Prue Halliwell

Prudence Halliwell
Charmed character
picture of a young woman with black hair that goes to her shoulders. She is wearing a white t-shirt under a pink sweater. Shannen Doherty as Prue Halliwell
First appearance	Something Wicca This Way Comes
Last appearance	All Hell Breaks Loose (Series Regular) (Flashbacks in Cat House,Charmageddon) Forever Charmed (Reference Only)
Created by	Piper Halliwell (Middle Sister) Phoebe Halliwell (Younger Sister) Paige Matthews (Younger Half- Sister) Victor Bennett (Father) Patricia Halliwell (Mother;Deceased) Penny "Grams" Halliwell (Grandmother, Deceased) Allen Halliwell (Grandfather, Deceased) Henry Mitchell (Brother-in-law married to Paige) Coop (Brother-in-law married to Phoebe) Prudence "Ladybug" Halliwell (Niece; via Coop and Phoebe) Two Unnamed Nieces (via Coop and Phoebe) Two Unnamed Nieces (via Paige and Henry) Henry Mitchell Jr. (via Paige and Henry) Two nephews Wyatt and Chris (via Piper and Leo) Constance M. Burge
Portrayed by	Shannen Doherty (adult) Emmalee Thompson (child)
In-universe information
Nickname	Prue
Species	Witch Charmed One Ghost
Spouse	Ziles (Deceased)
Notable powers	Telekinesis Telematerialization Astral Projection Advanced Telekinesis

Prudence 'Prue' Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed, and its numerous spin-offs, such as novels, games and trading cards. The character was portrayed by Shannen Doherty in the series between 1998 and 2001, appearing in every episode of the first three seasons until her character's death. Doherty was also twice nominated for a Saturn Award for her portrayal of the character. In 2008, AOL named her the 10th greatest witch in television history.

Prue was a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One– one of the most powerful witches of all time. As the eldest of the four sisters, she was regarded as the most powerful and fearless, and occasionally named a "super witch". During her life, Prue had to balance her destiny of defeating the forces of evil in San Francisco with taking responsibility for her sisters and leading a normal life as an auction specialist and photographer. In May 2001, she was murdered in her home by Shax, the personal assassin of the Source of All Evil.

Background

Prudence Halliwell was born on October 28, 1970 in San Francisco, California. She was the firstborn child of Patty Halliwell, a witch, and Victor Bennett, a mortal. She is named after Prudence Warren, the daughter of Melinda Warren, founder of the Warren witch line.

As a witch, Prue developed the magical power of telekinesis, which allowed her to move things with her mind. On March 24, 1975, she was visited by a future version of herself. Also on that day, Patty signed a pact with the warlock Nicholas to bless a ring that made him immune to her daughters' powers.

In November 1975, after Phoebe had been born, their grandmother Penny bound their powers to keep Nicholas from killing them and taking their powers. Penny also erased their memory of having powers. When Patty was drowned by a water demon three years later, Prue was particularly devastated; for many years afterward she was unable to say "I love you" to anyone because it had been the last thing she'd said to her mother.

In high school, Prue was a very popular A 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. Prue 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 age 21, she got into a car accident and blamed herself for hurting Phoebe, who was hospitalized after the incident. She'd had plans of going East to study photography, but Grams forced her stay on the West Coast, where she attended Gold State University.

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 in college, as she dated the captain of the football team (who later trains to be a demonized human), star receiver Tom Peters. She graduated with honors from Gold State University. The two girls stayed in North Beach until 1997 when Penny became ill and they moved back in with Grams and Phoebe at the manor. Prue became engaged to her boss Roger and she asked Piper to be her maid of honor after stating that she would love for both of her sisters to be her best friends and have them both as maids of honor. However, Roger began coming on to Phoebe secretly, then claimed Phoebe had come on to him. Prue broke off the engagement shortly afterward. About this time, Penny took a picture of the three of them together in front of the manor. After the girls received their powers, the images of the girls in the picture moved closer together than they originally had been. Penny planned to use a potion to bind the girls' powers forever because she didn't think they'd ever stop bickering long enough to fulfill their destiny. However, Penny died just after making the potion, but before giving it to the sisters.

