Something Wicca This Way Comes

"Something Wicca This Way Comes"

"Something Wicca This Way Comes" is the first episode of the television series Charmed, which was broadcast on The WB on October 7, 1998. This is the second and only aired pilot for the series. The original pilot never made it to air and was shot in the actual manor that is shown on the show. After Lori Rom quit Charmed, executive producer Aaron Spelling asked Alyssa Milano, whom he knew from Melrose Place, to be her replacement and the show moved to a sound studio. "Something Wicca This Way Comes" was the highest rated episode of Charmed in the entire series. It was watched by 7.7 million viewers and broke the record for the highest-rated premiere episode in The WB's three-year history. The name of this episode is a play on words from Shakespeare's Macbeth: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

Plot

Background

Charmed focuses on the lives of three sisters, Prue, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell as they deal with their grandmother's death, and learn that they inherited a little more than the house they grew up in. All three of them have inherited magic powers; Prue has telekinesis, Piper has the power to freeze, and Phoebe has premonition. Together they try to live everyday normal lives, while battling demons and warlocks, while trying to keep their secret safe.

Episodes

Piper arrives late at the Halliwell Manor, which infuriates Prue, when they were trying to get an electrician. . Prue states that Piper's boyfriend Jeremy has sent some flowers and a bottle of Port, the ingredient she needs for her showpiece recipe in the morning. Piper sees an old Spirit board that Prue found in the basement while she was looking for a circuit tester. She turns it over to see the inscription on the back.

To my three beautiful girls may this give you the light to find the shadows the power of three will set you free. Love, Mom."

—Writing on the Back of the Spirit Board

The pair then begin to wonder about their sister Phoebe who is living in New York. Prue suggests that they should rent out the spare room at a reduced rate in exchange for fixing things around the house. Piper suggests that Phoebe could move in before admitting that two weeks earlier she had agreed to allowing her sister to move back. Prue is not happy with this since she and Phoebe had fallen out over Prue's husband to be Roger. Phoebe, who is broke, had been accused of sleeping with Roger causing Prue to break off the engagement.

Phoebe and Piper are seen to play with the Spirit board. As Piper goes into the kitchen the pointer on the Spirit board starts to spell a word. Phoebe freaks out and calls in Piper and then Prue to see what the pointer is doing but it doesn't move while all three are watching. She tries to convince both sisters that the pointer is moving and making out a word, but they do not believe her since Phoebe is known to have moved the pointer in the past. Piper then sees the pointer move briefly and then the Spirit board finally spells out the word "attic" as Phoebe writes it down on paper. As the storm continues, the power goes out. Piper and Prue head off for the fuse panel, but Phoebe follows the spirit board's prompt and heads to the attic. The door is locked but suddenly opens and Phoebe is guided to a wooden chest. Opening the chest, she discovers a large, apparently ancient book called the book of shadows. Unaware of the powers involved, but overcome with curiosity, she reads a page aloud, which mentions three sisters and the power of three having active powers of an ancestor, Melinda Warren. The spell bestows Phoebe with premonitions, Piper with molecular immobilization, and Prue with telekinesis. Prue tells Phoebe that the book is of witchcraft but they believe that nothing has changed. In the morning Prue is confronted by her ex Roger, who is also her boss. He removes her from the project that she had been looking after. Prue quits her job but her anger unwittingly causes her to make his pen explode. Piper runs out of time and can't complete her dish accidentally freezes the chef of the restaurant which allows her to finish the sauce off and get the job. Phoebe gets a premonition whilst riding her bike of two boys on roller skates being involved in a car accident and prevents the accident by causing herself to have an accident.

Prue still has problems accepting that they are witches and sees her power in action for the first time when putting cream in her drink. In a pharmacy, Phoebe observes that Prue uses her power when angry when looking for aspirin. Phoebe winds her sister up over Roger and their Dad, which cause Prue to knock most of the stock of the shelves. Meanwhile, Piper is on a date with Jeremy, who is actually a warlock, an evil male witch, who steals the powers of good witches. Jeremy says that he knew about them all the time, hence why he started dating Piper six months beforehand when Grams went into hospital. He shows Piper the powers of the witch who he killed at the start of the episode before attempting stabs her with an athame, Piper freezes him and escapes before telling Prue and Phoebe what was happening. Pheobe states that it had been predicted through drawings in the book. The trio create a potion which injures Jeremy as Phoebe has a premonition that he has been wounded but not defeated. After trying to blockade themselves from Jeremy, Prue remembers the inscription on the board and the sisters hold hands chanting 'The power of three will set us free' until he is killed.

Cast

Main cast

• Shannen Doherty as Prue Halliwell
• Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell
• Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell
• T.W. King as Andy Trudeau
• Dorian Gregory as Darryl Morris

Guest cast

• Lonnie Partridge as Serena Fredrick
• Charmaine Cruz as Admitting Nurse
• Hugh Holub as Pharmacist
• Francesca Cappucci as News Reporter
• Eric Scott Woods as Jeremy Burns
• Matthew Ashford as Roger
• Chris Flanders as Chef Moore

External links

• "Something Wicca This Way Comes" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode