My Season 8 Review - Come With An Open Mind

[forbuss]

Hey everyone! I hope you all are well.

I am in the middle of a season 8 rewatch. To prepare I have watched the second half of season seven into eight. I am a Charmed fan since it's premiere, and season 8 is definitely one of my most least watched seasons.

While thinking about this review, I decided to break my thoughts about it up into chunks. The first chunk is 8x01 to 8x05, when the sisters were hiding, pretending they had died. I will be posting further reviews on the season and will watch it to the end with an open mind. I am trying to be brief and to the point in this review, and hopefully this can stimulate discussion.

The season opens with the Charmed Ones funeral, the human and magical world both assuming they are dead following the season seven finale. I think this is significant within the universe because it was the first time the sisters actually attempted a normal life. They have been talking about this for seasons, but you really felt the sisters committed to living a normal life in the first few episodes of this season. Sadly, the sisters do ignore innocents and signs in these episodes, which surely means innocents died. I do not mean to excuse this, but this is definitely not the first time innocents had died frivolously at the sisters hands; namely often after Prue had died.

However: this is something that motivates the sisters to essentially become the Charmed Ones again. As previously stated: this was the sisters first real attempt at having truly normal lives after years and years of talking about it. They paid the price, and so did the innocents, which brings me to:

Billie Jenkins

Billie got it. If we ignore that bad costuming (the leather and the black wig) in the premiere, Billie is a fantastic character in these episodes. She actually CARED about being a witch and saving innocents. She is a big part of the reason the Charmed Ones realized they could NOT stop being the Charmed Ones. Billie got them to realize what's important: their destiny, their innocents. Billie is a talented witch in these episodes, but nothing compared to the Charmed ones, and was not ready to face upper level demons.

In short, yes: The Charmed Ones made a mistake in giving up their destiny. BUT this choice actually made them realize how needed they were to the world: something that was missing from Charmed for years. And that brings us to:

The Negative

- The Paige becoming a cop storyline was bad bad bad.
- The Phoebe and Dex situation was even worse.
- The explanation of them working for homeland security was bogus. However, I was used to Charmed doing things like this at this point...

Stay tuned fo my further review!

[cyma]

Sept 6, 2020 0:50:54 GMT -5 forbuss said:

Hey everyone! I hope you all are well.

Billie Jenkins

Billie got it. If we ignore that bad costuming (the leather and the black wig) in the premiere, Billie is a fantastic character in these episodes. She actually CARED about being a witch and saving innocents. She is a big part of the reason the Charmed Ones realized they could NOT stop being the Charmed Ones. Billie got them to realize what's important: their destiny, their innocents. Billie is a talented witch in these episodes, but nothing compared to the Charmed ones, and was not ready to face upper level demons.

I think it was writing Billie in a short scene in one of my stories that I realized all this. And even gained an appreciation for Christy.

Since CW stories are recycled all the time on TV, Billie and Christy storyline has been done on Arrow with Sarah and Laurel Lance, on The Originals and believe it or not, Batwoman as well. 

The Original’s character actually shared physical resemblance to the actress who plays Christy’s character and she herself was a powerful witch, first born of her siblings and kidnapped made me go ‘wait a minute.’ Also Batwoman's sister storyline with really great performance from the older villain sister Alice, is the only thing which makes it watchable for me.

But for the other two shows, the high quality writing and great actors make such a huge difference.

It just boggles my mind that CW could do good siblings and sister storyline on every other show, even Supergirl, but not the new Charmed reboot.

Anyways, can't wait for the rest of your review 

[forbuss]

Sept 7, 2020 6:37:43 GMT -5 cyma said:

Sept 6, 2020 0:50:54 GMT -5 forbuss said:

Hey everyone! I hope you all are well.

Billie Jenkins

Billie got it. If we ignore that bad costuming (the leather and the black wig) in the premiere, Billie is a fantastic character in these episodes. She actually CARED about being a witch and saving innocents. She is a big part of the reason the Charmed Ones realized they could NOT stop being the Charmed Ones. Billie got them to realize what's important: their destiny, their innocents. Billie is a talented witch in these episodes, but nothing compared to the Charmed ones, and was not ready to face upper level demons.

I think it was writing Billie in a short scene in one of my stories that I realized all this. And even gained an appreciation for Christy.

Since CW stories are recycled all the time on TV, Billie and Christy storyline has been done on Arrow with Sarah and Laurel Lance, on The Originals and believe it or not, Batwoman as well. 

The Original’s character actually shared physical resemblance to the actress who plays Christy’s character and she herself was a powerful witch, first born of her siblings and kidnapped made me go ‘wait a minute.’ Also Batwoman's sister storyline with really great performance from the older villain sister Alice, is the only thing which makes it watchable for me.

But for the other two shows, the high quality writing and great actors make such a huge difference.

It just boggles my mind that CW could do good siblings and sister storyline on every other show, even Supergirl, but not the new Charmed reboot.

Anyways, can't wait for the rest of your review 

I am in the process of writing the next chunk... Christy just appeared and honestly I really don't like the actress or the character...

[forbuss]

Here is my part 2 review from the "second chunk" that I've broken the episode up until. These episodes will cover the plots Billie searching for Christy, Losing Leo, Paige meeting Henry, and Phoebe giving up on love. The episode range is from 8x05 to 8x14, before the introduction of Christie and Coop.

These episodes open with "Kill Billie Vol I" as Billie has flashbacks to Christy being taken. I dislike the special effects and how these flashbacks were filmed, but I guess that is not the point. I really do enjoy Billie's search for her sister, and her sort of occupying Phoebe's room after Phoebe moved to her condo. Billie is still the one driving the sisters to be more into their magic and to also let her take more responsibility. This reminds me a lot of Phoebe and Paige in their early seasons.

The sisters return to their identity in these episodes, and we have some very "All Hell Breaks Loose" flashbacks as reporters flood the Halliwell property to find out why the sisters were working with homeland security. I don't really love the whole homeland security aspect, especially because now apparently they only wanted to discover the sisters were witches so they could ask for their help, after leading a witch hunt for them in S7 via Inspector Sheridan (so glad she isn't in this season). Either way, I don't totally mind this because I understand the position the show was in because they were in WB limbo and had to do a pseudo series and season finale in the previous season. I am glad the sisters involvement ended when they found out they were being lied to (Hulkus Pulkus, the episode where Billie get's infected).

I think there are a few filler episodes leading up to Vaya Con Leos - the episode that sets in motion the events for the remainder of the season. We really do need to talk about this episode - it is fantastic. Something "clicked" in this episode and it was written and acted extremely well. I LOVE the scene when Piper summons the Elder and the Avatar to question them about what is going on with Leo's impending death. The scene with the Angel Of Destiny is fantastic, I love this actress. Holly was exceptional in this episode and it makes me hate the network bias that never let her be recognized at awards like the Golden Globes or the Emmys. I like how they had to chose between getting info on Christy or preserving Leo in the ice... It was a good plot device, and it showed Billie's love of the sisters and Leo for agreeing to freeze Leo.

Piper is much more committed to magic from this point on - she is searching for her husband, all while being a single mother, business owner, and witch. I love her drive in these episodes, and I like the connection Piper had formed with Billie. They had some good scenes together, and honestly for the first time.... Billie began to feel like their sister. Maybe Piper had accepted Billie more than Paige. I don't mind this, because I think Paige was a little hard to connect to because she was so independent in the series after growing up an only child. Billie craved sisterhood - and with Phoebe moving out and her sister lost, her and Piper began to bond. I honestly do really like Billie this rewatch.

This leads me to Phoebe. Phoebe by far has the weakest storyline in the season (thus far anyway). Honestly, I really blame the writers for this. She started out with Dex, then she gave up on men again. Her and Dex end their pseudo relationship that was never going to work out, which was a relief. But then... They didn't really give Phoebe anything to do other than to move out of the manor and have an appointment at a sperm bank. I feel torn about her move out - on one hand, this move out feels much better than when she moved out in season six, which felt not great because she moved out to be with a man. I like that she moved out on her own, and I actually think this did help her character 'get back into things' because I think Phoebe does get a bit better after these last episodes. On the other hand, I hate it because honestly don't see the big problem with grown woman who are sisters living together, especially in such a massive home. But alas, I don't mind it and they do a good job of still having Phoebe at the manor. Just like Piper, I think Phoebe developed a cool relationship with Billie. Where Piper was more maternal, Phoebe was more like her friend. They would hang out, go out to eat, etc. I liked seeing this, and I think Billie began to pull Phoebe out of the rut she got in after Dex (who was horrible). But all in all, they didn't really give Alyssa much to do other than a few funny scenes.

