portrayed by Alyssa Milano in all of the show's aired 178 episodes. Phoebe is portrayed by Lori Rom in the un-aired pilot. At the start of season one (1998–1999), six months have passed since the death of her grandmother, Penelope Halliwell (née Johnson) (Jennifer Rhodes), and a jobless Phoebe returns from New York City and moves back into her family's Victorian Manor with her two sisters Prue (Shannen Doherty) and Piper Halliwell (Holly Marie Combs).^[2] On the night of Phoebe's return, the sisters find a book of spells within the Manor's attic.^[2] After Phoebe recites an incantation from the book, the three sisters each receive a magical power and discover their destiny as The Charmed Ones – the most powerful good witches the world has ever known.^[2] Phoebe obtains the power to "see the future" which contrasts with her known reckless persona. Because of her free-spirited nature Phoebe often comes into major conflicts with Prue during the first season of the series — this is especially so in regards to their witchcraft. Initially drawn apart due to Prue's speculation of Phoebe being the cause of her failed engagement to Roger (Matthew Ashford),^[2] the two sisters mend their relationship over the course of season one.

In season two (1999–2000), Phoebe is seen re-entering college and majoring in psychology.^[3] She continues to embrace her destiny as a witch and is noted by her sisters as being the best at writing new spells.^[4] In the absence of an active power, Phoebe becomes progressively adept at martial arts in order to better fight demons and warlocks. Throughout the season, Phoebe struggles to open herself up to love^[5] and attempts to find a love interest who can live up to her "ideal guy" as portrayed in her favorite in-verse movie, Kill It Before It Dies by the character Billy (Chris Payne Gilbert).^[6] In the show's third season (2000–2001), Phoebe develops the active power of Levitation and enters a relationship with Cole Turner (Julian McMahon),^[7] who is actually the demon mercenary Belthazor that has been hired to kill The Charmed Ones.^[8] Upon this discovery Phoebe struggles between her loyalty to her sisters and her love for Cole.^[9] After a tumultuous love affair, often deterred due to Cole's frequent struggle between good and evil, and still managing to graduate from college^[10] Phoebe ventures into The Underworld to save Cole from his dark side and unwittingly becomes a pawn to the Source of All Evil.^[11] When her sisters become exposed as witches in the mortal world, Phoebe makes a deal with the Source to save Piper's life not knowing that he plans to double cross her in the end.^[11]

The opening episode of the fourth season (2001–2002), "Charmed Again (Part 1)", reveals that Phoebe was rescued from the Underworld by her Whitelighter Leo Wyatt (Brian Krause) and her boyfriend Cole.^[12] It also revealed that they were only able to make it back in time to heal Piper of her injuries from the season three finale while Prue was unable to be saved.^[12] Later in the episode, while attending Prue's funeral, Phoebe meets Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) and receives a premonition of the woman being attacked by the same demon that killed Prue.^[12] This incident leads to Phoebe and Piper discovering that Paige is their younger half-sister. By the end of the season premiere, Paige helps to restore "The Power of Three" and vanquish Shax.^[12] During this season, Phoebe finds herself maturing into the role of the "middle sister" as she attempts to play mediator between Piper and Paige.^[13] Alongside continuing her Charmed role, Phoebe receives a marriage proposal from Cole,^[14] accepting after he becomes stripped of his demon half.^[15] Phoebe eventually pens the spell to vanquish the Source,^[16] whom escapes a final vanquish by possessing the now human Cole.^[16] For the remainder of the season, Phoebe plans to marry Cole unaware that he has become the new Source of All Evil and ruler of The Underworld. After being tricked by Cole and The Seer (Debbie Morgan) into participating in a dark marriage ceremony,^[17] Phoebe lands a job as an advice columnist for the newspaper The Bay Mirror.^[18] Soon after she discovers that she is pregnant and subsequently chooses to join Cole as his queen in The Underworld.^[19]