On the show, she drives 4 cars- 1991 Mazda MX-5 Miata (1x01-2x16), 1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata (2x01-2x19), 1986 Ford Taurus Rental Car (2x16), and 2000 BMW X5 (2x20-3x22).

Revelation as a Charmed One

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. However, when Prue did embrace her destiny, she did so with all of her energy. Prue even sacrificed most of her personal life so she could carry out her charmed destiny and work to help pay the bills. As the oldest sister, Prue was fiercely protective of Piper and Phoebe and was very much first among equals in their Charmed duties, where she would often sacrifice herself in order to protect Piper and Phoebe.

Powers and abilities

Prue originally had the power to move objects with her mind or telekinesis. She was actually the first to (re)discover her powers in the series premiere. Her boss Roger had taken credit for her work. She glared at him, causing his pen to explode in his pocket. Her telekinesis was originally focused by squinting her eyes. By the end of the first season, she learned to channel the ability with her hands, like Grams had been able to do. She'd been able to channel the power through her hands when she was younger. Over time, she grew powerful enough that she could move objects with a mere crook or twitch of her finger.

The limits of Prue's telekinetic powers were unclear, but she appeared to be able to move up to 400 pounds (180 kg) with her mind, sufficient to lift and throw two normal sized adults. She seldom used her powers in complex manipulations (one example of such is in episode 'Secrets and Guys' from Season 1, when the sisters are spring cleaning in the attic), preferring to simply lift and throw. Like her sisters, her powers were linked to her emotions. In Prue's case, the trigger was anger. Once, while frustrated by a crowd obstructing her passage to the hospital to transport the mortally wounded Piper, she telekinetically hurled several people out of the way, up to two at a time, in rapid succession. This incident also marked the only time she employed her power on innocents. Prue's telekinetic powers depended on a direct line of sight, or at least an intimate knowledge of the object's location in order to be manipulated. She could not telekinetically move an object if she didn't know where it was.

In the pilot episode Prue was able to display a facet of her telekinesis that she was never able to duplicate since, namely the ability to use her telekinesis to teleport one object to another area without it moving through the space between. Prue as able to do this when she telekinetically caused cream to transfer from a creamer container directly into her coffee without it going through the air. Whether this could have been expanded upon as the series progressed will never be known.

As her powers developed she acquired the power of Astral Projection, the ability to project her consciousness from her body in a tangible state on the physical plane. In this state, the original Prue becomes unconscious while her consciousness projects into a solid body. (Although in the episode Primrose Empath she awoke and smiled at her astral self) This power is triggered when she wants to be in two different places at once. Prue's astral self is identical with herself except that she doesn't have the original Prue's telekinetic power. While Prue's astral self is normally tangible, she can apparently become intangible in this state if she wished, as when she projected herself into the "unstoppable" demon Vinceres. She was also shot by a stalker in astral form but was unaffected. It's also been seen that injuries sustained by Prue do not appear on her astral self. When a stalker rendered Prue nearly blind by thrusting her face in a pan of photographic developer, her astral self showed no signs of the injury or the impairment, which were obvious on Prue's actual form.

It should also be noted that Prue's telekinetic powers were not the strongest in the family line. An ancestor of hers, Brianna, reportedly was able to telekinetically move a sword (belonging to one of the Lords of War, Gabriel) "hundreds of miles," a feat which Prue admitted she probably couldn't duplicate. In a visit to the past, Grams, believing Prue, Piper and Phoebe to be warlocks, telekinetically maneuvered them in a complex path to expel them from the manor. Prue had never moved more than two at a time, and never performed anything more complex than lifting and throwing with more than one person.

In a trip to the future, Prue blasted out an entire wall of the attic, a sample of telekinetic blast showing her future self's telekinetic powers to be several times more powerful than she had ever displayed up until the time she died.

In contrast to the limits on her telekinetic powers, she could astrally project herself several miles away and didn't need to know anything about the destination. She once projected herself to Cole's side without intimate knowledge of his location. While kidnapped by Bane Jessup, she could astrally project herself to the manor to alert her sisters, without knowing the direction and distance.

