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"The Power of Three will set you free."

Charmed is a show that ran from 1998-2006, wherein three San Francisco-based girl-power witch sisters vanquish demons through the triple powers of CGI, rhymes, and lots of cleavage, whilst dealing with personal relationship drama. The show was created by Constance M. Burge, and inspired by the cult '90s film The Craft; it was greenlit after Burge, in the midst of trouble getting networks to pick up the witchcraft concept, made the show's protagonists sisters.

Charmed can be divided into two sets of seasons. Seasons 1-3 are the "Prue Years", featuring Shannen Doherty as the eldest of the three main sisters, Prue Halliwell. Doherty left the show after that season, and Rose McGowan was cast as Paige Matthews, the half-sister of the trio and Prue's replacement for seasons 4-8. The other two sisters were Phoebe Halliwell (played by Former Child Star Alyssa Milano, who helped carve out a successful career as an adult actress thanks to this show) and Piper Halliwell (played by Holly Marie Combs of Picket Fences fame). Other cast members included a pre-Nip/Tuck Julian McMahon and a pre-The Big Bang Theory Kaley Cuoco.

Charmed was a pretty successful show, running for eight seasons and for a while being the longest-running network TV show with female leads — until Desperate Housewives caught up to it. The show is also known for its quite surprising tonal shifts between seasons (compare Season 2's slow-paced Slice of Life plots to Season 3's action-packed arc-based storytelling), the sisters' clothing getting Hotter and Sexier with each year, and quite a few continuity issues (just how many times was Penny Halliwell married anyway?note ).

The series returned in comic book form thanks to Zenescope Entertainment, receiving mixed to positive reviews from fans and critics alike. Series includes:

  • Charmed (2010-2012) - Collected as Charmed Season Nine to match:
  • Charmed: Season 10 (2014-2016)
Dynamite Comics followed with:
  • Charmed (2017)
  • Charmed: Magic School (2018) - An OEL Manga

As with anything successful from the '90s, talks of a reboot cropped up, initially in 2013 until a new series finally began airing in 2018.


Charmed provides examples of the following tropes:

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    Tropes #-D 
  • 13 Is Unlucky: Barbas needed thirteen witches killed on a Friday the thirteenth in order to regain his full strength.
  • 24-Hour Party People:
    • Done a few times. First with Piper's baby shower and later would be done for every birthday party Piper's children had. You could probably also count Prue's funeral and the funeral Piper, Phoebe, and Paige had when they faked their deaths.
    • Averted for Phoebe and Piper's weddings, which are small intimate affairs with only the main characters present. Paige's wedding in Season 8 however is attended by a flock of extras never seen before, with the main cast as the only familiar attendees. Could possibly be hand waved as Henry's friends and family.
  • Abduction Is Love: in 'Give Me A Sign' Prue is kidnapped and chained up by the former gangster/model she helped capture in 'Ms Hellfire'. When he releases her she immediately jumps on and seduces him. When Piper and Phoebe arrive to "rescue" her they approve of her actions and help her recover her underwear.
  • AB Negative: This is Piper's blood type.
  • Aborted Arc:
    • The end of Season 6 has Phoebe being punished for misusing magic by getting stripped of her active powers. She regains her premonitions in Season 7 but never her empathy or levitation.
    • Season 8 got rid of the subplot of the sisters faking their deaths by having them exposed to the government, which was also neglected as a plot line. The government discovered that the sisters were witches and they offered to help cover up their faked deaths as a Homeland Security mission if they came to work for them. They spent a couple episodes performing a few missions for them and, despite the collaboration being extremely successful, they parted ways due to the sisters apparently being too hard to work with and the government's knowledge of the magical world is never acknowledged again.
  • Above Good and Evil: The Avatars present themselves as such.
  • Absent Animal Companion: The sisters had a cat named Kit, but after the first season or so the studio no longer had the animal. They covered with green screens and stock footage, but eventually stopped. Years later Kit returns as a human, having been rewarded for her work as the sisters' familiar.
  • Academy of Evil: Two of them, both called The Academy. The first one appears in "Wrestling with Demons", and the second shows up in "Lost and Bound".
  • Accidental Incantation: In one episode, Phoebe tells her non-witch classmates that the words to a supposed love spell they are reading are wrong; and gives them the correct version, which one of them records on a tape recorder. The three classmates then try to do the spell with the wrong incantation, to no avail. One of them plays the tape, and before they can do anything, the spell is cast, turning animals into strapping naked men.
  • Achilles' Heel: For all their power, Whitelighters and Elders can be mortally wounded by arrows tipped with Darklighter poison. Additionally, a wounded Whitelighter/Elder cannot heal themselves in this event (but another, unwounded one can).
  • Action Mom: Piper Halliwell.
  • Actor Allusion: Multiple:
  • Adaptation Expansion: So far the comic book series is definitely a good example of this, in fact it seems to have taken a 5 year Time Skip and has continued with the foreshadowing of the final season. This is helped by the fact that three of the original writers of the TV series were hired on by Zenoscope to continue the story. It's also helpful that a few of the first draft scripts for season 9 were recovered and part of those stories are being used to recreate the feel of the TV show.
  • Adaptational Superpower Change: When it moved from television to comics the sisters' different witch powers evolved and became much more showy in the comics. Notably, Paige gained the power to make orb forcefields and Piper gained the power to melt and set fire to objects.
  • An Aesop:
    • "Morality Bites" - Might does not equal right. The wrong thing done for the right reasons is still the wrong thing. There is a fine line between helping the innocent and punishing the guilty, and it must never be crossed.
    • "Charmed Again Part 2" - A mother is just as capable of being an abuser as a father is.
    • "Battle of the Hexes" - No, women are not superior to men. And neither are men superior to women. Equality between the sexes means that they are equal. If either sex becomes dominant, it's a fiasco.
  • Aesop Amnesia:
    • The Utopia arc in Series 7 has the sisters go along with the Avatar's plans to change the grand design, despite the numerous times beforehand they've seen how badly this tends to go.
    • In season 3 Prue learns multiple times not to focus too much on her witch duties and relax. Each time she goes back to being Superwitch by the next episode.
    • Penny learns to let go of her Straw Feminist attitudes in "Necromancing The Stone". When she pops up again in "Witchstock", she's back to referring to men as 'utensils'.
    • Post-Cole Phoebe has several relationships where she keeps things at a distance, and has to learn to allow herself to let go and fall in love. And then it repeats all over again come her next boyfriend.
  • All Abusers Are Male:
    • Almost every demon is male. The evil warlocks are mortal men who can use magic, while the good witches are mortal women who can use magic—and although the inverse does exist, most evil female witches on the show get away with not being called warlocks because they don't kill other witches to steal their powers.
    • Subverted in the first episode of season 4. Paige's firm is dealing with a case about an abused child. Paige is convinced that the father is the abuser and gets manipulated by The Source into trying to kill him, to punish him for this. When her sisters stop her the man turns to his wife and says "I'm not covering for you anymore. Keep your hands off our son."
    • Another episode features a pair of demonic bounty hunters who are abusive to a child with powers. One of them is female and is not portrayed sympathetically.
    • Also subverted and lampshaded in the episode with the sisters' grandmother who dislikes the fact the Wyatt is male due to her own past experience with a demon she was in love with. The demon was evil and using her but also genuinely loved her. She comes to learn by the end of the episode that while some men are evil men in general are not inherently abusers and that her prejudice is wrong.
  • All Myths Are True:
    • Angels? Check. Vampires? Check. Titans? Check. Human representations of the animals in the Chinese calendar? Sure, why the hell not?
    • An interesting case occurs with Pandora's Box. In the season 3 episode "Sin Francisco", Leo claims a box holding the seven deadly sins inspired the legend of Pandora's Box, implying it didn't exist. The season 7 episode "Little Box of Horrors" would have the Charmed Ones deal with the actual Pandora's Box.
    • Many of the mythological figures are In Name Only, because their function in the episode has little to do with their function in mythology. For example, Hecate as "Queen of the Underworld" (that was Persephone) and Kali as an evil spirit trapped in a mirror. Kali was one of Durga's war goddesses. And so on.
  • All Psychology Is Freudian: It's that or magic. Prue's "split" persona in "Just Harried" - where her Inner Desires manifest as an alter ego that goes away with some Character Development.
  • Alliterative Family: The Halliwell sisters and other members of the family too, to the point that the sisters' past lives (cousins in the same family tree) are identified in the family tree as "P. [Last Name]." In fact, when Patty (daughter to Penny and mother to Prue, Piper, and Phoebe) gave up Paige for adoption, her only request to the nun was that her name start with P. There's no explanation given (the founder of their line is named Melinda, so it isn't in her honor), and when they go back to before Phoebe was born, their Grams (Penny) dismissively scoffs "Another P, what do you know?" implying that it wasn't her intention.
    • Melinda Warren wasn't an example herself, but she did set the trend. She named her daughter Prudence. It's never stated (or strongly implied), but it could be that her descendants are carrying on the tradition for that reason (it is implied that Prue is directly named after Prudence Warren, at least).
    • Piper winds up breaking the tradition. The episode "Morality Bites" shows her potential future daughter named Melinda. After Prue's death, she does attempt to amend it to "Prudence Melinda," but then she winds up having a boy she names Wyatt (his father's surname). Her second son is named Chris (though he was introduced before being identified as a Kid from the Future, so maybe giving him a "P" name would have spoiled that plot twist). When she finally has a daughter in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, she goes back to just naming her Melidna.
    • The comics show that Phoebe was the only sister to continue the practice of using "P" names with her daughters Prudence Joanna (PJ), Parker, and Peyton.
  • All Witches Have Cats: The sisters inherited a cat along with their powers. The cat later becomes human as a reward for being such a successful familiar.
  • All Your Powers Combined
  • Alphabetical Theme Naming
    • The names of The Charmed Ones all start with a P. (Prue, Piper, Phoebe, Paige.) Not a requirement, but a conscious decision of their mother Patty and Patty's mother Penny. Averted when Piper started having sons of her own (the family previously had had exclusively female births for centuries), and started giving them relatively ordinary names.
    • The eighth season also had the Triad members Asmodeus, Baliel and Candor, with the demon Dumain at their service. No wonder they didn't want the demon Xar among them...
    • The seventh season featured Avatars known as Alpha, Beta and Gamma, although whether these are their real names or a hierarchical naming device is unclear.
    • In the comic continuation, Phoebe has continued with the P name tradition. Her three daughters names are PJ (Prudence Johanna), Parker, and Peyton.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Valkyries in Season 6.
  • Ambiguously Christian: While the Charmed Ones are practicing Wiccans, its often implied they were raised Catholic, as Piper and Phoebe are seen having a conversation with a man that's implied to be the family's priest on God and witches, and Piper is assured that she and her sisters are good because she's able to walk in and out of a church without catching fire. Later, Paige mentions she and her adoptive parents attending the church where she was found, and the family are seen taking part in holidays such as Christmas and Easter. These nods to Christianity may have been done to establish that the genetic witches of the series aren't the same as the sorceresses condemned by the Bible, as well as to sate the concerns of Moral Guardians.
  • And I Must Scream: One demon, who is immortal and unvanquishable, gets turned into a tree.
    • The buisnessman and Piper when possessed by Terra. This could also apply to other possessions in the series (maybe).
  • And Starring: The three actresses playing the Halliwells were always credited first, with the rest of the supporting cast billed after them. For the first three seasons they were billed in order of the characters ages, which meant Shannen Doherty was listed first and Alyssa Milano was last with an "and". After Doherty's depature, Milano (whose star had risen considerably due to her presence on the show) was moved to first, Rose McGowan placed second and Holly Marie Combs went last with "And... as 'Piper'".
  • Answers to the Name of God: Examples are on the trope page.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: The sisters have a bad habit of scoffing at anything they haven't encountered. Subverted in "Once Upon a Time". Piper expresses disbelief over fairies and trolls, but her skepticism turns out to be based on her frustration with the Elders taking Leo away.
  • Arch-Enemy: The Charmed Ones have a few foes that earned their personal animosity and vice versa:
    • The Source of All Evil is the ruler of the Underworld and was the source of multiple foes that the Charmed Ones would face in the first three seasons. Vanquishing the Source of All Evil for good was the Charmed Ones' destiny and he would make it very personal by ordering the death of their sister Prue and corrupting and possessing Cole Turner. Eventually The Source got so pissed at his defeats at their hands that he was willing to doom the entire world just to beat them.
    • Barbas, the demon of fear, is the Charmed Ones' longest running and one of their most persistent foes. Wanting revenge on them for his defeats, Barbas would return time and again to mess with them psychologically, with it getting very personal between them, even leading to him helping kill their Kid from the Future Chris. They considered him to be one of their greatest enemies.
    • Zankou is the most intelligent and conniving of the Charmed One's enemies. He was ranked as one of the most powerful and dangerous demons to ever exist. He demonstrated it by constantly preying on the emotions of the Charmed Ones and was always one step ahead of them, constantly improving from his defeats and learning how to manipulate them.
  • Artistic License – Biology: Leo's explanation of how Piper's power works — by slowing and speeding up molecules — doesn't make sense. Completely slowing down molecules would not produce the effect that Piper's power has.
  • Ascended Demon: Several characters attempt this in the series, all of which a) become close to Phoebe, and b) end up dead. Except the first, actually, who got close to Prue instead, and succeeded in ridding himself of his evil powers by becoming a priest.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Becoming a Whitelighter, an Elder, an Avatar etc. is this. Leo does it three times.
  • Ashes to Ashes: Lazarus Demons can teleport and resurrect themselves using ash.
  • Astral Projection:
    • This becomes Prue's second power. It never fully develops before her death, so her original body seems to go unconscious, and her main power of telekinesis is useless, as her astral clone can't use it and her original body is disabled. Miss Donovan in season seven learns to project a physical astral body in a similar manner.
    • A second form of astral projection is the ability to create an intangible, invisible spectral form. This is used by a Season 1 villain Rex, who can implant hypnotic suggestions this way, and by Barbas, who uses this form to make people's fears reality.
  • Attack Reflector
    • Initially Prue would move fire and energy balls back at demons. Some deflector shields also acted as, well, reflector shields.
    • Phoebe can reflect attacks with her empath powers as well.
  • Aura Vision: Grimlocks steal the sight of children specifically to gain this power.
  • Author Avatar: Constance M. Burge stated that the Halliwell sisters were based off her and her own real life sisters. Prue is based off of her eldest sister Laura, Piper is based off of her middle sister Edie and Phoebe was based off of Burge herself.
  • Babies Ever After: In the Distant Finale Paige and Phoebe are revealed to each have three children of their own. And Piper finally gets the daughter she'd foreseen all the way back in Season 2.
  • Bad Boss: Demons are quick to kill their underlings for even the slightest infractions. They'll even kill their underlings for not saying exactly what they want to hear at the time. About the only way a demon can hope to last long is by having a skill that's really hard to replace.
    • There's one episode where the "password" into a demonic hideout is... killing one of the two guards. Sure, maybe it's a case of If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!, but surely it would be more efficient (and better for morale) to keep an Innocent or two around for that purpose.
  • Bad Guy Bar: Not named, but there's the demonic strip club where Cole gets lap dances from a shapeshifting demon who morphs into Phoebe, and the demon bar where a collection of demons watch Witch Wars. There's even a 'normal' bar example where some biker types hang out and where Prue's astral self used to go to unwind and flirt with danger.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: Done in the most annoying ways possible. For most of the show, there is no middle ground: if you have "evil" powers, then you are evil, period. Strangely, some good and evil powers are functionally the same — orbing and blinking are both teleporting powers. If a witch suddenly starts blinking, then she's obviously evil because blinking is a warlock-only power, and warlocks are all evil. Occasionally justified by the fact that powers are tied to a specific emotion, and it is hard (though not impossible) to do good things with a power that is powered by hate. It's also occasionally justified by the way one gets those powers. Evil powers generally get given to people who will abuse them while good powers end up with good people. That was the selection criteria for the Whitelighters and Darklighters. In general, bad ("demonic") powers tend to corrupt people; hence why Phoebe got Drunk on the Dark Side in the series 6 episode "Witch Wars" when she absorbed all those demonic powers from an athame.
  • Balancing Death's Books: Whenever the Angel of Death shows up, the sisters usually have to learn An Aesop about this. His first appearance has Prue trying to stop him taking an innocent, and eventually learning that it's the man's time to go.
  • Ball of Light Transformation: Orbing, the form of teleportation used by Whitelighters and Elders. A sufficiently powerful witch can affect the person while in orb form, as shown at the end of season five when Chris sends Leo to Valhalla. In season six, we also see Leo grab Chris OUT of an orb and bodyslam him.
  • Banishing Ritual: The show referred to this process as "vanquishing". The Halliwell sisters almost always had a spell to send demons away. In one episode, this was reversed, and in another, a demon threatens to manifest anyways and is told that there's "dead" and then there's Dead.
  • Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: This is a Fanservice-heavy show starring three beautiful women, so the protagonists fairly often wore midriff-baring outfits. Phoebe's belly button, in particular, was exposed so often it deserved its own billing in the credits.
  • Barred from the Afterlife: This is Cole Turner's final fate - he ends up stuck in limbo, too good for Hell but too bad for Heaven. In the after comics, he is offered a chance at full redemption by working with Prue.
  • Battle Couple: Piper and Leo (after he becomes an elder). Lightning bolts and explosions everywhere!
    • Phoebe and Cole also work like this, once she discovers he's a demon and he reforms. He tries to continue on after he loses his demonic powers, but Phoebe's too worried about his safety and won't let him participate.
  • Bazaar of the Bizarre: There is a market for magical goods. It's run by demons, naturally.
  • Beam-O-War:
    • Happens between Paige and her past self.
    • Also happens between Leo and his Evil Counterpart.
    • And again at the end of Season 8 with the Halliwells on one side, and Billie and Christy on the other, with everyone boosted by the power of the Hallow.
  • Beard of Evil: Many demons sport goatees. So do Evil Counterparts of good characters.
  • Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Although the respective characters change due to Character Development and cast changes. The first seasons have Prue (Brains), Piper (Brawn) and Phoebe (Beauty). In later seasons, it's Piper (Brains, after she got promoted to eldest sister), Phoebe (Brawn, especially when she uses She-Fu) and Paige (Beauty, being the sister with the least experience). More accurately, it started out in the ways described, but the She-Fu turned out to be infectious (except for Piper, though she has her exploding power) and they're all played by Hollywood hotties anyway, so really it ends up being the one with the most of X quality.
  • Becoming the Mask: Belthazor, who was originally charged with stealing the Book of Shadows and/or killing the Charmed Ones, manipulates Phoebe in order to get close enough to do so. Over time, he ends up falling in love with her and does (an albeit temporary) Heel–Face Turn.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Leo is a peaceful healer who often gives words of advice to the Charmed Ones. But people forget that he was a medic during World War II and if anyone threatens Piper, he will kill. He has killed an elder and even helped a magical group wipe out free will (though he didn't quite realize this at the time).
  • Bewitched Amphibians: There are many jokes over the course of the show about turning people into frogs and toads. Piper actually follows through in one episode, on a rather unruly Magic School student. And she did it without even having a body!
  • Big Bad: There's one for each season, except season 2.
    • Season 1: Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster, for the first half of the season
    • Season 3: The Triad, for the first half of the season
    • Season 4: The Source of All Evil/Cole, though he's really just a pawn being manipulated by the Seer.
    • Season 5: Cole, for most of the season.
    • Season 6: Gideon, although he isn't mentioned or appear until about halfway through the season
    • Season 7: The Avatars for the first half of the season and Zankou for the second.
    • Season 8: The Triad, succeeded by their protegé, Christy.
  • Bigger Is Better in Bed:
    • Phoebe and Piper are trying to conjure up magical lovers in "Dream Sorcerer", and they make lists of what they want the perfect man to be. Phoebe misreads "employed" as "endowed" on Piper's list.
      Phoebe: And I think it goes without saying that we both want a man who is well... employed.
    • Then again, when Phoebe and Paige want the perfect man to accompany Piper on her birthday in "Prince Charmed", they make another list of attributes:
      Paige: Has a really big...
      Phoebe: Paige?
      Paige: Ehh, this the perfect guy, or what?
      Phoebe: (Beat) All right, throw it in.
  • Black-and-White Morality: You are either good or you are evil. Yes, you have to choose and then there's nothing in between. The only ones who don't follow this are the Angel of Death and the Avatars, but they are an entire class of their own, not something in between. To break it down: witches are good, demons are bad. More specifically, anyone who are allies with the Charmed Ones and they like them, they are good. Anyone else is bad. Even the neutral ones because you can't trust anyone who is neutral. Also, all witches after they first get their powers, must decide if they are good or evil within 48 hours.
  • Black Dude Dies First:
    • The two black Elders we see die in their first episodes, while white Elders survive. The black and female Avatar Beta is the one whose death makes their defeat possible. And while various witches die left and right, the few black ones we see are always killed, while the few that are saved are all white.
    • Then again, the two cops are white Andy and black Daryl. Andy dies at the end of Season 1, Daryl survives the series. Daryl comes close to dying several times but never does.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: Some demons, like the Source, have them. As do anyone possessed by the Shadow/Hollow/Nexus.
  • Black Magic: Practically all dark witches, warlocks, demons, dark lighters, and so forth have used one form of evil-based magic spell one way or another.
  • Blah, Blah, Blah: Paige once had a date that was so immensely boring that all she heard was blah blah blah; when something more interesting came up she heartily answered "blah!" and happily ran off.
  • Blessed with Suck: Leo, as a Whitelighter/Elder, has considerable power, but almost never does anything except orb and heal. Until he Takes a Level in Badass and learns how to shoot lightning.
  • Blood Knight: Paige, who's the most vocal about killing Cole in Series 5 and often the first one to suggest resorting to violence to solve a problem.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The season 5 finale turns the sisters into Greek Goddesses. Paige had red hair at the time and Phoebe's was turned blond with Piper keeping hers brown. Paige herself also cycled through all the colors having black hair in season 4, red in season 5, blond in Season 6 and brown for the rest of the series.
    • When two nymphs turn Paige into a nymph in season 5, they fall into this trope. Amusingly enough the redhead is killed off and Paige is the one they pick to replace her.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Leo and Piper, and Sam and Patty before them.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Every other week.
  • Broken Aesop: "Morality Bites" in Season 2 says that the sisters' job is to save the innocent, not punish the guilty, but later seasons and the comic book decided that it was fine to punish the guilty. "Hyde School Reunion" in Season 6 has the sisters punish a guilty muggle outright (he was aware of magic and they glamoured him to look like someone being hunted by demons to get rid of him permanently), and come the comic extension that takes place in the future era shown in "Morality Bites" has the sisters punish Cal Greene, only nonfatally.
  • Brought Down to Normal: The sisters get their powers stolen on occasion. So did Wyatt. Cole too, and he did not take it very well.
  • Buffy Speak: Paige's orb-telekinesis is triggered verbally (she has to call out the name of the object she wants to orb), which has led to her calling for "Icky stuff!" and "Weapon thingy!" In her defense, it works.
  • Bullet Time
    • Though not a straight example, Piper's ability to seemingly stop time demonstrates this when she freezes bullets, and that tends to happen on occasion. The same goes for Cole when he's stockpiles up on demonic powers in Season 5.
    • In a second season episode, a hired hit-woman goes after the Sisters and attempts to gun them down. The action momentarily slows down to show Prue using her powers to stop and repell the woman's bullets back at her. And in a seventh season episode the action slows down again while Kyle has Phoebe hostage, a gun pointed at her head as he demands to talk to Avatar Leo. Time slows when Leo throws lightning at Kyle, Kyle throws a vanquishing potion at Leo, and Phoebe just barely dodges the bullet fired from Kyle's gun.
  • Burn the Witch!: Phoebe really did get burned at the stake in "Morality Bites". Though it's averted when the sisters get sent back to the 1700s and when they're outed as witches they get hanged instead.
    • Their ancestor, Melinda Warren, was burned at the stake after a warlock revealed her as a witch.
  • Call-Back: The episode "All Halliwell's Eve" had a scene where Phoebe is told her true love's name begins with a C. At the time, she thought it meant Cole, but it turns out at the end to mean a Cupid named Coop.
  • Canis Latinicus: One of the most egregious examples in fiction.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Pretty much every bad guy in the show is one of these, if they are not pretending to be human. The Underworld is fully comfortable with being Evil and openly admits to it. The head of the Underworld is even called "The Source of All Evil".
  • Cassandra Truth: Happens a few times. Most notable being Paige's mistrust of Cole through latter season 4; though she's about 50% right and wrong about what's going on there, the conclusion that he does have to be stopped is part of what she's right about.
  • Casting Gag: Charisma Carpenter had played Cordelia Chase, a human who willingly became part-demon, in Buffyverse. Here, her character Kyra is a reversal of Cordelia, because she is a demon who wants to become human.
  • Cats Are Magic: In one episode a witch's Familiar turned on her and became a Warlock.
  • Celebrity Paradox: In one episode Phoebe makes a quip asking "Where's Buffy when you need her?" There are no less than fifty four actors who have appeared on both Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • Chaos Architecture:
    • Piper got a job in an Italian restaurant in the pilot, but from the second episode onwards she works in a different restaurant named "Quake". While both the set and the outside shots are different, it is stated to be the same place.
    • The bathroom under the manor's staircase changes into a closet come Season 5.
    • In Season 6, after Phoebe and Paige temporarily move out, Paige's old bedroom becomes Wyatt and Chris' room. They keep their room when Paige moves back in, with another never-before-seen fourth bedroom appearing out of nowhere.
  • Character Development:
    • The most dramatic example is Piper, who in the first two seasons was the quiet, shy, mousy middle sister content to fade into the background while Prue and Phoebe took center stage. During Season 3, and especially into Season 4, circumstances, including the death of Prue and her acquiring a newer, much more aggressive power, she was forced to adopt a no-nonsense, take-charge attitude about things and become the matriarch of the family. She never got over her desire for a normal, magic-free life, but she became much more adaptable to the perpetual crises the family faced.
    • Prue began as an uptight and humourless grudging Team Mom. As her powers increased, she became friendlier to her sisters and less like a nagging parent - not to mention she Took a Level in Badass to become a Combat Snarker.
    • Phoebe goes from immature Naïve Newcomer to successful businesswoman and confident witch. After suffering from a bad case of Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places she's Happily Married by the finale. Likewise, while she has problems abusing her powers, she eventually overcomes them and matures.
    • Paige began as an outsider constantly comparing herself to Prue, eventually establishing an identity in her own right and learning to balance witch duties with her personal life.
  • Characterization Marches On: A few examples:
    • Prue's character in Season 1 is extremely at odds with Seasons 2 and 3. She's portrayed as an uptight stick in the mud who is very humorless. Come Season 2 and she becomes much quippier and Not So Above It All. Part of it is down to her loosening up as her bond with her sisters grows but some of the superwitch tendencies are quite jarring.
    • Paige was introduced with an artistic side in Season 4 - her room in the manor having paintings displayed for instance. Come Season 5 and this trait never appears again. She's also much meeker and more soft spoken in Season 4, being very reluctant to have relationships out of fear of being hurt. Come Season 5, she is much snarkier and more outspoken, as well as becoming the promiscuous sister (getting several episodes where she's literally sleeping with a different guy every week). Could possibly be hand waved with magic making her more confident.
    • Elise Rothman was the boss from hell in her season 4 appearances, getting a Bitch Alert introduction. By season 5 this trait had vanished and she was good friends with Phoebe.
    • Henry was rather cynical and had Jade-Colored Glasses in his debut episode. None of his following appearances feature this. Additionally his and Paige's Slap-Slap-Kiss dynamic was dropped after that episode.
    • Piper's Deadpan Snarker side didn't really emerge until season 2.
    • When Leo is revealed to be a whitelighter, he's able to restore the sisters' magicnote  by using his healing powers on the Book of Shadows. Whitelighters are later established to only heal injuries and Leo doesn't reference how he healed the book the next time that plot resurfaces. Or how he managed to heal the P3 sign.
  • Chainmail Bikini: Paige has one from "my moshpit days". She wears it for protection when there's no magic.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: A retroactive example. Season 2 reveals that Patty had an affair with her whitelighter Sam. In Season 4 when they have to introduce Paige as a long-lost sister, Sam being her father prevented it from being a complete Ass Pull.
  • Child of Forbidden Love: Love affairs between witches and Whitelighters are strictly forbidden. Whitelighters can end up recycled for breaking this taboo while witches, their families, and any children born from the union can be stripped of their magic. Whitelighter-witches are usually hidden after birth, which is why Paige's existence was originally unknown even to her older sisters. Paige was originally thought to be the first of her kind, but Season 8 introduces another Whitelighter-witch who was born the year before she was; it is implied that Whitelighter-witches are more common than anyone originally thought, and Paige's part in the Power of Three opened the door for others to come out of hiding.
  • Chocolate of Romance: Invoked when Cole is possessed by the Source. The Seers has foreseen that he and Phoebe will produce a son with unparalleled power, who has to be conceived under specific circumstances so his alignment will be Evil rather than Good. To ensure the proper conception date, the Seer makes a potion to get Phoebe in the mood and "override any precautions she may have taken" and mixes it into some chocolates for Cole to give to Phoebe.
  • The Chosen One: Rather The Chosen Ones or The Charmed Ones. Wyatt is also called the Chosen One, disregarding his ability to wield Excalibur.
  • City of Adventure: The Source of all Evil, along with the Avatars and everyone else, seems to focus entirely on San Francisco.
  • Class Reunion: Piper had one in "Coyote Piper" and Phoebe's in "Hyde School Reunion".
  • Clip Show: Framed as a time-travelling memory spell in "Cat House". Other episodes such as "Someone To Witch Over Me" and "Engaged And Confused" followed the same formula with other characters reliving their lives.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience
    • Played for Laughs briefly, when Paige in Season 5 tries to colour-code the pages of the Book of Shadows with sticky tabs for more efficient research. Piper is not amused.
    Piper: (ranting) "Beings of evil are red, creatures of good are white." Oh, yeah? Well, what's a Bunyip? Because it's not good or evil, so what the hell color is that? (finds the page with a red and white tab) Oh. Well that's confusing.
    • In the season one episode "Which Prue Is It Anyway?", Phoebe tries to color-coordinate a trio of Prues.
  • Combo Platter Powers: Typically a Warren/Halliwell witch will inherit one of Melinda Warren's three original powers; telekinesis, molecular immobilization or premonition. From these powers new powers that are in some way connected to the original can develop. This includes a telekinetic developing astral projection because the idea of movement is carried over. Or a witch with the freezing power being able to blow things up because the power is about molecular speed. Or a precognitive witch developing other psychic powers. However, Melinda herself had all three powers, all of which are unrelated to each other. This is presumably because she was the progenitor of her witchly line.
  • Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: The appearance of Prue's new form "Patience" in the Season 10 comics is based on Natalie Dormer.
  • Composite Character: A variation. When the Greek Gods are recreated in Season 5, only the three sisters get powers - but obviously contain elements of several different gods. Piper is described as an Earth Goddess, which would make her Gaia or Demeter. She also clearly has elements from Athena, as the voice of reason. Paige is the Goddess of War, making her a female version of Ares. She also carries Poseidon's trident and shoots lightning out of it, giving her some of Zeus. She also has a bit of Artemis in her, with the Does Not Like Men. Phoebe meanwhile is the Goddess of Love, making her mainly Aphrodite. However she also has some of Hera's queenly ways. While empowered, Phoebe shows a fondness for flowers, likely a reference to Persephone, too.
  • Conflict Ball: In Season 5, the sisters (especially Phoebe) were distrustful of Cole and constantly expressed as much. It didn't matter that Cole was constantly trying to do good, either. The stated reason was because of Cole's turn as the Source of All Evil, but these episodes overlooked that Cole didn't choose to be the Source at all. (Instead, he had been driven mad by the power of the Source and overtaken with it.) The sisters themselves were even told as much by the wizard ("He didn't die. He was reborn into a new sorry ass.") and Cole's new personal assistant/failed seductress ("You've ruined him. Made him pathetic, weak, good.") near the end of Season 4. Their distrust was rooted in a severe case of Negative Continuity.
  • Continuity Drift: The show is famous for its numerous continuity mistakes. Some highlights:
    • Victor is said to have walked out on the girls when they were only toddlers. Other episodes show him and Patty frequently breaking up and reconciling before Phoebe is even conceived. Despite Patty temporarily leaving him for an affair with Sam, they are implied to have reconciled before her death. It's later suggested that it was disagreements with Penny that drove him away after Patty's death.
    • Penny's love life. Some episodes say she was married six times and others four. It's accepted as canon that she was engaged six times but only married four.
    • Witches are implied to be entirely female for the first three seasons (and warlocks entirely male). Season 4 introduces the concept of male witches, and female warlocks are seen occasionally. The show never draws a distinction between evil witches and female warlocks.
    • The role of the Book of Shadows and its connection to the Charmed Ones' powers varies widely throughout the seasons. Whether its the actual source of the Halliwell magic or just a useful tome depends on the episode.
    • The nature of the Power of Three was also murky. One episode showed the sisters completely without powers (including spellcasting or scrying) when a fight between them severed the Power of Three, and yet between Prue's death and Paige's activation, Piper and Phoebe retained all of their powers.
    • How exactly does being a Whitelighter work? Leo has said you are allowed to refuse the offer to become one, and you can resign from the position at any time. Later in the series Paige is forced into being a Whitelighter. The everpresent mental connection Whitelighters have with their wards changes between hearing whenever they are called to sensing when they are in danger to physically feeling their pain. Then there are the inconsistent rules about what Leo can and cannot heal magically...
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Sometimes when they're flipping through the Book of Shadows you may notice pages that came from earlier episodes or even seasons. It gets a little more obvious that each page added for an episode never got taken out, because the book seems to get noticeably thicker by the end of the series. This works though, because the Sisters had by the later seasons started adding their own stuff to it. When Paige goes back to 1967 in "Witchstock", the book is appropriately much thinner.
    • A minor gag in Season 1's "Love Hurts" has Prue teasing Phoebe for being nicknamed 'Freebie' in high school for making out with a boy under the bleachers. When she goes to her high school reunion in Season 6, we meet the guy in question.
  • Coolest Club Ever: P3. Although after neglecting it for a bit, Piper has to work to make it popular again.
  • Council of Angels: The Elders.
  • Crapsack World: Whether you are born powerless and easy prey for demons and warlocks, with good powers but often too weak to be useful and are targeted by same demons and warlocks, with bad powers that are useful but with no real choice but to be evil or find a way to get rid of your powers, or are born with strong good powers like the Charmed Ones, earning you constant assassination attempts by the various forces of evil for the rest of your life. You lose regardless, with the temporary exception of the Charmed Ones who still lost a sister to even achieve a temporary truce.
  • Creepy Good:
    • The Mirror Universe version of Barbas, the Demon of Hope. Despite being good, he's still creepy as hell.
    • Everyone in "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World Part 2", due to an overabundance of good throwing off the Balance Between Good and Evil.
  • Curse Cut Short
    • "But why me? I have nothing against that little fu—fetus."
    • Also:
    Phoebe: Wait, if you know then that means they know. And if they know then we are fu—
    Grams: Fine.
    • And
    Phoebe: Who's Natalie?
    Piper: She's a f—
    Leo: Fellow whitelighter. See, we finish each other's sentences.
    Piper: That wasn't what I was gonna say.
  • Custom-Built Host: Cryto, the Demon of Vanity, was skinned alive to prevent his spirit from possibly returning; though not vanquished, he was reduced to a powerless ghost. Three witches that tried summoning him to become young and beautiful again had to create a new body for him first by Grave Robbing, skinning the corpses, and sewing the various patches of skin together into a human-shaped quilt, then putting that on a mannequin and letting their magic do the rest.
  • Dating Catwoman: Or in Phoebe's case, being married to the source of all evil.
    • A later episode reveals that their Grams had a relationship with a ghostly necromancer.
  • Deadpan Snarker
    • Piper, Piper, oh Piper.
    • Though the other sisters are no strangers to the trope, particularly Paige.
  • Dead Person Conversation: They can summon the dead at any moment, except Prue.
  • Deal With the Wizard
    • Inverted. Drake dè Mon, played by Billy Zane, makes a deal with a sorcerer to become human (as in, to gain a soul rather than lose one) but keep his demonic powers with the condition that using them offensively will cause him to be sent to purgatory (as in, he's forced to be good rather than bad). The deal only lasts for one year, after which Drake will die anyway (as in, the only thing this means for his place in the world is that he's now on a clock to die), but as it turns out the whole deal was made with help from Cole as part of a Batman Gambit to restore Phoebe's faith in love (as in, the underlying force behind the deal was doing something good).
    • Another inversion, Cole was willing to transfer the essence and powers of the Source to a Wizard. Only for the deal to be ruined by Phoebe under the influence of the Seer and the unborn Source kid.
    • A more traditional Faustian Deal with the Devil happens in the episode "Soul Survivor".
  • Death Takes a Holiday: And he recruits Piper to do his job for a while. The punny episode title of "Death Takes a Halliwell" comes from the trope namer but does not feature this.
  • Decade-Themed Party: One episode had a 1940s Night being held at P3. The lady wanted the 50s but the sisters convinced her that it was overdone.
  • Defector from Decadence: Billie thought she was this when Christy turned her against the Charmed Ones.
  • Defense Mechanism Superpower: This is usually the way witches first learn about their powers. Piper used to have to get stressed or scared before being able to freeze things.
  • Deflector Shields: Most notably used by baby (and unborn) Wyatt. There are assorted people and magical items that project energy shields as well.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Downplayed with Elise Rothman; either this or Characterisation Marches On. In Season 4, she's the boss from hell. By the end of Season 5, she and Phoebe appear to be good friends.
  • Demonic Possession: With demons becoming the main enemies on this show, there were bound to be plenty of examples. Isis, Frankie and Lulu, Imara, Zile and Dantalian, and of course The Source itself has gotten in on the action. Heck, the Source alone has pulled off this trope on Paige's boyfriend Shane, engaged in The Corruption after its power got into Cole, and another demon used possession to obtain a guise to lure Wyatt into a plot to revive him.
  • Denser and Wackier: The first two seasons leaned more towards Melodrama with the supernatural stuff as mainly a bit of flavouring. Season 3 made it more action-packed and tongue-in-cheek, with many of the more outrageous magical stuff getting Lampshade Hangings. By the fifth season, several episodes would literally revolve around one of the sisters getting turned into a magical creature that required a Sexy Whatever Outfit. This got reversed in the seventh and eighth seasons which were more serious - but not as much as the first two.
  • De-power: Leo. First he became a Whitelighter, then an Elder, then an Avatar, then finally Brought Down to Normal permanently.
  • Derailing Love Interests: A unique case with Phoebe and Cole where both lovers were derailed. First was Phoebe at the start of season 5 when she suddenly decided Cole was responsible for everything that was bad in her life and blamed him for all her problems. She even went so far as to try and make a vanquishing potion for him. Afterwards he became a villain again, kidnapping Phoebe and even rewriting history to keep them together.
  • Deus ex machina: Paige, whose existence was only revealed in Season 4 after Prue dies, in order to Complete the Power of Three.
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: One of Paige's boyfriends says this when he falls under the effects of the truth spell and inadvertently blurts out the fact that he's married.
  • Die or Fly
    • When Paige develops healing power to save Henry.
    • More literally than not in the case of Phoebe, who spontaneously levitates out of danger (indeed, its how she got the power to begin with).
    • In fact, all the sisters have developed at least one power this way: Piper learnt to freeze time initially when Jeremy tried to stab her in the face, Prue got her empathy under control just as a demon was about to murder her sister, Paige orbed for the first time in the just as she was about to crash into a lorry (as well as the aforementioned healing) and Phoebe's levitation has already been discussed. In Season 9, when the source attacks, not only does Piper's molecular combustion power also develop radically but Paige gains the power to form an "orb shield" (basically a force field with added sparkles).
  • Died on Their Birthday: Cole Turner's final death happened during his birthday, after he changed reality where Paige was murdered so he can be together with Phoebe again. After his death, the changes in reality were undone while he remained dead. To hammer this home even further, the changes in reality also resulted that Cole was back to being Belthazor and lost his invulnerability, meaning he died as the half-demon he was born as. At the end of the episode, Paige said "Happy birthday, Cole" after he's been vanquished.
  • Disappeared Dad: Three times. Victor was forced away because he didn't want his daughters to use magic, Sam had to abandon Paige to save her from the Elders and Chris missed his father when the latter was busy as an Elder. At least in the former two cases, Daddy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning Them.
  • Discard and Draw: Cole's powers change completely as he goes from being a half-demon to the Source of All Evil, then to coming back from the Wastelands with all the powers accumulated there, then to an Avatar.
  • Divergent Character Evolution:
    • When Piper became the lead witch, her desire for a normal life helped differentiate her from Prue when she was the main character.
    • Paige likewise was differentiated from Prue by being treated like an outsider by Piper and struggling to live up to Prue's reputation.
  • Does Not Like Men: Grams repeatedly demonstrates this, supposedly because her four failed marriages have left her a little bitter towards men. Season 6 reveals that her first marriage was The Lost Lenore - as he was killed by a warlock friend of hers.
  • Domino Revelation: Witches are the first we learn but then we get demons, ghosts, angels, and others to come out.
  • Door-Closes Ending: This is the idiosyncratic way of ending every season. See the Once a Season entry below. The first episode ends this way too. As does the intro. Really, they're rather fond of this one.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male:
    • Prue would frequently use her telekinesis to cause slapstick injuries to Andy or other men who annoyed her.
    • Subverted in the Season 4 premiere, where a suspected abusive father turns out to be covering for his wife.
    • Deconstructed in Season 8 where Billie - believing women are the superior sex - accidentally causes all the girls in her class to beat up the boys. She's horrified by what she's done and it's presented as wrong.
  • Drama-Preserving Handicap: Phoebe has difficulties calling for premonitions on command, which helps keeping her from single-handedly solving or preventing the current episode's plot.
    • In Season 4, the Source of All Evil is able to block her premonitions for weeks, keeping her from learning that Cole was possessed by it.
    • The main off-screen reason for her losing her active powers in Season 6 was the dent the stunts and equipment for her levitation were making on the budget, but getting rid of her premonitions and empathy too certainly is what helped stretch the seasonal arc, basically a magical whodunnit, till the finale.
  • Driven to Suicide:
    • Cole had attempted to get the Charmed Ones angry enough at him to want to vanquish him. However, he had become invincible by then, and was so powerful that he couldn't even use his many powers to kill himself.
    • There was a bad guy who would drive specific people to suicide by giving them bad luck and making them think their situation was hopeless.
  • Drop-In Character: Dan and Jenny Gordon, especially in the first episodes of season 2. Later partly justified in that Dan dated one of the sisters, but he still often use the excuse of Your Door Was Open.

