Here we go! The first episode of the show we all know and love. The popcorn is currently popping, the beverage is sitting right beside me so without further ado, let's start this recap of Charmed's pilot episode!
Charmed - 1x01 - Something Wicca This Way Comes - Review
Scene 1 - The Talmadge
It's a full moon out tonight and we're shown a view of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. It's raining and while everyone is running out of the incoming weather, we're directed to the Talmadge. I can already tell while I watch the early days of Charmed, I'm going to be looking at every detail now that I'm finally reviewing this series. I reviewed a few other TV series such as Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, etc, but I have never reviewed a single episode of Charmed, so this will be fun. FUN FACT: Rates for the Talmadge can be $4k/month... wow! Anyways, back to the show!
A blonde woman is living in one of the apartments and we see a very important and dare I say it, familiar feline. The camera pans to the woman, who's holding a chalice and we get a view of her altar. This is when we're introduced to the very first supernatural power in the show, pyrokinesis. As she's lighting the candles, a figure in a black jacket is seen outside her fire escape, and if anyone remembers watching this back in 1998, I'm sure this moment right here set the tone for the show, or at least the episode. After the figure gains access to the woman's apartment, he walks up to her and she immediately senses him behind her. After getting a good look at him, we find out that she actually knows this person. She gives the man a little smile before asking what he's doing in her apartment and then she gets stabbed by the man with an athame.
I would honestly love to know how it felt for the audience when they watched this go on when the episode aired... unfortunately, I didn't start watching until near the end of the third episode, but I'll share stuff on that later.
Scene 2 - Halliwell Manor
After a few flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder, we're directed at a nice, sizable pink manor. A woman is rushing up the steps to get inside, umbrella in one hand and a bag in the other. After she enters the house, she calls out to another woman, Prue, who is currently in the living room working on a broken chandelier. Prue has some things to say to the woman we learn is named Piper about how because of Piper's lateness, the ladies had missed the electrician and now they have to fix the chandelier on their own. Piper simply tells Prue that she was late getting back because she needed to go to Yung Lee Market in order to buy some of the herbs she needed for an audition recipe she was going to cook tomorrow for a job interview. I'm curious, and I'm sure someone here can answer this for me... did they really make people create audition recipes for a job interview? I don't really know if they still do that to this day, if they do at all... Apparently, the guy who's going to be Piper's potential boss is a, as Prue puts it, "A Wolfgang Puck knock-off" wants Piper to come up with this ridiculous meal, and Jeremy, bless his heart, has offered some good luck be sending Piper a bottle of port wine, which will be the "ultimate ingredient" for the audition tomorrow. Yay for audition recipes...!
Piper's attention is quickly turned elsewhere when she notices the family Spirit Board which has the symbol of the Triquetra etched in the middle. On the back of the board is a message etched in by their mother, "May this give you the light to find the Shadows. The Power of Three will set you free, love Mom." Piper states how they never once figured out what any of the message meant, and Prue suggests sending the board to a woman named Phoebe. After a short conversation about this Phoebe person, Prue makes a comment about how everything will remain peachy if Phoebe never comes back to SanFran, and Piper gives this look which we all know what that means...
Once Piper takes her bag and heads towards the kitchen, the light, eloquent, very 90's music turns into this really eerie and suspenseful music as the pointer on the spirit board begins to move on its very own... Oh boy, what is going on here?
-Credit Roll-
Scene 3 -The Talmadge
After the credits, we are back at Talmadge where a very handsome police detective and walking past the police and meets up with is partner in front of the entrance. His partner informs him he's been paging him for over and hour, and asks where he's been. Detective Trudeau informs his partner he's been in Oakland looking up Occult shops. So this detective immediately pegs the murderer is on a witch killing spree, so here's my question... How did Trudeau know the case involved witches? Who exactly gave him the lead that witches were the victim? I know it would have been obvious after seeing the witch from earlier was laying near her altar, but I would still like to know where this lead came from.
After being warned to come to the nameless partner when it came to leads, some reporter for San Francisco Chronicle approaches Trudeau asking for comments on the murder. Mmkay, so who is this guy and why is he being introduced? What does he have to do with this whole thing, huh?
