Something Wicca This Way Comes

"Something Wicca This Way Comes" is the first episode of The WB drama series, Charmed. 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.

Plot summary

The show opens with a witch sitting at an altar and lighting candles with the tips of her fingers. She then turns around and is startled by someone who is not identified to us. She acts as if she knows him and there is nothing to fear around him but then she screams.

Phoebe Halliwell returns to the San Francisco Manor house of her grandmother where she was reared through her childhood after living in New York for six months. The manor is where her two older sisters, Piper Halliwell (middle, class of '92) and Prue Halliwell (oldest), currently live. There is some friction and "history" between the bossy, confident Prue and Phoebe, the youngest and most impulsive, as well as a little tension between Prue and Piper.

Prue does not know that Phoebe is moving back home until moments before she arrives, to make an unpleasant situation worse. Before the arrival of her little sister Phoebe, Piper finds an old Spirit board that was found in the basement while Prue was looking for a circuit tester. That reads:

"To my three beautiful girls may this give you the light that will lead you to find the shadows. The power of three will set you free. Love mom." Piper then makes a comment to Prue, "We never did figure out what this inscription meant." Prue makes a comment on how that should be given to Phoebe since her life is so in the dark maybe some light would help. The two sisters then begin to have a discussion about Phoebe and how Piper believes Prue is too hard on her. Piper becomes upset that her sister is acting very in compassionate on her younger sister and leaves the living room. As she leaves the Spirit board begins to move around.

It is pouring with rain outside and Piper asks Prue if having another room mate would be a good idea (knowing that Phoebe would show up at any minute) Prue finds out that Piper leads to breaking the news that Phoebe is moving back with them and no longer living in New York. As Prue asks when Phoebe will arrive, Phoebe opens the door with the "spare key" that she found outside. The two sisters have an altercation which causes both sisters to storm out of the room to their own directions.

Phoebe and Piper are playing with the Spirit board from the beginning while Piper tells Phoebe how she met Jeremy. As Piper goes into the kitchen the pointer on the Spirit board starts making out a word. Phoebe freaks out and calls in Piper to see. 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 move the pointer in the past. The Spirit board finally spells out the word "attic" and Phoebe writes it down on paper.

With the power failure, Piper and Prue head off for the fuse panel to see if the outage is just their home, and Phoebe instead is drawn up to the attic as the Spirit board indicated to go. She struggles to open the door and as she gives up and walks away, the door opens to let her in. Phoebe slowly walks in the attic with her flashlight looking around and suddenly sees a stark contrasts painted by an emergent and bright moon. Pulled to the light, she finds a huge book in a chest dramatically outlined by the oddly bright moon light entitled "The Book of Shadows". Carelessly, unaware of the powers involved, She reads an page from it out loud, inadvertently making it an incantation so giving herself and her sisters their destined powers: Phoebe with premonitions, Piper has molecular immobilization, and Prue has telekinesis.

This section requires expansion with: This needs a smooth transition in the synopsis from the power outage to power discoveries following... someone with the DVD version fill in please!.

"Something Wicca This Way Comes" Pure,Piper,Phoebe and Paige they helped Billie. 4 sisters.So it was Pure, Piper and Phoebe unit Pure die Paige lived with them so it was Piper,Phoebe and Paige. Billie came in season 8 . Sophie came in charmed in season 1.

Finding empowerment

Later on, Prue quits her job due to the fact that Roger, her boss and ex-fiancé, is giving her a very hard time. Although she is not aware of it she uses her power to tighten his tie until it chokes him around his neck, and she makes a pen explode in his pocket. Piper learns of her power when she gets frustrated and accidentally freezes the chef of the restaurant she is trying out for; although she is surprised, she quickly puts the last ingredient into her tryout recipe. Phoebe is riding her bike when she has her first premonition of two boys on skates getting hit by a car. She yells out when she sees them and skids her bike in front of them to stop them and she falls off. While Phoebe is in the hospital because of her accident, Prue meets up an old friend, Andy, who is now a police detective. Phoebe and Prue go out together and talk, after finishing up at the hospital, 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. Meanwhile, Piper is on a date with Jeremy, who is actually a warlock, an evil wizard who steals the powers of good witches. Just before he stabs her with an athame, Piper freezes Jeremy and runs home. Although together the sisters cast a spell to get rid of Jeremy, he has not yet been defeated and bursts into the house, the sisters realized that they must recite an incantation 'The power of three will set us free', they repeat this until Jeremy is gone. The next day, the three sisters realize that they won't be able to get rid of their destiny, but have to embrace it.

Book of Shadows

Enemies

• Jeremy Burns: A warlock who romances female witches to get their powers and kill them. Jeremy poses as a reporter, tricking women into dating him. Jeremy is capable of changing the shape of his face, ignite flames from his fingers, telekinesis, disintegrate objects, and project energy bolts from an athame. He is also capable of adjusting. He is after the Charmed Ones' powers and knows that they will be released after the charmed ones Grandmother dies. He dates Piper Halliwell in order keep an eye on the sisters. Once their Grams dies and Phoebe returns, Jeremy makes his move but is vanquished by the Halliwell Sisters.

Spells

• Dominus Trinus: Hear now the words of the witches. The secrets we hid in the night. The oldest of gods are invoked here. The great work of magic is sought. In this night and in this hour. We call upon the Ancient Power. Bring your powers to us sisters three! We want the power! Give us the power.
• To Lose a Love Forever: Use a basket, poppet, nine candles anointed with oils and spices, and a rose given from the lover. Put basket and poppet on a table, encircled by the candles. To make it stronger, bind rose to poppet and press thorns into it. Place poppet in the basket and burn while saying the spell. Your love will wither and depart From my life and my heart Let me be, (name) And go away forever.
  Note: this spell did not vanquish Jeremy Burns, as intended, instead causing him to erupt in thorns. He was not properly vanquished until the Charmed Ones recited the Power of Three Spell.
• Power of Three Spell: The power of three will set us free. This spell was repeated until Jeremy was vanquished.

Production Details

Cast

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

Note: Lori Rom was originally set to play Phoebe Haliwell but she quit before the show was picked up.

Supporting cast

Significance

• This episode establishes the strained relationship between Prue and Phoebe. Piper, as the middle sister, is also established as a peace keeper. This role will later be filled by Phoebe when she becomes the middle sister.
• Kit (the cat) is adopted by the Charmed Ones, although her background story is later changed.

International Titles

• French: Le livre des ombres (The Book of Shadows)
• German: Das Buch der Schatten (The Book of Shadows)
• Italian: Il Libro delle Ombre (The Book of Shadows)
• Spanish: Por aquí llega algo mágico (Something Magical This Way Comes) Algo Extraño se Aproxima (Something Strange Approaches) - Latin America
• Macedonia: Knigata na Senkite (The Book of Shadows)
• Polish: Księga cieni (The Book of Shadows)

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