    Tropes E-H 
  • Early-Installment Weirdness
    • The first episode mentions the Three Essentials of Magic: timing, feeling, and the phases of the moon. It's never brought up again, nor is there any indication in the rest of the show that the moon's phases have any effect on their magic. With the exception of an episode where, under a strange occurrence involving a blue moon, the witches are turned into ferocious beasts who maul Whitelighters. It's also commonly pointed out that their powers are linked to their emotions.
    • Prue's telekinesis power operates quite differently in the first few episodes. Notably, in the pilot she teleports creamer into a cup of coffee. In the second episode, she barely struggles to move an entire elevator full of people up several floors. She also uses it unintentionally on objects out of her line of sight, without realizing she's even doing it. It's pretty jarring to rewatch and see the difference, since she typically uses her power to deflect energy balls or toss demons around.
    • Seasons 1 and 2 have a drastically different tone. Season 1 is rather bleak, with a lot of melodrama. Season 2 nearly phases out the magic completely, with emphasis on Slice of Life episodes. Both seasons were a bit dark and brooding, with a lot of the material being played very seriously, but also rather little in terms of overarching plot. Starting with Season 3, the show became more action-packed, with snappier dialogue and more Lampshade Hanging (as well as Fanservice), and also more serialized, with season-long villain arcs (Season 5 notwithstanding). Also, the Charmed Ones' characters noticeably changed to make use of the lead actresses' talent for comedy:
      • Prue started out as a responsible and humorless workaholic, who might not have gotten over having to raise her sisters after their mother's death and barely knew how to have fun. While she remained a workaholic by Season 3 (albeit now more focused on her Charmed duties than her job), her Defrosting Ice Queen phase was over, and she now didn't mind being a Troll from time to time.
      • Piper, once the shy self-effacing middle sister, became more confident, but also irritable, and developed a near-constant Deadpan Snarker demeanor.
      • Phoebe functioned more as The Heart and often delivered her lines a lot more dramatically than later. Season 3 made her more of a Genki Girl.
    • In the third episode one of the shape-shifting demons held onto the book and tried to get it out of the house by carrying it. Never once did it shock him like the evil sensing and shocking book that would come later. It's heavily implied that the shapeshifter's powers confused the book at first: whilst it allowed him to carry it, the book did refuse to leave the house, flying out of his hands when he tried to force it through the door, and sliding away when he tried to reach for it again. Likewise, the book is shown to be connected to the sisters' powers, and it becomes steadily savvier and more aggressive to evil as the series goes on. It's therefore implied that it's just the book's defensive capabilities strengthening as the sisters' powers do, as opposed to a complete non sequitur.
    • In the later episodes just about every magical being, good or evil, has at least one of the dozens of teleportation powers. In earlier episodes they aren't as common. It's quite jarring to go back and see chase sequences with the demon of the week running after them, as opposed to just teleporting away.
    • Initially spells were inspired by real life Wicca and neo pagan practices (the show was inspired by The Craft, which used similar ideas). By as early as Season 2, more emphasis was placed on the active powers and vanquishing potions.
    • Prue mentions to Andy upon her confession as a witch that her children will only inherit her powers if they are girls, which is later proven false. This is before they have interacted with any male witches, and there haven't been any in the family so far.
    • The seasons with Constance M Burge in charge leaned more towards the Female Angel, Male Demon tropes. Cole and Leo becoming season regulars gave the show a more gender neutral edge. Also Prue frequently got lots of Girl Power moments - before they became less Anvilicious.
    • Warlocks were the initial threat on the show, with demons only occasionally turning up. The warlocks were the human-looking enemies while demons looked more alien. By Season 4, warlocks were just Mooks and demons were the main antagonists - often appearing as humans in black leather. This was given a justification in the show; the more powerful upper level demons were the ones able to take a human form. So as the sisters' powers grew, the more powerful (and therefore human-looking) demons came after them. However, said justification falls flat as early as season 4 where even low-level mook demons are portrayed as humans in black leather.
    • Blinking is mentioned in "The Witch Is Back" to be a power that was copied from a witch. Later on blinking is considered the default warlock power - to the degree that Phoebe and Piper doing it in Season 3 is an indicator that something is wrong.
    • In general, most things that get an introduction work differently for the remainder of the series.
      • When Leo first brings up his bosses, he mentions that they're "A group of elder whitelighters, called the Founders." They are never again referred to as the "Founders," instead being called the Elders (both of which turn out to be a Nonindicative Name, since one needn't be an original nor particularly old to join their ranks).
      • When Sam uses a powder to remove the sisters' memories, Leo says he must've kept it from one of his witch charges, but later on, "Memory Dust" is something in a whitelighter's bag of tricks (though they don't specify where it comes from, so maybe they do have a witch supplying them with it, though if that was the case, it's more likely the Charmed Ones would just whip it up themselves when need be rather than asking Leo to get some).
      • Barbas's first episode states that he only awakens every 1300 years. His second episode handwaves his early reappearance. His later episodes don't even bother.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
    • By the end of season four, the sisters have lost one of their own, but in the process defeated the Triad far earlier than they were supposed to. The Angel of Destiny offers them a life without magic as reward, but they refuse. In Season 8, Leo was supposed to have been killed, and the grief would spur them to fight much like the loss of Prue did. Piper, however, convinced the Angel of Destiny to only temporarily take away Leo, who was eventually returned to them. This time the Triad, among others, were Killed Off for Real.
    • Piper and Leo's entire relationship has been filled with so many trials and tribulations of both the romantic and the magical kind, they're the epitome of this trope for Charmed.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect: There are many many shots of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica Pyramid, just to remind you that yes, the show is set in San Francisco. In fact, the episodes usually start off with some shots of San-Fran in the morning after the opening credits and then with some night-time ones much later for the "final thought" at the end.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Hollow, an entity that exists only to consume power. It can't be controlled and it can't be stopped, and Good and Evil had to join forces to seal it away. It would consume everything in existence if it was allowed to be free. It is vanquished with The Power of Three in the series finale.
  • Elemental Powers:
    • An Ice Person: Prue's past self was able to create freezing clouds of ice/mist.
    • Blow You Away: Shax and the guardian of Pandora's Box are able to create air blasts. Shax travels by whirlwind.
    • Casting a Shadow: The Hollow and the Nexus seem to be a cross of this and The Power of the Void.
    • Dishing Out Dirt: Piper as an Earth Mother goddess is able to create earthquakes, sealing the Titans underground.
    • Light 'em Up: Light is the domain of Elders and Whitelighters. A few whitelighters in The '60s would use their abilities to create magical light shows. They aren't seen using them as an offensive power in the series, but they have been used in that manner in the comics.
    • Making a Splash: The Water Demon that killed the sisters' mother, and the sea hag. May or may not be the same person.
    • Playing with Fire: Fire is seen as a mostly evil power, so most of the characters who get fire based powers are evil: fireball-throwing demons, Phoebe both in her evil past life and influenced by her demon baby, Evil Future Wyatt, Kali (who lends it to Aviva), Christy, The Source, and so on. There are good characters who use fire powers though, like the witch in the pilot and the firestarter kid.
    • Shock and Awe: Lightning bolts are a trademark of Elders and Avatars. Energy balls are also electrically based. The shocker demon is an actual being made of electricity.
  • Empty Bedroom Grieving: After Prue died in the Season 3 finale, her room was kept as a shrine for the first several episodes of Season 4. When Paige moves into the room at the end of her sixth episode, it's used to show that Piper and Phoebe are beginning to move on.
  • Enemy Mine: When the sisters have to work with the four horsemen, everyone gets on edge.
    • In a last ditch effort to get an advantage against Zankou, the sisters try to ally with a Vampire Queen, being desperate enough to offer her and her coven immunity (the Charmed Ones won't bother them afterward, no matter what they do). Unfortunately, Zankou got to her first, and offered a sweeter deal.
  • Energy Ball
    • The preferred power of demons everywhere. Just as much as Fireballs. Cole in particular really really misses being able to use them when he fully turns human for a while.
    • Strangely one family of witches, Richard's, seems to be able to blast electrical balls at will.
  • Emotional Powers: The sisters' powers are tied to their emotions - Prue's powers seem to be triggered most strongly by anger. The triggers for whitelighters and darklighters are love and hate, respectively. Piper's freezing is triggered by fear, as is Paige's orbing.
  • The Empath
  • Endangered Soufflé: When Leo walks into the kitchen, Piper, who is baking one, threatens to blow him up if her soufflé falls.
  • Endless Corridor: There's one in Hogwa-err, Magic School.
  • Escaped from Hell: Cole manages to escape Hell by absorbing the powers of other fallen demons until he became Nigh Invulnerable, even becoming able to kill the massive worm that feasted on the souls of the damned there. Unfortunately for him, since his newly-obtained powers were evil by nature, Phoebe, the woman he loved and married, ended up divorcing from him because he now brought her more harm than good, leaving him unable to even kill himself out of the grief.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zig-Zagged; Cole mentions that evil cannot love, yet he himself has some evil inside him and has loved Phoebe. There are also demons and darklighters that have fallen in love with mortals.
    • In the season 6 finale with the evil alternate dimension, even the evil versions of the sisters love each other. Evil Phoebe comforts Wyatt the same way Good Phoebe would.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: During Phoebe's stint as the Queen of Evil and literally being poisoned into being evil by the Seer, she detested the death of innocents and demons alike. Though in the end this may be in part due to Phoebe's innate goodness overtrumping whatever evil, be it the hell-spawn inside her, her love for Cole or the aforementioned evil tonics the Seer was feeding her, she was slowly succumbing too.
  • Everybody Hates Hades
    • The show never used Hades (except for a rather dishonorable mention as the father of the demon Nikos in the novel), but Hecate, another underworld god, came off particularly badly, being turned into a demon. (Way to go, have witches fight the patron of witches.)
    • Yama also got this treatment, becoming the totally amoral gatekeeper of Chinese hell who tried to snatch whatever spirits were not "properly buried" and drag them to hell, regardless of whether they were good or evil.
    • The Angel of Death on the other hand, is portrayed more or less sympathetically, especially during his first appearance.
  • Everyone Loves Blondes: Although both naturally brunet, Phoebe and Paige dyed their hair blond (Phoebe in Season 3, Paige in Season 6) and their characters fit the trope. It's worth noting that Prue's future self was shown to be blond, where she was the sexy, powerful and successful business woman. Piper also wore a blond wig when she dressed up as Glinda.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good
    • Cole's secretary Julie suggests casting a spell to let her carry Phoebe's baby so that he would "be free to rule without her [Phoebe's] love holding him back", not realising that Cole doesn't want an heir, he loves Phoebe and is excited to be a father.
    • Played for Drama with Kyra the Seer. She is a demon and cannot feel human emotions, but her visions allow her to experience them somewhat, so she wishes to be turned into a human so she can feel them properly.
    • The trope is also inverted with Kyra's example. The sisters wonder why a demon would give up her powers just for the things they as humans take for granted.
  • Evil Costume Switch: Especially notable in the season 6 finale. Evil Phoebe has a mohawk, Evil Paige has thick bangs, Evil Leo has Spiky Hair and a beard while Evil Chris has a ponytail. All of them of course wear black clothing that's either revealing (in the sisters' case) or shaggy (the men's case). Their evil selves tend to have facial piercings as well.
    • A very straight example with future Wyatt in "Imaginary Fiends". His evil self wears a black t-shirt, ripped jeans, has long hair and a beard.
  • Evil Counterpart
    • In the first season, the three fought an evil trio of warlock brothers who were even called "The Evil Charmed Ones". One of them wanted to be a priest, because doing so would remove his warlock half. The fact that the youngest brother was a half-sibling and that this was never presented as a barrier to accessing the Power of Three ended up as important foreshadowing for Season 4.
    • Yet another trio of evil siblings, sisters this time, appear in the episode "The Power of Three Blondes". They went as far as to actually steal the identities of the Charmed Ones in order to form their own evil version of the Power of Three. Their pettiness did them in.
    • The spin-off novel “Something Wiccan This Way Comes” features an evil trio of Tessa, Taryn and Tina Conners, sisters with the power of Invisibility, Flight and Telekinesis respectively, who intended to take the power of various other witches to establish their own power base; Leo explicitly refers to the sisters as the Haliwells’ ‘evil twins’ during the final showdown.
    • Darklighters are this to Whitelighters. And like Leo, one (Alec) fell in love despite the rules and norms.
    • The Grimoire to the Book of Shadows, complete with the main force of evil/good having the main version that's called THE book.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: Or cat, in this case. As the Charmed Ones' familiar, Kit could sense evil, and hissed at it. Except the one time when she misled the sisters into thinking Dan was evil, while she was in fact hissing at a hornet's nest behind him.
  • Evil Lawyer Joke: Paige lampshades it.
    • A variation appears in Season 1's "Thank You For Not Morphing": When a group of shapeshifters tries to enlist the cooperation of Victor, the Charmed Ones' father, one of them threatens to "rip him into a thousand pieces and dance on his entrails." In response, Victor quips "Ah, so you're lawyers."
    • When a warlock from Puritan times is brought to the present, he attacks a lawyer (he had the last name Halliwell, and the warlock was looking for Prue) who, not realizing he's magical, threatens to sue him for everything he's worth. The warlock says that it's comforting that lawyers haven't changed in all this time.
  • Evil Power Vacuum: The Charmed Ones are rather good at bringing about the death of whichever leader the underworld has, so several times demons scramble around trying to consolidate power and allies in order to become the new leader. Cole and Zankou are just a couple of the higher profile demons that try to do this over the years.
  • The Evils of Free Will: In episode 12 season 7 "Extreme Makeover - World Edition," The Avatar want to create utopia by curbing free will. In the end, in episode 13 season 7, "Charmageddon," the evil side saves the day. In season 2 episode 21 "Apocalypse Not" Leo explains why evil loves free will.
  • Evil Versus Oblivion: Both the Shadow and the Source are Made of Evil and can be defeated by good™. But the only way to stop the Hollow from destroying Heaven, Earth and Hell alike is a Yin-Yang Bomb spell.
  • Evolving Credits: Starting from season 2, the title sequence was regularly updated so that actors not appearing in the episode were not shown in the opening credits. Plus, the opening sequence for the pilot episode doesn't show the sisters' individual powers so that they aren't revealed in advance.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change:
    • All three sisters get this when they travel to the future in Season 2. Piper's hair becomes curly, Phoebe's grows to waist length and Prue's turns blonde - all to signal how different each of them have become.
    • Across the series, Prue's hair begins in a bob but is waist length by season 3 as her witch powers grow.
    • Phoebe has blonde highlights when her relationship with Cole first begins. As it gets serious, the colour darkens. When they get engaged, her hairstyle changes and it gets darker. While he is corrupted by the Source's power her hair goes to shoulder length and then turns black when she becomes his Queen. By season 5 when she has moved on from Cole, her fringe has grown longer. Her short hair in season 6 isn't an example (as Alyssa Milano simply wanted to cut it for her 30th birthday) but it does coincide with her gaining empath powers. By season 8 her hair has grown out long to reflect her desire to find love. Her future self who is finally a mother is shown with waist-length hair.
    • Paige has black hair in season 4. In season 5 when she has jumped into her witch duties, her hair is now red (as a result of a potion blowing up on her). In season 6 she's trying to find herself through various temp jobs, reflected through strawberry blonde hair. When she stops going to the jobs, her hair becomes brown.
    • Piper is unique in that her hair doesn't change very much in the series. It grows to waist length during the second season and stays that way - but she does give herself bangs around the time she and Leo have some marriage issues.
  • Expy:
    • Cole is clearly an expy of Angel in Buffy. Reformed demon starts a love affair with female hero, then reverts to evil. Then good again. Then semi-evil (see season 2 Angel series). Aaron Spelling obviously agrees with the saying 'good writers borrow from other writers; great writers steal from them outright'.
    • The feuding Montana and Calloway families from season 6 are the Montague and Capulet families from Romeo and Juliet, complete with Star-Crossed Lovers Richard Montana and Olivia Calloway.
  • Extreme Doormat: Darryl Morris has done everything for the Charmed Ones. He even forgave them after Phoebe and Paige stole his soul. He had managed to grow a spine after getting put through the wringer one too many times without a thank you and put some distance between him and the girls. They didn't understand why.
  • Eye Beams: The villain from "The Truth Is Out There, And It Hurts" has a Third Eye that sends out a beam of burning energy. It targets the same area that the victim's third eye would be. Javna also steals the life force of his victims this way.
  • Eye Scream: There's an episode where a man cursed with blindness sends his son out to steal a pair of eyes for him. The eyes removed from the bodies are just... eeeew.
  • Fail Polish: The sisters' clothing in season 1 was quite plain and average with only Phoebe being anywhere close to fashionable. By season 3 the sisters always wore the latest fashions and had much more flattering hairstyles. Fridge Brilliance - they can afford fashionable clothes by this time thanks to Piper's club being busy and Prue bringing in plenty of money as a photographer.
  • Fake Shemp: We see "Prue" from behind during a Season 5 episode.
  • Faking the Dead
    • Phoebe had fake-vanquished Cole because while the sisters had found out that he was really Belthazor, Phoebe was still in love with him.
    • In the season seven finale, the sisters and Leo faked their deaths in order to live normal lives. By season eight, though, they couldn't keep up the ruse and eventually reverted to their old identities.
  • False Innocence Trick
    • There was an episode where the sisters try to save a man trapped in a painting, but it turns out he was evil all along.
    • Another episode sees the sisters trying to save some kids from their Ice Cream Truck prison. Turns out, demon children.
    • And in "Primrose Empath", the demon cursed with empathy pretends to be an innocent human hiding in an old tenement and tricks Prue into taking his power so he can once more wreak havoc. The fact the demon had been given the power by a priest so as to trap him may possibly be a Shout-Out to the Twilight Zone episode "The Howling Man".
    • "I Dream of Phoebe" has the supposedly docile genie Ginny turn out to be a demon that was turned into a genie as punishment.
  • Familiar: An episode dealt with familiars; they can become human either by good work, or by betraying/killing their charges. The Charmed Ones' familiar cat, Kit, was rewarded with human form.
  • Family Theme Naming: The Halliwell women often end up with names beginning with "P". Penny (Grams), Patty (the Charmed ones' mother), Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige. In the comics, Phoebe continues the tradition with her own daughters PJ, Parker and Peyton. In "That 70s Episode" a time-travelling Phoebe, who hasn't been born yet, reveals her name to which Grams snarks "Another 'P', what a surprise!"
  • Fanservice: To the point that, whenever any (or, indeed, all) of the girls ends up in a costume as part of the plot, lampshades are inevitably hung.
    Phoebe: Why am I always the one that winds up with the wig?
    Piper: Trust me, you're not.
To their credit, it's Equal Opportunity Fanservice, too.
  • Fan Disservice: Some of the outfits and situations the girls got into in the later seasons (like Phoebe performing for the Egyptian guy) were seriously skeevy.
  • Fanservice Pack: Piper opens up a night club in season 2 which provides plenty of opportunities to see the sisters dolled up and wearing something sexy in most episodes. Later seasons, most of the transformations the sisters undergo end up with them in skimpy outfits. And there's also the female demons with tend to go for the fanservice version of Hellbent For Leather.
  • Fantastic Racism: There was a lot of this towards Cole's demonic half.
    • Witches, of course. In one episode, Bruce Campbell appeared as a Witch Hunter who was such a fanatic that he was willing to kill a woman who all evidence suggested was not a witch (her mother was apparently one, and that was good enough for him).
    • The Dark Side had a lot of infighting, especially after the Source was killed. Vampires are immensely disliked (to the point of being banished from the Underworld) and Warlocks are viewed with disdain by several other evil entities (going by "Muse to My Ears").
    • The whole idea that demons cannot love, in how it fluctuates throughout the show, almost functions as an unintentional analogue to internalized prejudice.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Lampshaded a couple of times.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Demons and the like come from the Underworld, but when they get vanquished, they go to the Wasteland. They lose their human forms and face being devoured by a beast under the ground. Cole - having retained his human form because he's only half-demon - kills the beast in Season 4, though.
    • What will happen in Season 2, episode 10 if the Demon of the Week succeeds in his plot. Cupid even says so.
  • Fearful Symmetry: In "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World Part 1", where Phoebe and Paige fight their Mirror Universe counterparts.
  • Feather Boa Constrictor: A demon in the season two finale "Be Careful What You Witch For" has one.
  • Fell Asleep Driving: In Season 1, Episode 5, after two close calls with a serial killer who attacks people in their dreams, Prue is exhausted from sleep deprivation. Despite her sisters' best efforts to keep her awake, she falls asleep at the wheel, crashes her car, and winds up at the Dream Sorcerer's mercy.
  • Female Gaze: Piper and Phoebe spent quite a bit of time ogling Leo's butt as he's fixing something in the fireplace.
    Phoebe: Quite possibly the finest glutes in the city.
    Piper: In the state.
    Phoebe: In all the land.
    • Prue walks in on Leo in the shower, and takes a second to look at Leo and remark "nice orbs" before being driven out by Piper.
  • Feminist Fantasy: A show about 3 badass sexy witches who save San Francisco from (mostly) male demons on an episode by episode basis? You bet your ass! Complete with lots of cleavage and hooking up with the hot guy of the day probably included. The show also placed a strong emphasis on the power of sisterhood, with male characters being given the traditionally female roles of healers and caregivers, and the Charmed powers being tied to the women in the family.
  • Fetus Terrible
    • Played straight for Phoebe's child, who was the offspring of a Charmed One turned (temporarily) evil, and the Source of all evil. It was slowly corrupting Phoebe, even granting her a power she had in her past evil self.
    • Inverted with Piper's, however. Not only would hers become a powerful force for good, but Wyatt would protect Piper even when he was still in the womb.
  • Feuding Families: Paige had to deal with this in season six. Interestingly, not only is the reason for their feuding something concrete and recent (the death of one family's daughter) rather than something vague that happened generations ago, but the feud is resolved relatively peacefully after it's revealed that the reason everything was escalating was because the ghost of the dead girl was keeping it going out of a displaced sense of vengeance. Paige's Love Interest from this episode (the same one the ghost wanted) even hangs around for a while, alternately being a source of help or danger depending on the episode, until his attempt to get rid of his family's bad karma ended up endangering Phoebe (and even exposing the magical world to her boyfriend).
  • Finger-Snap Lighter: Many, many demons. However, the very first flaming finger seen was being used by a good witch to light candles, all the way in the first episode.
  • Fire and Brimstone Hell: Not all the underworld looks like this (most of it being just dark caverns and tunnels), but select places do.
  • Fire Balls: Demons love to pitch fireballs, but then again so do some of the not-so-nice beings. There are more good characters that use fireballs than Energy Balls, though.
  • Firemen Are Hot: Piper briefly dates hot fireman Greg in the sixth season. This particular fireman being hot is a problem, as Chris notes that Piper is "insanely sexually attracted" to him, and his conception date is coming up.
    Chris: If mom and dad don't screw, I'm screwed!
  • First Law of Resurrection: Oh boy. Over the course of 8 seasons, Piper and Phoebe die 9 times each. Paige reaches the same number of deaths within just 5 seasons and Prue has 3 deaths to show. And of course, being the main characters, they all get better. Well, except for Prue at the end of season 3.
  • Flash Back / Flash Forward: The nature of Phoebe's power of premonition is that she sees visions of what might happen, and sometimes what had already happened. Then there are spells that have been cast by others to see scenes from both the past and the future.
    • A couple of things that happened only in the first season: The Cold Open would fade to black before the theme song and opening credits, and there was a more uptempo piano piece that was sometimes used as the ending theme.
  • Fluffy Cloud Heaven: "Up There", as it's called, looks exactly like the page picture. Although this isn't actually heaven; it's just where whitelighters have headquarters.
  • Flying Broomstick: The Charmed Ones are thoroughly modern witches, so this only happens once, in the past.
  • Fog Feet: Demons made of smoke.
  • Forced Transformation: The sisters get turned into other things quite often across the entire series. An evil-powered Piper turns her wedding planners into a pig wearing blanket and a frozen sculpture. Phoebe also turned a particularly chauvinistic advice columnist into a turkey twice and a pig once.
  • Foreshadowing: A good number of examples.
    • "Love Hurts": Rodriguez posing as an Internal Affairs officer says to Andy "You have no idea how much I can hurt you" and the sentence actually starts off in a slightly demonic voice. Rodriguez ends up killing Andy later, and is in fact supernatural
    • "Be Careful What You Witch For" foreshadows Piper's Character Development and eventual leadership role from Season 4 onwards.
    • "Death Takes A Halliwell" foreshadows that Prue could die if she keeps relentlessly fighting evil all the time.
    • "That 70s Episode" foreshadows that it's possible to recreate the Power of Three using ancestors. This comes in handy with the spell to vanquish the Source and again in the finale to destroy the Hollow.
    • "Is There A Woogy In The House" and "Pardon My Past" foreshadow how easily Phoebe can be tempted towards evil.
    • Several scenes in Cole's introductory episode hint at his demonic identity and motives. He's introduced as an ordinary ADA tasked with prosecuting a mortal killer protected by a Guardian Demon. There's no hint at an accomplice besides the supernatural one, but Cole gives him a veiled speech telling him to "tell the one protecting you that I'm coming for him" which doesn't make much sense without the context. When Phoebe accidentally attacks him, he's able to easily block her kick (which he plays off as a Meet Cute). When Piper selectively freezes the innocents in the courtroom, he seems to freeze, only to reveal to the audience later that he didn't. None of the other demonic entities froze, but neither did they pretend to freeze like Cole did, which shows that he's aware of and ready for Piper's powers and capable of playing a long game to get to them. Then of course, there's his line to the judge before vanquishing him: "I'll take it from here."
    • "Dead Man Dating" features Piper falling for a ghost who she can't be with, which ends on her saying, "Leave it to me to fall for a dead guy." Her main love interest for the series, Leo Wyatt, would also be a dead guy (the biggest difference being that she can touch him, and their biggest obstacle, rather than death, is the Whitelighter Council).
  • Forgotten Phlebotinum: The spirit board, which was used for all of three episodes before disappearing in season three until it finally resurfaced for one last use in season 8, and the numerous spells from the Book of Shadows that would be incredibly useful in practically every situation, but are never used, such as the truth spell, which forces others to answer questions truthfully (this may be intentional), evil-detecting glasses, spell to multiply powers (which also clones the caster), spell to hear hidden thoughts, and many more.
  • Forgot Flanders Could Do That: Paige's past as a social worker is not mentioned when she decides she needs to return to the non-magical world in Season 6 - working various temp jobs (although she's not going to them specifically for work itself but to try new things, and she keeps going to them when she finds a magical reason in each job). Season 8 has an episode where Paige is due for an interview to get her old social worker job back, but she ultimately turns down the opportunity to focus on whitelighter duties.
  • Fountain of Youth: One is being guarded by nymphs, but is really more of a Healing Spring. Another one shows up, and this one actually looks like a stone fountain. Irritatingly enough, Piper says "But that's just a myth!" when confronted with the second one, even after having come across the first one, possibly because she and her sisters had promised the nymphs from the first fountain that they would keep its existance a secret.
  • Four-Girl Ensemble: Although not all four Charmed Ones were on the show at he same time (since Prue died before Paige was introduced), the sisters still fit this trope. Paige was The Ditz, Piper was the Deadpan Snarker, Phoebe was the sexy one, and Prue was the wise Cool Big Sis. Before Paige, Phoebe played a combination of the sexy one and The Ditz. Once Prue passed away, Piper took on her role as the wise Cool Big Sis but still had her Deadpan Snarker traits intact.
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip: Phoebe and Paige in "Enter the Demon".
  • Freudian Slip: In the episode about the Sandman, Piper lets it slip that dreams are just "harmless, erotic—exotic fun".
  • "Friends" Rent Control: Three twenty-something women own a large, three-story Victorian manor with a yard in San Francisco, a very dense urban area with some of the most expensive real estate in the US. The issue is supposedly handwaved that it has been in the family for generations and has been inherited, but the Halliwells would likely not be able to even afford the property tax on a home that would likely sell for at least million, assuming it's not in a wealthy or desirable part of town.

