"Post-Season Three Leadership of the Charmed Ones"
"POST-SEASON THREE LEADERSHIP OF THE CHARMED ONES"
I am probably going to get bashed by a number of fans of the first "CHARMED" series for this. I had never thought it was a good thing for showrunner Brad Kern and his staff of writers to automatically allow Piper Halliwell to become the new leader of the Charmed Ones in Season Four. And they did this because she had become the oldest living Halliwell sister, following the death of the oldest - Prue Halliwell.
The Season Three finale, (3.22) "All Hell Breaks Loose" had marked as the final episode to feature the Halliwells' oldest sibling, Prue Halliwell. Kern originally had plans to replace actress Shannen Doherty with either Jennifer Love Hewitt or Tiffani Thiessen after the former had been fired, due to her conflict with co-star Alyssa Milano. But since both Hewitt and Thiessen had rejected his offer, he and the WB network decided to kill off Prue after she had been seriously wounded by a demon known as Shax.
The Season Four premiere, (4.01-4.02) "Charmed Again" had featured the introduction of the fourth Halliwell witch/sister, Paige Matthews. Portrayed by Rose McGowan, Paige proved to be the sisters' half-sister who was the result of an affair between their mother Patricia "Patty" Halliwell and her whitelighter, Samuel Wilder, born nearly two years after Phoebe Halliwell. Because of Prue's death, second-born Piper automatically became group leader. Frankly, I believe this was a big mistake on Kern's part.
I am sorry, but I do not think that Piper ever had the personality to be a real leader. And I found her "growth" as a character and a leader rather hard to believe. Even by Seasons Seven and Eight. Her idea of leadership seemed to require her to be curt and bitchy . . . a lot. I suspect that this attitude had sprung from her dislike of her role as a witch and demon hunter. Since Season One, Piper had consistently complained about being a witch. In my opinion, if she had never wanted to be a witch, she should have rid herself and her children of powers and try to live the life she wanted as a non-magical person. Unfortunately, fear prevented Piper from considering this option.
More than anything, I never understood Kern's decision to turn Piper into "Uber Bitch" or a second-rate Prue, due to her becoming the new leader. The role really seemed to go against her established personality. I had no problem with Piper becoming a stronger character. But I did have a problem with Kern's decision to make her the new leader, because of her age.
Phoebe probably would have made a slightly better leader . . . if she had not become so self-absorbed and immature over the years about her romantic life. And Paige would have made an even better leader, despite her inexperience in Season Four. Originally, she had the ruthlessness and drive to assume the role of leader of the Charmed Ones. Unfortunately for Paige, Kern had decided to use his writers to slap the "youngest sister" cliché upon her character and transform her into an irresponsible flake sometime between mid-Season 5 and the series finale.
What really made Piper unsuited as a leader of the Charmed Ones to me were the numerous mistakes that she and her sisters had made following Prue’s death. After all, the Halliwells made some really bad decisions during Piper’s tenure as "leader":
*Cole Turner aka Belthazor's death in (4.20) "Long Live the Queen" - the sisters had never bothered to learn how Phoebe's first husband, the demon/human hybrid Cole became the Source. Due to their prejudices and laziness, the sisters ended up killing an innocent victim of demonic possession.
*Piper's decision to allow Leo to alter her memories in (5.23) "Oh Goddess!, Part II" in order to hide from her painful past. This made her an increasingly ineffective demon hunter and Charmed One.
*Phoebe and Paige's theft of S.F.P.D. Inspector Darryl Morris' soul in (6.01-6.02) "Valhalley of the Dolls", which allowed them to gain access to Vahalla and search for their whitelighter and Piper's husband, Leo Wyatt, ended up endangering the police detective's life.
*Paige had convinced her boyfriend and fellow witch, Richard Montana to strip his powers, instead of making him realize that he needed counseling to discover the true reason behind his abuse of magic.
*Phoebe and Paige manipulated the murder of the former's old classmate, a criminal named Rick Gettridge, by demons in (6.17) "Hyde School Reunion".
*The Halliwell sisters and Leo had formed a deal with the Avatars, an ancient group of extremely powerful magical beings, in (7.12) "Extreme Makeover: World Edition" to make the world conflict free against its will via a spell.
Prue had never been perfect. She made some mistakes during her time as a Charmed One. But aside from the spell she and Phoebe had cast to save Piper in Season Two’s (2.12) "Awakened", Prue had never made mistakes on the same level as her younger sisters. I cannot help but wonder if she would have been appalled by some of the actions of the other three - especially their deal with the Avatars.
Do not get me wrong. I like Piper. But unlike Prue, she rarely knew how to think matters through. I am not saying that Prue always did. There were times when she had jumped to conclusions. But she never did so on the scale in which Piper, Phoebe and Paige eventually did.
After her encounter with the Angel of Death and the Seekers in (3.16) "Death Takes a Halliwell", Prue learned to face her shortcomings. This was something Piper, Phoebe and Paige had never experienced. Which would explain why they never really developed as characters. Or why Piper had never really became a good leader.
R.I.P. Shannen Doherty (1971-2024)