Prue Halliwell

Prudence Halliwell, also known as Prue, was a fictional character who appeared in the first three seasons of the WB television series Charmed, and was played by actress Shannen Doherty.

Background

Prudence Halliwell was born on October 28th, 1970; the firstborn child of Patty Halliwell, a witch and Victor Bennet, a human. As a witch, Prue developed the magical power of telekinesis, which allowed her to move things with her mind. On March 24th, 1975, she was visited by a future version of herself. Also on that day, Patty signed a pact with the warlock Nicholas to make him a ring that made him immune to her daughters' powers. In November 1975, after both of Prue's sisters had been born, their grandmother Penny bound their powers to keep Nicholas from killing them and taking their powers. The memory of having had powers was erased by their grandmother.

In high school, Prue was a very popular A-list student and was president of the Student Council and was 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 age 20, she got into a car accident and blamed herself for hurting Phoebe who was hospitalized after the incident.

When they went to college, Piper and Prue then 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, Tom). 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. Roger kept coming on to Phoebe secretly, then claiming Phoebe was after him. 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 bind the girls' powers forever against Patty's wishes, but Penny died before she could do it.

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. But later on she could accept her destiny and embrace her role as a Charmed one.

Prue originally has the power to move objects with her mind or telekinesis. Her telekinesis was originally focused by squinting her eyes; later, she learned to channel the ability with her hands. As her powers developed, she later learned the skill of Astral projection, the ability to extract her mind from her body in a tangible state on the physical plane. During 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 projection self is identical with herself except that she doesn't have the telekinesis power.

Prue, being the eldest sister, saw herself as the mother-figure for the household; she was conservative, cautious and disliked surprises, and it was often left to the middle sister Piper to arbitrate between Prue and Phoebe, whom Prue regarded as immature, irresponsible and unpredictable at first. Although they still had occasional disagreements their relationship improved a great deal over time.

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 childhood sweetheart, Andy Trudeau, who had become a detective with the SFPD. Their feelings apparently rekindled, they decided to begin dating. The relationship was turbulent - 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 leant in the negative direction, and she eventually called the relationship off. Unfortunately, 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 eventually gave his life to save Prue and her sisters to ensure the good work they do continued.

After Andy's death, Prue did manage to date a few people, though none were extremely memorable. One person she did date was the mortal crime boss Bane Jessup, played by actor Antonio Sabato Jr. 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. Eventually, Prue started falling in love with Bane, but had to have him arrested for conspiracy for 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. (see Ms. Hellfire and Give Me a Sign)

Professional life

Prue first worked at the Museum of Natural History in San Francisco right after college and that's where she met Roger, who became her boss. After breaking up with Roger, she came into her powers and transferred to Buckland's Auction House as an ancient artifacts expert. The auction house, however, was infiltrated by powerful warlocks who were plotting the demise of the Charmed line, but after vanquishing them, Prue continued to work there. After a couple of years at the auction house, she eventually quit to join 415 Magazine, where she became one of their top photographers and was finally able to fulfill her dream before she died.

Charmed life

Prue had trouble with the right balance of work and play during her entire life as a Charmed One. Prue 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 when they were very little and their mother died, Prue was the one who took care of Piper and Phoebe. Out of the sisters, Prue was the most familiar with the Book of Shadows as she studied it constantly in order to stay a step ahead of the evils after them.

The warlock Zile kidnapped Prue and was married to her by the dark priestess, Dantalian. Because of this dark bond, Prue became evil and turned on her sisters. When Zile was vanquished by the Charmed Ones, the evil hold on her was released.

In the episode Primrose Empath of Season 3, she had her first battle with a demon without using her powers. As the season went on, she displayed more and more fighting skills, superior to even Phoebe who then was the only one of the trio that actually took martial arts classes. It was never truly revealed how Prue learned how to fight.

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 Ardo 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 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"). 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 ("Prujo").

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. 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 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 while Prue and Piper, defending an innocent, were attacked by Shax just like previously, Phoebe, Cole and Leo were stuck in the underworld. Leo couldn't arrive in time to heal Piper and the more seriously wounded Prue, resulting in Prue's death.

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.

However, 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 spells effect is over. Also, continuing the tradition of Charmed finales, season seven closes the manor door with a chime sound assosiated with Prue's telekenesis and in the series finale, Piper's granddaughter has telekenesis and uses it to close the door like Prue did in the eariler seasons.