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"Uh, excuse me. When you said, uh, sea hag, did you mean like old woman hag or evil magic hag?"
Piper to Mylie

A Witch's Tail, Part 1 is the first part of the season 5 premiere and the 89th overall episode of Charmed.

Summary[]

For a complete plot of A Witch's Tail, Part 1, go here.
To read the full script of A Witch's Tail, Part 1, go here.

The Charmed Ones struggle to help a beautiful mermaid from losing her immortality, but are hindered by morphing mishaps and a fiendish water demon Sea Hag.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Stars[]

Co-Stars[]

Uncredited[]

Magical Notes[]

Book of Shadows[]

SeaHagBoS

The entry on the Sea Hag (in a fanmade replica of the Book of Shadows).

An entry about The Sea Hag is mentioned, though it is not seen. It told that she had power of her natural environment, but did not mention specifically what that meant.

Sea Hag
The Sea Hag is a malevolent magical being
known for tempting Mermaids to give up
their immortality for the love of a human.
She then collects their immortal essence for
barter with powerful demons. She possesses
a vast array of powerful magic, drawn from
the brine of the Sea.

Spells[]

SeaHag Atmokinesis

The flood above San Francisco.

Sea Hag's Tracking Spell[]

The Sea Hag cast this spell, combining it with her power of Hydrokinesis, to create a flood above San Francisco. The flood would turn Mylie from her human form into her Mermaid form, as she would temporarily lose her human form on contact with water. After Mylie turned into her Mermaid form, the Sea Hag was able to sense her.

Water, rise up from the sea,
Find the one who fled from me
Follow where the winds are cold,
Then fall tenfold like days of old.

To Track the Sea Hag[]

The Charmed Ones casting a spell

The Charmed Ones casting the Spell.

Paige created a Power of Three spell to track the Sea Hag. After casting it with her sisters, Phoebe turned into a Mermaid. In the ocean, Phoebe was able to track the Sea Hag. She swam to the Sea Hag's lair, where she called for Leo, so he could orb to her with Piper and Paige.

Powers of the witches rise,
Find the hag who speaks in lies
Balance chakra, focus chi
Lead us through the cruel, cruel sea.

Powers[]

  • Orbing: Type of Teleportation used by Paige and Leo.
  • Fading: Type of Teleportation used by a Borneo Demon, Necron's lackey and Cole.
  • Shrinking: (through darts) The Borneo Demon could use magical darts to shrink the head of a teddy bear (narrowly missing Paige).
  • Molecular Combustion: Used by Piper to blow up the Borneo Demon.
  • Hydrokinesis: The Sea Hag used this power combined with a spell, to create a flood. She later used it to trap Paige in a water column (and tried it on Piper, but she dodged it). Later, Paige also dodged another attempt. She later succeeded in trapping Leo in a water column.
  • Sensing: The Sea Hag used this power to sense Mylie. Leo later sensed Piper's panic and courage.
  • Water Teleportation: Type of Teleportation used by the Sea Hag.
  • Liquification: Used by the Sea Hag to turn her body into water so Phoebe couldn't hit her with her car and so that Leo couldn't attack her with a sword.
  • Lightning Teleportation: Type of Teleportation used by Necron.
  • Electrokinesis: Used by Necron to kill his lackey.
  • Life Draining: Used by Necron to drain his lackey's life.
  • Transformation: Used by Cole to turn Darryl into a water cooler and to turn him back.
  • Regeneration: Used by Cole to heal the wound on his hand.
  • Acid Secretion: After returning from the Demonic Wasteland, Cole's blood was acidic.
  • Molecular Immobilization: Piper tried to freeze the Sea Hag, but she was immune to her power.
  • Molecular Deceleration: Used by Cole to slow down the criminal and the bullets.
  • Enhanced Senses: Used by Phoebe in mermaid form to locate the Sea Hag's lair.
  • Telekinetic Orbing: Used by Paige to orb the Auger Shell to her.
  • Conjuration: Used by the Sea Hag to conjure seaweed around Paige.
  • Healing: Leo tried to heal Mylie, but it failed because she was a Mermaid. Later, when Craig told her he loved her, he succeeded in healing her.

