Woman of the Month: Prue Halliwell

Prue Halliwell from Charmed

This month I plan to watch the first season of the original Charmed, a quintessential part of my early adolescence and perfect viewing for the month of October.

Whenever there’s a trio of fictional sisters (or even just a duo), it’s inevitably the eldest one I’ll relate to most since – well, I’m the eldest one. To be the firstborn of the family means being the most responsible, the de facto leader, the homebody, the one with the most expectations placed upon your shoulders – at least, that’s the characterization this type usually gets.

Prue embodies all these attributes, and in many ways her role as the oldest Halliwell sister informs her entire story-arc. She’s the one most reluctant to embrace her witch heritage, the one imbued with the most power, and the one burdened with juggling a full-time job, maintenance of the family home, the awakening of her telekinesis gift, and the arrival of an old flame...

If you could sum the character up with one word, it would be “duality”, as despite her very name (Prudence) implying cautiousness and common sense, the fact that she can move objects with her mind – or throw them, fling them, hurl them – is a reflection of her true inner self. That is, there’s a storm of emotions beneath her brisk, professional exterior, and after a later episode reveals that her power is triggered by anger, a new context is brought to the way the gradual mastery of her abilities is staggered across the course of the season. She’s tapping into her long-suppressed emotions, and her newfound telekinesis is their outlet.

I have pretty much memory-holed everything that came after the first season of Charmed: I recall the plots got dumber, the outfits got uglier, and Prue... died. (Though I read her character page on the wiki, and apparently she eventually gets reincarnated in another witch’s body? Then goes missing? And then gets reunited with Piper and Phoebe before ascending to the afterlife? Man, I missed a lot!)

But as far as I’m concerned, the first season’s twenty-two episodes, with its solid arc and decent characterization, is all I need from this particular franchise. The witches of the nineties – the Charmed Ones, Willow and Tara, Sabrina Spellman, the Owens sisters, and the coven from The Craft – will always be remembered fondly by me, as they are the characters that kept me company as I transitioned from child to teenager. Of course, Prue is possibly the one I most aspired to be: confident, intelligent, level-headed, and able to throw things around with her mind.