When Phoebe takes a trip to the past it is shown that Prue (in a past life) had the ability of cryokinesis aka ice breathing. She was able to project a cloud of super-chilled vapor, which she could direct by raising her hand to her lips and blowing across it. This cloud appeared to be highly cohesive, since it did not dissipate in the air, nor seem to significantly lower the temperature of the room.

Prue, being the eldest sister, saw herself as the head of the household and felt the need to protect her two younger sisters. She was businesslike, cautious and disliked surprises. She had a somewhat chilly relationship with Phoebe for most of her life even before her engagement to Roger fell apart, and generally had little patience for her until she turned her life around. Prue long thought Phoebe was immature, irresponsible and unpredictable. For her part, Phoebe thought Prue acted less as a sister than a mother. Piper, the middle sister, frequently had to arbitrate between Prue and Phoebe. Over time, Prue and Phoebe became much closer due to their destiny as Charmed Ones, as well as Phoebe's intimate knowledge of the Book of Shadows.

Charmed life

Leading the Charmed Ones

Prue had trouble with the right balance of work and play during her entire life as a Charmed One. She spent a lot of time and energy becoming a more powerful witch, referred to sometimes as the "superwitch" and "Wicca Wonder" of the family. This is probably because Prue took it upon herself to protect her younger sisters after their mother's death.

Dantalian, a dark priestess, wanted to get the Book, but by this time evil could not even touch it. To get around this, she tricked Prudence into marrying a warlock, Zile. Because of this dark bond, Prue turned into a warlock. The Charmed Ones' magic was so intertwined by this time that Dantalian's spell also turned Piper and Phoebe into warlocks, and the evil flowed through the Book as well. However, Piper and Phoebe killed Zile, breaking the evil bond and restoring the sisters to good.

Becoming the "Superwitch"

In the Season 3 premiere, Prue first displayed martial arts skills on-screen while battling a court room full of demonically-possessed humans.

In "Primrose Empath", she had her first battle with a demon. She channeled her temporary empathic powers into her telekinetic powers, enabling her to perform martial-arts feats that surpassed even those of Phoebe. After the battle, she thought that she'd gotten a preview of what her powers would be like once they grew to their full potential.

Prue also 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. 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 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.

As if those other troubles weren't enough, Prue was affected by some of her sisters' own spells, which caused her to be transformed. Once, when Phoebe started to get hot flashes linked to visions of men being killed, the sisters learned that a Succubus was hunting in San Francisco. They cast a spell to attract the Succubus, which turned Prue into a man ("Manny Hanks"). Prue was then able to lure the Succubus to her doom. Also, when the sisters discovered a Banshee demon was killing people who were grieving, they cast a spell to track the Banshee, which ended up turning Prue into a dog.

Even after her death, Prue continues to be the "Superwitch" against whom Paige especially feels that she must compete, and Piper feels she must live up to.

Romantic life

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 high school sweetheart and her first love, Andy Trudeau, who had become an inspector with the SFPD. Their feelings for each other rekindled, they began dating again. On their first date in years, they picked up just where they had left off (sleeping together), but afterward they decided to slow it down. Their relationship was turbulent– Prue's secret powers of witchcraft caused them a lot of difficulty. She was regularly late or a no-show for dates and appointments with Andy much to his frustration, and even more puzzling for him was Prue's inexplicable involvement in his cases. This caused Andy to start a secret file that contained his own hypothesis about Prue and her sisters, which was startlingly accurate.

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. In the last three minutes of the day before the spell ended, he could not tell her that he could overcome it because he wanted a normal family, and so she called the relationship off. Andy grew hostile toward Prue after her many involvements with his cases without explanations. He finally caught her using magic to fight a demon, and she was forced to tell him everything. Andy was in a state of shock for a long time, but his feelings had not changed since she had placed him under the truth spell; Andy still wanted a normal life with a normal family and nothing to do with magic. Prue accepted this, and they remained close. Despite the lack of a romantic relationship, Prue and Andy still loved each other deeply. Things looked hopeful, but at the end of season one Andy dies while trying to stop the demon Rodriguez from killing the sisters. Andy's spirit visits Prue in a dream and he tells her that his death isn't her fault and that it was meant to be because she had taught him that everything happens for a reason. The two of them share a final kiss. Even though Prue accepts this, she still blames herself for Andy's death and after an argument with Phoebe about why she keeps freezing up during demon attacks, she admits that she still feels guilty about Andy and if she's supposed to be so powerful, then there is no reason why she couldn't have saved him. Piper and Phoebe remind her that she had warned Andy beforehand about the attack and to not come to the house, but he did it knowing the risk and died a hero.

