¹ Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a registered trademark of Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, California.

 

 

¹ I could spend a lot of time talking about Cole’s chest. It’s not shaved, like Fabio’s and a lot of other cover models’, thank you very much. It’s got a nice covering of dark hair that looks like it would feel wonderful to the touch.

 

 

¹ Insert shameless plug for BenBella’s book on His Dark Materials, Navigating the Golden Compass.

 

 

¹ And as we’ll see later, it’s actually more than resisting Evil. It’s resisting it for the right reasons.

² This particular episode illustrates the true genius of Charmed—its deft mixture of serious situations and humorous ones. Metaphysical subjects? Absolutely. Drama and tragedy? You bet. But interspersed with the heart-wrenching scenes of Piper, transformed into a Fury because of her grief over losing her older sister, we have scenes of Paige experiencing the hilarious backfire of personal gain from a spell she cast. Okay, maybe chest-fire is the more appropriate term. She inappropriately used magic to make a man irresistible to women to teach him not to be sleazy, and she ended up with an excess of “charms.”

³ Unbelievably great lines of dialogue ensued. If you haven’t seen this episode, camp out in front of your TV until it airs. I don’t want to disclose/ruin anything more about it.

⁴ Leo delivered an all-time classic line when the sisters asked him if he had checked with the Elders about the box of sin balls, and he replied that he orbed halfway there but then got tired and came back!

⁵ Gideon of course went a little too far in the other direction. Talk about your unsuccessful Elders!

⁶ Otherwise, the battle would go on. Even though the Charmed Ones vanquished the Source of all Evil, Evil still existed. It just wasn’t consolidated in one convenient being who could dole it out to ambitious demons in exchange for their allegiance. With the Source vanquished, the demons began battling one another to take over the underworld. Thus they were distracted from coming after the Charmed Ones, but not for long.

⁷ Off topic, but worth noting: Charmed does time travel better than any other television series, including past and present (and future?) sci-fi giants.

⁸ There are so many more examples of Good versus Evil, Charmed-style, and no more room in which to discuss them. There’s Darryl, the best nominee for future Whitelighter; Grams, who is an essay all by herself; the Manor, built on a spiritual nexus that can be either Good or Evil. The list goes on and on, as does the battle. Pick almost any episode, and you’ll see it unfolding.

 

 

¹ Quan, Tracy. “The Littlest Harlot: Barbie’s Career as a Role Model.” In Whores and Other Feminists, Jill Nagle, ed. London: Routledge Incorporated, 1997.

 

 

¹ When used to refer to the fictional witches of Charmed, I have used the normal lowercase spelling of the word “witch.” But when referring to real Witches in the real world, people who are following the spiritual path of Witchcraft, I have capitalized the W.