Scene 4 - Halliwell Manor
Piper is peeking out the window as the thunder continues to sound and she goes to check on Prue, who's still trying to figure out what the deal is with that damn chandelier. Piper brings up that spare bedroom that nobody is using, and Prue suggests renting it out for help around the house and that is what Piper thinks is the perfect time to tell her Phoebe is coming home!! Yay!! Get out the wine, cue the fireworks and let's all welcome Phoebe home! Piper insists she could not tell Phoebe she's no longer welcomed into the manor. Besides, the house was willed to all three sisters so the house is one thirds Phoebe's. So, yeah. Power to Phoebe! The two sisters continue to bicker at one another and for some reason here or there, Prue is still pissed at Phoebe. The two can't bicker for long because Phoebe comes walking through the door and holds up a little dandy hide-a-key... Does anyone else think that Piper left this key for Phoebe knowing damn well Prue would have never let Phoebe in if she was still alone in the manor? It's funny when you watch a show and think about the things that aren't shown in the episode. While Piper goes to pay for Phoebe's cab with Prue's money(Lol), Prue and Phoebe has this conversation that turns very quickly. Phoebe has the balls to call out Rodger for what he is, and it's very beautiful if I'm being honest.
-Alright, I had to go to sleep... it was 30 minutes before 3AM, but I'm right back here at 2:15 in the afternoon!-
So we flash forward to Phoebe in her room where she's watching the news about the woman/witch who was murdered only hours before. Piper comes in and comments that her boyfriend Jeremy, ya'll know the one who bought her that port wine for the audition recipe, is now on the TV being the reporter that he is. Also ten points to Phoebe for using a very New York term, "got whacked". After Phoebe asks why Piper never told Prue about Phoebe's return, Piper makes a remark about Prue possibly changing the locks which I believe this clarifies that Piper did indeed leave the key outside for Phoebe to find. Both sisters come to the fact that Prue had to "sacrifice her own childhood" to help raise Piper and Phoebe. Phoebe remarks how she doesn't need a mother, but a sister and here comes Prue with extra blankets in hand for Phoebe since her bedroom was always the coldest room in the house... which that shows Prue still cares for Phoebe, right? Kinda...sorta...a little.
Scene 5 - The Talmadge
Trudeau is examining the victim while his partner, which I still don't think we know his name up to this point yet... is looking over the crime scene and is offering his sarcastic remarks about how knowledgeable Trudeau is about witches and the occult. So are we to believe that he gained all this information from the Occult shop he visited in Oakland? Or was it possible that he had a more vital role throughout the series, but it never happened? A lot can happen in Pilot episodes that gets dropped later in the season, I'm just saying. The cat from earlier comes back and as Trudeau approached it, his partner warns him not to go near it, but he does anyway. Oddly enough, the cat allows the detective to pet it. Interesting.
Scene 6 - Halliwell Manor
Piper and Phoebe are in the conservatory playing around with the spirit board while they talk about Piper and Jeremy. Apparently the two met in the hospital after their grandmother was admitted to the hospital so while she was crying over a bagel or what not, Jeremy handed her a napkin with his phone number on it. Just another thing I would love to see on screen...lol. So after Piper goes to get more popcorn, she and Phoebe goes to ask the spirit board if Prue's going to get laid at all this year or the next when all of a sudden, the pointer begins to direct a message for Phoebe. Okay, now this is starting to get good! As hard as she tries, she can't convince her sisters the pointer really is moving on its own, and not her doing it. Prue wants nothing to do with Phoebe's little mind games, but lucky for Phoebe, Piper was able to catch a glimpse of the pointer! Prue comes back into the conservatory just as Phoebe finishes the message the spirit board spelled out, "Attic".
Cue the electricity to go out!