After Andy's death Prue dated a coworker who, unlike Andy, was an irritaing, unorthodox character named Jack Sheridan. At one point, she suspected Jack was a warlock when she believed she saw him in two places at once. As it turns out, Jack had a twin brother, who had impersonated Jack just for fun. Though she hated him at first, he won her over with his charm. Jack helped her loosen up and stop taking herself so seriously, but when his immaturity and lack of professional ethics did not match with where Prue wanted to go with her life, she broke it off with Jack. Another involvement, though not a true relationship, was with crime boss Bane Jessup. Prue disguised herself as an assassin, and later, Bane kidnapped her to get her to help him clear his name. Their time together was based on sexual heat and was short-lived, more of a flirtation than anything else.

Prue's most notable relationships

Name	Relationship	Season	Notes
Roger	Ex Fiancee	Season 1 (Something Wicca This Way Comes), Season 3 (Pre-Witched)	It was revealed in the pilot and in the episode "Pre-Witched" that Prue had been engaged to a man named Roger months before Gram's died and before she and her sisters received their powers back.
Andy Trudeau	Ex Boyfriend	Season 1	Andy was Prue's high school boyfriend and first love. They went their separate ways after high school to pursue different careers. Both were reunited in the first episode. Memories rekindled their love and caused them to try and rebuild their relationship. Andy dies in episode 1x22 "Deja Vu All over Again".
Jack Sheridan	Dated	Season 2	After Andy, Prue began to date her coworker at Buckland's Auction House, Jack Sheridan, whom she first thought was a warlock. Their relationship was short-lived, however, and Prue decided to quit her job at Buckland's.
Bane Jessup	Fling	Season 2	Bane was a criminal, which is one reason why Prue liked him. He earnestly tried to influence her to help him go straight. At first she disliked and distrusted Bane, but he won her over with his charm and good looks.
Tom Peters	Ex Boyfriend	Season 3	Tom Peters was Prue's ex-boyfriend from college, where he was a wide receiver and the captain of the Gold State football team. They began dating sometime between 1990 (Prue's junior year and Tom's freshman year) and 1992 (Prue's senior year and Tom's sophomore year). Tom was tricked into a Faustian deal of some sort, and was kept in hiding for six years while brutally stripping away his humanity and turning him into a demon. In the end, Prue's efforts of saving him was a success and he became human again.
Justin Harper	Dated	Season 3	Justin is Prue and Piper's friend from high school. He had a crush on Prue, but they never dated. During their tenth year reunion, he reunited with Piper and Prue, and finally started dating Prue. After dating in a few episodes, they broke up. He was noted to be the last on-screen boyfriend for her.
Zile	Ex Husband	Season 3	An Evil Priestess, Datalian, used her magic to marry Prue to a warlock, and this caused all three of the Charmed Ones to become evil. Zile was vanquished by Piper, when she used her warlock powers to freeze and shatter him.

Professional life

Prue first worked at the Museum of Natural History in San Francisco right after college, where she met Roger, who became her fiancé and then her boss after a nasty break up. Realizing the working relationship was as doomed as their romantic relationship, Prue quits in the series premiere. She then accepts a job at Buckland's Auction House, unaware that it is actually run by two warlocks posing as humans (Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster) who are determined to destroy the Charmed Ones in"Wicca Envy". When they fail at that, Buckland's is in dire financial straights, and the bank comes in. Prue is invaluable in saving Bucklands-while saving the world-and all seemed fine. However, after a second takeover where profit became more important than honesty or ethics (they want to sell a fake Monet), Prue handed in her resignation to pursue a career in photography, something she had put on hold to pay the bills at home. Her renewed interest was probably sparked by Phoebe's revelation that in a past life, Prue had been a successful photographer. She joins 415 Magazine, and becomes one of their top photographers, fulfilling her true dream before she died.