As season four draws to a close, Phoebe is forced to choose between her husband and her sisters. She mournfully sides with her sisters to vanquish Cole.^[20] Later, her unborn child, Lucifer (the name mentioned in 'Whitch Way Now?' when Phoebe says "I was queen of all evil and i nearly died carrying Baby Lucifer")is magically stolen by The Seer who claims that the child is rightfully hers and never belonged to Phoebe or Cole.^[21] About to be sacrificed as human offerings during The Seer's coronation as the new Source, Phoebe and her sisters tap into "The Power of Three" and vanquish The Seer and the entire Underworld council.^[21] In the season finale, the Angel of Destiny (Dakin Matthews) visits and gives the sisters an offer to live a normal life without magical powers or the threat of demons.^[22] After some contemplation Phoebe declines alongside her sisters, but the Angel of Destiny is not done with the sisters' and makes hints about Piper's pregnancy, which only Phoebe takes the hint and announces it. ^[22] For season five (2002–2003), Phoebe attempts to live a life without Cole where she can focus on her career.^[23] This plan is stunted when a resurrected Cole returns to San Francisco eager to reconcile with Phoebe.^[23] After a series of attempts to win back Phoebe's affections,^[24][25][26] even trying to seduce her to evil once again,^[27] Cole is vanquished in the 100th episode of the series, "Centennial Charmed".^[28] Later in the season, Phoebe helps to deliver Piper and Leo's first child, Wyatt Matthew Halliwell.^[29] Soon after she begins a romantic relationship with her new boss, multi-millionaire Jason Dean (Eric Dane).^[30]

In season six (2003–2004), Phoebe continues her relationship with Jason and also sees her magical abilities grow to include the power of Empathy.^[31] Phoebe eventually becomes more serious with Jason, moving with him to Hong Kong, China.^[32] After a year of dating, Jason discovers Phoebe's secret identity as a witch by accident and unable to handle the revelation breaks up with her.^[33] Phoebe subsequently moves back to San Francisco and into the Manor. In the episode, "The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell" Phoebe experiences a vision quest and not only discovers that her new time-traveling Whitelighter(Chris Perry) (Drew Fuller) is actually Chris Halliwell and the second child of Piper and Leo, but that she is also destined to have a child of her own.^[34] This puts Phoebe on a selfish path of using her psychic powers to find the father of her child and dump her Charmed duties onto her sisters. Because of her actions, Phoebe is stripped of her powers of Premonition, Levitation, and Empathy by a Tribunal Council made up of both high-powered demons and Elders.^[35] In the sixth season finale, the sisters, Leo and Chris discover that a powerful Elder named Gideon (Gildart Jackson) wishes to destroy the Twice-Blessed Wyatt, an act which causes Wyatt to turn his back on good in the future.^[36]

At the start of season seven (2004–2005), Phoebe is still stripped of her powers.^[37] She begins to feel disconnected from her audience and takes a sabbatical from work and is temporarily replaced by a ghost-writer Leslie St. Claire (Nick Lachey).^[37] Phoebe and Leslie enter a brief romance,^[38] but it doesn't last as Leslie eventually moves to Los Angeles.^[39] In the fifth episode of the season, "Styx Feet Under", Phoebe regains her power of Premonitions.^[38] In mid-season, in the hopes of having a demon-free life, Phoebe and her sisters join forces with The Avatars, powerful beings who are neither good nor evil, in their plan to turn the world into a utopia.^[40] Phoebe is the first of the sisters to regret this when her Premonition powers show her how much the world has been robbed of its free will.^[41] The Charmed Ones team up with an upper-level demon, Zankou (Oded Fehr) to defeat The Avatars.^[41] However, Zankou then turns on the sisters becoming their adversary for the remainder of the season. During this season Cole, while stuck in Limbo, arranges for the good-natured demon Drake De'mon (Billy Zane) to enter Phoebe's life and keep her from giving up on love.^[42] In the season seven finale, during a suicide mission to vanquish Zankou, Phoebe and her sisters fake their deaths in order to escape the constant threat of demon attacks as well as police and government investigations.^[43]

