Something Wicca This Way Comes

"Something Wicca This Way Comes"

"Something Wicca This Way Comes" is the first episode of the drama series, Charmed, which was broadcast on The WB network. This is the series premiere of Charmed and the second (and only aired) pilot for the series. The original pilot never aired. The unaired pilot was shot in the actual manor that is shown on the show. After replacing Lori Rom, the show moved to a sound studio. Lori Rom left Charmed because of personal reasons. Executive producer Aaron Spelling asked Alyssa Milano, whom he knew from Melrose Place, to replace Rom as Phoebe and she accepted. Alyssa Milano played Phoebe all eight seasons of the successful long run of the series.

The name of this episode is a play on words from Shakespeare's Macbeth. There are three witches, known as the Charmed Ones. The line is: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

This is the highest rated episode of Charmed in the entire series. The episode scored a 3.7/10 in adults 18–49.

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 manner which infurates 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 ingrediant 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 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

After the credits we see the police investigating the murder of the blonde woman shown at the beginning of the episode. A police detective is shown entering the scene and joining another. The Police detectives, the first one white and the second black, are discussing the case, and the white policeman seems to believe the woman was a "witch" saying she was stabbed with an athame which is the same weapon used to kill two other women who were apparently practicing witchcraft. The black policeman ridicules this and tells him not to do any more investigating without consulting with him first. Just then, a reporter comes to speak to them, and the first cop simply says another woman has been killed. The reporter states that this is the third one in the last couple of weeks.

and we segue again to the two policemen talking. Morris' partner is still trying to tell him about witches, and Morris is still unbelieving. The other policeman finds a white cat in the room, and notices that there is an odd three-cornered symbol on his collar (the Triquetra).

Finding empowerment

The scene changes to Prue at work. Her boss is changing the setup of the job, and demotes Prue and puts himself in her place. Roger is not only her boss but her ex-fiancé and is using his position to get revenge for her breaking up with him. Although she is not aware of it, her anger makes her use her power to make a pen leak in his pocket. When he pulls the pen out to look at it, the pen sprays his face. Prue has already turned her back to him and walks out, oblivious to what happened behind her.

Later, she comes in as he is claiming her accomplishments as his own while he is talking on the phone. She is furious and immediately quits. As she leaves, he insults her, and she again unknowingly uses her unacknowledged power and tightens his tie until it chokes him. She again has her back to him and is unaware of it.

Piper learns of her power when she gets frustrated and accidentally freezes the chef of the restaurant where she is interviewing; although she is surprised, she takes advantage of it and quickly puts the last ingredient, the port she had purchased earlier, onto her special recipe. Of course he loves the dish and she immediately gets the job.

Phoebe is riding her bike when she has her first premonition: two boys on skates getting hit by a car. She yells out when she sees them but they don't hear so she skids her bike in front of the car to stop them and she falls down. Over next to the accident is the other witch's cat, with the triquetra around its neck.

While Phoebe is in the hospital, Prue meets up with an old friend, Andy, who is now a police detective. (This is the policeman who thinks the murders are someone killing witches.) They chat over a cup of coffee and it is intimated that they will have a closer relationship later in the series. Later, after finishing up at the hospital, Phoebe and Prue go out together and talk about being witches. Prue is having difficulty swallowing the idea of being a witch, but when she keeps accidentally using her power, it gets harder to ignore. Phoebe reminds her that they were born witches and need to learn how to deal with it. Prue emptying the shelves of the drugstore while thinking of their father convinces her she really is a witch and has a power she needs to learn to control.

Meanwhile, Piper is on a date with Jeremy, who is actually a warlock, an evil male witch, who steals the powers of good witches. Just before he stabs her with an athame, Piper freezes him and, even though he unfreezes and grabs her ankle, manages to escape and goes to the manor. The cat is shown in the house, as Piper bursts through the door, asking for a spell to get rid of a warlock. Although together the sisters cast a spell to get rid of Jeremy from Piper's life, Phoebe has a premonition that he has been wounded but not defeated.

Moments later he bursts into the house and threatens them with his dark magic. At this point, the sisters race back to the Book of Shadows, and find the one thing that will save them, the Power of Three Spell. They realize that they must recite the incantation from the back of the book. 'The power of three will set us free'. They chant the incantation as Jeremy threatens them and a storm appears in the attic, but eventually he explodes and is gone. The next day, Andy shows up to ask Prue out, and she is a little hesitant, not because of him, but because of becoming a witch. She doesn't know he believes in witches, and puts him off. She speaks to her sisters, and together the three realize that they won't be able to get rid of their destiny, but have to embrace it.

Cast

Main cast

• Shannen Doherty as Prue Halliwell
• Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell
• Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell

Supporting cast

2

External links

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