This is the era of Paige and Henry. I love Henry and think he is leagues better than any of her other boyfriends, and probably leagues better than most of the guys in the show (not that that would be hard). It finally feels like Paige has a real boyfriend. There is a weird aspect of their relationship that I can't put my finger on. Maybe they actors didn't have the most exciting chemistry on screen? They also had A LOT of scenes on the phone with them not being in the same room, has anyone else noticed this? I love them both individually, but I have felt stronger chemistries in the show. I can't really blame either of the actors though as although I don't feel like their relationship was super rushed, it was super rushed. Other than them dating I think Paige is fantastic so far this season. I love her looking into being a social worker again, and she takes on a guiding role with Billie. I also like their relationship.

Here is a speed round of other thoughts:

1. Mr and Mrs Smith is a god AWFUL episode. I hate Billie's parents.
2. Michelle Stafford is really great in 'Desperate Housewitches'
3. Battle of the Hexes is an episode I weirdly enjoy.
4. Payback's a Witch is also great
5. Shout out to the "evil Charmed Ones" in Repo Manor. Really funny and evil!
6. This season has aged very well.
7. They start to feel like the Charmed Ones again.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I am still really enjoying this rewatch, despite the negatives I did mention. There is something refreshing about this season that none of the other seasons have - in many ways it feels like a unique return to the roots of the show. I may rank season eight differently in my signature...

My next review will cover the rest of the season. I am bracing myself for the arrival of Coop and Christy.

[forbuss]

This is the last section of my season 8 review that will cover the episodes 8x15 to the finale. There is a lot to cover in these episodes so let me jump in!

"The Last Temptation of Christy" opens with, well, Christy! She is finally found - we learn she was essentially kidnapped by demons fifteen years ago to basically be trained to defeat the Charmed Ones. However, the Triad made an error because they only got one half of "The Ultimate Power". This storyline until "Forever Charmed" involves Christy, Dumain and the Triad trying to manipulate Billie and cause her to turn on the Charmed Ones. This brings me to my first point: it really wasn't that hard for them to convince Billie that the Charmed Ones were selfish and didn't care about innocents or magic. This being said, I don't think that what was shown was enough to want to end their lives. Billie actually had a really smart idea of binding the sisters powers instead of killing them - I think this actually could have been an interesting way of ending the show. Billie taking their powers away and the sisters realizing they've been really self involved, thus allowing them to either give up their powers forever, or (preferably) returned to magic with a new sense of passion for it.

The main two things Billie/Christy/Dumain/The Triad did to convince Billie was have her project into their dreams to see their desires, and cast a spell on the Charmed Ones that made them not care about magic, thus alienating the rest of the magical community who then supported Billie and Christy. I do want to say that even if the spell was not cast, the sisters didn't treat the magical community well. Remember in the season seven finale when all those creatures were murdered in efforts to stop Zankou? I remember. BUT alas the creatures did agree to support the Charmed Ones here and did assume risk.

Through this, the sisters did realize they have been less than great. I honestly think this was included due to fan reactions to the later seasons, but I could be wrong. Let me go into detail on the storylines and plots in these episodes:

Paige & Henry

Henry now knows Paige is a witch, and hey, they get married! Who were all those people at the wedding? I wish they had of brought back Paige's adopted parents and maybe even had them walk her down the aisle. Regardless, I did like the wedding and enjoyed watching Paige & Henry's relationship develop for the rest of the season. I loved in "Jungle and the Restless" how we see Paige helping a future white lighter, who sadly died because of Billie and Christy's dream spell.

Piper & Leo

Piper continues her ruthless demon hunt to get Leo back. I don't like how intense she is, seemingly would do anything to get Leo back. I do understand her desperation to find him - but it comes off as selfish, which is another reason it was so easy to convince Billie to try to stop them. It is sad that they had to get rid of Brian, but I do actually like the storyline of needing to fight this battle to get him back. I think this really did work to motivate them to be better witches - and sadly, because they had gotten less than great, The Angel of Destiny made a smart move in doing this. They wouldn't have done it otherwise!