Artifacts[]

  • Auger Shell - A magical shell that sucks and stores the life force of the being that places the Shell on his/her heart.

Notes and Trivia[]

Locandine WB (32)

The Wb's promo

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AWT 01

Holly with fans on the set of this episode.

  • This is the sixth episode to have the word 'witch' in the title.
  • Before shooting for the season started, Rose McGowan cut and dyed her hair bright red. The writers worked this into the show by having Leo comment that Paige's change of color came from a potion blowing up in her face.
    • In a 2018 interview, Rose revealed that she actually got in trouble with the studio for doing this, as none of the three main actresses were allowed to alter their appearance without previous authorization from the network.
  • Alyssa Milano would later go on to work with Jaime Pressly in My Name is Earl. Alyssa Milano also appeared in Poison Ivy 2, while Jaime Pressley appeared in Poison Ivy 3.
  • After reading the script, Holly Marie alerted the crew of Alyssa's fear of the water and they had to work around her fear. Alyssa Milano said herself that she made the mistake of reading the script a day before shooting because she is deathly afraid of the water.
    • Alyssa agreed only to go into the ocean up to her waist; most of the underwater scenes are either of Alyssa's stunt double or scenes they had to film in shallow tanks of water.
    • In the scenes in the cavern, tanks of water were used and Alyssa's stunt double was always a few feet away from her when she was in the water.
  • Alyssa Milano and Dan Gauthier (Craig) previously worked together on the TV series Who's the Boss when he played her boyfriend Pierce.
  • Just like the episode "Charmed Again", this episode features a modified opening credits, where the main cast names appear after the credits.
  • In this episode it's revealed that Phoebe is allergic to shellfish.
  • As of this episode, Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano are producers of the show. Holly asked to be a producer since the start of season 4 as part of her new contract to keep her on the show.
  • This episode inspired a spin-off named Mermaid, though it was never picked up by a television station.
  • In this episode, Paige finds out how their mother was killed. She learned this after mentioning that the water demon had a "fascinating way " to kill.
  • Phoebe does not use either of her powers.
  • Phoebe now has a car of her own.

Cultural References[]

  • "A Witch's Tail" is a reference to Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale and a reference to the 2001 movie A Knight's Tale. It also refers to a mermaid's tail.
  • The plot of this episode draws many parallels to the Disney film The Little Mermaid, namely a mermaid making a deal with an evil sea creature to gain legs, falling in love with a human, and receiving his love to become human herself. Coincidentally, Alyssa Milano's image was used as a reference model for Ariel. Milano previously hosted a behind-the-scenes look of the film that aired on Disney Channel in 1989.

Continuity Errors[]

  • When Paige mentioned Cole's death, Leo asked "Which time?". While Cole's demonic persona, Belthazor, was technically vanquished in "Black as Cole", Cole himself died only once prior to the episode.

Gallery[]

Episode Stills[]

Screen Caps[]

International Titles[]

  • French: Les sirènes de l'amour - 1ère partie (The Mermaids of Love - 1st Part)
  • Czech: Malá mořská čarodějka - 1. část (Little Sea Witch - Part 1)
  • Slovak: Chvost čarodejnice - 1. časť (A Witch's Tail - Part 1)
  • Russian: Хвостатая ведьма, Часть 1 [Hvostataja ved′ma, Čast′ 1] (Tailed Witch, Part 1)
  • Serbian: Vesticin/Vestičji rep - 1. deo (Witch's Tail - Part 1)
  • Spanish (Spain): La cola de una bruja, Parte 1 (A Witch's Tail, Part 1)
  • Spanish (British DVD): La cola de la Bruja (The Tail of the Witch) [joined to part 2]
  • Spanish (Latin America): Una Bruja sirena, Parte 1 (A Mermaid Witch, Part 1)
  • Italian: Una Sirena di Nome Phoebe, Parte 1 (A Mermaid Named Phoebe, Part 1)
  • German: Der Ruf des Meeres Teil 1 (The Call of the Sea Part 1)
  • Hungarian: A tenger hívó szava, 1. rész (The Call of the Sea, Part 1)
Previous Episode:
Witch Way Now?
Next Episode:
A Witch's Tail, Part 2
Episodes: Season 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
Comics: 9 - 10


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