Prudence Halliwell
From Charmed
Patty Halliwell & Victor Bennett (parents)
Piper & Phoebe Halliwell (sisters)
Paige Matthews (half-sister)
Leo Wyatt, Coop & Henry Mitchell (brothers-in-law)
Wyatt, Chris, Melinda Halliwell, Henry Mitchell, Jr., the Mitchell twins & Phoebe's daughters (nieces & nephews)
- Telekinesis
- Astral Projection
- Advanced Telekinesis (In Future)
- Agility (Possibly in Future)
- Enhanced power due to the Power of Three bond
Prudence Halliwell, more commonly known as Prue, was born on October 28, 1970. She was the firstborn child of Patty Halliwell, a witch, and Victor Bennett, a mortal. She is the older sister of Piper and Phoebe, and half-sister of Paige Matthews. As a witch, Prue had the magical power of telekinesis, which allowed her to move things with her mind. Later she gained the power of Astral projection. On March 24th, 1975, she was visited by a future version of herself. In November 1975, after two of Prue's sisters had been born, their grandmother Penny bound their powers to keep a warlock named Nicholas from killing them and stealing their powers. The memory of having had powers was erased by their grandmother. Six months after her grandmother's death, they regained their powers.
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Childhood and Growing up
In high school, Prue was a very popular A-list student, President of the Student Council and a cheerleader. At some point, she also became rebellious, but it did not stop her from learning how to be responsible and protective of her family. She longed to be a professional photographer when she was young, perhaps as a psychic echo of her past life in the 1920s as one of Penny's aunts. At seventeen, the boy she thought she was in love with attacked her, incurring the wrath of an indignant Grams, who, according to Piper, presumably used witchcraft to make the attacker disappear from reality. When she was twenty, she got into a car accident, and blamed herself for hurting Phoebe, who was hospitalized after the accident.
When they went to college, Piper and Prue moved into an apartment together in North Beach. Prue took up History, and was a serious student, but still became popular. Later on, when their grandmother Penny became ill, they moved back to the manor. Prue became engaged to her boss Roger and she asked Piper to be her maid of honor. About this time, Penny took a picture of the three of them together in front of the manor. Penny planned to use a potion to strip the sisters of their powers permanently, which was against Patty's wishes, but Penny died before she could do it. It was also revealed that, in the days of their early childhood, the sisters had a pet dog named Rasputin, but lost him. Years later, when Phoebe cast a Lost and Found spell, Rasputin came back, but they did not get to keep him.
Prue, being the oldest sister, saw herself as the maternal figure of the household when her mother died; she was conservative, cautious and disliked surprises, and it was often left to the middle sister Piper to mediate between Prue and Phoebe, whom Prue regarded as immature, irresponsible and unpredictable. Although they still had occasional disagreements, their relationship improved a considerable deal over time, enabling the three sisters to stand united in spite of their notable differences.
Powers & Abilities
Telekinesis
Prue came into her power with a mixture of shock and anger at her sister Phoebe, whom she blamed for her introduction to the Craft. Out of the four sisters, Prue struggled with her powers and her destiny the most, especially when dealing with her mother's past and death. When Prue finally embraced her destiny, she did so with all of her energy.
Prue originally has the power to move objects with her mind (telekinesis). Her telekinesis was originally focused by squinting her eyes; later, she learned to channel the ability through her hands, though she did this once in the first episode where she got angry at Roger. She held her hands in the air whilst she was walking away from him and closed them together as if strangling an imaginary neck. In response, Roger's tie tightened to the extent that he had to cut it off with scissors to stop it suffocating him. In the same episode, she demonstrated the ability to channel her telekinesis through speech, as seen when a jug of cream automatically slided its way towards her when she asked where it was. However, she never performed such a feat again.
Astral Projection
As her powers developed, she later learned the skill of astral projection, the ability to project her mind from her body in a tangible state on the physical plane. In this state, Prue becomes unconscious while her mind projected into a concrete body. This power is triggered when she wants to be at two different places at the same times. Prue's astral-projected self is identical with herself except that she doesn't have her power of telekinesis. It is probably because all her telekinetic powers are fully employed in either keeping her two selves seperate, or keeping her astral-projection self solid. If Prue had lived, it is possible that she might have mastered the skill of still being able to use her telekinetic powers in astral-form. In Just Harried, her astral form began to manifest a will of its own to express the desires that she had kept inside her.
Additional Powers and Abilities
Premonition
In Love Hurts, after Piper cast a power switching spell, she gained a Phoebe's power of premonition. She used it to track down an innocent named Daisy. After she was saved, Prue and Phoebe switched their powers back.