Phoebe

I'm not really going to talk about Coop. I don't like him, he was bad for Phoebe and it was too rushed. And why was he the one encouraging Phoebe to ignore her witch duties to find love? Seems very weird... Either way, I really like Phoebe in this last stretch of episodes and I think she is most like "the Phoebe everyone loves". In the last stretch, Phoebe is the only sister that is viewing Billie and Christy for what they really are: innocents. Well, I don't think Christy was really an innocent, but we will get to that later. Phoebe was pushing back against Coop's demands that she find love because she needed to help her sisters, to help Billie. Remember when Coop sent that guy to bring her flowers, where he was on the street and she was looking over her balcony? She told him to leave the flowers and beat it because her sisters needed her. How many times did we see Phoebe ignore her witch duties to go on a date or talk to a guy? It was so refreshing to see her like this again. Yeah, Coop was annoying, but he really wasn't in the show that much besides the love time travel episode. Phoebe get's 5 stars from me!

Billie

For the first time ever, I like Billie a lot (except for the terrible scene of her crying after she kills Christy). I have nothing new to say that I haven't covered in prior reviews or earlier in this post, but yeah, I'm glad I liked Billie!

Christy

Christy is the worst character in the history of the show - terribly written and acted. If anyone ruined this season it's her.

FOREVER CHARMED

I wanted to do a separate review for the series finale, the ever so controversial series finale. Essentially, "Kill Billie Vol II" was really "Forever Charmed Part One", but I get they wanted to do the Kill Bill reference... again. So I will start with this episode for it set's in motion the events of the next with a flashy "to be continued" after it ends.

Christy, Dumain and The Triad have convinced Billie and the rest of the magical community that the Charmed Ones are selfish and crazy, mostly due to a spell that was cast on them without Billie's knowledge. After a failed attempt to "vanquish" aka kill each other, some demon informants who conveniently hate The Triad give the girls some well timed intel that Billie and Christie were going to take in the hollow (cue Debbi Morgan "if you release it we ALL COULD DIE") so they decided to as well. I was really shocked to see Billie be involved in using Wyatt, I didn't think she would have done this. Anyway. They battle with flashy never before seen multicoloured hollow powers, which ends in everyones death but Piper and Billie, and the manor is destroyed. Leo is returned, yay!

This is probably a good time to talk about all the plot holes in this episode and "Forever Charmed". Does this episode have them? Yes. Are there a million contradictions? Yes. Has there been plot holes in Charmed consistently? YUP. I'm not going to list them all, but I do see them. Or see through them.

With Phoebe and Paige being dead, even though Piper didn't even look for Paige's body, Piper borrows Coops ring and embarks on a time travel adventure. I actually like how Coops ring was used here, and how the ring was previously introduced. I think the show played to it's strengths of family bonds with the time travel and the entire episode. I LOVED seeing Patty in this era. She seemed so happy and free spirited - was a great performance by Finola that truly warmed my heart and amped the episode up. I really could have done without old Piper and old Leo in favour for more Phoebe and Paige screen time but... more on that below.

So Piper, Patty and Penny time travel to right before the hollow induced battle and banish it. Leo is taken away again and Phoebe and Paige rejoin the episode. Billie realizes that she is being manipulated and returns to ask the sisters forgiveness and offer her help.

Christy & Dumain steal Coop's ring to time travel back to the Triad to warn them that the sisters will vanquish them. Billie projects the sisters back and they vanquish The Triad and Dumain. Christy freaks out and summons a fire ball to presumedly kill them all, and Billie deflects it back at her, killing her, and ending the great battle.

They return to the house. I absolutely love this scene with everyone in the solarium. They all seem so happy together, and we have never saw this many of the family together at one time. This leads us to the next thing I need to talk about:

Prue

Yes, this would have made this episode truly great. I realized that an original version of this episode may have existed with Prue, and instead of visiting Grams, they went back to a time Prue was alive. Then, they went to get Patty, who was pregnant with Phoebe. Then, Prue, Piper, and Patty (with Phoebe in her belly) could have truly accessed the power of three to banish the hollow. I won't gripe about Prue's absence too much, but I realized there is something in this episode.

Patty: There's just as much I don't ever want to know. (She sighs.) Like what happened to Prue. Victor told me.

Piper: Oh, mom.

Patty: That's all right. I know everything happens for a reason. I believe that. I also know that when one door closes another one opens.

This is not much, but it's something. I teared up at this part - you can feel Patty's love for her daughter, who she know will pass away young, just like she did. This also gave me, the viewer, an opportunity to remember and miss Prue. I am grateful for that!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Interestingly enough the part of this I dislike most is the epilogue where it transfers from Piper to old Piper and the kids. I hate this. I wish they could have just let present Piper finish her entry in the book, and then close it. Then maybe the sisters leave the house and walk down the street like in "Something Wicca This Way Goes" and an unknown person (Prue) shuts the door behind them.