For the eighth and final season (2005–2006), Phoebe takes on the false identity of Julie Bennett (Monica Allgeier) and begins a relationship with an artist named Dex Lawson (Jason Lewis).^[44] While under the influence of a spell cast by the prodigy of the Charmed Ones, Billie Jenkins (Kaley Cuoco), Phoebe marries Dex under the alias of Julie.^[45] Unsure if she could ever have a lasting marriage with someone she isn't completely honest with, Phoebe reveals the truth of her hidden identity to Dex.^[45] The pair eventually agree to get an annulment.^[45] When Phoebe discovers that Billie and her sister, Christy Jenkins (Marnette Patterson) are the ultimate power The Charmed Ones must defeat to save Leo from the Angel of Death (Simon Templeman), she has reservations because the women are human and not demons.^[46] In the end, Phoebe willing participates in the ultimate battle between The Charmed Ones and the Jenkins sisters.^[47] In the series finale, it is revealed that Phoebe falls in love with and marries a cupid named Coop (Victor Webster), who was initially sent by The Elders to help Phoebe find love again.^[48] Their marriage will produce three children, all daughters. Phoebe also becomes a successful author, writing a self-help book on finding love.^[48]

Literature

As one of the central characters throughout the entire series, Phoebe appears in the majority of Charmed literature. These appearances first began in the series of novels. The novels follow no strict continuity with the series or each other, and are often considered to be non-canon. However, the television series producers have final approval of everything in the novels,^[49] which could indicate the literature fitting into the established canon of the series and the so-called "Charmed universe".^[50] Phoebe's first appearance in Charmed literature takes place within the novel The Power of Three by Eliza Willard on November 1, 1999, which acts as a novelised version of the series premiere episode. Her last appearance in a Charmed novel takes place within Trickery Treat by Diana G. Gallagher on January 1, 2008.

In 2010, Charmed gained an officially licensed continuation in the form of a comic book, which is often billed as Charmed: Season 9. The series is published monthly by Zenescope Entertainment. Set eighteen-months after the series finale, the sisters are seen living happy demon free lives and have each entered into motherhood. Phoebe has had her first daughter with her husband Coop,^[51] who is named Prudence Johnna and nicknamed P.J. by Grams.^[52] Phoebe is also seen preparing to return to work as an advice columnist for The Bay Mirror. In the second issue of the comic, Phoebe regains her previously stripped powers of Levitation and Empathy.^[53] In Issue #6 of the comic, Morality Bites Back, Phoebe learns that she used Advanced Empathy to murder Cal Greene in a previously visited future of February 26, 2009 by reflecting his emotions back onto him which caused his brain to overload.^[54]

Powers and abilities

Magical powers

In Charmed it is revealed that magical witches can develop and master a variety of magical skills and powers which include; scrying,^[55] spell casting,^[2] and brewing potent potions.^[56] As a magical witch Phoebe can utilize scrying, a divination art form that allows one to locate a missing object or person. Phoebe can also cast spells, often written in iambic pentameter or as a rhyming couplet, to influence others or the world around her. She can also brew potions, most often used to vanquish foes or to achieve other magical feats similar to the effects of a spell. As a witch and Charmed One, Phoebe has also developed a number of magical powers which include Premonitions, Levitation, Empathy and Pathokinesis.

Premonitions

When Phoebe first comes into her powers, the first power she develops is the ability to see the future in the form of premonitions. Premonitions are considered to be a passive power. She triggers this power when she touches or is in the presence of something that is related to the subject of her premonitions, making them a form of psychometry. This originally only encompassed precognition, to see the future, but grew to include retrocognition, to see the past, as well.^[56] This power was initially uncontrollable, but in later seasons she learns to summon premonitions at will.^[57] While her premonitions are initially shown as black and white in the show, it is mentioned several times that Phoebe experiences them in color.^[58] As her power grows, her premonitions become more vivid to where they become slightly colored and she can hear and feel what is taking place. Phoebe's premonition powers also allow her visions to reveal the truth. For instance, in the season one finale, "Deja Vu All Over Again", when the world is caught within a recurring time loop by the time sorcerer Tempus (David Carradine) Phoebe is able to realize that the same day is repeating over and over again because of her premonition powers.^[59]