Evil Powers
- Darklighter Powers
In Love Hurts, after casting a power switching spell, she gained a Darklighter's Touch of Death, however she used it to ultimately incinerate him; she commented that she never had to feel so much hate to activate that power. Before he was completely destroyed, Prue used the spell to switch back Phoebe's power.
- Warlock Powers
When Prue was turned evil in 'Bride and Gloom', she was granted the traditional warlock power of blinking, and her telekinesis appeared to be stronger. This enhancement of power was removed after she and her sisters broke the bond that tied them to evil.
Empathy and Additional Strength
In Primrose Empath, Prue accidentally acquired the power of empathy. She was trying to help the demonic hit man Vinceres, who was posing as a vagrant, and while trying to remove his empathy Vinceres passed it to her. She was almost destroyed by all the overwhelming emotions she could feel from others. However, with the help of Father Thomas, Prue was able to channel all the emotions she could sense into her telekinetic powers. In her battle with Vinceres, she was able to perform spectacular martial-arts feats that surpassed even those of Phoebe, who had more than two years of training by that time. The battle ultimately concluded with Prue astral-projecting into Vinceres' body, forcing him to feel all of the emotional baggage she'd been carrying. Vinceres was unable to handle it (since demons are unable to feel human emotion) and blew up; he'd long been thought to be invincible. By vanquishing Vinceres with this power, she was freed from it.
Possible Power Advancement
In an alternate future, Prue's power of telekinesis advanced to the degree where she could use it to project potent energy blasts capable of massive destruction, as seen when she unintentionally blasted the entire wall of an attic with just a mere wave of her hand.
If Prue had lived, she might have mastered a superior level of skill and control over her telekinetic powers, enabling her to not only fire energy blasts, but also perform other greater feats, such as moving things she cannot see with her mind.
The final culmination of all of Prue's power advancement could have been the new powers of Levitation or at least Agility. Also, if her telekinesis had reached its full potential, Prue might have combined it with her combat skills to become a whirlwind of destruction (as seen in Primrose Empath, when she was able to meet Vinceres blow for blow). She may also devop the powers of Psychokinesis as an advancement on her Telekinesis and a form of teleportation as an advancement to her astral-projection. There is also the possibility of her astral-projection power evolving into cloning if she had survived. However she died before we could know for sure.
Romantic life
In high school, Prue dated a man named Andy Trudeau. In college she dated the captain of the football team (who later trains to be a demonized human), Tom Peters.
Eventually, Prue met a man name Roger (her boss at the Museum of Natural History). They were engaged sometime later, but Roger kept coming on to Phoebe secretly, then claiming Phoebe was after him. Prue believed Roger but still broke off their engagement and later quit her job to get away from him.
Once Prue came into her powers, she invariably became involved in criminal cases involving murdered, missing, or otherwise harmed innocents. This led her to reunite with her childhood sweetheart, Andy Trudeau, who had become an Inspector with the San Francisco Police Department. Their feelings rekindled and began dating once more. The relationship was turbulent as Prue's secret witchcraft caused a lot of difficulties. She was regularly late or a no show for dates and appointments with Andy, much to his frustration. Eventually, Prue cast a truth spell on Andy without his knowledge, whereby 24 hours later, he would remember nothing from the past day. She used this to tell him the truth about herself to see if he could accept it. The answer was unsure, but leaned to the negative, and she eventually called the relationship off.
Sometime after Prue broke up with Andy, she helped a half-blood warlock named Brendan Rowe and so fell in love with him before he gave himself into God and became a priest, and their relationship didn't go any further than a kiss.
As their awkward encounters at crime scenes, victims and witnesses' homes increased, Andy's suspicions became aroused. It was revealed that he had considerable circumstantial evidence of the sisters' occult activities and their involvement in numerous cases. Eventually, Prue had no choice but to admit to her involvement and explain it. While Andy was skeptical, it was eventually proven to him that Prue was not working against him, and he eventually came to understand the true complexities of the relationship that went sour with Prue. However, once it looked like Andy and Prue might get a chance without the magical problem, Andy gave his life to save Prue and her sisters to ensure the good work they do continued.
After Andy's death, Prue did date a few people, though none were extremely memorable other than the possible Jack Sheridan or the mortal crime boss Bane Jessup. When Prue went undercover as the assassin Ms. Hellfire to find out who was behind an assassination attempt on her and her sisters. Eventually, she discovered that the demon Barbas had hired Bane to kill the sisters. Bane then hired Ms. Hellfire to complete the job. Prue started falling in love with Bane, but had to have him arrested for conspiracy to commit murder once the entire plot was discovered and Barbas was destroyed. Bane Jessup appeared again trying to get Prue to help him clear his name. The two never saw each other again after this. (Ms. Hellfire, Give Me a Sign).