Piper is freaking out, which if you're as familiar with the earlier seasons as I am, this isn't anything different. It's just classic Piper. Phoebe comes around with a flashlight declaring she's going to the attic while Prue plans to do to the basement. Prue is none too pleased about Phoebe and her decisions, but it doesn't really matter. Phoebe's a very independent young woman who makes up her own damn mind, Prue be damned. What's funny is that Prue planned on going to the basement which is accessed from the kitchen, but she goes into the living room. Lol. Also, I would like to know exactly how much cab fares were in 1998!
Upstairs, Phoebe tries to get the attic door opened, but nothing worked. I don't know why she didn't just kick the door down, but then that would defeat the purpose of the door opening magically by itself so Phoebe could gain access. Inside, it looks like everyone's average looking attic, until Phoebe's eye catches a trunk with a light shined all over it. Inside, she discovers the very infamous Book of Shadows and soon recites to incantation which activates the sister's witchy powers! Yay, finally!!
Prue and Piper catches Phoebe in the attic with the book, and they're both wondering why and how the hell Phoebe is in there. When she announces that they're witches and have powers, Piper once again freaks out like the way we all love her while Prue is beyond annoyed and to the point where she's ready to kick Phoebe to the curb for whatever the hell she did or didn't do with Rodger.
Also, going back a little bit, ten points for the epic chandelier scene and the photo for being magically altered!
The girls are coming down the steps talking about what the hell Phoebe just did, when she references The Exorcist. The girls walks past the photo they took sometime before the pilot but they don't notice that the photo magically changed, moving them closer together.
Then this weird guy in a black coat stalks away from the manor because... creepy!!
Scene 7 - Next Day - Halliwell Manor
Phoebe is sitting on the porch drinking coffee when Piper comes out with her uniform and the girls talks about what happened last night. Phoebe tells Piper that Prue left for work and that she'd been reading in the Book of Shadows all night to which Piper playfully accuses Phoebe of casting spells. Phoebe explains to Piper about their powers and their ancestor Melinda Warren and Piper gives this funny statement about how the sisters has an aunt who's manic, a cousin who's a drunk and a father who's invisible. The funny thing about it is that there really isn't any mention of a cousin or an aunt after this. Like at all. Ha ha.
So I'm going to get a wee bit off topic for a minute... I watched the Unaired Pilot on YouTube a few years ago and I would have loved it if they left in the line where Phoebe says she has different opinions on their grandmother being a witch, but then again I really don't see the point of having it in with Alyssa's pilot version so it's alright.
Scene 8 - American Museum of Natural History
Rodger is such a fricking ass. He's only been on the screen for a second and I already hate him. And seriously, this is the guy Prue was ga-ga over and got mad at Phoebe about? Seriously? What I love about this scene is that Prue has no regrets telling him off. It's very beautiful. After throwing shade at Prue, she calls him a bastard and his pen begins to leak and squirt out on his face. Lol, so beautiful.
Scene 9 - Ristorante
It's time for Piper's recipe audition she was freaking out about in the beginning of the episode and she's very busy cooking up her plate. She's literally one ingredient away from perfecting the dish when Chef Moore comes strolling in with his fake as crap accent announcing time was up. Piper begins to freak out again because she had no time to add in the port Jeremy was so amazing for getting it for Piper. As hard as she tries, she can't stop the man from eating the food when all of a sudden... he freezes right in front of Piper. Acting quick, Piper rushes over to the port, taking some and adding it into the little piece Moore has on his fork. Thank god she gained the power to slow down molecules because it was just what she needed to get the job! Woot!! Congrats on the job, Piper!
Scene 10 - The Museum
Rodger is on the phone when Prue comes in and he's giving himself the credit Prue deserves, obviously. After she announces she's quitting, Rodger tries to threaten and blackmail her, but it doesn't work. She dishes some major shade at him, and walks out proud of herself. After making some comment about Prue stealing office supplies, Rodger's tie mysteriously tightens around his neck and we get to see a very humorous attempt at Rodger doing what he can to get the tie off before it suffocates him. Ha ha ha!
Scene 11 - Outside the Ristorante
Piper is on the phone trying to get a hold of Phoebe when Jeremy all of a sudden pops up out of nowhere... at this point in the episode is it obvious who the bad guy is? Obviously Andy and Daryl aren't the bad guy considering the actors are in the opening credits, Chef Moore is way too irrelevant to be the bad guy... so that only leaves Jeremy, who is in a relationship with one of the sister witches... so.... yeah. Anyway, Jeremy suddenly knows Piper got the job because, ya know, he's the bad guy, and Piper makes a comment about how food turns her on. It makes sens, ya know? Also, that sweater Jeremy is wearing is so very... 90's.
Scene 12 - Streets of San Francisco
Phoebe is seen riding on her bike she mentioned at the beginning of the episode and while she's riding along, minding her own business, she gets a flash in the head showing her a vision of a couple of skater teens getting run down by a car. So what does she do? She tries to stop it by riding in front of the car, skids, falls onto the ground and proceeds to injure herself in the process. Ten points to Phoebe for saving the first pair of mortals with the help of her power!! The same cat from the beginning of the episode appears out of nowhere and looks on at the scene Phoebe caused... or saved? Or... something.
Scene 13 - The Hospital
Goodbye Rodger and hello Andy!! Prue is in the hospital waiting for Phoebe when she hears Andy talk to the receptionist about having to talk to Doctor Gordon about a case. The two immediately re-sparks something from the past so it's obvious these two has a history. Also, I have a question... Is Doctor Gordon the blonde witch's doctor? Is that why Andy is looking to talk to the doctor or was it a different murder case? At first, Andy and Prue part ways, which by the way how awkward was that handshake?! Then Andy stops and buys Prue a pretty crappy cup of coffee and the two play catch up. Prue's living back in the manor with her sisters, Andy became an inspector and they briefly bring up Andy's father who happened to be an inspector himself in the past. Andy carefully slides in a question asking Prue if she was still seeing Rodger, and seriously? Just because Andy became an inspector, he's looking into Prue's love life? While I know how innocent this is, this must have sparked some theories in the past about how Andy has to be a warlock or a bad guy or something... God, how I wish I could have watched this in the past or somehow found out what people thought about the show at the time it aired!
Scene 14 - Unknown restaurant/bar
After Prue picks Phoebe up from the hospital, they go to some restaurant/bar and Phoebe is continuing to try to convince Prue they're witches with special powers. Prue throws some shade towards Phoebe about how she can see the future, then Prue manages to use her own powers to move a bottle of cream towards her and then manages to transfer the cream into the coffee... Honestly, I would love to how this happened. There's a rumor going around, which is most likely false, that Prue managed to obtain another type of power, but like I said, this is false.
Outside, Phoebe and Prue are continuing to talk about witches, the woodcarvings in the Book, and how they were safer being in the dark about their powers.... So Phoebe is basically saying they're F'd because a lot of evil incarnations are going to be coming after them. Then we see the cat following Prue and Phoebe. Yay for the cat!
Scene 15 - Cab
Piper is in a cab with her boyfriend Jeremy and they're talking about the weird things that can happen to them in life, but Piper is totally talking about the fact that she's a witch. Piper tries to brush it all off and then gives Jeremy a fortune cooker and as he reads it, he references to doing the deed with Piper... like could he not be anymore direct? After Piper rolls her eyes and corrects his fortune, he asks the driver to take a different route, confusing Piper. Then he says he has a surprise for her. Yeah considering where this episode is going, all the good feelings(or not?) that Jeremy was giving off is now out of the window and burning into a pit of disastrous destruction.
Scene 16 - Pharmacy
Possibly the best scene in this episode, Phoebe is picking up her medication and Prue is in desperate need for something to get rid of her migraine. While in aisle 3, Prue is looking for some aspirin while Phoebe is constantly getting on her sisters nerves about being witches and having cool powers. While Prue would have liked to inherit money, antiques, strong disposition, etc etc, Phoebe is continuing to taunt Prue to no end and suggest she get chamomile tea for her migraine instead. Prue begins to get angrier and angrier, and Phoebe figures out Prue's power trigger. Now that she has, her taunting escalates to the point where Prue gets so pissed as Phoebe's talking about their father, she proceeds to make all the pill bottles and boxes in the aisle drop right onto the floor. If that's all that takes to get rid of a migraine, I would love to be able to do that...