All in all, was this season perfect? No. Was it amazing? No. But did I like this rewatch? Yes. I found so much to love about it, and writing these reviews really made me realize that. I really recommend rewatching this season with an open mind!

[goldeneye049]

Sept 9, 2020 1:11:45 GMT -5 forbuss said:

This is the last section of my season 8 review that will cover the episodes 8x15 to the finale. There is a lot to cover in these episodes so let me jump in!

"The Last Temptation of Christy" opens with, well, Christy! She is finally found - we learn she was essentially kidnapped by demons fifteen years ago to basically be trained to defeat the Charmed Ones. However, the Triad made an error because they only got one half of "The Ultimate Power". This storyline until "Forever Charmed" involves Christy, Dumain and the Triad trying to manipulate Billie and cause her to turn on the Charmed Ones. This brings me to my first point: it really wasn't that hard for them to convince Billie that the Charmed Ones were selfish and didn't care about innocents or magic. This being said, I don't think that what was shown was enough to want to end their lives. Billie actually had a really smart idea of binding the sisters powers instead of killing them - I think this actually could have been an interesting way of ending the show. Billie taking their powers away and the sisters realizing they've been really self involved, thus allowing them to either give up their powers forever, or (preferably) returned to magic with a new sense of passion for it.

The main two things Billie/Christy/Dumain/The Triad did to convince Billie was have her project into their dreams to see their desires, and cast a spell on the Charmed Ones that made them not care about magic, thus alienating the rest of the magical community who then supported Billie and Christy. I do want to say that even if the spell was not cast, the sisters didn't treat the magical community well. Remember in the season seven finale when all those creatures were murdered in efforts to stop Zankou? I remember. BUT alas the creatures did agree to support the Charmed Ones here and did assume risk.

Through this, the sisters did realize they have been less than great. I honestly think this was included due to fan reactions to the later seasons, but I could be wrong. Let me go into detail on the storylines and plots in these episodes:

Paige & Henry

Henry now knows Paige is a witch, and hey, they get married! Who were all those people at the wedding? I wish they had of brought back Paige's adopted parents and maybe even had them walk her down the aisle. Regardless, I did like the wedding and enjoyed watching Paige & Henry's relationship develop for the rest of the season. I loved in "Jungle and the Restless" how we see Paige helping a future white lighter, who sadly died because of Billie and Christy's dream spell.

Piper & Leo

Piper continues her ruthless demon hunt to get Leo back. I don't like how intense she is, seemingly would do anything to get Leo back. I do understand her desperation to find him - but it comes off as selfish, which is another reason it was so easy to convince Billie to try to stop them. It is sad that they had to get rid of Brian, but I do actually like the storyline of needing to fight this battle to get him back. I think this really did work to motivate them to be better witches - and sadly, because they had gotten less than great, The Angel of Destiny made a smart move in doing this. They wouldn't have done it otherwise!

Phoebe

I'm not really going to talk about Coop. I don't like him, he was bad for Phoebe and it was too rushed. And why was he the one encouraging Phoebe to ignore her witch duties to find love? Seems very weird... Either way, I really like Phoebe in this last stretch of episodes and I think she is most like "the Phoebe everyone loves". In the last stretch, Phoebe is the only sister that is viewing Billie and Christy for what they really are: innocents. Well, I don't think Christy was really an innocent, but we will get to that later. Phoebe was pushing back against Coop's demands that she find love because she needed to help her sisters, to help Billie. Remember when Coop sent that guy to bring her flowers, where he was on the street and she was looking over her balcony? She told him to leave the flowers and beat it because her sisters needed her. How many times did we see Phoebe ignore her witch duties to go on a date or talk to a guy? It was so refreshing to see her like this again. Yeah, Coop was annoying, but he really wasn't in the show that much besides the love time travel episode. Phoebe get's 5 stars from me!

Billie

For the first time ever, I like Billie a lot (except for the terrible scene of her crying after she kills Christy). I have nothing new to say that I haven't covered in prior reviews or earlier in this post, but yeah, I'm glad I liked Billie!

Christy

Christy is the worst character in the history of the show - terribly written and acted. If anyone ruined this season it's her.

FOREVER CHARMED

I wanted to do a separate review for the series finale, the ever so controversial series finale. Essentially, "Kill Billie Vol II" was really "Forever Charmed Part One", but I get they wanted to do the Kill Bill reference... again. So I will start with this episode for it set's in motion the events of the next with a flashy "to be continued" after it ends.

Christy, Dumain and The Triad have convinced Billie and the rest of the magical community that the Charmed Ones are selfish and crazy, mostly due to a spell that was cast on them without Billie's knowledge. After a failed attempt to "vanquish" aka kill each other, some demon informants who conveniently hate The Triad give the girls some well timed intel that Billie and Christie were going to take in the hollow (cue Debbi Morgan "if you release it we ALL COULD DIE") so they decided to as well. I was really shocked to see Billie be involved in using Wyatt, I didn't think she would have done this. Anyway. They battle with flashy never before seen multicoloured hollow powers, which ends in everyones death but Piper and Billie, and the manor is destroyed. Leo is returned, yay!

This is probably a good time to talk about all the plot holes in this episode and "Forever Charmed". Does this episode have them? Yes. Are there a million contradictions? Yes. Has there been plot holes in Charmed consistently? YUP. I'm not going to list them all, but I do see them. Or see through them.

With Phoebe and Paige being dead, even though Piper didn't even look for Paige's body, Piper borrows Coops ring and embarks on a time travel adventure. I actually like how Coops ring was used here, and how the ring was previously introduced. I think the show played to it's strengths of family bonds with the time travel and the entire episode. I LOVED seeing Patty in this era. She seemed so happy and free spirited - was a great performance by Finola that truly warmed my heart and amped the episode up. I really could have done without old Piper and old Leo in favour for more Phoebe and Paige screen time but... more on that below.

So Piper, Patty and Penny time travel to right before the hollow induced battle and banish it. Leo is taken away again and Phoebe and Paige rejoin the episode. Billie realizes that she is being manipulated and returns to ask the sisters forgiveness and offer her help.

Christy & Dumain steal Coop's ring to time travel back to the Triad to warn them that the sisters will vanquish them. Billie projects the sisters back and they vanquish The Triad and Dumain. Christy freaks out and summons a fire ball to presumedly kill them all, and Billie deflects it back at her, killing her, and ending the great battle.

They return to the house. I absolutely love this scene with everyone in the solarium. They all seem so happy together, and we have never saw this many of the family together at one time. This leads us to the next thing I need to talk about:

Prue

Yes, this would have made this episode truly great. I realized that an original version of this episode may have existed with Prue, and instead of visiting Grams, they went back to a time Prue was alive. Then, they went to get Patty, who was pregnant with Phoebe. Then, Prue, Piper, and Patty (with Phoebe in her belly) could have truly accessed the power of three to banish the hollow. I won't gripe about Prue's absence too much, but I realized there is something in this episode.

Patty: There's just as much I don't ever want to know. (She sighs.) Like what happened to Prue. Victor told me.

Piper: Oh, mom.

Patty: That's all right. I know everything happens for a reason. I believe that. I also know that when one door closes another one opens.

This is not much, but it's something. I teared up at this part - you can feel Patty's love for her daughter, who she know will pass away young, just like she did. This also gave me, the viewer, an opportunity to remember and miss Prue. I am grateful for that!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Interestingly enough the part of this I dislike most is the epilogue where it transfers from Piper to old Piper and the kids. I hate this. I wish they could have just let present Piper finish her entry in the book, and then close it. Then maybe the sisters leave the house and walk down the street like in "Something Wicca This Way Goes" and an unknown person (Prue) shuts the door behind them.

All in all, was this season perfect? No. Was it amazing? No. But did I like this rewatch? Yes. I found so much to love about it, and writing these reviews really made me realize that. I really recommend rewatching this season with an open mind!

I like what you say about Prue and they could have done even better. Patty and Grams are at the same time. Instead of going to the future, they could have arrived in front of Prue and Piper unconscious. Because Piper would have thought of her deceased sisters but unwittingly would have thought of the grief caused by Prue's death. I imagine :
Sad Piper: Omg I made a mistake, we have to go, I'm sorry that we can't change the future or we won't know Paige and that would change the good we've done.
Penny and Patty would have an idea. Heal Prue in time with their own whitelighter. Cast a spell to create a dead fake Prue. So Prue would go to live "in the future" with her sisters and the past would not have changed. That would explain why Prue wasn't appearing, the spell to bring back a lost witch couldn't call Prue who was non-existent between season 4 and 8. And so who found Paige.