In season 3, she never had any real love interest, but rather shown romantic attractions to a few people, and dated some of them, Sean, Micah/Mitch & Justin Harper.
Sometime later she was kidnapped by a warlock named Zile. Prue unconsciously got married to him by the dark priestess, Dantalian. Because of this dark bond, Prue became temporarily evil and turned against her sisters. When Zile was vanquished by the Charmed Ones, the evil hold on her was released.
Professional life
Museum of Natural History
When the show first started, Prue worked at the Museum of Natural History in San Francisco, which she has worked since after college, where she met Roger, who became her boss and later her fiancé. After breaking up with Roger, she came into her powers and quit her job at the museum.
Buckland's Auction House
One week later, she received a call from Bucklands Auction House as an ancient artifacts expert. Prue noted that her areas of expertise are dated from Mingh dynasty to a Mark McGwire rookie baseball card. However, the auction house was infiltrated by two powerful demons named Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster who were plotting the demise of the Charmed line; after vanquishing them, Prue continued to work there. It was at the auction house that she first used her astral projection powers.
415 Magazine
After a year and a half at the auction house, she quit to use her free time to figure what she really wanted to do. Eventually, she decided to pursue her dream and joined 415 Magazine, where she became one of their top photographers and was finally able to fulfill her childhood dream before she died.
Charmed life
Prue however seemed to have magical troubles, even with non-magical beings. She was kidnapped by former gangster Bane Jessup, to help him fend off against the Ordo Malorum. Prue had found herself romantically attracted to him, as did he in her.
On another occasion, Prue started having recurring dreams of a dangerous man named T.J. that hung out in a nearby bar, without knowing that her astral form was being used by her repressed emotions to get away from her responsibilities. After a murder outside the bar was blamed on Prue, the police started to look for her. At Piper and Leo's (Leo being her brother in law) wedding, the police came after Prue, and T.J. crashed the wedding on a motorcycle to rescue her. Phoebe talked Prue into getting herself together and Darryl, Leo and Cole found the real killer.
Prue's magical transformations
Throughout the course of the series, Prue has been turned into....
Season 1
- A mortal
- A spirit
- A Darklighter, after casting a spell to Switch powers with Alec
Season 2
- A man with the alias "Manny Hanks "
- A future version of herself
- A reverted teenager
Season 3
Prue As A Dog
In the Season 3 episode, Look Who's Barking, Prue is turned into a Siberian Husky dog (see familiar). She is turned into a dog by the spell to find a Banshee. When Prue is a dog she is ran over by a "Cute Guy". When she is turned back to a witch, she dates this man, however, the relationship did not go anywhere as Prue died in the next episode.
Death Count
During the run of the series and her life as a Charmed One, Prue died 3 times. Although she has died the fewest times she never recovered the third time.
| Episode | Episode Name | Cause Of Death | Revival |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1x20 | "The Power of Two" | She kills herself to be able to destroy a ghost. | Andy practices CPR on her. |
| 2x22 | "Be Careful What You Witch For" | Stabbed in the back by the dragon demon. | Phoebe wished on a genie for her to be alive again. |
| 3x22 | "All Hell Breaks Loose" | Thrown through a wall by Shax. | She was never revived. |
Prue's death
Prue's death was the eventual consequence, in the show's third season finale All Hell Breaks Loose", of a series of events that involved magic becoming exposed, time being turned back, and the sisters being tricked by the Source of All Evil.
Her coming death was foreshadowed a few episodes before, in the episode Death Takes a Halliwell, where Prue meets the Angel of Death and has several conversations with him about the meaning and necessity of Death, that she hasn't been able to accept since her mother passed. The angel also assures her that he is "not coming for her.....yet, anyway." After a battle between the demon Shax next to the Manor the girls were caught on tape by a television crew filming in the street, magic, and both the world of witches and demons was exposed to the general public, something which was to be avoided by both good and evil at all costs. Reporters and civilians started camping out in front of the manor and things started getting out of control.
After Piper was shot by a crazed witch-wannabe, a desperate Prue used her powers for the first (and last) time on innocents to get them out of the way of the car in order to bring her severely wounded sister to the hospital, and was then ordered to be shot by special forces.