    No need to invoke the A Wizard Did It trope in this case: the house has been in the family for centuries (most likely since it was built) and the start of the series Piper has a job as a cook in a posh restaurant and Prue is a well paid art appraiser for a big auction house. Later they own a very popular night club and Phoebe becomes a famous columnist. A couple of episodes have had the sisters mention the need for a proper regular income. Piper has said to Phoebe on one occasion that they depended on her salary (as P3 was seeing lean times and Paige was unemployed) in order not to lose the house.

    The house HAS been in the family since the beginning; in the episode that first featured the Nexus, the girls realize the house is in the middle of a pentagram (star), with the five points all near an element. They figure the house was probably purposefully built their by one of their ancestors. There's also a theory that, since the Nexus is too dangerous to fall into evil's hands, the Powers That Be might be subtly influencing things to ensure the house stays in the sisters' control.
  • Friend to All Children: The Halliwell's are all shown to be very fond of children, such as when they willingly take in an abandoned infant to protect him from a vengeful ghost, and being open and supportive of their young neighbor Jenny for the short time she lived next door. Other examples include Prue going to the rescue of a young witch when he signals for help and acts as a guardian and mentor. Piper helps a young fire starter to accept and learn to control his magic while protecting him from demonic bounty hunters. Paige worked for Child Services and was shown to be very affected by the plight of some of her cases. But of them all Phoebe seemed to be the most compassionate, comforting a hospital bound boy, getting a little girl being hunted by trolls to safety and using her empathy to understand her infant nephew's struggles.
  • The "Fun" in "Funeral": The season 8 premiere has the sisters holding a funeral for themselves. Phoebe tries to hit on a guy who was mourning her. Paige is meanwhile annoyed at the lack of people mourning her - so she Glamours into Janice Dickinson and gives a big dramatic speech about how Paige was Janice's best friend.
  • Funny Background Event: In the episode "Careful What You Witch For," when Phoebe is given the power of flight that she can barely control, there's a scene with Piper and Leo in the attic making a plan... while Phoebe repeatedly flies by outside, calling for help. Leo doesn't notice her at all, and Piper's reaction is just a vague "Did you hear something?" Until Phoebe crashes through the window, of course.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Magical Version: Billie managed to "MacGyver up" a magical potion from the contents of a hostage's purse, despite the show always stating that potion ingredients are quite specific.
  • Gaslighting: Source!Cole does it to Paige, along with having a demon possess her with a demonic power with a side effect of temporary insanity. He uses demon powers around her, and erases the evidence, so she can't be sure she's seen anything.
  • Gender Bender: Prue is transformed into a man in one episode in order to defeat a female demon who preyed on men.
  • Generation Xerox:
    • It's implied in the last episode that Chris and Wyatt are going to follow in the footsteps of their parents and aunts. So much potential spin-off material wasted...
    • Piper with her mother, right down to the ability to freeze people and the forbidden romance with a Whitelighter. This actually comes up as a plot-point in the Season 5 opener, when Piper realises the similarities between herself and her mother after getting pregnant, and becomes afraid that she will die young and leave her family (particularly her child) behind.
    • All of the sisters' romantic lives parallel their mother or grandmother in some way - Piper with a Whitelighter like Patty and Sam, Phoebe with another magical being (a demon and then a cupid) like Penny's romance with the necromancer, and both Prue and Paige with mortals like Patty and Victor as well as Penny's first marriage.
  • Ghostly Goals/Unfinished Business: Played straight in regards to Phoebe's classmate Charlene in "Ex Libris", who can't move on until she helps bring a murderer to justice. Subverted in the case of Mark Chao in "Dead Man Dating", when there is actually no problem with him moving on to the afterlife - he just doesn't want to, because his spirit will be taken to hell unless his body is given a proper burial. He still manages to get justice for himself, and have Piper fall in love with him in the process.
  • Ghost Town: In "The Good, The Bad and The Cursed", there's an old abandoned wild west town that has a Stable Time Loop making it seem like it's haunted.
  • Give Him a Normal Life
    • This is the explanation for why the Halliwell Sisters grew up not being able to use their powers or knowing about them: Their mother and grandmother "bound their powers" in order to let them live a safe and normal life. This was never quite as much of an option with baby Wyatt, who is an even greater Chosen One than the Charmed Sisters themselves, but the Halliwell Sisters still had a tendency to wish that they could give Wyatt a normal life, particularly Piper.
    • Often occurs so they can have conflict with the Powers That Be who act like their bosses. One example that really stands out is a multi-part episode in which it was revealed that the Balance Between Good and Evil is preserved by a Mirror Universe — if good wins in one universe, evil wins in the other and balances it out. Traveling between them disrupted the balance and made the normal universe "too good" — the sun never sets, everyone is freakishly happy all the time, and minor crimes like leaving your cell phone on in a library are punished by mutilation (instead of the suddenly-too-good people just leaving their cellphones turned off). A more reasonable person would consider mutilation to be evil. Somewhat tangential, but one shouldn't forget that in the similarly-disrupted evil balance, the same sort of mutilation was enacted for such trivial niceties as saying "Gesundheit" when someone sneezed. Essentially, the point being made was that Good and Evil cannot tolerate the others' existence, and therefore in a world dominated by one, any act (no matter how minor) that runs contrary to the ideals of either is punished harshly. It is the mix of the two that provides tolerance and temperance.
  • Give Me a Sign: The titular episode has Phoebe cast a spell to help Piper choose between Dan and Leo, which comes in the form of a whole lot of little coincidences that pop up throughout the day. It turns out that those signs were supposed to help them find Prue, who had been kidnapped by Bane earlier.
  • God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Played Straight with the Elders who, despite leading the Whitelighters and acting for the forces of good, are dogmatic, reckless, and callous in how they treat their protectorate unless forced to do otherwise. The In-verse psychotic Greek Gods exist is because of their meddling. On the other end, you have the Source of all Evil and the various residents of the Underworld who are just as vicious and immoral as they appear. The comics reveal that it is not supposed to be this way, as the the council of Elders seen during the series is recycled and replaced with an entirely new council as punisment for their behavior.
  • God in Human Form: After becoming an Elder and then an Avatar, Leo eventually gets depowered and mindwiped and is plopped somewhere on earth to live as a human and find his purpose. Then one Batman Gambit would foil another, and he would come back home.
  • Godiva Hair: Lady Godiva herself shows up in an episode and Phoebe dresses up as her at the end of the episode.
  • Good-Guy Bar: P3 gets opened in Season 2 and most episodes usually have the epilogue there. There's always plenty of musical guests too.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Grams, as well as Cole when he was a good guy. Both are justified, with Grams toughening up after her first husband was murdered by warlocks and Cole being a half-demon who's spent a century as a trained killer.
  • Goo-Goo-Godlike: Wyatt. Even in the womb, he was protecting Piper from a souped-up Cole. After he was born, his powers just kept growing.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Phoebe, hopped up on demonic powers, is supposed to get stabbed by an athame to get rid of them. Paige is just about to when the scene cuts to a post-battle celebration in magic school.
  • Grand Theft Me: There is a lot of possession going on throughout the series.
  • Great Big Book of Everything: The Book of Shadows is the former Trope Namer.
  • The Grim Reaper: The Angel of Death.
  • "Groundhog Day" Loop: The final episode of season 1.
  • Halloween Episode: Two, but neither one has an A-plot relating to the holiday. The season 3 episode All Halliwell's Eve has a B-plot where a couple of demons come back to life due to the holiday in question, but is otherwise a Time Travel Episode. The season 8 Kill Billie: Vol 1 has no plot relating to the holiday at all and just happens to take place on Halloween.
  • Happily Adopted: Paige was adopted by a loving family when the Elders wouldn't let Patty and her Whitelighter Sam keep the child. Then the Powers That Be had to move the adopted parents out of the way in a more brutal fashion...
  • Happily Married: Piper and Leo (for a while, and, if the epilogue is anything to go by, again).
  • Headless Horseman: Almost causes the end of Magic School in "The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell".
  • Heads, Tails, Edge: When Phoebe gets a job and discovers her boss is having an affair, she flips a coin to determine whether she should lie to the boss's husband or not. It lands on its edge.
  • Healing Hands: Whitelighters and Elders. Inverted for Darklighters, who can kill through touch.
  • Heal It with Blood: Blood or tissue from an upper-level demon are required to create a Vanquishing potion to destroy them. That said a skilled demonic alchemist can use a spell and some of said demon's blood to make the demon immune to the potion. Not exactly healing, but it improves their survivability nonetheless.
  • The Heart: Piper. Best said by the girls' mother on her wedding day: "I always knew you would by the first to get married; you're the heart of this family, Piper."
  • The Heartless: The Shadow, the Source and the Hollow. Cole became host to each power once.
  • The Hecate Sisters: Explored in the episode, well, "The Three Faces of Phoebe". She summons herself from two different points in time - young Phoebe is the maiden, who immediately has a crush on Cole and still believes in the "someday my prince will come" fantasy, present Phoebe is the mother because of her impending marriage (and deciding whether to follow through is the reason Phoebe cast the spell), and elderly future Phoebe is the crone, who is bitter and angry because she didn't marry Cole, and has spent her life wondering What Could Have Been if she did.
    • This also applies to the sisters together with their mother Patty and grandmother Penny: The sisters are the maidens, who are new to the craft. Patty is the mother, who is kind, supportive, and patient with teaching her girls whenever they summon her for advice. Penny is the crone, who is the most experienced and powerful of them all even in death, is quite bitter with regards to men (she was quite disapproving of young Wyatt initially), and is also somewhat demanding on her granddaughters given their legacy.
    • This is again formed in the series finale to vanquish The Hollow for good. Piper is the maiden, Patty is the matron and Penny is the crone.
  • Heel–Face Reincarnation: This applies to both Phoebe (Season 2, "Pardon My Past") and Paige (Season 4, "A Knight to Remember"), who were wicked witches in previous lives but good witches in the present. In both episodes, they had to deal with their past lives coming back to haunt them.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: Cole/Belthazor.
  • Hell-Bent for Leather: Especially in later seasons. Demons went from actually looking kind of demonic to just being dark-haired people in leather. It is explained early on in the show that upper-level (i.e. more powerful) demons tend to appear human so as to be able to hide in plain sight. It would make sense that as the sisters grow stronger, more powerful (and devious) demons would come after them. Furthermore, it reinforces the idea that anyone you meet can be a threat, leading to some very nice Paranoia Fuel. Phoebe actually lampshades it at one point.
    Phoebe: Remember when demons looked like demons and innocents looked like innocents? Who changed the rules on us?
  • Heroic Wannabe: Billie — she sucks at being a hero and a villain.
    • Prue in "Sin Francisco". Getting infected with the sin of Pride has her recklessly charging into dangerous situations, desperate to show off how heroic and selfless she is.
  • Hideous Hangover Cure: Paige is shown making one, with the requisite raw egg thrown in with who knows what else in a blender, to give to Piper.
  • Hide Your Pregnancy: Holly Marie Combs, until they decided to write in her pregnancy. And the baby was born in less than six months. The show did note a six-month time jump between the episode where Leo and Piper conceive Chris and the very next episode, which justifies how quickly Piper was pregnant and showing. Or would have, if HMC wasn't obviously pregnant long before they wrote the pregnancy in. She also delivered six weeks premature.
  • High-Altitude Interrogation: Phoebe does this to a corrupt slumlord in the episode "Witches In Tights", where she and her sisters get turned into superheroes.
  • Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: One a Phoebe's nightmares.
  • Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Apparently are created by, answer to, and can only be destroyed by the Source.
  • Hot Men at Work: Leo first poses as a handyman. By season two we have Dan the baseball player-turned construction worker, and suddenly Piper has dueling sexy handymen fighting for her affections.
  • Hot Witch: All four sisters, as well as most of the other demons and witches who appear.
  • Housewife: Phoebe gets turned into a Samantha Stevens-esque housewife by way of a magical ring. She did mention that Bewitched was her favorite show.
  • How Do I Shot Web?: It usually takes the sister a variable length of time to master their powers when they're revealed. Particular credit goes to: Phoebe, who never was able to fully master her empathy power before it was taken from her; and Paige, who took 5 whole seasons before she learnt how to heal.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: Believe it or not, Charmed has a couple of episodes where a human's the main antagonist rather than that usual warlock.
  • Hybrid Power: A common witch power is telekinesis and a common power for Whitelighters is orbing. Paige, Chris, and Wyatt, who are all half-witch/half-whitelighter, they each combine these powers into orb-telekinesis. The comics show that Melinda has telekinetic orbing too, which is a sign that something is seriously wrong because she was concieved after Leo was permanently Brought Down to Normal and thus should be a bog-standard witch.
  • Hypocrites:
    • The sisters, especially Phoebe, towards Cole.
      • She and her sisters turn evil because of some magical factor or some manipulation of their powers, it's just a Halliwell thing. The love of her life turns evil because of some magical factor or some manipulation of his powers, she's contemplating his murder. Seen at least twice.
      • You know how Prue was quick to speculate that Cole was playing Phoebe into a trap after finding out he was Belthazor and never really trusted him since? Turns out she was the one who felt Phoebe and Cole's love for each other and convinced Phoebe to get with him about a month earlier while she was cursed with a massive dose of empathy.
      • In "Wrestling with Demons", Prue finds out Cole is still alive. She constantly criticizes Phoebe for lying to her and for supposedly risking them all, as well as refuses to listen that the half-human demon could have any good in him. However, in the earlier "When Bad Warlocks Go Good," Prue risked everything to help a half-human Warlock because she sensed good in him. Not to mention how this is the episode where Prue is actively trying to save an ex-boyfriend (who never appears in the series again) from a contract with a demonic trainer while he's only one kill away from becoming a full demon. Unlike the other examples here, Prue is called on this hypocrisy by Phoebe (obviously well-before her own hypocrisy became evident), and the final scene of the same episode hints that Prue was more angry by Phoebe's lying about vanquishing Cole than the non-vanquish itself, so she still has a leg to stand on.
      • Throughout Season 5, the sisters blamed Cole for becoming the Source. This despite the fact that he was corrupted by a power he couldn't handle, in the process of saving their lives from the previous Source, was fighting to regain himself the entire time, suffered more than anyone else and ultimately died from the entire ordeal, and would have given up the Source's powers if Phoebe hadn't vanquished the wizard who was going to receive the Source's powers, all specifically to force Cole into staying the Source. Predictably, Phoebe never bothered to acknowledge that she was the one who forced Cole to stay the Source.
      • In the second episode of Season 5, Cole decided to pack up and leave after Phoebe rejected him. However, Paige would browbeat him into staying to help save Phoebe by casting a spell that forced him to feel Phoebe's love for him, which ended up convincing him to stay for good. In both Seasons 4 and 5, Paige is even more vehemently against Cole than Prue ever was and repeatedly tries to vanquish him or help Phoebe vanquish him, despite that he was going to leave peacefully before she cast that spell.
      • And then there's the thing about whether powers can be inherently good or evil or not. One second the sisters are reassuring a young boy whose power is basically being groomed to be used for the Source that powers have no inherent morality and it's just what you do with them. The next they're mistrusting Cole for his demonic half, and after his corruption by the Source's power, which truly burned Cole more than anyone else, they're downright detesting and fearing Cole, to the point Phoebe pretty much desensitizes herself to him, for the simple fact of his having demonic powers. This only serves to expedite his Sanity Slippage, to the point some fans see his character as little else but Phoebe's Yandere and some others decided in disgust that the show had jumped the shark.
      • Particularly egregious is in the beginning of "Centennial Charmed". On the eve of Cole's 118th birthday, he entered his penthouse, sadly looking into a mirror and telling himself happy birthday because there's no one else that's going to tell it to him. Only to be paid a visit by Paige sneaking into his home from behind while invisible, jumping into his body, and trying to kill him. That scream of agony after he booted her out of his house did not come from nowhere. To make things worse, she practiced this on Leo first! And despite Leo reconstituting after being blown up and outright telling her it's not gonna work on Cole, she insisted she was right and did it anyway! Isn't Cole supposed to be the cartoon villain here?
      • Of course, Leo became a hypocrite himself in season 8 when it turned out that he'd captured two Noxon demons who were made unvanquishable through Underworld science and had then imprisoned to be used for target practice by students in Magic School.
    • In 'The Witch is Back' Melinda Warren explicitly states that the power of 'blinking' (basically instant teleportation) that the bad guy of the episode has, was stolen from another witch. Then, in 'Bride and Gloom', Piper claims that blinking is something only the evil guys do. Warlocks are outright stated to be known for stealing witches' powers, so if anything, there should be no such thing as evil powers at all, only just powers that were stolen or misappropriated for evil.
    • Their tendency to assume anyone acting as the antagonist is evil gets wonderfully lampshaded by the Angel of Death, who points out to Prue that some supernatural entities aren't good or evil, they just are.
    • How about the girl who felt herself get executed in an alternate future timeline where she used her powers for vengeance against a human being and came back realizing before her older sisters that everything that led up to that execution started with the spiteful use of magic to punish a man for his dog's defecation, being the same girl who years later was met at gunpoint by a mortal she used to be friends with in high school and could've easily told her younger sister to orb the freaking gun away so they could subdue him but instead had said younger sister glamour him into their future nephew so he could get killed by demons? Easily goes under both this and Took a Level in Jerkass.
      • Additionally, remember the example from "Sam I Am". Phoebe condemned Cole for killing those two criminals in the bar, who threatened to rob it and then shot up the place. Phoebe certainly didn't think he was in the right. She went as far to threaten to vanquish Cole over that — which makes this later event more suspicious.
      • When the Charmed Ones were put on trial for revealing the existence of magic to the world, prosecuting Barbas brought up those two criminals and argued that it was Phoebe's fault for driving Cole to this. Strawman Has a Point, indeed.
      • Before she set up her mortal ex-high school friend to be killed by demons, she turned a rival columnist into a pig. Unintentional Foreshadowing?
    • Likewise in "Sam I Am", Phoebe starts complaining that Cole hadn't contacted her in a few weeks, before immediately jumping to the conclusion that this means he clearly must be up to something evil! Do you want him to leave you alone or not?!
    • In "Soul Survivor", Paige decides that individuals who have decided to sell their souls for wealth and power, will full knowledge that this will come at the expense of causing misery and suffering to others, are still considered innocent. This is despite this making the "victims", actually very little from the villain of the episode, who trades these ill-gotten souls to increase his own wealth and power!
  • Hypocritical Humour: In "Trial by Magic" Piper gets squeamish when she and Leo see a rat. Later on Piper mocks Paige for being scared of a group of rats — and then immediately screams as well when she sees them devouring another rat.