Scene 17 - Abandoned Building
This is when we officially find out Jeremy is actually a... OMG A WARLOCK! He takes Piper inside a creepy freakin' building and into a creaky elevator when he brings up the fact that he knows Phoebe came home. Then as Piper asks him about it, he takes out an athame! YIKES!! So while Jeremy is freaking Piper out in all classic Piper style, she manages to trigger her power and freezes Jeremy, but only for a short few minutes. As she manages to climb through the elevator shaft, Jeremy unfreezes and tries to grab Piper but she manages to knock him out and escape! YOU GO, GIRL!!
Scene 18 - Halliwell Manor
As Phoebe's listening to a voice message from Rodger, Prue finds out that somehow the cat we're all familiar and in love with, managed to get their way into the manor and we can all tell Prue accuses Phoebe of leaving a window open, right?? Lol, how subtle. As they're going to continue discussing Rodger, Piper comes home just in time to shut that conversation up and it finally dawns on Prue that everything Phoebe did and was talking about is real since Piper is flipping out about Jeremy and how to get rid a freaking warlock.
Scene 18.5 Abandoned Building
Jeremy basically wakes up and runs after Piper, proceeding to call her a bitch. That's basically it... Also fun fact: Eric Scott Woods was so uncomfortable saying the word "Bitch" that they had someone voice over it for him. How nice of them!
Scene 19 - Halliwell Manor
The sisters are ready to cast their first spell, birthday candles and all! Piper uses the thorn of a rose and inserts it into the poppet and proceeds to cast the spell. I also notice Alyssa closed her eyes during the spell casting scene and it got me curious... was this something she wanted to do herself? Or was it from the suggestion of the producers? Just something I've wondered over the times of me watching this show... after they're finished, the scene quickly changes to Jeremy turning into a freaking rose himself without the petals, thorns popping out of his whole entire body. Back at the house, Phoebe has a "Flash" and see's that the spell didn't work at all, so the sisters rush to figure out a plan B. Running downstairs, I guess they're planning to go somewhere... but where? They already figured the cops wouldn't be able to help them, so where the hell did they plan to go? Thank god Jeremy was there, thorns and all, to throw off their plans. Prue immediately goes into older sister mode and protects her sisters, ordering them to run upstairs. Jeremy taunts Prue, causing her to push him against the archway a couple times. After the second push, she runs upstairs to the attic and the sisters pushes furniture against the attic door, but Jeremy proves that will do nothing to keep him from trying to kill the Charmed Ones. Jeremy manages to break in and throws a circle of fire around them and then a blast of wind. Prue figures out what she and her sisters needs to do and they begin to cast their first vanquishing spell!! Thank you Mama Halliwell for the clue behind the Spirit Board!
Before Jeremy is permanently toast, he promises and warns the sisters that beings from places they never imagined and forms they'd never believe would be after them... basically forever. After a few more seconds of chanting, Jeremy begins to scream in pain and then explodes right there in the attic. Thank you, Power of Three!
Scene 20 - Halliwell Manor - Next Day
Prue is walking out to get the morning paper when Andy drives up to the house. He's basically there to ask Prue out on a simple coffee date, but Prue has second thoughts. Can she date now that she's a witch?? Andy see's the hesitation from Prue, and is now upset. Which is understandable. He at least feels better after Prue promises to call him, so that's good! Piper and Phoebe(along with their new cat!) walks out onto the porch to see Andy leaving. The two youngest teases Prue about dating and being a witch, and Prue promises they will feel the same way when they find guys to date, too. After a good laugh, the sisters promises each other to be safe, be wise and always stick together, which Piper is definitely seeing as a challenge.
To end this series premiere, Prue places a smirk on her fact and closes the front doors, ending the episode.
Over all, this is a pretty decent premiere, especially for the whole show. It sets the tone, explained why they were witches, gave some hints about the troubles the sisters are going to face both supernatural and natural. Definitely an episode I love!
Here ends the first review, recap, whatever you'd like to call it for Charmed. See you next time for I've Got You Under My Skin!!