As piper was already dead there was no other choice for Leo, Phoebe and Cole than to try make a deal with the Source of All Evil, which was attempted by Cole. The Source agreed to authorize the demon Tempus to turn back time on Earth. However, The Source's ultimate trick was that he ordered for Cole to be detained after the deal was struck and for Phoebe to be killed. Time was rewound by Tempus but only on the surface with the Underworld being unaffected. This meant that Phoebe was removed from the surface timeline. With no Phoebe to find the spell when Prue, Piper and Grifiths returned home Shax was able to storm in and attack all three. Leo then arrived too late too heal everyone and had to choose between the innocent, his sister in law and his wife. Needless to say, he chose Piper.
Prue and Griffith's deaths weren't revealed until the start of season 4, with the devastation left in Shax's wake being a cliffhanger ending for season 3, with Shax's tornado closing the manor doors instead of Prue.
Afterlife
After Prue's death, she did not appear again to the sisters. According to Penny in the episode following Prue's death, Prue was still adjusting to being in the afterlife. Also, if Piper was able to see her like she intended, that would not let her move on and accept Prue's death, and that is why she has not been seen since. Although strangely, Grams had only been dead for around two years when Piper summoned her yet in the entire remainder of the series run from Prue's death onward (4 years) she has never been summoned as far as is known even though she would have surely adjusted to the afterlife by then and be firmly dead in the sister's mind.
However, Prue has been in some of the later seasons but her face did not show. In a season five episode (Cat House), Piper casts a spell to let herself and Leo literally see their pasts while they're talking about their memories in councilling. Prue was shown twice in the flashbacks, once was a flashback of Piper and Leo's wedding, where the back of her head was shown as she rode off on a motorcycle and a flashback in which she was turned into a dog to help catch the Banshee.
In part two of "Charmed Again", Phoebe and Piper went through the Book of Shadows for a way to find Paige. After some searching, Phoebe apparently gives up, saying "This is useless". She then coughed and winked at Piper, hinting her to follow suit as an attempt to get Grams to help them find that spell, as she had done so in the past. It worked, and Phoebe says "Thanks Grams" and Piper says "How do you know it wasn't from somebody else?", hinting that it could have been Prue who showed them the correct page.
In the season seven finale Something Wicca This Way Goes, the sisters cast a spell that allows them to utilize Prue's astral projection power. This is indicated by Piper saying "Thank you, Prue," after the spell's effect is over. Also, continuing the tradition of Charmed finales, season seven closes the manor door with a chime sound associated with Prue's telekinesis, implying that it might have been Prue doing so from the afterlife. Prue closed the door with her power in the finale of seasons one and two. In the season five finale, Piper's son Chris closes the door, showing he has Prue's power of telekinesis. Likewise, in the series finale, Piper's granddaughter, named Prudence (confirmed in Charmed Magazine) as a final nod to her great aunt Prue, also uses it to close the door.
Notes
- For almost 20 years, Prue could never say I love you as they were the last words she spoke to her mother before she was killed. (From Fear to Eternity)
- Prue never met Paige.
- Prue promised Piper before her wedding, that she would stop anybody that tried to ruin the ceremony. Ironically, it was Prue who ruined Piper's wedding. (Just Harried)
- Prue died when she pushed Dr.Griffiths out of the way, if she had moved him telekinetically or had not bothered with him at all, she would more than likely still be alive.
- Prue broke her ankle at the age of 7. (Ms. Hellfire)
- Phoebe taught Prue how to french kiss. (Ms. Hellfire)
- Piper gave Prue the chicken pox as a child. (Ms. Hellfire)
- Piper and Prue went to Duran Duran together and Prue stretched her leg warmers so gave them to Phoebe. (Ms. Hellfire)
- In 2007 AOL named Prue the 10th greatest witch in TV witch history and her sister Piper was number 1.
- Prue's astrological sign is Scorpio. Her future nephew, Chris, would later have the same birth sign.
- When Prue was turned into a dog in Look Who's Barking, Phoebe said she was such a pretty dog, then Piper says what do you expect. Leo then replies "A doberman" and she growls at him.
- Both Prue and her mom were killed by elemental demons.
- Prue was the first Charmed One who's power advanced into a new power.
- Both Prue and Phoebe's names come from ancestors.
- Prue bears a striking resemblance to her future nephew Chris. They both have dark hair and blue eyes. They also have similar personalities; they're both serious, businesslike, and they care greatly for their families well-being. Also, they both have encountered the Angel of Death sometime before their deaths.
- Prue never participated any ultimate battles during her years as a Charmed One.
- Prue was a cheerleader and class president in high school. (Coyote Piper)