    Tropes I-L 
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: Cole, having absorbed many powers from Hell to return to Phoebe, only causes problems for her and her sisters, so she ends up divorcing him. He also finds that his powers have made him Nigh-Invulnerable and, as such, rendered him unable to kill himself from the grief. So he starts causing trouble for the girls to get them to vanquish him. Only to subvert this trope when he explains that he just wanted to try whether he really was indestructable and goes Ax-Crazy for good after the confirmation. He wanted to die and was quite miserable that nothing could be done to make it happen. Now, he was told by the Avatars that this was the case and cryptically said as much to the sisters, but it was quite clear that Cole was hoping against hope that they were wrong.
  • Identical Grandson: Though subverted in one episode where Leo attends a WWII veterans' reunion as his own identical grandson, even though he obviously wasn't.
    • We never see her, but Paige is apparently the spitting image of Grams's first husband's sister Janice. He repeatedly comments on it when she winds up meeting him back in the '60s.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The name of almost every episode was a pun that worked on more than one level; both peripherally relevant to the plot point, Monster of the Week, or most important sister in the episode, as well as playing off of a Shout-Out to another famous title or work, usually literature, rival TV, classic film, or well-known songs, often oldies.
  • Idiot Ball: The later the seasons, the more these tend to be thrown around.
    • In season four, everyone seems to be holding to their personalized idiot ball. Paige jumps between using her powers very smartly, and very stupidly. The Source makes a big show of not trusting the Seer, tells her "the next time she betrays him will be her last" and then does nothing when she tells him to his face she will do the exact thing he forbade. Leo made a big show of "watching over" Paige when she lived away, but does no such thing for Phoebe in the penthouse even before Cole starts shuttering everything, and the possibility isn't even mentioned. Piper repeatedly doesn't use her freezing power when it would be extremely tactically advantageous, even though she still uses the power for very trivial things, with the crowning example being "We're Off to See the Wizard" where she does not freeze the wizard, allowing him to steal the book, even though she froze him just a while ago simply because he got on her nerves.
    • The Vampire Queen in "Bite Me" deserves a special mention. Paige was bitten by a vampire. It was established that in order to be fully converted to a vampire a person must get their first taste of blood. Before that point, if the Vampire Queen is killed the person will be turned back to normal. After that point, if the Vampire Queen is killed the person will be killed along with her. In other words, before Paige had tasted blood the other Charmed Ones had every reason to kill the Vampire Queen. Once she'd tasted blood, it would be virtually guaranteed they wouldn't kill her so they could save their sister. So instead of simply giving Paige a little taste of blood as soon as she's bitten and then sending her after her sisters with a huge mental advantage, the Vampire Queen decides that her sisters should be her first taste of blood, thereby giving the sisters a reason to kill the queen and allowing them a window to rescue Paige.
    • The sisters make Billie stop wearing the wig and sunglasses she used to disguise herself while vanquishing demons. It's understandable as a woman walking around in black leather and sunglasses is bound to draw attention. However one wonders why the sisters never tried to have Billie protect her identity with magical disguises - especially considering they were using that particular spell at the time.
  • If I Can't Have You…: It seems this is the case with some evil characters who fall in love with mortals, like in the episodes "Love Hurts" and Magic Hour".
  • Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: In the spin-off novel “Something Wiccan This Way Comes”, the villains are defeated because they were unaware of Piper’s ability to blow things up, leaving themselves vulnerable once Piper was free and satisfied that she was facing the true villains.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: All the FRICKIN' time! Yes Piper, I'm talkin' to you. Accounts for her gradual transition from The Heart to Selfish Good.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Aviva's desire, which makes her easily manipulated by Kali.
  • I Just Want to Be You: Abbey admires Prue. So much so, that she's willing to kill her and take her place. Pity her stalking couldn't turn up the fact that Prue is a witch.
  • The "I Love You" Stigma: It's not that Phoebe is embarrassed about telling Jason "I love you"; it's that, as a result of her empath powers, she says "I love you too" before he's actually says "I love you".
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...: In the episode "All Hell Breaks Loose," when Piper is shot by a sniper and is close to death, she says, "Prue, I'm cold. I can't - I can't - I can't feel my legs. Don't go. I love you."
  • Immune to Bullets:
    • Most demons are immune to firearms. At best, they may incapacitate (however briefly) "small fries" like Wendigos, Grimlocks, or Succubi.
    • There's also a spell that gives a person temporary invincibility, making bullets bounce off them and giving them Super-Strength a la Superman.
  • Important Haircut: Averted. Piper briefly comments on Phoebe's new hairstyle in the first episode of season 6, but that's only because Alyssa Milano showed up with an extremely short haircut right before they started filming that season.
  • Improbable Age:
    • Despite being in her twenties, Prue is already in a prominent position at Bucklands' auction house after several years being a successful museum curator. There is a small justification since Rex and Hannah hired her and they're after her magic. After they're vanquished, Prue is in constant clashes with the senior members of the auction house.
    • Piper sets up and is able to run a night club in her mid-20s too, despite her background being as a chef and bank teller.
    • Phoebe and Paige are aversions; Phoebe is in college in the first three seasons and gets a job on a fluke in the fourth - and she still goes back to college to get extra understanding for her new career. Paige meanwhile is an intern who's still paying student loans back and when she gets promoted to social worker, she has to leave the job because she can't handle it.
    • Billie can only be twenty at the oldest, and has already mastered her powers and developed a scrying system by hooking crystals up to her computer. All from reading a few books. This is lampshaded by Piper, who suspects that Billie may have got help from demons at first. It gets a hand wave later when Billie's mother reveals that her family line is of witches and she was just a Muggle Born of Mages.
  • Incredible Shrinking Man: In "Size Matters", a shrink wand-wielding demon named Gammil does this to witches to turn them into figurines.
  • Informed Ability: Phoebe gets hired long-term to write the relationship advice column at a newspaper after a stint at ghostwriting it earlier because everybody thought she was so great at it, and gushing over her column continues afterwards. The examples that are shown of her advice is actually quite trite. She also guest hosts a talk show once, and again people are saying she was amazing, while her shown behaviour in the studio was shockingly amateurish.
  • Informed Attractiveness: People on the show talked about Phoebe as if she were the most gorgeous creature to ever walk the Earth. While Alyssa Milano was certainly beautiful, she wasn't significantly more attractive than Rose McGowan or Holly Marie Combs. Their characters weren't praised for their looks nearly as much as Phoebe was (although she did have a tendency to show more skin than the others did, especially later on). Before that Prue got quite a lot if it as well. She had nearly as many one shot love interests as Phoebe (and she was only in three seasons).
  • Ingesting Knowledge: In one episode, Phoebe uses a smart spell that allows her to absorb the knowledge of a book by waving her hands over it.
  • Inspector Javert: Anderson. Rodriguez. Reece Davidson. Cortez. Sheridan. Keyes. Even Darryl Morris started out this way, and even Andy Trudeau got suspicious of Prue for a cup of coffee, and the two of them were among the most reliable friends the sisters had. Needless to say, they got this a lot.
  • In the Blood: The ability to have powers is, obviously, inherit in all magical species. Crossing that blood with mortals is very dangerous.
  • Innocuously Important Episode: "P3 H2O" is a subversion as it was likely not written as one at the time. Nonetheless, the episode states that Patty and her Whitelighter Sam had an affair — thereby creating the opportunity for Paige to be bought in and allow the show to continue after Prue's death.
  • Invisible to Normals: Ghosts seem to be only visible to magical beings, unless they make a concentrated effort.
  • Invisibility: Some magical beings are invisible by default, like muses and cupids.
  • Invisibility Cloak: The vainishing spell, which Paige seems to use a lot. Gideon can turn invisible, and so can Leo when he becomes an elder, but it's not quite clear if this is an innate power or if there's some sort of spell or artifact that does it.
  • Ironic Echo: When the sisters confront a Darklighter.
    Alec: (pointing crossbow at Phoebe) Never used this on a witch before.
    (Alec gets thrown into a bathroom stall, dropping his crossbow)
    Prue: (picks up crossbow) Never used this on a Darklighter before.
  • Irony:
    • The episode "All Halliwell's Eve" opens with Phoebe talking about how much she hates the stereotype of witches as wearing pointy hats and cackling while riding broomsticks. Later on in the episode when the sisters are in the 17th century Virginia colony, they need to ward off a group of men with muskets and Phoebe declares "I'm embracing the cliche" and puts on the hat and flies on a broomstick, cackling for good measure to scare the men away. Yep, she may well have reinforced the very stereotype she was complaining about.
    • An unintentional example but Prue Halliwell, the in-universe "Super-Witch" of the first three seasons, ended up killed off offscreen, never to return again.
  • I "Uh" You, Too: Piper and Phoebe not that Prue always responds to their I love yous with an "uh huh" or "you too". This is revealed to be a psychological hangup caused by "I love you" having been the last words Prue said to their mother before she was killed.
  • I Was Quite a Looker
  • Jerkass Genie: Genies are tricksters and will try and twist wishes to serve their needs (usually to gain their freedom). There are two genie-centric episodes with both literal and jerky genies: "Be Careful What You Witch For", and "I Dream of Phoebe".
  • Jerkass Has a Point: In "Crimes and Witch Demeanours", Barbas argues his case that the Charmed Ones should he stripped of their powers, due to their recklessness and selfish abuse of their abilities, nearly breaking the masquerade on a regular basis and putting innocents into situations where they've gotten killed. Turns out, the Tribunal actually agree with most of his argument and decide to strip Phoebe's active powers, due to her being the worse repeat-offender.
    • Made even more telling when in the very next episode, Paige abuses magic for her own personal gain, which naturally ends up going horribly, horribly wrong. However this time, everyone calls her out on her reckless behaviour and Phoebe is understandably livid.
    • Barbas also correctly pointed out during the trial that the Charmed Ones repeatedly fail to adhere to any of the rules set in place to protect the magical community (unless those rules benefit them), believe that being the Charmed Ones means not being held accountable for their actions and often treat both their magical and non-magical allies as glorified servants, having the gall to act insulted when said allies express dissatisfaction with being told to put their own lives on hold or head into danger to fix their messes.
  • Joker Jury: The Charmed ones stood accused of interference in mortal matters by the Whitelighters. Standing in for the prosecution was Barbus, the (get this) Demon of Fear and longtime enemy of the Halliwells. Numerous others foes were present as witnesses.
  • Kid from the Future
    • Chris, whose arc is about trying to prevent a Bad Future. Wyatt's future self occasionally pops up too.
    • They also were this themselves in "That '70s Episode".
  • Kill and Replace: Prue's stalker intends to do this and replace her as a one of the sisters. She didn't know, though, that Prue had magical powers.
  • Killed Off for Real: Prue. Due to a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, when her actor left the show. She refused to come back, preventing her character from returning, even as a white lighter (explained in show that she couldn't appear to her family or it would mess with their grieving process).
  • Kill the Ones You Love: Phoebe needs to overcome her emotions and vanquish Cole. Twice. The first time she doesn't do it, instead faking his death. The second time wouldn't have happened if she hadn't taken the Idiot Ball an episode earlier. The third time he's vanquished is an aversion, as she hated him by then.
  • Kinky Role-Playing: in 'Sin Francisco' a demon is cursing people with the 7 deadly sins. A cop possessed by the sin of "Rage" appears at the manor and manhandles Phoebe. However she has been possessed by the sin of "lust" and enthusiastically inquires "Are we role playing? Did you bring your handcuffs?".
  • Knight in Shining Armor: One was summoned from a magic kingdom by Paige on accident.
  • Knight Templar: Witch Doctors, it's their job to clean up residual evil energies but they'll destroy good beings if they are a threat to the magical community.
  • Kung-Fu Wizard: Phoebe is a Kung-Fu Witch. She learns martial arts because she's the only one without an active power (and gets bummed when Prue gets another one before she did). Eventually she learned how to levitate, which helped out her martial arts skills a bit.
  • Lamarck Was Right: Wyatt Halliwell inherits both his mother's molecular freezing and combustion powers and his father's whitelighter abilities. Chris also receives whitelighter abilities, but has powers equivalent to Prue's. In general, the children of whitelighters all seem to inherit their abilities, even though whitelighters themselves are made, not born. The comics Hand Wave this by saying that turning someone into a Whitelighter alters their DNA; this is used to explain why Piper and Leo's third child has Whitelighter powers despite being conceived after Leo was Brought Down to Normal for the last time.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Memory dust. Leo expresses reservations on using it because it isn't quite so precise.
  • Laser Hallway: Complete with acrobatics from Phoebe. They were actually moving lasers, but having the power to stop time comes in handy during burglary.
  • Last of His Kind: The last wizard in existence was trying to kill the Source, who just happened to be Cole. Clearly subverted. Not only was that little guy not the last wizard (though he may not have known this at the time), he was trying to become the Source.
  • Last-Second Word Swap: In "Chick Flick", Piper drinks a potion and then proclaims "Ugh, it tastes like ass...phalt."
  • Latin Lover: One gets conjured up as a birthday present for Piper in "Prince Charmed".
  • Lawful Stupid: In the show's mythology, this is how our world would be if there wasn't some evil in it to balance things out.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall
  • "Leave Your Quest" Test:
    • Happens at least Once a Season. Chances are very good that Piper will be the most tempted by it.
    • Probably the most vicious attempt at this was an episode in the 4th season that took place in an insane asylum... inside Piper's mind.
  • Lesbian Vampire: The Queen in "Bite Me".
  • Lie to the Beholder: The sisters faked their deaths at the end of season seven. In the beginning of season eight, they cast a spell to make them appear as different people to everyone but family.
  • Life Drinker: Javna. He needed to regularly steal the youth of his victims, aging them into old people, in order to retain his youthful form. If he doesn't, he ages rapidly.
  • Lighter and Softer: Later seasons. Also as the Charmed Ones get more powerful there's generally less of a sense of jeopardy. All the sisters "die" and are saved in multiple episodes.
  • Literal Genie: Two of them: an unnamed Jerkass Genie in "Be Careful What You Witch For", and an ex-demon named Jinny in "I Dream of Phoebe".
  • Literally Shattered Lives: When Piper gets influenced by evil her freezing powers become not-so Harmless Freezing, and when she puts Leo on ice, he gets shattered into a million gruesome-looking red icy pieces. Since he's already dead, though, he gets better at the end of the episode.
  • Literal Split Personality
    • In the episode "Which Prue Is It Anyway?" Prue makes two clones of herself that display different aspects of her personality.
    • Done again in the episode "Just Harried" when Prue's id decides to get a little action via astral projection.
  • Living Shadow: Cole has one.
  • Long-Lost Relative: Not only a character trope but also a narrative one. It is basically the only thing that saved the show after Prue was killed off. And the fact that Patty Halliwell's affair with her Whitelighter was mentioned before is the only thing that saved this from being an Ass Pull.
  • Losing Your Head: Sigmund, a teacher at Magic School, is first introduced as his head is chopped off. Since his body was still at Magic School when it happened, though, he's still alive. All three of the Charmed Ones eventually have their heads cut off too. They still manage to cast a few spells even without their bodies, however.
  • Lost in Translation: The rather well done French dub of the show has one surprising quirk: it does not have a translation for, of all things, "the Charmed Ones". The protagonists are referred to as "the Halliwell sisters" instead, and the lines using the term to refer to their powers or status were rewritten.
  • Louis Cypher: Hecate's human alias is Jade D'Mon, and Billy Zane plays a former demon named Drake dé Mon.
  • Love Cannot Overcome
    • After Prue confesses to her first season boyfriend Andy that she's a witch, he admits that he can't handle it and probably wouldn't be able to no matter how long she gave him to get used to the idea.
    • This may also have been the reason that the girls' father left.
    • Phoebe tells this to Cole after he's been vanquished and tries to convince her to resurrect him. She tells him that she does still love him, but they've tried everything to make it work and it just isn't enough.
  • Love Freak: Cupids, naturally. Leo to a lesser extent.
  • Love Goddess: Phoebe was a Goddess of Love for an episode. She even wanted to form her own male harem.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Cole jumps off the deep end when Phoebe refuses to take him back.
  • Love Makes You Evil: More than once. Phoebe willingly becomes the Queen of the Underworld to stay with Cole. Later, Cole absorbs all sorts of demonic powers to be reunited with Phoebe, only to be corrupted by them again. Also, Leo willingly becomes an Avatar to save his wife and before that, he killed an elder to save his son.
  • Love Redeems
    • A human recruited to be a demon keeps his humanity by being reminded of his love for his mother.
    • Subverted in Cole's case. Initially his love for Phoebe leads him to do good, but it wasn't enough to make up for all the evil he had done. Absorbing a whole lot of demonic powers didn't help.
  • Lunacy: In "Once in a Blue Moon", when two Blue Moons occur in a year, weird things happen. Including The Charmed Ones turning into werewolves. And yes, it did coincide with "that time of the month".