By season five, her power evolves to enable her to experience aspects of astral projection allowing her to interact with the environment of her premonitions.^[60] This aspect of her power is highlighted in the season five episodes, "The Eyes Have It"^[60] and "Sand Francisco Dreamin'"^[61] as well as the season eight episode "Hulkus Pocus".^[62] Her premonition powers also evolve to allow Phoebe to anticipate the actions of others as in many instances Phoebe has sidestepped and jumped out the way of incoming fireballs and energy balls with perfect timing. Examples of this can be seen in the season seven episodes "Freaky Phoebe"^[63] where Phoebe is able to sense a demon who is behind her with a pair of scissors, and in the episode "Ordinary Witches",^[64] where Ronnie (Brian Howe), a cab driver Phoebe loses her powers to, is able to sense when and where the next fireball of a demon is going to be launched using her power of premonitions. Phoebe also develops the power to trigger a vision in someone else with similar powers, "sharing" visions with Elders^[65] and knowing how to trigger a specific "trap" premonition in the evil witch Mitzy (Jenny McCarthy), who has temporary possession of her powers.^[66] Kira (Charisma Carpenter), a powerful demonic seer, tells Phoebe her powers were once limited to psychometry but they grew, like Phoebe's will in time.^[65]

Levitation

At the start of season three, in the episode "The Honeymoon's Over", Phoebe obtains her first active power in the form of levitation, the power to defy gravity and float in the air.^[7] This power is uncontrollable when she first obtains it, but she later learns to maintain complete control over it. When new to her power, Phoebe is unable to move horizontally, and in the season three episode "Once Upon a Time", Prue uses telekinesis to guide Phoebe across a cavern while she is levitating.^[67] Later in the series, Phoebe often mixes her martial arts and kick boxing with her levitating power to knock out her enemies. In season four, the power advances so that Phoebe is able to glide short distances while levitating^[13] and she even learns to use her power to walk on walls.^[18] During the fifth season, she is able to propel herself while levitating, as seen when she propels herself through a ventilation duct with her levitation powers in the episode "The Importance of Being Phoebe".^[27] In the season six episode, "Forget Me... Not", Phoebe showcases a form of projective levitation, when she levitates herself and a weatherman.^[68] Phoebe displays projective levitation again in the episode "Love's a Witch" when she levitates the pillow she is sitting on along with her.^[69]

In the Charmed comics, specifically in Issue #16,The Heavens Can Wait, her power has been shown to have grown stronger, allowing Phoebe to levitate Paige's Orb-Shield which contained herself, her two sisters and Leo.^[70] While inside the Nexus of The All, Phoebe became able to use her power to its full potential, allowing her to not only fly but also to carry Piper and Paige with ease. Later, Prue tells Phoebe that her power will advance to this stage naturally at some point in the future.^[71]

Empathy

Season six sees Phoebe develop the power of empathy, the power to sense and experience the emotions of others.^[31] Being an empath allows Phoebe to directly channel the emotions of those around her. This initially causes considerable problems, as after encountering the emotions of others Phoebe would sometimes act on their whims. In the Charmed series, magical powers are tied to the user's emotions, and because Phoebe can feel the emotions of others, her empathy allows her to sometimes tap into other characters' magical powers. This is first seen in the second half of the two-part season six premiere, "Valhalley of the Dolls (Part 2)". When a Valkyrie-turned-Piper attacks Phoebe, she channels Piper's telekinetic Valkyrie powers to where she can use them herself.^[72] This channeling of Valkyrie Piper's powers, also made her powers, when used against Phoebe, ineffective.^[72] In later episodes, Phoebe also uses empathy to deflect energy balls and fireballs, causing them to backfire on their users.^[33][73]

