Well, based on interest from last month’s installment of this series, and that April is the fourth month of the year, I’m going to go ahead and give the fourth Charmed sister her own feature. Here she is.
Paige Matthews
We’re introduced to Paige in Season Four of Charmed. The Power of Three had been broken at the end of Season Three (not saying how), and, naturally, the only way to fix it was to discover a half-sister the Halliwell’s had never known about. Paige is the daughter of mother witch Patty and her whitelighter, Sam (tragic love story that coincidentally mirrors Piper’s own situation…). Paige was given up for adoption because if the Powers That Be ever found out a witch and whitelighter had gotten together, there would be trouble. Unfortunately, Paige’s adoptive parents were killed in a car accident when she was in high school, in which she miraculously survived.
When we meet Paige, she’s working at Social Services as an assistant, though she’s trying to climb the ranks to actual social worker. She has no idea she has magical powers until she meets her half-sisters. Because Paige is a whitelighter, her magic manifests itself a little differently. She can “orb,” which is basically a glowing lights version of “Beam me up, Scotty.” And when she tries to telepathically move things, they end up orbing too.
“I’ll take that crossbow.”
Paige is the youngest sister, and since she grew up an only child, she struggles to fit into the family dynamic the other Charmed Ones are used to having. Paige is independent and stubborn, and it takes her a while to learn to work as a team with her new sisters. She also struggles to find her own identity outside of running to the beck and call of her family and fighting demons. She tries many things in order to find her place in the world, including being a full-time witch (during which time a potion explosion turns her hair carrot orange red for a season), various temp jobs, and even teaching at magic school.
Like Phoebe, Paige loves being a witch, but it still sometimes gets in the way of romantic relationships. She even falls in love with a male witch at one point who has an unhealthy addiction to magic. Trying to keep her beau from casting spells while she’s running around doing it all day isn’t the best for a healthy relationship…
So with her, the Power of Three lives on and these kick-ass witches continue to fight evil, find love, and look good doing it.
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Prue is the eldest. She practically raised her sisters after their mother died and is very responsible, which sometimes leads her to clash with the youngest Halliwell sister, Phoebe, who lives more like a free-spirit. Prue has the power to move objects with her mind. It’s considered the most active power, laying even more responsibility on her shoulders, and leading to guilt when her “superior power” fails to save someone she loves. Prue struggles to keep her identity a secret, especially when it comes to fighting demons and keeping her 9-5 job at a high-end auction house. Eventually, she learns to invest in herself a little more, and quits to pursue her dream of being a photographer.
Piper is the middle child, always mediating between Prue and Phoebe. She works at a restaurant where she lets her boss walk all over her, yet she endures it because her dream is to become a chef. She has the power to freeze time. Her power starts small, only lasting a minute or so, but eventually grows powerful enough to freeze an entire room, and later she can go the opposite: speed molecules up so fast they explode. Piper just wants a normal life without vanquishing demons and ruining expensive pairs of boots. She also wants to fall in love and get married, but she doesn’t have the best luck with men—one was a demon who tried to kill her, another guy was a ghost, and then she fell in love with her white lighter (a witch’s guardian angel), which was a big no-no.
Phoebe is the youngest and “without vision” for her life, so Prue would say. Ironically, Phoebe’s power is premonition. It’s not a very active power, which she laments in comparison to her sisters, because unlike them, Phoebe likes being a witch. It gives her a purpose and an identity she’d been lacking in her life. Phoebe is a gung ho heroine, eager to kick some demon ass, and she even learns martial arts to make up for her lack of offensive magic.
Angela Wallace, Author 