    Tropes M-P 
  • Made of Plasticine: Lower level demons tended to be like this. One got stabbed with a one inch spike and immediately burst into flames.
  • Madonna-Whore Complex: Played straight in early seasons, especially "Is There A Woogy In The House?" where Phoebe dresses modestly at the start - but starts wearing less clothes when she gets possessed. Otherwise averted in later seasons as while evil females could usually be portrayed as trashy, the sisters themselves still provided plenty of Fanservice and had active sex lives.
  • The Maiden Name Debate: Not that there's much of a "debate" with Grams pointedly declaring that "the women keep their names in this family" before Piper and Leo's wedding. Piper and Phoebe keep "Halliwell" and give it to their children. Paige keeps her own maiden name of "Matthews" but in the comics her children with Henry Mitchell are given his surname.
  • Mage Species: There are three known species of humanoid magic users: Witch, wizard and sorceror.
  • Magical Database: The Book of Shadows is a magical tome the girls inherited which conveniently has listings for whatever monster they might be fighting that week, along with the appropriate counterspells to use. Justified though because of the generations of witches before them adding all they could to the book and the sisters adding to it themselves.
  • Magical Gesture: Binding witches' hands to their backs often makes them unable to use their powers, even if some have learned to "point" with the eyes instead.
  • Magical Seventh Son: In the episode "That Old Black Magic", a seventh son of a seventh son is revealed to be The Chosen One.
  • Magic Carpet: Shows up in "I Dream of Phoebe".
  • Magic Pants: Zig-Zagged:
    • Piper is wholly naked after she transforms back to human form after being a Wendigo.
    • Same goes for Phoebe after she changes from mermaid back to human.
    • On the other hand, Prue is wearing the same clothes when she turns back from a being a dog to human.
    • Same for all three sisters are also wearing clothes after they change back from being beasts during a blue moon.
  • Magically Regenerating Clothing: This is used whenever whitelighters heal anyone.
  • Make a Wish
  • Make Them Rot:
    • There was an episode that dealt with a demon of vanity that could de-age others and make them young and healthy again. He then shows that he can also reverse this and rapidly ages two women into piles of dust.
    • A later bad guy uses a spell to accomplish the same feat on a minor of his that has disappointed him.
  • Mama Bear: Piper, whenever Wyatt is in danger. In fact, all three sisters dove into this right after he was born.
  • Man, I Feel Like a Woman
    • When Prue gets turned into a man and hides in the bathroom, Phoebe muses "Do you think she's touching herself?"
    • An evil witch possesses a mortal man in one episode, and really does touch himself, albeit briefly.
  • Married in the Future: In a Season 2 episode, the sisters travel ten years into the future where they discover that Piper and Leo had been married, had a daughter together, and then divorced during the ten intervening years. After returning to their own time, Piper and Leo do get married in Season 3, but the divorce never happens and the daughter only comes after two sons and they are shown to still be happily married 30-40 years later in the series finale.
  • Masquerade: The mortal world cannot know of the magical one. When the Masquerade is broken, the consequences are serious.
  • Masquerade Enforcer: The Cleaners, a race of magical neutral beings that were empowered by the Tribunal with the eternal task of protecting magic from exposure. Existing beyond time and space, the sole purpose of their existence is to ensure that mortals never became aware of the existence of the magical world, whatever the cost. According to the Charmed Wiki, they are invincible and cannot be harmed in any way.
    One of the Cleaners to the sisters: When magic is exposed, we're the ones who cover it up, remove all evidence, erase any memories, whatever is necessary.
  • The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: A Running Gag is that you're not a Halliwell if you haven't dated a demon. And keeping this big of a secret from a Muggle boyfriend is impossible, so all the Charmed ones finally end up with magical love interests. Subverted by Paige. Her magical love interest was not only not the guy she ended up with, he wasn't even the next best thing she had.
  • Meaningful Name / Shown Their Work: The auction house where Prue works is named Buckland's. Raymond Buckland is credited with introducing Wicca to North America.
    • Also, this could be a coincidence but Phoebe, who gets visions as part of her powers, shares her name with a Titan from Greek Mythology who was associated with prophesy.
  • Meet Cute: In a Clip Show episode, Coop describes Phoebe and Cole's meeting as this. It consisted of Phoebe nearly roundhouse kicking Cole, who catches her leg.
  • Memory Wipe Exploitation
    • In a first-season episode, the three sisters have cast a spell on themselves where anyone whom they question will answer truthfully. Prue takes advantage of this to be honest with her Friend on the Force boyfriend Andy — she tells him the truth about her family's powers and their fight against evil and asks him if she could still have a relationship with him under those circumstances. He answers "No", and then immediately forgets the conversation when the spells wears off. He calls her out in a later episode for making a final decision based on how he reacted with only a few minutes to process it.
    • In a fifth season episode, Paige casts the same spell on her boyfriend at the time to find out how he would react to dating a witch. He was fine with that part, but then revealed that he has a wife and two children. Paige then had to figure out how to keep him contained for the next twenty-four hours so he doesn't out her as a witch.
  • Memory-Wiping Crew: The Cleaners.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender: Mostly averted. Demons are just as likely to go after male and female victims without discriminating. Any time an innocent is killed it's treated as a bad thing. From season 3 onwards villains are just as likely to be female, too.
    • The one time this trope does show up, it's being invoked knowingly. A Straw Feminist witch advises her demon croney to attack a female innocent to draw Billie out - due to the spell she's under the influence of.
  • Me's a Crowd:
    • A mild example in "Which Prue is it Anyway?" when Prue creates two magical clones of herself to both multiply her power and avoid someone trying to kill her.
    • A much more extreme example happens in "Vaya Con Leos", where, under the threat of the Angel of Death coming for Leo, she casts a spell to try and confuse him. However, in the process, she turns every man in San Francisco into a clone of Leo.
    • Piper also clones herself in one of the novels, "A Tale of Two Pipers". One of them relaxes, or tends to the home, and the other is busy at P3.
  • Mind over Matter: Prue's power, then Paige's.
  • Mirrored Confrontation Shot: Between good Phoebe and evil Phoebe, which makes it into the opening credits.
  • Mirror Match: The season six two-part finale has Paige and Phoebe fighting their evil counterparts. Eventually they realize they're too evenly matched and call a truce.
  • Mirror Universe: Featured in the double episode "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World".
  • Missing Mom: Patty was drowned by a warlock when the main characters were very young. Prue saw her die and Phoebe was too young to remember her at all. Paige never knew her since she was raised by Muggle Foster Parents. They meet her in the past and some episodes feature her as a Spirit Advisor, though.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Piper and Phoebe are fighting over Leo in the first season episode "The Fourth Sister", and Leo is led to believe that Phoebe and Aviva are partners thanks to Piper's not-so-subtle hints.
  • Monkey Morality Pose:
    • In the episode "Astral Monkey", a doctor experiments with samples of the Halliwell's blood on monkeys. Each of the monkeys had a power from each of the sisters. In an Animal Reaction Shot, the monkeys make this pose, which Prue claimed to have taught to them.
    • The Crone uses a monkey totem with three monkeys in this pose in the episode "Sense and Sense Ability". It turns into a monkey which then steals Piper's sight, Phoebe's hearing, and Paige's voice by covering their eyes, ears, and mouth, respectively. When Leo tries to figure out what's wrong, Piper facepalms, Paige grabs her head, and Phoebe covers her mouth, and Leo gets it immediately.
  • Monster of the Week: Utilized this, although it became less prevalent in later seasons.
  • Monster/Slayer Romance: Cole Turner, the source of all evil, marries Phoebe Halliwell, a good witch who is tasked with fighting evil. It doesn't last.
  • Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Upper-level demons have enough power to sustain a human form, so the most monstrous looking demons are actually lower down in the hierarchy, and show up less and less as the sisters' own power grows and the stakes get higher.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • The season 3 episode "Sin Francisco" starts out as a fairly comedic episode showing the antics the sin does to the sisters. Towards the end it turns serious when the cop infected with Anger attacks the sisters at the Manor.
    • The season 4 episode "Hell Hath No Fury". Funny jokes about Paige messing with magic and getting an accidental Breast Expansion one minute, a serious story about Piper literally losing herself in rage and grief over Prue's death the next. One of the better-acted episodes in the series, oddly enough.
  • Morality Chain: Many characters have explicitly stated that Phoebe plays this role in making sure that Cole remains good. In fact, Cole's well-known tendency for being a Heel–Face Revolving Door is pretty much a function of his relationship with Phoebe — that is, Phoebe and Cole are constantly breaking up and reestablishing their relationship, and every time this happens, it has a major effect on Cole's status as evil or good. Although Phoebe is very much aware of her power to be Cole's Morality Chain, she usually seems to be merely yanking his chain based on her own emotions, rather than consistently using her influence to make sure Cole becomes and remains a redeemed demon.
  • Morton's Fork: In one episode, Phoebe and Paige have been afflicted by a demonic possession, leaving Phoebe mummified and Paige dying. Cole lays out Piper's options: A) cast a spell that ejects the spirit possessing Paige which will save her life, but that spirit is the only one who can undo Phoebe's mummification, meaning she'll be trapped for all eternity, B) cast a spell to eject Paige's soul, leaving only the possessor with a now-healthy body who's capable of restoring Phoebe, or C) do nothing (or take too long making a decision) and Paige's body will die anyway, sending both Paige and the possessor to the afterlife, and leaving Phoebe stuck. Naturally, Piper finds a fourth option.note 
  • Motherhood Is Superior: There's an aversion in an episode where Piper was depressed because Leo and her sisters were better at taking care of Wyatt than she was.
  • Move in the Frozen Time: Used as a plot device to reveal when characters are not who they've initially been presented as being because witches and high-level demons are immune to being time-frozen.
    • When Piper freezes time in a court room, once the witches are out of view, the frozen Cole suddenly starts moving, revealing that he was faking his freeze and had simply never been affected by the power in the first place. It's the first big clue that he's an extremely high-level demon.
    • When Piper tries to freeze Chris before he disappears through a portal, she's shocked to discover the power doesn't work on him like it does with other whitelighters. He confirms that this is because he's half-witch, half-whitelighter, just like Paige.
  • Mr. Fanservice
    • The aforementioned Cole and Leo are the two greatest examples, and two sides of the same coin. Cole is a demon, and fits the handsome bad boy type. Phoebe gets to play the fantasy of turning the bad boy good. By contrast, Leo is quite literally an angel. He plays the nice guy, and is all about love and goodness. And yes, both of them have had Shirtless Scenes.
    • While Cole and Leo were both fairly developed and well-rounded characters, the pure Mr. Fanservice would have been Dan from Season 2. Hunky former baseball player turned handyman next door, he seemed to only exist to stand around in tank tops and be that nice guy that Piper saw as her perfect life that she couldn't have with Leo at that point.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Phoebe. Not that the other girls are completely innocent, mind you.
  • Muggle and Magical Love Triangle:
    • Paige has one, briefly in the last season, between Henry (muggle) and Simon (magical).
    • Before that, Piper had one between Leo (magical) and neighbor Dan (muggle). Though Leo had been temporarily stripped of his powers at the time, which is actually how he has the time to dedicate to competing for Piper's affection, he's symbolic of her powers and responsibilities, whereas Dan is symbolic of the normal, easy life she craves.
  • Muggle Foster Parents: Paige Matthews was given to normal parents after her birth and didn't know her true heritage until her powers started manifesting thanks to a spell Piper had cast to bring Prue back.
  • Muggle–Mage Romance: Over the course of the show, the sisters had relationships with ordinary men, with varying degrees of success.
  • Mundanger
    • In "Sight Unseen", a mysterious stalker turns out to be an ordinary human and not a demon at all.
    • And in "Dream Sorceror", the titular villain isn't actually a sorceror, but a scientist who built a machine that can project himself into other people's dreams and kill them, Freddy Krueger style. Apparently if you die in your dreams you die in real life.
    • Barbas, apparently learning that if you confront the sisters directly with magical threats, instead hires a hitman to have them done away with.
  • My Girl Is Not a Slut
    • The second episode has Prue going through the "I'm not a slut" panic after she slept with Andy on the first date (they had previously dated in school and had not seen each other in years).
    • Rose McGowan had a reaction like this around mid-season 5 when she noticed Paige acquiring quite a few Men of the Week and so went to the writers saying "Paige isn't a Ho".
    • Averted by Phoebe and her long list of love interests, played straight by the Fandom who hurl the word "slut" at her while ignoring that the majority of her love interests were steady boyfriends.
  • My Grandson, Myself: Leo died in WWII before being resurrected as a whitelighter. When Piper somehow receives an invitation to a reunion for his unit, she convinces him to attend, passing him off as his own Identical Grandson. Though it's the only time they bother with the ruse. Even when Dan is digging around in Leo's past (and for whatever reason thinks a marriage certificate dated in the 1930s is a red flag for Piper's relationship with her twenty-something boyfriend), she doesn't bother telling him anything other than "I know what I'm doing."
  • Necromantic: Inverted in "Necromancing The Stone". Apparently Grams fell in love with a Necromancer, whom she had to vanquish. He was stealing spirits in order to keep himself firmly on the living side of the line between life and death. When he comes across Grams, he tries to convince her to let both of them be resurrected by using the spirits of the Halliwel line during baby Wyatt's Wiccaning.
  • Never Say "Die": Although "kill" and "destroy" have been shown to exist in their vocabulary, the sisters seem to prefer to "vanquish" demons, warlocks and other creatures, including other witches sometimes. Usually implies What Measure Is a Non-Human?.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: The main characters showcase a number of powers throughout the series which only appear in an episode or two and are never brought up again. For example Prue is able to cause a demon to explode by entering its body with her astral projection, and Leo can make himself look like other people. When the latter first appears its main use is to fake out the audience into thinking the sisters are fighting Cole, when in fact it as Leo altering his appearance for training purposes.
  • Nice Guy: Leo Wyatt
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
    • Well-Intentioned Extremist Gideon was so determined to prevent Wyatt from turning evil he was willing to do anything and work with anyone (even Barbas!) to make it happen. But where he crossed firmly both past the Moral Event Horizon and into this territory was the two-part season finale of season six where he was willing to completely upset the Balance Between Good and Evil, work with his evil Mirror Universe counterpart, and almost destroy the sisters, all in the name of his goal...but it turns out he was the cause of the very thing he was trying to prevent, with all of his machinations and attempts to kidnap, control, and remove Wyatt from the picture being what turned him evil in the first place. (At least until later, when other events kept trying to make Wyatt that way. They all failed, though.)
    • The one that might also take the cake: Cole is about to give the evil powers within him to a wizard, so he can finally be free and with his love Phoebe. A minute before he succeeds, Phoebe succumbs to the Seer's trickery and her unborn baby's instincts and kills the wizard — essentially forcing herself to have to choose between her husband and her sisters. She chose him. Now, after this decision, he did have the Seer issue her a poisonous tonic to drink which enhanced her evil side so as to suppress her internal conflict with being surrounded by evil and having abandoned her sisters. But when he told her the truth, she chose to take the tonic anyway — before spitting it out and changing her mind to help the sisters destroy him. Yet she has the nerve to gradually shun him forever as a result following choices that a) were manipulated by outside forces, and b) that SHE made.
    • Cole's Face–Heel Turn in Season 5 is even worse. In the season 4 finale, Cole manages to come back from the wasteland with a host of demonic powers in time to save Phoebe's life from a witch hunter as well as inform her of his resolve to get back together. Phoebe, conflicted between love and fear, ends up turning into a mermaid shortly after his full-on return to San Francisco ruins her plans for a quick divorce. When informed about this and led to believe it was out of hatred for him he's was halfway out the door to leave the city forever until Paige tugs him back and tells him that Phoebe loves him — which Phoebe later admits along with her fear while still insisting it's over between them. From thereon, while yes, stubborn and motivated by a foolhardy desire to earn Phoebe back, Cole generally tries to do good — either helping the sisters outright or just keeping to himself. However, the sisters (especially Phoebe) don't trust him and repeatedly make that clear to him no matter what he does. Unsurprisingly, this and his legion of powers that don't belong all help wear down on his willpower and sanity. When Cole does in fact go Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, Phoebe even has the nerve to ask him why. Like the fact that co-workers at a law firm that had him for a few months were the closest anyone came to treating him like a person rather than as something to be feared or a tool for power the entire time he was back couldn't possibly have anything to do with it.
  • Nigh-Invulnerable
    • In season five, Cole and Piper. Piper reveled in it ("I'm unbreakable, dude!"). Cole? Not so much. They were blasting each other in the episode "Y tu Mummy Tambien" and Leo mentions how pointless it was.
    • An invincibility spell shows up in the episode "Little Monsters". Paige cast it on Darryl, and it made him pretty much Immune to Bullets. While one wonders why they don't use it more often, it also had the side effect of inflating one's ego, reminiscent of when Prue was infected with the sin of Pride nearly killing her. Plus it turned his strength up to beyond Herculean levels and when we last see him before Paige goes to fix it is surrounded by his broken things in his office because he couldn't control his new found strength.
  • Nightmare Weaver: "Dream Sorcerer" featured a serial killer who developed a way to enter the dreams of women who rejected him. Killing them there meant they died in real life.
  • Nipple and Dimed: Part of Phoebe's nipple actually made it on the air in the episode "Sight Unseen". In a scene at the club, the dress she's wearing fails to cover her up and part of the nipple is visible.
  • Noble Demon:
    • The Council of the Cleaners is made up of two Elders and two powerful demons. Either one or both of said demons must have agreed with the decisions regarding at first letting the Charmed Ones off free but at the cost of Morris's life (this was reversed before he was killed) and then agreeing to punish Phoebe only for her trying to use magic to short-cut her path to finding a husband.
    • The Hollow is guarded by an angel (the representative of Good) and a devil (the representative of Evil). Both attack the Source of All Evil when he shows up to steal the Hollow.
  • No Body Left Behind: Demons disappear after they get vanquished.
    • Subverted in "The Day the Magic Died." After killing a demon mook while all magic is tempoarily down, Phoebe and Paige have to figure out what to do with the body and hide it in a closet.
  • No Cure for Evil: Whitelighters can't heal evil. This becomes an issue when Leo tries to heal Cole — it cues Leo in that Cole isn't quite human.
    • Averted when good Gideon and evil Gideon heal each other.
  • Noir Episode: "Charmed Noir". They even have parts of it in black and white.
  • Nom de Mom: This is a tradition in the Halliwell family. The elder three sisters' mother was Patricia Halliwell and their father was Victor Bennett. Later, the sons of Piper and Leo (whose last name is Wyatt) are named Wyatt Halliwell and Chris Halliwell. Only averted by Paige, who goes by her adoptive last name Matthews and after she marries Henry Mitchell, their kids have his last name, though she herself keeps Matthews.
  • No Navel, Novel Birth: The episode "Size Matters" features a character named Finn who doesn't have a belly button because he was sculpted from clay.
  • Not Even Human: It appears rather often, and in one case the whole episode ("Mr. and Mrs. Witch") plays itself out without the Charmed Sisters ever becoming aware of it. The Monster of the Week is in fact a demon, but he appears to be a human Corrupt Corporate Executive. The demon is quite aware that the Charmed Ones won't kill him as long as they think he's human, and in fact the Charmed Ones never do find out. The demon is still vanquished by his superiors for failing to accomplish their evil plan; and in fact, the Charmed Sisters read about this evil executive's "suicide" in the newspaper, without ever being the wiser that this was a demon whom they could have dealt with by vanquishing him.
  • Now I Know What to Name Him
    • Chris, being the resident Kid from the Future. Hell, he even tries to bring about his own conception as he messed up the dates by being there. It is briefly mentioned that in the unaltered timeline he was named after his paternal grandfather.
    • Phoebe also gets one when she time travels to meet her pregnant mother, who remarks how obvious it is that she would choose another P name and that "it's not too late to change it." She also briefly mentions that she must have named Phoebe after her favorite aunt.
    • Way back in season 2, long before Piper ever considered having kids, she visits the future and meets her daughter, Melinda. Though, when she actually does get pregnant, the name she's decided on is Prudence Melinda, because Prue's dead in this timeline. Then the baby winds up being a boy anyway, which means they have to come up with something new. When Piper's third baby is a girl, she goes back to her original plan of naming her Melinda.
  • Occult Law Firm: Cole gets employed by a few of these.
  • Of Corsets Sexy : Several corsets are worn in Season 3.
  • Off with His Head!: The sisters get their heads chopped off in one episode. This doesn't kill them. Not quite so when the Headless Horseman escapes Magic School and lops off a criminal's head, though.
  • Oh, Crap!: Piper mutters a quick one in Season 6's "Sword and the City", right after Mordaunt welcomes her to her "new destiny" as the new Lady of the Lake, since she pulled Excalibur (meant for Wyatt) out of the stone.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: For the most part, practicioners of Good Magic cast spells in English Rhyme, whereas Dark Magic was done in Latin.
  • Omniglot: Whitelighters on the job have this ability (Paige doesn't seem to have it, though she was able to speak Maori in "Imaginary Fiends"). Lampshaded when Piper became a Whitelighter in "Siren Song" when she automatically gained the ability.
    Woman: (in French) Please, you have to help, they're after me.
    Piper: (in French) Calm down, I'll protect you. (in English) Whoa, was that French?
  • One-Hour Work Week: Somewhat acknowledged as many episodes have the sisters struggle to balance demon hunting with their work schedules. Subverted later on in the show; Prue works as a freelance photographer after quitting her job at Bucklands. She's at least seen with a camera in various episodes, with references to various photoshoots. Piper is justified because she owns a nightclub and so doesn't have to be there all the time; she has people to help her run it. She's also frequently shown bartending at night - allowing her to hunt demons during the day. Phoebe doesn't work until late season 4 and by season 6 she has billboards and is making appearances on talk shows - so her working on the column from home is acceptable. Paige is frequently shown at her social worker job in season 4 but quits to focus on her witch duties. She does temp jobs in Season 6 and a lot of magical problems seem to revolve around the jobs themselves. In season 7 she's working at Magic School - so no one there will question a Charmed One rushing out to fight demons.
    • Lampshaded in "Size Matters" where Phoebe goes to a job interview and asks for a really flexible work schedule. She doesn't get the job.
  • One-Steve Limit:
    • Invoked by a villain in Season 1. He poses as the head of Bucklands auction house, and takes on the identity of a man who has Buckland as his last name.
    • There's an innocent called Billy in season 1, Billy Appleby is the hero of Phoebe's favourite movie and Billie Jenkins is a cast member in Season 8.
    • Jenny Gordon is a cast member in Season 2. Jenny is also an alias that Piper uses in Season 8.
  • Once a Season: In nearly every season finale, the last shot is the front door of the Halliwell Manor closing.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Charmed was Julian McMahon's second role that required him to use an American accent, and as such his native Australian accent breaks through a few times in the early Cole episodes. It tends to happen on the last word or two of his lines.
  • Open Sesame: In the Arabian-themed episode "I Dream of Phoebe", which also includes Genies, Magic Carpets, and The Forty Thieves.
  • Organic Bra: All mermaids have scales covering up the chest area.
  • Our Elves Are Different: A type of Elf, deminutive women with bright green eyes who look much like a female Leprechauns, is first introduced in Season 5 and makes occasional appearances after that. Confusingly enough beings that resemble Lord of the Rings-style wood elves (tall, blond skinny types with pointy ears, armed with bows) make a couple of background appearances in Seasons 7 and 8 whenever a large number of good, magical creatures appear, but never called Elves on-screen. It's never explained whether these are meant to be two different kinds of Elf or whether the tall "Elves" are supposed to be some other type of magical creature alltogether.
  • Our Imps Are Different: Imps are small, red, bat-winged demons who swarm to attack enemies. They are spawned from the bodies of lower level demons called Imp Masters who can control the swarm.
  • Our Nymphs Are Different: Wood nymphs use their magic to make nature grow, and their presence causes flowers to bloom. They're also guardians of the Eternal Spring, whose waters make the drinker immortal.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: Mermaids are immortal creatures who have "hearts as cold as the ocean". If a mortal professes his love to one, she turns human. The mermaid in question made a deal for an enchantment that would give her legs — but would revert to her mermaid form if they got wet.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: They have social hierarchy similar to bees.
  • Our Witches Are Different: Witches are implied to be entirely female for the first three seasons (and warlocks entirely male). Season 4 introduces the concept of male witches, and female warlocks are seen occasionally. The show never draws a distinction between evil witches and female warlocks.
  • Outside-Genre Foe: Whitaker Berman, the man who called himself "the Dream Sorcerer" from the same titled episode. A completely human Serial Killer, he used science and technology to threaten the lives of innocents by entering their dreams and killing them.
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: In "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father," Paige refers to Chris as "one of my two favorite nephews." At this point in her life, she only knows she has two nephews (and Chris himself hasn't even been conceived yet).
  • Painful Rhyme: Invoked, and then averted. Phoebe is tasked with creating a spell to nullify a demon's deflection power, and comes up with "I'm rejectin' your deflection". When Drill Sergeant Nasty Whitelighter Natalie inspects it, everyone expects her to dismiss it and have Phoebe think of a new one, but she just says it's fine.
  • Parental Abandonment: Complete with Missing Mom, Disappeared Dad, Raised by Grandparents, and Muggle Foster Parents.
  • Parting-Words Regret: Paige was fighting with her Muggle Foster Parents and threw in their face that they weren't her real parents while they were driving, and it may have been what distracted her father and helped cause the accident that killed them. She's able to go back in time and inadvertently change the circumstances of their death (she was trying to outright prevent it), assuring them that she loves them and that she'll grow out of this rebellious phase, and learn that her own miraculous survival was thanks to orbing (which she didn't understand yet and thus didn't remember), and she's still plagued with guilt that they never got to see her grow up. Until Leo brings their spirits from the afterlife to assure her that they're proud of the woman and the witch that she's become.
  • Personal Gain Hurts: Oh, how they drill this one in.... It's practically the Trope Namer.
  • Personality Powers: Loosely applied in the first season with the sisters.
    • Prue, who is motherly but also very controlling, gets the power of telekinesis.
    • Nervous, meek, and insecure Piper gets the power to stop time, giving her an opportunity to calm down.
    • Phoebe, the youngest and most impulsive who lacks forethought, gains the power to literally see the future.
    • Later Prue essentially gains the power to clone herself, when she feels the need to be in two places at once; Piper gains more confidence and learns to blow stuff up; and a more caring Phoebe becomes The Empath.
    • Caring Leo was a former medic and in death he became a whitelighter with the power to heal others. Later, after being promoted to Elder, he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and gains the ability to throw lightning.
    • Paige grew up as an only child, never knowing who her family was and not knowing her place in the world. Much of her arc concern her trying to find herself and coincidently she has the power to teleport from place to place.
  • Pest Episode: In the B-side to an episode, Piper was trying to catch rats in her club, after reports of their being present. She doesn't succeed, and it turns out the rats were actually demons.
  • Phony Psychic: Phoebe applies for a position like this, noting that it would be the last place anyone would expect to find a real psychic like herself.
  • Pirates: Type 1. They're also magical undying cursed pirates, of course. The films are given a Shout-Out when Phoebe asks if they're "hot Johnny Depp pirates".
  • Pizza Boy Special Delivery: There's a stripper with this schtick that was the entertainment for a bachelorette party in "The Wedding From Hell". The demon bride and her bridesmaids ate him.
  • Place of Power: Halliwell Manor conveniently sits atop a nexus of magical power. Several times demons have broken in and tried to take it for themselves.
  • Playing Cyrano: Coop, for one of Phoebe's coworkers.
  • Plot Hole:
    • In Season 5, the sisters constantly referred to Cole as having betrayed them and becoming the Source of All Evil. The problem is, the latter half of Season 4 made it quite clear that Cole had been possessed by the essence of the Source and was overtaken. The sisters were told as much by a wizard and a seductress, and their dialogue (especially Phoebe's) in the episode after his vanquish clearly establishes that they understand the difference between "Cole the human" and "Cole the Source", so their distrust is completely highly unwarranted in the presented context.
    • The Cleaners are this, as well. Shannen Doherty may have wanted off the show, but still doesn't explain their only showing up NOW.
  • The Pollyanna: The ditzy Nymphs from "Nymphs Just Wanna Have Fun".
  • Portal Pool: Zen Masters can use water to go any place.
  • Post-Script Season: Season 8 is exactly this. See Series Fauxnale on this page.
  • Power Incontinence: Phoebe is practically the queen of this trope (not that the other sisters are entirely innocent): She doesn't have any sort of control over her premonitions until ~season 6 (and even then she never learns how to turn it off), the flying power she accidentally stole from the dragon in season 2 was unreliable to say the least and she never learned to control her empathy power ever. In act neither did Prue when she [temporarily] became an empath. Also happened to Piper "Exit Strategy", where her ability to freeze time is upgraded to Stuff Blowing Up too. Plus, Paige has struggled with this in her orbing ever since she was a high-schooler.
  • The Power of Friendship: The "Power of Three" relied on The Power of Friendship to work. At one point the sisters intentionally used their powers on each other in a heated argument, which immediately caused the loss of their powers.
  • The Power of Hate: Darklighters' powers are fueled by hate and have the power to kill through touch, as they're the Evil Counterpart of Whitelighters.
  • The Power of Love: The greatest of all powers. Greater even than The Power of Three. Whitelighters only gain access to Healing Handsthrough their love for others.
  • Power Perversion Potential
    • Piper has frozen Leo on more than one occasion during sex. The first time was accidental, the next ones, not so much. Leo doesn't mind.
      Leo: You wanna freeze me in bed for your own personal pleasure? That's fine.
    • The season 1 villain Rex uses his astral projection power to spy on Prue changing her clothes. Then, he plants a subliminal message in his lover Hannah to make her take off her dress.
  • Powers as Programs: There are demons that collect and exchange powers so they can broker them.
  • Powers That Be: The Angel of Destiny and the Elders to some extent.
  • Power Trio: The trio...
  • Pregnant Badass: Piper. It helps when your unborn child has healing powers and strong deflector shields to help you out, basically making you Nigh-Invulnerable.
    • Notably, the same does not apply to her second pregnancy. Holly Marie Combs was pregnant herself at the time and wanted to depict a more realistic pregnancy. The reason for the difference is explained In-Universe as Chris having different powers. Piper can also still cast spells and use her own powers, so this trope isn't totally absent.
  • Pretending to Be One's Own Relative: After faking their own deaths in the finale to the prior season, the final season saw the Halliwell sisters pose as their own cousins for the early part of it.
  • Professional Killer: "Ms. Hellfire". Prue is only too happy to impersonate her, Phoebe notes.
  • Promotion to Opening Titles:
    • Brian Krause as Leo.
    • Also Drew Fuller as Chris during season six (he was credited as guest during the fifth season finale).
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality:
    • Anyone who is against the sisters are declared evil. Except on the occasion where they're just misguided. That said occasionally has the one of the sisters do something stupid or evil and get called for it. The show has a general problem with moral issues, often ripe with Unfortunate Implications. The morality is sometimes exclusively protagonist-centered, sometimes Elder-centered, and sometimes even single-sister-centered. Examples include the Elders forcing Piper through all levels of emotional anguish, suffering and self-sacrifice, Phoebe's infamous glamouring of her boyfriend, and numerous situations between the sisters when an apology that should have gone both ways only went one way.
    • In early seasons, Phoebe would do things that got criticised when Prue would do the same and be portrayed as in the right. Phoebe would frequently be scolded for using her powers for personal gain, whereas whenever Prue did the narrative would justify it. Prue would frequently be put on the moral high ground despite being just as bad as her sisters - and sometimes even worse.
  • Psycho for Hire: A lot of the later demons.
  • Puberty Superpower: Some powers manifest at puberty, such as the firestarter kid in "Lost and Bound".
  • Pun-Based Title: Many episode titles are puns, especially puns that involve the words "witch," "charmed," etc., or the names of the characters.
  • Punny Name: What's the name of Buckland's temporary manager, whose job is to save the auction house from bankruptcy? Why, Claire Pryce, of course!
  • Put on a Bus
    • Darryl who was present in all seasons but the last.
    • Also, Leo who left the show during the middle of the final season.

