Pardon My Past

"Pardon My Past"

Pardon My Past is an episode of The WB drama series, Charmed.

Synopsis

Phoebe is haunted by a spirit in her past life. To find out why, she visits 1924 where she discovers that one of her past lives, P. Russell, is a pyrokinetic witch who was romanced by a warlock named Anton. Similarly, while in the past, Phoebe sees that the past lives of her sisters were former relatives of hers and out to destroy her and all her future lives before she can become completely evil. Prue and Piper must then stop their past lives' curse in the present before Phoebe falls victim to it and dies.

Book of Shadows

Enemies

Anton

An ageless warlock from the early 20th century who had a love affair with P. Russell, a past life of the Charmed One Phoebe Halliwell.

Artifacts

Cursed 1920s Necklace

A necklace blessed by the warlock Anton to block the powers of any witch that tries to do past Phoebe harm.

Power Increasing Potion

A potion given to Past Phoebe to increase her powers so she could fight Past Prue and Piper.

Spells

Past Life Spell

Remove the chains of time and space, and make my spirit soar. Let these mortal arms embrace, the life that haunts before

To Switch Past Lives

In this time and in this place, take this spirit I displace. Bring it forth while I go back, to inhabit a soul so black

To Switch Past Lives Back Again

In this time and in this place, take this spirit I displaced. Bring me forth while she goes back, to her soul so black

To Curse P. Russell

Evil witch in my sight Vanquish thyself. Vanquish thy might in this and every future life.

Episode Stars

• Shannen Doherty as Prue Halliwell / P. Bowen
• Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell / P. Baxter
• Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell / P. Russell
• Greg Vaughan as Dan Gordon / Gordon Johnson
• Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt

Co-Stars

• Daveigh Chase as Young Christina Larson
• Susan Savage as Classy Woman
• Lauri Hendler as Socialite
• Gregg Kovan as Bouncer

Trivia

• Actors Greg Vaughan (Dan) and Tyler Christopher (Anton) later reunited to play half-brothers Lucky Spencer and Nikolas Cassadine on the daytime soap opera General Hospital.

• Brian Krause (Leo) is finally added to the opening credits.

• Is the first episode to show the Halliwell's family tree. The next time it is shown is in the episode Baby's First Demon.

• Phoebe's past life died February 17, 1924.

• One of the past lives Phoebe sees in the 1920s is Anton's portrayal of Leo. However, that particular Leo seemed to have died before February 17, 1924, because the Leo that we know was born in May 6, 1924 signed up as a volunteer medic during World War II, marries his childhood sweetheart at the age of 18, and dies heroically in 1944 at the Battle of Guadalcanal, afterwards becoming a Whitelighter. This is quite possible, since Phoebe never actually meets past Leo (Anton glamours into past Piper's former lover, past Leo). Past Piper is currently married to past Dan. We actually do not know where past Leo is.

• According to this episode, all of Phoebe's future lives are doomed to die in their early 20's unless they too can somehow stop the curse from affecting them. They end up saving present Phoebe by putting the necklace on her, but the rest of her lives are still doomed to die in their early 20's. Thus, Phoebe wrote a warning in the Book of Shadows to warn her future selves about this.

• It was known that, up until the Charmed Ones were born, the Warren/Halliwell witches have only telekinetic, molecular immoblization and premonition powers, but this episode contradicts that. It is possible that this is because two of the 1920's Halliwell cousins (Prue and Phoebe's past lives) were hybrids of different magical families who possessed pyrokinetic and cryokinetic powers, with Piper's past life being the only "normal" Halliwell witch, having the power to freeze. Another theory is that P. Bowen and P. Russell had different powers because they weren't actually part of the Charmed Line.

• When Phoebe trades souls with her past life, they also transfer their powers, but that isn't right because the spell works only on souls. And it is stated several times over the course of the series that their magical powers are in their blood, so technically Phoebe from the present should have had Phoebe's powers from the past and vice versa.

• Leo states that Phoebe's past life "abused" her pyrokinesis power, which explains why Phoebe instead inherits the art of precognition. This does not, however, explain why Prue did not inherit her past life's power of Cryokinesis. It may be that she did inherit it, she just hasn't accesed it. Another theory states that her power was instead "enhanced" to telekinesis.

• In this episode, we see in the family tree that Piper was born on August 7, 1973, which would make her born under the astrological sign of Leo.

• Piper's past life was Grams's mother, so Prue's past life was more than likely named Phoebe (Patty told Phoebe she named her after her favorite aunt). In addition, Phoebe's past life was dead before Patty was born, concluding that P. Russell's first name is Pearl.

• When the sisters and Leo see the family tree, it shows that Grams died in the 1960s, but she actually died in 1998 (6 months before the first episode Something Wicca This Way Comes). It is also evident that she is alive during the 70's, due to her presence in That 70's Episode.

• Leo says that upon becoming a whitelighter, they are shown all of their past lives.

• Why didn't Prue and Piper's past lives notice that "Phoebe" tried to get rid of Anton by kicking him into the pool table? They merely ignore that.

International titles

• French: Sœur contre sœurs (Sister VS Sisters)
• German: Verflucht in alle Ewigkeit (Cursed for Eternity)
• Spanish: Perdona mi pasado