Pathokinesis

In the season two episode, "Morality Bites", when the sisters travel to the future, it is revealed that Phoebe uses a magical power to kill a man named Cal Greene out of revenge.^[74] In the Charmed comics, Issue #6 Morality Bites Back, Phoebe learns that this power is an advanced form of empathy, which is called "Pathokinesis".^[54] Phoebe discovers that her empathy powers grow to allow her to incapacitate or even kill another person. In the comics, Phoebe realizes that she murders Cal Greene by reflecting his emotions back onto him, flooding his mind with painful emotions and memories of the women he had hurt, which causes his brain to overload.^[54]

Natural abilities

Early in the series, Phoebe is revealed to be a skilled pick-pocket; having picked up the technique during her rebellious teen years.^[75] Also, to make up for initially only having a passive power, Phoebe takes classes in self-defense.^[76][77] She gradually becomes the most effective hand-to-hand fighter out of all the four sisters due to her martial arts training. Her skills in hand-to-hand combat advanced to the point where Phoebe has been capable of beating multiple adversaries, most notably demonic wrestlers,^[78] Furies^[13] and vampires.^[79]

Casting and development

In 1998, the Warner Brothers Television Network began searching for a drama series, and looked to Spelling Television, which had produced the network's most successful series 7th Heaven, to create it. Expanding on the popularity of supernatural-themed dramas, the production company explored forms of mythology to find mythological characters they could focus on with contemporary storytelling.^[80] In order to create the series, Constance M. Burge was hired as the creator as she was under contract with 20th Century Fox and Spelling Television after conceiving the drama Savannah.^[80]

The character of Phoebe Halliwell was conceived by Burge, who wrote the pilot script for Charmed. The pilot script was based around three mismatched sisters^[80] who are initially based on Burge and her two older sisters, Laura and Edie Burge.^[81] Phoebe is based on Burge herself. On creating the Halliwell sisters, Burge states "Phoebe was honestly the easiest. It just grew from within."^[81] Executive Producer Brad Kern claims Phoebe is written into the series as the classic younger sibling^[80] and states that at the start of series Phoebe is "trying to find her own identity by living life large and not really having a care in the world."^[80]

When the series was in its first development stages, actress Lori Rom was cast in the role of Phoebe.^[81] Rom played the role in a 28-minute test pilot (the "unaired pilot", never aired on network television) with which the series was picked up by The WB. Rom later pulled out from the series before a 45-minute version of the pilot could be filmed for proper network television, leaving the role of Phoebe vacant.^[81] TV producer Aaron Spelling then turned to actress Alyssa Milano, who was previously cast in another television series produced by Spelling Television, Melrose Place. While Milano was in Hawaii shooting an episode for Fantasy Island, Spelling phoned Milano and asked her to consider joining the series.^[81] After receiving a copy of the original pilot and the script, five days later Milano began shooting the re-shot pilot episode.^[81]

Death count

During the run of the series and her life as a Charmed One, Phoebe died nine times, including both times she died and time was reset in the first season.

See also

• Woman warrior

References

External links

• Phoebe Halliwell at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Charmed Awards and nominations Series Episodes Season 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Comics Season 9 Characters Main Prue Halliwell Piper Halliwell Phoebe Halliwell Paige Matthews Supporting Andy Trudeau Darryl Morris Leo Wyatt Cole Turner Chris Halliwell Billie Jenkins Recurring Melinda Warren Penny Halliwell Patty Halliwell Coop Guests Season 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Major villains Rex Buckland Hannah Webster Barbas The Triad Belthazor Shax The Source The Seer Gideon The Avatars Zankou Christy Jenkins Magical beings Darklighters The Hollow Whitelighters Episodes "Something Wicca This Way Comes" "All Hell Breaks Loose" "Charmed and Dangerous" "Forever Charmed" Expanded universe Academia Board games Magazine Multimedia Novels Video game Music "How Soon Is Now?" The Soundtrack The Book of Shadows The Final Chapter Related articles Power of Three Book of Shadows Nexus Locations Aaron Spelling Constance M. Burge Brad Kern Spelling Television The WB Television Network Category:Charmed (TV series)