    Tropes Q-U 
  • Raised by Grandparents: Prue, Piper, and Phoebe were raised by their grandmother after their mother's death and father's abandonment.
  • Rapid Aging: Javna's victims suffer accelerated aging. Dan was a victim of this in the season two finale thanks to a Jerkass Genie. Also, the Pirates' cursed athame caused this: Paige survived and reversed it; Brenda Castillo was not so lucky.
  • Reality Show: Witch Wars, featured in the episode of the same name. There are many take thats to reality shows in the episode, and Survivor in particular, probably because it was beating Charmed in ratings.
    Clea (demonic game show host): You'd think demons would've invented reality television. Somehow humans beat us to it.
  • Reality Warper: The power of Projection in all its forms.
  • Recycled In Space: The episode The Magic Hour is Ladyhawke in California with good witches. It is even lampshaded when one asks if they saw a movie with this scenario.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Used on Inspector Rodriguez to confirm him as an upper-level demon.
  • Reformed, but Rejected: Cole after returning from the Demonic Wastelands. No matter how much he protests that he's not evil and attempts to use his demonic powers for good, he's treated as irredeemably evil by everyone.
  • Refuge in Audacity:
    • When Claire is about to fire Prue for one too many unexplained absences, Andy bursts into her office to thank her for letting the police "borrow" Prue to solve a (completely made up) case, even offering a reimbursement if necessary. Claire is so impressed she decides on the spot to keep Prue and not ask for the reimbursment. Her subsequent expression leaves it ambiguous whether she actually bought the lie or was just impressed / amused enough to let it slide.
    • In "Sin Francisco" Phoebe makes a pass at her Ethics professor while under the influence of Lust and gets kicked out of class. How does she cover for herself when the sin crisis is resolved? By submitting a paper on sexual politics and passing the incident off as an ethical experiment.
    • When Chris realizes he split up his parents before his conception date, he enlists Phoebe and Paige to get them back together so he isn't Ret-Gone. Paige's plan? Serving up aphrodisiacs (champagne, oysters, and chocolate strawberries) at Wyatt's first birthday party. When Piper questions it, Paige first claims she doesn't know they were aphrodisiacs, and then claims she'd know they weren't appropriate at a child's birthday party if there were more kids around.
  • Remember the New Guy?: The Underworld hierarchy tends to get this. Suddenly, the sisters are familiar with the "Triad" and the "Source," despite them receiving no proper introduction. Though downplayed, since they don't show up on screen often, and there's every reason to believe they'd be mentioned in the Book of Shadows.
  • Reincarnation Romance:
    • Piper's past life in "Pardon My Past" was in a love triangle with Leo and Dan's past lives much like their next incarnations would be. In that life, she chose Dan, and the family tree prop has them as grandma Penny's parents. ...Which technically means Piper was dating her great-grandfather...
    • In the same episode, the warlock Anton attemps this with Phoebe (albeit via her past and present lives' minds being swapped in time) before being thwarted and vanquished.
  • Repower: Phoebe gains the ability to levitate and control electricity in the future in a second season episode, but ultimately only learns to levitate when that future was averted. This was also discussed during "Is There A Woogy in the House?" when the woogyman/Hollow/Shadow temporarily possesses Phoebe; Piper mentions that their powers are supposed to progress, and not grow in random, in response to Phoebe suddenly being able to will objects into existence.
  • Required Secondary Powers: The ability to create fire seems to come with being fireproof.
  • Re-Release Soundtrack:
    • For all eight seasons, Charmed's theme song was Love Spit Love's cover of The Smiths' "How Soon is Now?". However, before the Season 8 DVDs came out, the song's license expired. The producers were unable to get the license back, and therefore the opening song on the DVDs was replaced by a generic hard-rock instrumental theme. To make matters worse the song had to be removed from the entire series when it was added to Netflix. When the series was remastered to HD in 2018 the producers were finally able to get the rights to the song back and restored the credits for the Blu-ray editions.
    • Several episodes have also had their licensed music replaced with either Suspiciously Similar Songs or generic instrumentals. The captions for these episodes sometimes display the lyrics to the original song and not the replacement.
  • Resurrected Murderer: Jackson Ward was a serial killer who was executed on Alcatraz. His spirit became attached to the prison but he's released in the present due to the work of a demonic soul collector named Charon. Ward begins killing anyone who sent him to prison as payback.
  • Resurrection Revenge: The Villain Of The Week Abraxas manages to still the Book of Shadows and resurrects some enemies the Charmed Ones have killed with their spells by reading said spells backwards. All of those villains go immediately after the Charmed Ones.
  • Retcon:
    • Penny's birth year was initially listed as 1937. As Patty's was 1950, that would mean she gave birth at twelve, so it was retconned to 1930.
    • A rare case of this being reversed. Penny was first said to have been married four times. This was retconned to being six times. Later seasons clarified this as only being engaged six times and married four.
    • Season 6 introduces a school for young witches to practice their powers. Never seen before or referenced, not even when the sisters were trying to figure out their own powers. Season 7 hangs a lampshade on this when Paige is trying to stop the Elders from closing the school, stating that the school was for kids who weren't able to be taught by their families like the Halliwells were.
    • Season 6 also introduces the Cleaners - whose job it is to cause a Cosmic Retcon to prevent magic from being exposed. They would have been really useful in the Season 3 finale (although they do say that they haven't intervened before because the Charmed Ones have otherwise been good at covering their tracks without help).
  • Revisiting the Roots: The series' Sorting Algorithm of Evil became somewhat more akin to a bell-curve. The first three seasons dealt with them battling warlocks and demons, the fourth had them battling the very Source Of All Evil, the fifth ended with them battling the classic Greek Titans, the sixth had them go against a Well-Intentioned Extremist Angel, and the seventh had them end destroying a past contender of the Source. By the eighth and final season, Word of God says that Billie and Christy, sibling female witches like the protagonists, was a great way to ground the show.
  • Revival: The series was brought back from limbo by comic book company Zenoscope as a scheduled two-year publication.
  • Revival Loophole: Used to defeat the Monster of the Week in "The Power of Two".
  • Rhyming Wizardry: All witches and demons can cast magic as long as their words rhyme or are in some form of poem like a haiku.
  • Right in Front of Me: When Prue first applies for the job at Buckland, she complains about the "stuffy old auction house" on the phone to Phoebe while in an elevator, with Rex nearby. He pulls off an Ironic Echo when they formally meet in his office.
  • Ring of Power: A Green Lantern Ring? More like a Pink Lantern Ring, but Cupids' love ring functions as this.
  • Ripple Effect Indicator: An expanded universe book shows changes in the Halliwell family home, Phoebe's appearance, and Wyatt disappearing as the Big Bad changes events in the past.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: In the first season finale "Déjà Vu All Over Again" , Tempus the demon of time tries to help another demon, who is masquerading as an Internal Affairs agent named Rodriguez, kill the Charmed Ones. Whenever Rodriguez dies, Tempus would rewind time in a "Groundhog Day" Loop of sorts until Rodriguez would learn enough about his mistakes to successfully kill all three sisters. Phoebe, however, also retains the memory of each day due to her power to see the past and future, which is something Tempus doesn't know about. Eventually the sisters defeat Rodriguez and Tempus permanently, but not without losing Andy.
  • Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Lots of demons' inhuman forms resemble this trope.
  • Rule of Three: "The Power of Three" is what makes these girls some of the most powerful witches ever. Revealed in the comics, because Prue's soul hadn't moved on, when Paige joined the Charmed Ones, the girls were actually held back from achieving their full power.
  • Running Gag: The poor grandfather clock is destroyed a lot, and every time Piper thinks: "Damn it, we just got that thing fixed." And she actually says it in "Brain Drain" (4x07).
  • Sadly Mythtaken: In "Oh My Goddess!" it's said that the Greek gods were actually mortals the Elders infused with power in order to stop the Titans. This is not a problem in itself — the problem is that Gaea was stated to be one of these mortals, when in mythology she wasn't an Olympian, but the mother of the titans.
  • Salem Is Witch Country: The "The Witch is Back" episode shows that one of the Halliwell ancestors was lined up to be burned at the stake in Salem.
  • Scenery Porn: Most episodes show several flyover shots of San Francisco right after the opening credits. They're rather fond of showing the fog/clouds rolling around the Golden Gate Bridge.
  • Seers:
  • Seductive Mummy: In "Y Tu Mummy Tambien", the Egyptian demon Jeric had the ability to put his dead wife's soul into the body of a hot mortal woman, thus turning her into a seductive mummy. He targeted Phoebe and Paige for this vessel.
  • See You in Hell
    • Cole, in response to a cowboy using the trope, says "Been there, done that."
    • Also, the similar exchange of Prue crying "Go to hell!", with Rex responding, "I'd love to, dear. Miss it terribly."
    • Something like that seems to be the default warlock/demon response whenever anyone tells them to go to hell. You'd think sooner or later the witches would learn to stop doing it.
  • Self-Guarding Phlebotinum:
    • The Charmed Ones' Book of Shadows won't let you touch it if you happen to be evil.
    • There were also various amulets and charms which protected against evils including crystals that when placed in a circle formed a cage of energy that one couldn't cross, whether to get in or out.
    • Also once when Piper pulled Excalibur from the stone, the sword would let no-one else [but her touch it, though a demon used a spell to amass a bunch of power and take it from her.
    • In season 7, Pandora's Box protects itself by teleporting to its next guardian when its current protector dies.
    • And yet again, the Grimoire, the Evil Counterpart to the Halliwell's Book of Shadows would not let any good being come in contact with it.
  • Sense Loss Sadness:
    • "Primrose Emphath" has Father Thomas, who passed his power of empathy into a demon in order to stop him and ended up in a psych ward due to the depression and insanity that followed.
    • "Sense and Sense Ability" has an old demon woman stealing a sense from each of the sisters through a cursed monkey totem, although the result isn't so much "sadness" as it is "hilarious confused antics".
    • "Witchness Protection" has the reveal that the seer Kyra is incapable of feeling strong emotion (whether this is legit or her personal case of Informed Flaw due to demonic conditioning is uncertain) and wants to solve this problem by helping the Charmed Ones in return for a spell to turn her into a human.
  • Serial Romeo: Phoebe initially, though it's Deconstructed as the show goes on. The endless stream of failed relationships leaves her broken and terrified of love and when she finds out she will have a baby in the future she resorts to using her premonition powers to see if a relationship will go anywhere on the first date (for which she is punished by the Elders). This then gets Reconstructed as Phoebe considers getting a sperm donor but then realises that she doesn't just want a baby, she wants love as well and a Cupid is sent to help her out.
  • Series Continuity Error:
    • In "Desperate Housewitches", the sisters have to face the threat of a resurrected Source. Paige asks Piper and Phoebe how the Source was vanquished last time... as if she wasn't there... which she was... for technically three times. No-one on the writing staff caught this?!
    • "Chris Crossed" flashes back to Chris travelling back in time. He draws a portal on the attic wall and goes through - when he orbed in for his debut episode. There's also no mention about the Titans in "Chris Crossed" - which is who Chris goes back specifically to help the sisters vanquish. His clothes and hair are also drastically different. Perhaps he initially came back to somewhere else, then took the time to find a place to live and change his clothes before orbing in; this would make sense, as there are no other instances of orbing as a method of time travel.
    • Prue at one point mentions to Andy that her children will only be witches if they are girls. Possibly implying that only women can be witches. However the episode "Secrets and Guys" sees her helping a young male witch named Max with his problems, who's mother also had witch powers. Not to mention that later Paige's first charge is a guy named Mitchell Haines. Possibly Prue just assumed only girls can be witches, since coincidentally their entire family line was made up of women.
    • Penny was first established to have had four husbands, and later Phoebe says she'd been married six times instead. It was later clarified that she'd been engaged six times, and only married four.
    • In Chris's debut episode, he claims that Paige died in the fight with the Titans. But in Season 6's "Spin City", he makes a joke about going to her for money in the future.
  • Series Fauxnale: End of Season 7. It ends with Darryl promising his wife he wouldn't help the Charmed Ones anymore, them destroying their own source of power to kill the Big Bad and finally changing their faces and starting living normal lives! Also Prue was mentioned a lot, and even the episode title was a mirror of the title of the pilot episode. But then they got renewed...
  • Seven Deadly Sins: The episode "Sin Francisco" had a demon hitting people with concentrations of these. Needless to say, the main cast got hit, with Phoebe getting Lust, Piper getting Gluttony, Leo getting Sloth, and Prue getting Pride. The only way to overcome the sin is to be selfless. Pride had a clever twist where Prue was unable to purge herself of the sin - as any heroic act she did would just be her showing off how selfless she was. She had to be saved by someone else to lose the sin.
  • She-Fu: Even before she got an active power, Phoebe was the Kung-Fu Wizard of the group. Gaining the power to levitate meant that she could now execute more impressive physical moves. Prue was also using her power of telekinesis to amplify her combat skills - she pulls off a wall-backflip in "Blinded by the Whitelighter" while practice fighting.
  • Shirtless Scene: The show has tons of them:
    • Cole is shirtless for half of "Enter the Demon" as he spars with Phoebe. He's also inexplicably shirtless when the Siren is seducing him and also appears shirtless in one of his own nightmares.
    • Leo stopped getting them after the third season but Phoebe walks in on him shirtless while making out with Piper. Prue also walked in on him in the shower.
    • The prince from "A Knight To Remember" spends the climax of the episode shirtless, as the Evil Enchantress is trying to conceive his heir.
  • Shoo Out the New Guy: The second season introduced Jenny Gordon, neighbor to the main characters. She was living with her uncle, Dan, a Temporary Love Interest for Piper, while her diplomat parents were in Saudi Arabia. The idea seemed to be making her a sort of "little sister" for the main characters, and she even got a short Promotion to Opening Titles, but was quickly written out with the explanation that her parents were back in the country. Word of God admits that they didn't know what to actually do with her. (Dan, meanwhile, stuck around for a season, but moved away after temporarily being turned into an old man and learning that Piper was a witch.)
  • Shout-Out
    • In other possible shout-outs to Television Without Pity, recapper Demian at least once per recap expressed his dislike of the character Leo, referred to the supposedly omnipotent Elders as "the ever-useless Elders" due to their apparent inability or unwillingness to help the protagonists. In the episode "Lucky Charmed," Piper refers to the "Fricking ever-useless Elders!" In "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father," the demon-of-the-week is determined to kill Leo, and is named "Damien." And oh, didn't he love that.
    • This show gave a shout to Buffy the Vampire Slayer during the episode "The Power of Two". Prue and Phoebe are in a mausoleum and have this conversation:
    Prue: Ohh, I hate cemeteries at night.
    Phoebe: I hate cemeteries at day. What was that?
    Prue: Uh ... huh. Probably a zombie or vampire.
    Phoebe: Great. Where's Buffy when you need her?
    • An even better example is when Paige is attacked by a vampire in the fourth season, after Buffy's Channel Hop from The WB to UPN.
    Piper: Vampires? That'd be different.
    Phoebe: No, that's not possible.
    Paige: Why not?
    Phoebe: Well, because as far as I know, vampires attack in human form and not as a swarm of bats. You know, it's gotta be something else.
    Leo: It's true, vampires have been ostracized from the underworld for centuries. As far as I know they're apart of a whole different network now.
    • In the season 2 episode "That Old Black Magic," the villain of the episode finds a lost hiker with a camera who got separated from his friends making a documentary about the Blair Witch. She later comes across the other two, one of whom is a girl repeatedly screaming "Joshua!"
    • They also do a shout to Psycho when in a season 2 episode Piper is pursued by a serial killer from a movie.
    Piper: I am being stalked by psycho killers and I hide in the shower?!
    • The girls' one-shot "superhero" costumes in Season 5 are reminiscent of the Legion of Super-Heroes, with a dose of then-current X-Men outfits for flavor. Piper's in particular seems like an updated version of the original Dazzler costume. This may or may not be intentional.
    • In the season five finale, Paige gets turned into a goddess of war — more a genderswapped version of Ares rather than Athena, but with Poseidon's trident. Phoebe asks her whether she was done being a Warrior Princess.
    • One demon actually says the line "I find your lack of faith... disturbing."
    • Another shout out happens in several episodes with Leo (Brian Krause) & Piper (Holly Marie Combs) about their real life dating when Leo quotes he always fancied a stronger woman like a "Bethany" he refered to his then wife Beth Bruce (who he later divorced) and Piper spat back with 'Well to bad your not a Don or David' which refers to her eventual real life husband David Donoho (also later divorced), who she was just casually seeing at the time.
    • In Season 8, "The Jung and the Restless" there is a shout out to Quentin Tarantino, by Rose McGowan who at that time had done the movies Death Proof and Planet Terror with him.
    • In early seasons, Prue works at the Buckland Auction House. The name comes from Raymond Buckland, who introduced the religion of Wicca to the United States.
    • The S:3 E:2 episode "Magic Hour" is almost a carbon copy of the plot from Ladyhawke about two lovers who are cursed to become animals at different parts of the day by a jealous ruler. Prue lampshades it with "I feel like I've seen this in a movie somewhere."
    • The season 6 episode "I Dream of Phoebe" is of course full of them to I Dream of Jeannie. The genie bottle is the same as Jeannie's and Phoebe's genie costume is modelled after Barbara Eden's (complete with hairstyle too). When Paige sees Phoebe in the costume she also asks "shouldn't you be helping Major Nelson?"
      • In a first season episode, Phoebe also wore a costume reminiscent of Jeannie's when she worked (briefly) as a psychic.
    • In Season Four, Phoebe says "What good is being a witch if I can't just twitch my nose and make the laundry fold itself?"
    • The Crucible has to be mentioned, courtesy of the character Mary Warren, housemaid of John Proctor. The ancestral mother of the Halliwell clan, who is said to be executed during the Salem witch trials, was named Melinda Warren.
  • Showing Off the New Body:
    • Occurred in "Coyote Piper", where Piper is possessed by an ancient evil spirit (one of several over the show's run). After modelling in front of the mirror in what's almost a dominatrix outfit, the spirit knocks Piper's husband Leo unconsciousness, then goes to Piper's High School Reunion she was holding at her club, and proceeds to do a sexy table-dance for the all men (and a few of the women) present on top of the bar. Barefoot. For about 5 minutes.
    • In "A Paige from the Past", this happens when Phoebe is possessed by the spirit of a deceased convict named Lulu, who can't help admiring her new body's beauty and starts Shaking Her Hair Loose.
    • And once again to Phoebe in "Freaky Phoebe", when a hideous demon cast a spell to switch bodies with her, who had always envied the attractiveness of others, and vanquish other demons who threaten her livelihood. Immediately after her soul replaces Phoebe's she makes out with her office's appointed shrink, is caught by Piper twirling in front of a mirror and switches into a more revealing and tighter outfit.
  • Signature Move: Initially it was the power of three spell ("the Power of Three will set us free"). As the series continued they began using the "To call a lost Witch" spell more and more.
  • Single Line of Descent
    • A rare female example. The Charmed Ones are three sisters who are the descendants of 17th century witch Melinda Warren. Apparently, up until the birth of the protagonists, there never were three daughters per generation.
    • Kind of subverted in season 4 when we find out about Paige. But of course nobody had thought of her yet in season 1 when the trope was established. Unless you accept that there is no limit to the number of siblings as long as there is at least three sisters. Otherwise providence would have to wait until the mother reached menopause to grant the powers to the sisters, because more siblings might still be born. Besides we find out in "That '70s Episode" in season 2 that the sisters had their powers from birth — presumably because they were always going to be witches, it's just the Charmed gimmick that wasn't (and couldn't be) established until Phoebe's birth.
  • Single Sex Offspring: The Warren-Halliwell line has produced exclusively daughters from Melinda Warren, who lived in the 17th Centruy, down to the Charmed Ones in the 20th century. Piper's first child being a boy comes as such a surprise that Grams assumes there must have been some sort of magical interference. Piper's second child is also a boy but the third is a daughter. The epilogue to the finale and follow-up comics reveal that Phoebe and Paige's biological children are also all girls, but Paige and her husband adopt a son.
  • Sinister Minister: Averted with most of the clergy on the show. However, Cole's marriage to Phoebe following his accession as the Source has to be a "Dark Ceremony" officiated by a "Dark Priest", who remarks in a creepy voice, "It is a long time since I had a human soul dropped in my collection plate."
  • The Sixth Ranger: One-Shot Character Aviva tries to be this in a season 1 episode with this title. Of course, she was under More than Mind Control
  • Sleuth Dates Cop:
    • Andy for Prue in the first season. He serves as a source for information and help within the police department with cases concerning magic.
    • This then becomes something of an attraction for Paige: she has Federal Agent Kyle Brody in season seven, an unnamed cop in season eight, and Henry in the same season, who she then goes on to marry. For Paige, at least, she meets all of them in the course of her Charmed duties - Agent Brody is investigating the Avatar threat and needs the sisters' help, who then offers to clear them of suspicion with his influence, and one of Henry's parolees is an innocent Paige is supposed to save.
  • Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: In "A Paige from the Past", Piper bursts into a church to object to the marriage of Phoebe and Cole (or rather Lulu and Frankie, the ghosts possessing them), who are holding a priest at gunpoint to force him to marry them. The priest protests that he didn't get to say the line.
  • Spirit Advisor: The main characters can summon their dead relatives if they need help. Well, everyone except Prue, of course.note 
  • Stalker Shrine: Prue's stalker keeps it in a journal at her employee locker at P3.
  • Starter Villain Stays: Jeremy Burns was a warlock who seduced and killed witches to take their powers and was the first foe that the Charmed Ones vanquish. Jeremy returned briefly in the season two premiere being summoned by Abraxas for another fight and also came back in the comic book continuation as one of the souls of several defeated Charmed One's foes that was possessing one of their friends.
  • Status Quo Is God:
    • No matter what happened, or what kind of creature the sisters got turned into (be them vampires, warlocks, valkyries or even demons), by the end of the episode the transformation was undone.
    • Subverted in "Crime and Witch-demeanors" where Phoebe is stripped of her powers, not regaining her premonition until the next season.
  • A Storm Is Coming: The Arc Words for season 7 are "the gathering storm."
  • Stripperiffic: Ooh boy...
    • The mermaid outfit has Phoebe's nipples only barely covered, while Mylie was reasonably covered up.
    • Phoebe possessed by Isis wears a skimpy Belly Dancer outfit.
    • Paige as a wood nymph.
    • The sisters as Valkyries.
    • Phoebe's genie outfit. Notable that when Richard is turned into a genie, his outfit is modest.
    • Billie's Amazon outfit.
  • Straw Feminist:
    • Penny Halliwell, the trio's grandmother. She outspokenly states her low opinion of men in general, and is openly antagonistic to most of the male characters in the series. When confronted with the fact that a boy child is the heir to the Halliwell lineage and all its magic she is incensed and tries to convince Piper that the Wyatt is a cosmic mistake.
    • There's also the Girdle of Hippolyta, which turns whoever wears it into one. Though Billie already had the Strawman Ball for the episode before putting it on, so maybe it's not supposed to work that way.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: The ability to blow things up is actually Piper's second power. It's explained as the natural progression of her first power to stop time: at first she halted molecular movement, and now she can accelerate it.
  • Subbing for Santa:
    • In "Styx Feet Under", when Piper became the Angel of Death.
    • In "Nymphs Just Wanna Have Fun", Paige was once turned into a nymph to replace one that just died.
    • The show also had many inversions of demons and warlocks and other bad guys stealing the powers of good magical creatures for their own gain. Just to name a few:
      • In "Heartbreak City", a Demon steals Cupid's ring and starts breaking up relationships in revenge.
      • In "Muse To My Ears", a warlock steals a ring which allowed him to harness the powers of Muses.
      • In "Blinded By The Whitelighter", a warlock stole the powers of a Whitelighter in order to get into heaven and kill all the elders.
      • In "Sand Fransisco Dreamin'", a demon once used a Sandman's dust in order to bring the Charmed One's dreams to life.
  • Sudden Name Change: When Leo first mentions his bosses, he refers to them as "A group of elder whitelighters, called the Founders." In all subsequent episodes, they're called "the Elders."
  • Suddenly Always Knew That
    • In "That 70's Episode", Phoebe suddenly reveals the ability to pick locks. Lampshaded by Prue, who rhetorically asks, "Why am I not surprised that you know how to do this?"
    • Despite Phoebe having trained in martial arts, the third season shows auctioneer/photographer Prue surpassing her in martial arts skills she has never learned.
    • In Season 8, Paige showed that she knows martial arts as well despite the fact that we never saw her train in hand-to-hand combat.
  • Super Hero Speciation: Averted, towards the end, several characters possessed the powers of telekinesis and teleportation.
  • Superhuman Transfusion:
    • In the episode "Astral Monkey", Dr. Williamson is experimenting with the Charmed Ones' blood (long story, but he believes it could be the key to a "universal antibody") and unintentionally gives himself and his test subjects (three monkeys) their collective powers (he injected the monkeys with a mix of their blood, and they injected him). Unfortunately, mortals can't properly handle that kind of power, and it starts warping his body and mind; he "does good and saves innocents" by killing criminals and harvesting their organs for those that need them.
    • Crossing mortal blood with a magical creature's come back in the episode "Hulkus Pocus" where it creates a deadly virus.
  • Supernatural Fear Inducer:
    • Barbas, the Demon of Fear, is able to read the worst fear of his targets, and make them believe they are living it through illusions. He's even able to kill his victims his way.
    • Inverted by Barbas's flipped-universe counterpart, who is a hippie who lives in a beautiful garden and inspires the emotion of hope.
  • Super-Speed:
    • Several demons and magical creatures, such as Dwarves and Leprechauns, possess super speed. some magical beings naturally have superspeed.
    • In one episode, Paige has a charge who possess the power of super speed.
    • When the Charmed Ones are turned into superheroes in "Witches in Tights", super speed is one of their stock powers.
    • In "Battle of The Hexes", the Golden Belt of Hyppolita granted Billie this power too.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Barbas mumbles this when his mole revealed itself when captured.
  • Take Our Word for It: In season 5, Phoebe becomes a successful advice columnist, has her own billboard ads, gives radio interviews and is generally said to be really funny. Of course the audience never hears more than a single sentence from her columns. She also ends up sleeping with the boss. We got a little insight when Phoebe first got the job. The person wrote in saying she was still living with her parents and was afraid of living alone. Phoebe's response, which seemed like something of an Ass Pull, was that she should get a dog for a companion. The previous columnist praised this for being proactive (it actually got her out of the house) and for being nonjudgemental. Both her (and Piper's) response was simply "Get a therapist, and get a life." The columnist said hers was better and handed the job over, so she must have done something right.
  • Taken for Granite:
    • Gammill, a Collector of the Strange in "Size Matters" who shrinks witches and turns them into clay figurines.
    • Meta, one of the Titans in "Oh My Goddess" can turn people to stone. She turns Whitelighters to stone and shatters them to steal their teleporting powers. Paige is turned to stone, but is saved from the shattering and later returned to normal.
  • Take That!:
    • Season 3 seemed to be throwing these toward Shannen Doherty as Prue is Put on a Bus to Hell. In "Sin Francisco", she was possessed by the Deadly Sin of Pride, turning her into a raging egomaniac. "Look Who's Barking" turns her into a literal female dog, and she also was responsible for destroying Piper's wedding in "Just Harried". It seemed like everybody was grateful to see her leave.
    • The episode "Witch Wars" features a demonic reality game show of the same name, where the objective is to kill witches on television while a demonic audience watches. Naturally there are a few digs at reality shows in general, and Survivor in particular.
  • Taking Up the Mantle: The Ice Cream Man who fight the demonic children know when their time is coming and go looking for the truck.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Bane Jessup. Or, as Phoebe describes him, the tall dark and naked trap.
  • Team Power Walk: In "Valhalley of the Dolls", the season six premiere, where the sisters get turned into Valkyries.
  • Temporarily a Villain: In many episodes one of the Halliwell sisters will go to the dark side for a day before switching back by the end of the episode.
    • A particularly notable one early in "Bride and Gloom" on has all three sisters turn evil by the end of the episode, only for Leo to save them.
    • The episode "A Wrong Days Journey into Right" where Paige does a spell to conjure up a 'Mr. Right' for 24 hrs which inadvertently also produces a 'Mr. Wrong' who she allows to seduce her with his seductive naughtiness.
  • They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: You want to know what's really show about the show? Most the enemies the girls face look like regular innocent people. You can't trust anyone in this world.
  • Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: Lots of things. From the woogy in the basement, to the poltergeists that haunt the manor, to the gremlins that cause havoc at Paige's job.
  • The Three Faces of Eve:
    • With Prue's death at the end of Series Three, Piper becomes the wife, eventually growing from insecure middle sister to capable eldest sister. She is also the first one to actually get married and have children. Paige is the child, being the youngest, newest member of the family and the least experienced in the ways of magic. Phoebe is the seductress, having the most active love life of the sisters.
    • The Stillman Sisters, evil blonde counterparts in season 6. Leader Mabel is the wife, ditzy youngest sister Mitsy is the child and flirty and provocative Margo is the seductress.
  • Third Act Stupidity: Any demon who survives that long. The most disappointing example was Worthy Opponent Zankou who probably could have defeated the sisters if he hadn't been goaded into a situation he knew full well was a trap.
  • Time Master
    • Tempus, the demon of time, trapped the sisters in a "Groundhog Day" Loop in season one.
    • The Avatars and The Cleaners could stop and rewind time.
    • Piper is a lesser example, able to stop and accelerate time in a very localized area/target. In a season two episode where the sisters go into the future, her powers have grown to almost the same level as the Avatars and Cleaners, at least as far as her freezing powers.
  • Time Stands Still:
    • Piper could freeze opponents (or Muggles that the Masquerade needed to be kept around) temporarily. Although her power is explained not as stopping time but slowing molecular motion. She develops the ability to speed up molecular motion, causing things to explode.
    • The Cleaners also had the power to stop time, and it was a much more grand effect than Piper's; also angels of fate could do it, the demon of time can do it for a quick burst.
  • Time Travel: The Charmed Ones use time travel quite a bit. Chris went back to before he was born to alter the future.
  • Time-Travel Tense Trouble:
    • The sisters (Prue in particular) in always run into difficulty when trying to get their heads around the concept of tenses when time travel is involved.
      Prue: We barely got away as it was... Is. Will be. You know, I've never been good with tenses.
    • The series finale "Forever Charmed" contains the immortal line, "Something very bad has happened in the future."
  • Token Wholesome: Compared to her other sisters (and that includes Prue too) Piper was rarely used for Fanservice. The only times she really got in on the Sexy Whatever Outfit theme was whenever all three sisters did (Valkyries, Goddesses etc). She only had one blatant Fanservice episode ("Coyote Piper") in contrast to the other three. Her clothing was always more modest too.
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Grimoire, which is the demon equivalent of the Book of Shadows.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Piper began as the meek middle sister with a defensive power, unsure of her position in their destiny. After Prue's death, Piper had to assume the lead witch role and become the eldest sister. She also gained a more offensive power, with the result that she could be a One-Woman Army depending on the episode.
    • Phoebe likewise just had premonitions in the first season. But she started training in martial arts, gained a levitation power and was much more effective in combat.
    • In the season 2 episode with the Bad Future, the sisters get a taste of what their powers will be like in ten years. Prue destroys the attic with a casual wave of her hand, Piper freezes everyone on a crowded street and Phoebe can generate electricity.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass:
    • Phoebe became significantly nastier in Season 5, blaming Cole for all that had gone wrong in her life and refusing to accept responsibility for her own actions. She also began misusing her powers, resulting in the Elders punishing her. She remained in this persona until Season 8, where she Took a Level in Kindness.
    • Even Leo himself wasn't innocent of this trope. He had to solve the overarching crisis of season 6 by killing his mentor in cold blood, which he himself acknowledged was "a great evil". Later he became part of a cult of reality warpers in season 7 and eventually convinced the sisters to help them get their way thinking it would lead to demon-free lives, only stopping when the demon who would become the show's most dangerous Big Bad had to educate him that this meant the elimination of free will. Oh, and a throwaway subplot in a season 8 episode reveals that he'd even stopped being above such things as capturing perceived enemies, holding them prisoner, and getting magic students to use them as crash test dummies, without even adding context to justify this torture beyond the victims being demons.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Prue was very cold and aloof to most of the other characters in Season 1. Starting with "Out of Sight", she started to loosen up and become a lot more fun-loving.
  • Took the Wife's Name: Halliwell women keep their last name after marrying. The comics reveal that Coop the cupid took Phoebe's last name after marrying her, since a court refers to him as Coop Halliwell.
  • Totally Radical: In Season 4 Piper's attempts to have P3 revamped result in this.
    "It's five minutes away from being 'so five minutes ago'."
  • Touch Telepathy: Phoebe needed to touch things to get a vision. Her empath powers, however, didn't require touch, just proximity.
  • Tracking Spell: Scrying, a magical tracking technique that all witches are capable off. A witch has to hold a crystal pendant over a map of the area in which the person or object she hopes to find is presumably located, and move it around untill the pendant eventually pinpoints the exact location of the object or person by pulling down on to a spot on the map.
  • Training the Gift of Magic: Witches are born with their abilities, and plenty of people are shown as being unable to use magic. And while you're born with your specific gift (other than the ability to cast spells and scry, each of the witches has their own skill — telekinesis, empathy, etc.), you have to learn to use your abilities and hone your skills. Powers can also be "bound" (repressed) or transferred from one character to another. Characters can also power up over time with abilities changing to more powerful forms.
  • Trapped on the Astral Plane: The show had more than one example, including "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father" where Piper and Leo ended up on another plane thanks to a plot of Gideon's, and "The Seven Year Witch" where Piper was badly wounded by some demons and ended up on the astral plane, where she met Cole.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening: The Charmed Ones' active powers are said to be linked to their emotions, and sure enough Prue, Piper, and Paige's powers are triggered by different emotions, before they manage to master them.
    • Prue's original power of telekinesis is triggered by anger. Her next power of astral projection is triggered by stress (specifically, the need to be in two places at once) .
    • Piper's original power of freezing time is triggered by panic. Although it is not explicitly stated on the show, her next power of molecular combustion appears for the first time in a moment of great frustration.
    • Phoebe seems to be an exception. Her powers of premonition and, later, empathy, are responses to outside elements, and the trigger for her power of levitation is never made clear.
    • Paige's power of orbing is triggered by fear. The power of healing she develops towards the end of the show is triggered by love.
  • Truth Serums:
    • The episode "The Truth Is Out There And It Hurts" has Prue casting a 24-hour "Truth Spell" which results in anyone who is asked a direct question having to answer with the truth. Unfortunately, it also meant if anyone asked one of the sisters a question, they would have to answer with the truth.
    • In "Necromancing the Stone", Paige later uses the same spell, and the effects are very different. The "applies to everyone under this roof" and "the caster must answer honestly" aspects are dropped. The boyfriend she used it for (to see how he'd react to the family secret since the spell comes with automatic Laser-Guided Amnesia) provided some extra information he's married but was also able to lie. He just had to quickly correct himself.
      "I was going to tell you... no, I wasn't."
  • Unabashed B-Movie Fan: Phoebe's favorite movie is a B-horror movie called "Kill It Before It Dies"; in the episode "Chick Flick", a demon's powers cause the characters to become real, then the sisters to be trapped in the movie.
  • Unlimited Wardrobe:
  • Unseen Evil: The Source. A good example of what's problematic with showing the Unseen Evil, as well — after several seasons of only being mentioned in passing he's finally revealed as a mysterious cloaked figure. With each sucessive appearance, the Source gets more stupid looking and more like a traditional Big Bad, until finally he's killed off and replaced with new Big Bads. (At this point, "Source of All Evil" is eventually revealed to be a title rather than a literal descriptor).