Prue's death

After three years of protecting innocents from evil with her sisters from early October 7, 1998 to May 17, 2001, Prue's death was the eventual consequence, in the show's third season finale, 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. After a battle between Piper, Prue, and the demon Shax next to the Manor was 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.

After Piper was killed by an aggressive "witch-wannabe," and Prue was ordered to be shot by special forces, there was no other choice for Leo, Phoebe and Cole than to try to 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 by one day on Earth.

The Source's trick was that Prue, Piper, and their innocent were attacked as before, but the only difference was that Phoebe and Leo were trapped in the Underworld whereas before Phoebe was there to say the spell that vanquished Shax and then had called for Leo after Shax attacked Prue and Piper. This time, when Leo and Phoebe eventually escaped from the underworld, they were able to heal Piper who was near death, but Prue had died before they got there. According to her obituary, she died on a Thursday.

Afterlife and legacy

After Prue's death, in the fifth season episode "Cat House", during the "flashbacks" that the girls visit, Prue's face is never shown, only her back. Because Shannen Doherty "owns" her image, the program was not allowed to show Doherty's face, and so facial shots were edited out. According to Penny (Grams) in the episode following Prue's death, Prue was still adjusting to being in the afterlife and that was being helped through it by her and Patty. She also tells Piper, who wants to see Prue, that she can't be summoned back to Earth because seeing Prue would not allow her to grieve and move on. However, along with the other witches of the Warren-Halliwell line, her spirit was called upon by the new Power of Three to vanquish the Source twice– both in his original incarnation and that of his next incarnation, Cole Turner, Even after a few years, Prue's death still greatly affected Phoebe and Piper, especially Piper who would often use Prue's life as a common example of what would happen to them if they failed in their duties as The Charmed Ones when arguing the risks of a course of action with Leo, her sisters, or such characters. It has been suggested that she sometimes turns the pages of the Book of Shadows to help her sisters.

In the season seven finale, "Something Wicca This Way Goes", the sisters are attacked by Zankou at the Magic School and astrally project to protect themselves. Sometime before her death, Prue had taught Leo how to do it and was "really protective of it". This is indicated by Piper saying "Thank you Prue," once Piper, Phoebe and Paige reflect on the attack.

In the season eight series finale, it was revealed in the closing montage that Piper and Leo did end up having a daughter years later. Piper had indicated in the season five episode "Baby's First Demon" that she planned to name her daughter Prudence Melinda Halliwell.

Closing Doors

Continuing the tradition of Charmed finales, in season seven an unknown force closes the manor door with a chime sound associated with Prue's telekinesis, with the implication that it was Prue doing so from the afterlife. Prue closed the door with her power in the series premiere, as well as the finale of seasons one and two. In the season five finale, Piper's son Chris closes the door, showing he has telekinesis. In the series finale, Piper's granddaughter named Prudence was shown closing the door with her powers of telekinesis, using Prue's distinctive hand motion.

Death count

During the run of the series, and her life as a Charmed One, Prue died 3 times.

Episode	Episode Name	Cause Of Death	Revival
1x20	"The Power of Two"	Died from a potion she drank to try to vanquish a ghost	Andy gave her CPR
2x22	"Be Careful What You Witch For"	Stabbed by the dragon warlock.	Phoebe made a wish to a genie for Prue to be alive again.
3x22	"All Hell Breaks Loose"	Thrown through a wall by Shax.	Due to a series of events, Leo was only able to heal Piper despite healing them both before time was reversed.

Notes

• Prue was the first sister to have died. She died in episode 1x20, while Piper and Phoebe first died in episodes 1x22.
• Prue also died the least amount of all the sisters.

See also

• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
• Prue Halliwell at the Charmed Wiki

External links

• Prue Halliwell at the Internet Movie Database
• http://charmed.wikia.com/wiki/Prue_Halliwell