Character Review: Piper (includes later season spoilers)
Piper is the second
eldest of the Charmed Ones. Originally the middle sister of the trio of witches, while Prue acts as the fearless lead witch
and Phoebe is the eccentric and reckless spell-caster, Piper takes up the reins as the moral compass and voice of reason for
the Charmed Ones. Piper is the best potion-maker out of the three sisters, aided by her training as a chef. Unlike
her sisters, Piper has always been the most reluctant to embrace her destiny as a Charmed One. She is always craving some
bit of normalcy in all of her relationships, refusing to allow magic to take precedence over every aspect of her life. This
has become a significant weakness, as demons and warlocks over the years have exploited the fact that Piper wants to just
be normal in order to attempt to steal her powers or end her life. During her early years as a witch Piper proves
to be the sister most "unlucky in love". Her engagement with Jeremy Burns was abruptly ended when she found out that he was
a warlock waiting to kill the Charmed Ones as soon as they received their powers. Piper also seems to always fall for men
she cannot pursue a long term relationship with. A ghost, Mark Chao, captures her heart very early on during her first year
as a witch but once his death was avenged by Piper and her sisters, Mark moved on. Later she meets Leo Wyatt, a handyman hired
to do odd jobs around the manor. She and Phoebe both compete for his affections, and although Piper wins the gentleman's heart,
Leo turns out to be a "guardian angel" to the Halliwells and was forbidden from pursuing a romantic relationship with his
"charge". The pair part ways, but not for long. After more failed romances (including one with neighbor Dan Gordon)
and demons and warlocks vanquished, Piper and Leo eventually reunite and begin a tenuous journey down the road toward marriage.
After trials and tests to prove her equal dedication to her Charmed destiny and Leo, the pair are allowed to wed in front
of family and friends at Halliwell Manor (it should be noted it took three attempts throughout season three for the couple
to wed, proving the third time is the charm). With her marriage came new threats, new powers, and new losses. As a result
of the show's action-packed third season finale Piper’s older sister Prue loses her life to the demonic assassin Shax. The
unexpected loss of a sister hits Piper and Phoebe hard. It proves more than anything that despite being the most powerful
witches ever prophesized they are not invincible. Just weeks after Prue’s death Piper and Phoebe discover that, surprisingly,
the Charmed Ones can be reconstituted. The discovery of a long-lost half-sister, Paige Matthews, gives rise to a possibility
of recreating the Charmed Ones. With the addition of the youngest Halliwell – last name or not – Piper finds herself
taking on the mantle as eldest sister and the most powerful of the Charmed Ones in terms of active power, potion-brewing ability,
and her ability to strategize. The death of Prue was especially difficult for Piper, who became the eldest sister
and de facto leader, and as a result she has difficulty accepting Paige as a sister and friend. Slowly, however, the friendship
forms and sisterly bonds ensue, allowing the Charmed Ones to grow in power and become strong enough to vanquish the Source
of All Evil in three separate incarnations during the show’s fourth year. Upon fulfilling their destiny of vanquishing
the Source, Piper and her sisters are offered the opportunity to give up their magical lives in exchange for actual normal
ones – no magic, no warlocks, no demons, and even no Elders. After much discussion and the chance to do what they do
best, protect innocents, Piper, Phoebe and Paige decline the offer and soon after Piper discovers she is pregnant with her
first child. After battling many more demons and some mythical creatures, as well as dealing with the growing powers
of her unborn child, Piper is diagnosed with toxemia, during her third trimester. But her baby, Wyatt is delivered safely
by Paige and Phoebe in a home birth (to which Piper is opposed right up to the moment her water broke) at the manor. All are
surprised to discover that the baby is a boy, and not Melinda, whom Piper had seen in a visit to the future. Wyatt, however,
is a prophesized, twice-blessed child with tremendous magical powers and the apparent heir to King Arthur’s sword Excalibur,
hunted by demons from the womb and as soon as he is born. Like any nervous new mother Piper was afraid to leave her baby when
she and Phoebe had to find out who placed a bounty on him. She proved her strength as a witch to be reckoned with by vanquishing
many demons and sending out a message that any demon who wished to harm her child will be promptly vanquished. Afterwards
she names him after his father's and Aunt Paige's last names. Months after the birth of Wyatt, the Charmed Ones
meet Chris Perry, a Whitelighter from the future who comes back to help them defeat the ancient Titans – ancient gods
imprisoned by witches-turned-Gods by the Elders. In a repeat of history, Piper, Phoebe and Paige are transformed into the
Goddesses of Earth, Love, and War, respectively. While possessing this power, Piper has the ability to control all manner
of nature, teleport to anywhere she can imagine, throw lightening bolts, sense her sisters. She is also the most powerful
of the Goddesses, ultimately being the one who destroys the Titans by opening a crack to the center of the earth and throwing
them into it. While her sisters relinquished their holds on their powers, Piper's rage at discovering Leo's ascent to Elder
causes her to hold onto it, throwing San Francisco into a hurricane-like storm. She confronts Leo in the heavens about abandoning
their family, but eventually comes to understand that Leo's actions reaped the ultimate reward, and this is not something
she can fight, given that most Elders were killed by the return of the Titans and Leo is needed to help restore order amongst
them as a new founding leader. Chris becomes the girls’ new Whitelighter and Piper attempts to live a life
as a single mother. Piper and Leo separated and she begins to pursue relationships with mortal suitors, most notably a fireman
named Greg who she dated for some time. Chris later reveals he came from the future ultimately to protect Wyatt from a dangerous
evil force that will not reveal itself for a full year, a mission complicated by Leo's intense mistrust of him. Leo
and Piper are set on the path to reconciliation when a demon uses the power of a genie to wish the Charmed Ones dead. Leo's
connection to Piper saved the sisters as even though he and Piper are in a magically-induced sleep, Leo hears Piper's cries
for help when her spirit begins to move to the afterlife and he heals her. A few weeks later when Piper and Leo become stranded
in the ghostly plane with Leo shot by a Darklighter's arrow and no one around to heal him, their defenses finally come down.
When Leo tells Piper that he still loves her, they end up spending the night together. After being freed, Leo finally realizes
that he needs to take his place as an Elder and fully commit to that life, abandoning the life he was living with his family.
He leaves his family to live their lives in the mortal world while he lives out his in the heavens. When Piper learns she
is again pregnant, she feels that she can't tell Leo about their new son because he finally has accepted his new destiny. During
her pregnancy the truth comes out that the sisters’ latest Whitelighter, Chris, is in fact Piper and Leo’s second
child whom she is carrying. Phoebe was the first to discover this and Leo was the last. Together, the entire family works
even harder to aid Chris in finding out what great evil turned Wyatt into an evil tyrant in Chris' future. Piper had decided
to go to Magic
School, a safe place for young witches to develop their powers, while she was pregnant
since unborn Chris does not have a protective forcefield, as unborn Wyatt did. While at the school demons can't attack her
or young Wyatt while she carries out her pregnancy and tries to help identify the threat after her first-born. Leo discovers
the truth about Chris, and joins in the hunt for the evil that corrupts Wyatt. This journey draws Piper and Leo closer together. Piper
goes into labor while the world functions under a spell that makes everybody happy, unable to take anything seriously. Chris
and Leo are unaffected by it, but Paige and Phoebe are, as is the doctor caring for Piper during labor, which she is having
severe complications with. It is revealed that Gideon, an Elder, is working with Barbas to corrupt Wyatt — actually,
to remove him, as he is too powerful. However, this plan is doomed to fail: when Chris manages to interrupt the plan, he is
killed for this. Leo ends up killing Gideon after Chris dies in front of him and Paige, who later relays the news to Phoebe.
The spell is broken with Gideon's death, and the doctors manage to successfully deliver Chris. However, during
this ordeal, Barbas convinced Leo that a fellow Elder was after his family, and he killed him, therefore becoming a rogue
Elder. Some months later Piper cannot understand how Leo can make such a tremendous comeback from his grief of killing an
innocent Elder, but she is willing to accept Leo back into her life once again, despite the fact that he tells her that he
is an Avatar. With his Avatar kind, Leo and the sisters create a world of peace but it has deadly consequences. But
after the world of the Avatars fails, Leo has to deal with the Elders' punishment and he is once again taken away from his
family to endure a trial. He has to determine if his destiny lays with his family or the other Elders. In the 150th episode,
Piper receives help in the form of Phoebe's past love, Cole. He helps her and Leo get back together for good (which also makes
Leo mortal) and restores Phoebe's faith in love by proving that their (Piper and Leo's) love conquered all. Soon a new threat
comes on the horizon, Zankou, a powerful demon imprisoned by the Source hundred of years ago who seeks to bring order to the
Underworld and to destroy Piper and her sisters. After months of fierce battles and even losing possession of the
manor and the Book of Shadows, Piper and her sisters destroy Zankou and the Nexus at the end of their seventh year as witches
(Paige's fourth year). Piper and the sisters seemingly die in the final battle with Zankou. The mortal world, the underworld
and the Elders believe Piper and her sisters to be dead, while this is the sisters' chance to finally get a normal life. Piper
transforms her face and takes up the alias of Jenny Bennet, only her loved ones being able to see her as she was. However,
Piper's new look matches someone else who was wrongly wanted for murder. After clearing her lookalike's name Piper has to
change her look and get a new name, Jamie Bennet. While in disguise, Piper and her sisters take on a protege, Billie Jenkins.
While Billie helps with their demonic load, eventually Piper and her sisters realize that hiding their true selves is a mistake.
After a plot that involves the Department of Homeland Security to explain her sudden return from the grave, Piper returned
to her real name and old life. Despite having been through hell and back in their relationship, Leo does not adapt
to being a mortal married to one of the most powerful witches in magical history well. Even going to a magical marriage counselor
doesn't turn out as well as they had hoped. Their counselor has them switch bodies in order to walk a mile in each other's
shoes and hopefully mend some broken bridges. It works, and for a while, things are good in Piper's life. Naturally
this is when the Angel of Death comes to Piper to warn her that Leo's time is coming. While Piper figures out a way to prevent
Leo's death, it involved having Leo frozen. An Angel of Destiny tells Piper and her sisters that they have another battle
to fight and Leo's death would have motivated them, and specifically Piper, to fight it. Piper reasons that losing Leo with
his return hanging on her success is a much greater motivator than just losing him. The bargain struck, the Angel of Destiny
vanishes, taking the frozen Leo with her. Simultaneously, Billie is searching for her demonically-abducted sister, Christy
Jenkins. Piper starts to film everything that goes on in the house so when Leo comes back, he can watch what he
missed. She also avoids demon fighting, but when she and her sisters discover that Billie and her recently-found sister are
the ones they have to fight, she is the most determined to take the battle on. As the magical community is turned against
the Halliwells by the Jenkins sisters, Piper escapes with her sisters to the Underworld. Teaming up with two demons and utilizing
the power of the Hollow, the sisters vanquished the spirit-form remains of the Triad and turned against the Jenkins sisters,
also possessed by the Hollow. The battle ends with the survival of Piper and Billie and the deaths of Paige, Phoebe and Christy. Leo
is returned to her, and he stops her from murdering Billie with her bare hands, taking her to Phoebe's apartment, where Coop,
materializes and is stunned to find that Phoebe is dead. Piper, however, is determined to get her sisters back, reasoning
that they've conquered death before. She borrows Coop's ring, and through time travel summons her mother and Grams, and prevent
the deaths of Phoebe, Paige and Christy, but with Christy alive, Leo is removed once more. Realising Christy had manipulated
her, Billie deflects her fireball aimed at the sisters, killing Christy. Leo is returned, and the family present - the sisters,
Grams, Patty, Victor, Wyatt, Chris, Leo and Coop rejoice in their final victory. With the destruction of all the
strong demons of the past, the sisters can finally have normal lives. Piper and Leo's marriage returns to peace and they soon
have a third child, Melinda. Piper also opens a restaurant. The story ends with an elderly Piper reading the events of the
past from the Book of Shadows to her granddaughter. After Piper leaves with Leo to rest, more children enter the manor and
we get to know them as more of Piper's grandchildren. Piper's granddaughter closes the door with her telekinetic powers, ending
the story of Piper Halliwell and the Charmed Ones.
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