    Tropes V-Z 
  • Valkyries: The episode "Valhalley of the Dolls" featured Valkyries. They inhabit Valhalla and save the souls of dying innocents who are warriors of some kind - and have them train to face the final battle.
  • Vapor Wear: Half of the time the sisters don't seem to have any concept of bras. Lampshaded in the episode "Blinded by the Whitelighter" by their temporary Whitelighter/magical coach Natalie and Prue:
    Natalie: You need outfits that are loose and move. That means no more braless, strapless, fearless attire.
    Prue: Okay, but then I have nothing to wear.
  • Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Warlocks are supposed to have the ability to steal the powers of any supernatural beings they kill. However, they never actually did this very much, and this attribute of theirs was mostly just used as their motivation for trying to kill the main characters. The only Warlock character who actually went around stealing abilities was a single-episode Monster of the Week. Season 7's Big Bad, Zankou, also had the ability to absorb the powers of those he killed, but he only used it once, in his introductory episode.
  • Villain Has a Point: Christy sways Billie to her side by claiming the Charmed Ones are using her to do their dirty work for them, and that they're selfish and haven't consistently helped innocents in quite some time. Not only is this not wholly inaccurate, but the heroines themselves even briefly begin to wonder if they're selfish.
  • Villain Teleportation: Demons usually either shimmer or use flames. Warlocks would just disappear or "blink". Also, note while villains have the most varieties of teleportation, it's the good kind of teleportation — orbing — that appears most often.
  • Waking Up at the Morgue: Piper does this in "Styx Feet Under". Since the FBI agent who's been following them for the last few episodes is in the room when it happens, it's the event that finally allows him to penetrate The Masquerade.
  • Wedding Smashers:
    • In "Just Harried", Prue interrupts her sister Piper's wedding by being brainwashed and running away with a guy on a motorcycle. While still inside the manor.
    • In "Marry-Go-Round", Phoebe's wedding to Cole is sabotaged by the possessed groom himself. First Phoebe is turned invisible (which Paige transfers to herself so the wedding can continue), then a demon attacks the ceremony. Paige and Piper try to handle it discreetly, but the sound of the battle eventually disturbs the guests and draws Phoebe, who calls things off.
  • The Weird Sisters:
    • The Charmed Ones are a group of three sisters (or half-sisters), Piper, Prue and Phoebe, who are the most powerful witches of their day. While there are actually four of them, only three are ever the Charmed Ones at any given time. Paige was brought in after Prue's death.
    • "The Power of Three Blondes" introduced the Stillman Sisters, evil sisters who want to steal the Halliwells' powers.
    • "Repo Manor" also had a trio of demons who were emulating the sisters in the hopes of stealing their powers to vanquish an enemy.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist:
    • Gideon, the Big Bad of Season 6. He believed that Wyatt, born of a Charmed One and Whitelighter, was too powerful a being to remain good, and, after learning about a future where Wyatt did indeed turn evil, was determined to prevent that from happening. What Gideon didn't realize, however, was that it was his pursuit of Wyatt for weeks in the Underworld is what caused the boy to turn evil eventually in that future. He solidified this status in allowing innocents to be killed to cover his tracks, and even personally killing his friend and confidant Sigmund when he left to expose Gideon's plans to the sisters. He was willing to go so far as to work with his Evil Mirror opposite, which just unbalanced the world even more.
    • The Avatars also qualify. Their intention was to create a perfect, peaceful utopia, but they were going to create it by means of basically brainwashing the entire human race to remove violent thoughts, and erasing from existence anyone who disturbed the peace.
    • There's also The Cleaners who were willing to go so far as erasing baby Wyatt from existence to keep magic from being exposed to the world. Of course, they're tasked with upholding The Masquerade, and will rewrite history to that end if they need to.
  • Wham Episode:
  • Wham Shot:
    • "Love Hurts": Two policeman investigates Andy and Darryl at a loud construction where one of the men ascertains that they're talking about Prue. His confused colleague asks how did he know only to turn to see the first man with red eyes and utter a sonic scream, which kills the second man and confirms the first man as the Big Bad of the first season finale.
    • In "All Hell Breaks Lose" where Piper and Prue are panicking over being outed as witches. Prue frets that "Our entire future, our entire destiny could be wiped out just like that". Piper gasps and the camera pans down to reveal a bloody gunshot wound passing through her chest.
    • "Charmed Again Part 1" for most of the episode treats Paige as a random woman that the Source wants dead. Her true significance is revealed when she reflexively Orbs to avoid Shax's attack.
  • "What Do They Fear?" Episode
    • Whenever Barbas is the Demon Of The Week, this is the basis of the episode. Well, he is the Demon of Fear.
    • Also inverted in "Its a Bad, Bad World", where Barbas is the Demon of Hope
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: In Season 3, it was hinted that Cole was working for the Triad for something in return. At the end of the season, it was revealed to be his father's soul, which they had somehow acquired years earlier. However, after obtaining his father's soul, it is never stated what Cole did with it and is never mentioned again. Until season 10 comic that is.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?:
    • While Phoebe's power of premonition is certainly not useless, she does experience some angst early on at not having an active power that she can utilize at will. This is what inspires her to learn martial arts. She later gains the active power of levitation, becomes an empath, and learns how to summon premonitions at will. And then she loses all of her powers. How sucky for her. And kinda only gets them back at half power (and empathy not at all).
    • In the season 5 finale, the sisters are given powers of the Greek Gods. Piper becomes the Goddess of Earth, Paige the Goddess of War and Phoebe...the Goddess of Love. Really? To fight a pair of insanely powerful Titans? They couldn't have made her the Goddess of Wisdom perhaps or some other skill that would actually prove useful? And of course Phoebe ultimately does nothing to help in the fight against the Titans, save for providing a load of Fanservice. She does runs a scenario where she seduces both Titans in the hope of pitting them against each other, but it doesn't work.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
    • Played with throughout the series— originally, demons were humans who had intentionally given up their souls, but as time wore on, more variations occured: a half-manticore child, families of demons who were apparently born that way, and of course Cole Turner. The sisters end up killing them all at some point anyway.
    • Played straight in "Witchness Protection", with a demon trying to help the sisters in return for a soul. Needlessly killed by the Big Bad before she can become human again, but after holding up her side of the bargain. And they were so close to turning her again, too. Her borrowing one of Phoebe's dresses in her last minutes showed just how ready they had gotten for it, and even caused question as to whether they actually pulled it off. This only made her vanquish even more painful.
    • Subverted in "Little Monsters" where the sisters were hunting what they thought was a demon going after an innocent baby. Turned out the 'demon' was actually the baby's father, who had learned magic and transformed himself so as to have the power to protect his son from his mother and her kind. (This baby would be the half-manticore child mentioned just above here.) Not only did the sisters give the fellow a chance to explain the truth (despite him being willing to kidnap and endanger them), they stopped the real demons, saved his life (after his brush with death restored him to his human self), and got his son back for him. All of this despite the Elders telling them that 'the baby was a (half) demon and can never be raised to be anything else', which they point out is untrue since as he's half-human, he has the capacity for good as well and his future is his to decide.
    • Unfortunately however, this makes the baby fall exactly into the same category as the aforementioned half-demon Cole Turner. Despite his many attempts to genuinely reform his ways, was still treated as being inherently Always Chaotic Evil due to his demonic half by the sisters, until he decided to become evil.
  • White Magic: All good beings like good witches, white lighters, elders, fairies, and so forth use some form of holy-based spell casting in one form or another.
  • Widow Witch: Grams for her first husband, Allen. To the point she's basically had the whole family keeping his name.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
    • Any human who gains a power. They will be unable to handle it and eventually turn demonically insane.
    • As shown in "Primrose Empath", those who gain Empathy when they weren't supposed to (especially for demons who cannot handle emotion).
    • A group of demons who purposely put powers into humans to drive them insane and wreck their lives exist. In "The Fifth Halliwheel", one such victim received the power to spray acid from her hands. Cole uses this on Paige to tip her over the edge and perform magically evil acts in front of her, thereby making her accusations less credible in the eyes of everyone else.
    • According to "Oh My Goddess, Part 1", the Olympic Gods were just a bunch of humans given Godly powers by the Council of Elders to defeat the Titans. However, once the humans successfully stopped the threat they refused to give back the powers, climbed the biggest mountain they could find, and declares themselves Gods until they had to be cast down. When the Titans return, Leo (the only living councilman left) gives the powers of War, Love, and the Earth to the sisters who, in the second part, struggle not to succumb to the madness such powers naturally give.
  • Wizarding School: The latter seasons featured one shortly after Harry Potter started getting popular. Young witches just coming into their powers in the earlier seasons had to do without it. There's also a demonic training academy.
  • Who You Gonna Call?: The Charmed Ones, of course, but when they need to get rid of evil spirits that plague the manor, they call upon the services of a witch doctor. He is actually described as someone who gets rid of the Things That Go "Bump" in the Night.
  • Whole Episode Flashback: Two notable ones.
    • Season 3's "Pre-Witched" shows the sisters six months before the start of the series right before their grandmother died.
    • Season 6's "Chris-Crossed" is a flashback of Chris's past, which is technically a flash-forward since Chris is from the future. Doubles as a Wham Episode in that it's revealed that not only is Chris actually half-witch/half-whitelighter like Paige, but also in the future Wyatt is an evil overlord.
  • Whole-Plot Reference:
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
    • Piper is afraid of tarantulas. This tends to come up whenever recurring villain Barbas (the demon of fear) puts his hand in...
    • Piper has a fear of flying, at least according to Prue. Piper feebly denies this and says she "just prefers the bus". This is never brought up again for the rest of the series, and the times we actually do see Piper fly on the show, she doesn't seem to have this same fear, suggesting she might have gotten over it at some point.
  • Wild Magic: The Hollow. A sentient magical force, its purpose seems to be to devour and absorb magic into itself. Powerful and difficult to control, it cannot be destroyed, merely contained and watched over by representatives of both good and evil.
  • Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour:
    • "Which Prue Is It, Anyway?": After the Villain of the Week is defeated in, Andy comes knocking on the door, Prue answers and mentions that it's four in the morning, wondering why he's even there. The villain of the week at least made a point to attack the manor in the early morning hours hoping that she'd be asleep, while Andy just shows up out of nowhere trying to figure out the mystery of Prue's dead clone.
    • "Charmed Again": Piper is shown in the attic reciting various spells late into the night trying to resurrect her dead older sister. Phoebe wakes up to it, walks to the attic, and is surprised her sister awake so late.
  • Words Do Not Make The Magic: Only a magical being, such as an actual, magical witch, can cast spells. If a mortal tries it, the mortal is just speaking a rhyme. In the episode "Animal Pragmatism": a group of mortals (mortal= non magical "normal" human) accidentally find a loophole. They cast a spell by playing a tape recording of Phoebe chanting her edits to a spell they were researching, and it worked, because Phoebe did the rhyming.
  • Yin-Yang Bomb:
    • In "Apocalypse Not", Prue and War get temporarily displaced when the Charmed Ones and the Four Horsemen accidentally combine powers. It takes another combination, this time intentional, to bring them back.
    • The episode "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World, Part 1" had Phoebe and Paige traveling to a Mirror Universe and fighting their Evil Twins. The battle between the two Paiges causes explosions due to their opposing powers colliding. Later, they team up with their evil twins and form "The Power of Four" by combining their powers to devastating effect.
  • Yo Yo Plot Point: Phoebe going through a string of boyfriends/one-night-stands, giving up on love and deciding to concentrate on work, meeting someone who makes her rediscover love, then going through a string of boyfriends and one-night-stands again... It finally ended with her marriage to Coop, along with the show itself.
  • You Look Familiar:
    • Rebecca Balding, who plays Phoebe's newspaper boss Elise, was the aunt of a young witch in the Season 1 episode "The Fourth Sister".
    • Michael Bailey Smith plays at least two different characters: Belthazor/Demon Cole, and Shax, the demon who killed Prue. He was in heavy makeup for both, though.
    • Brian Thompson plays one of the Four Horseman and the Titan Cronus in season 5.
  • You Need to Get Laid: Piper, Phoebe and Prue all get told this at least once by the others.
  • Youngest Child Wins:
    • Phoebe is the youngest. She is the one that discovers the sisters' powers and gets the ability to sense evil. It's also inverted in that Phoebe is the easiest sister to tempt towards evil because she was born in the manor. Of course since Paige is revealed to be the youngest, it ultimately counts as a subversion.
    • Also inverted in that Prue as the eldest got the strongest power. And Wyatt as Piper's first son got much more power than Chris. The comics state that this is an ironclad rule that has been consistent all the way back to the children of the First Witch.
    • Billie however is the youngest and she is the Ultimate Power, while her older sister Christy is just the key to the power.

 
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