Top 10 Charmed Episodes



Charmed ran for 8 years and is still the longest running show with an all-female lead. It has now even been turned into a comic so fans can continue to read about the lives of the Charmed Ones - three sisters who are the most powerful beings of Good the world has ever known.

Charmed has seen many different fan-fictions created as a way to continue the story, many of them are surrounded around the two sons that were brought into the family from Season 5 onwards, Wyatt and Chris. These are known to many fans as The Charmed Sons and has seen many campaigns in an attempt to create a TV show with the two boys as the front runners.

With that in mind, I'm going to take a look at what I believe are the top 10 Charmed episodes in descending order.

10. Love Hurts
This was the episode when Piper finally found out the truth about her handyman boyfriend but the hard way. Leo is gravely injured and only the healing power of another whitelighter can save him. At the same time, a potential whitelighter that he was protecting is in danger and the Charmed Ones need to help her.
What was so great about this episode was that it was the true start to Piper and Leo's relationship and also a close bonding moment for Prue and Phoebe as all their powers were switched. It was like they had gone back to the beginning of being witches as they had to learn each others' triggers to the powers.

9. Awakened
Another sisterly episode. As Piper becomes ill with a human disease, Prue and Phoebe had to find a way to save her. As medicine continues to fail, Prue and Phoebe rely on magic however learn a lot of personal gain consequences on the way.
It was an episode that made it clear that just because they were witches, their powers could not be used for everything. They also reversed the spell, which put Piper back into a coma from the illness, so that they could save everyone else who had been affected by their spell.

8. Sleuthing with the Enemy
Moving on to Season 3, this episode brought a dilemma to Phoebe as she had to make the choice to vanquish her demon boyfriend, Cole, or to keep one of the most dangerous demons known alive. It is a fight as she has to choose to listen to her head or her heart - something that most people have to choose when in relationships (head or heart, not whether to vanquish them or not).

7. Charmed Again Parts 1 and 2
I decided to join the two parts together since you can't watch one without the other. This was an episode the while it doesn't relate to everybody in he exact way of having to welcome a long lost half-sister into the family, it does relate in people having to welcome new friends or family and also dealing with the loss of someone close.

Piper's failing attempts at bringing her big sister back to life showed the grief that many fans were feeling at the loss of Prue; and also what the actress was really feeling at her co-star and friend leaving the set. While Phoebe's want to welcome her new baby sister into the family also showed on screen what most wanted to feel at welcoming a new character to the screen and into their lives.

6. That '70s Show
Prue, Piper and Phoebe travel back in time to 1975 to save their lives from a warlock and meet their deceased Mother and Grandmother while also seeing themselves at a young age. While it's never going to be something that anybody can relate to, it had the family dynamic that the early seasons of Charmed prided themselves in. It showed how close the sisters were and that they were sisters who just happened to be witches, rather than something that later seasons showed; that they were witches who just happened to be sisters.

5. Long Live the Queen
I must admit that there are not many favorites after season 3 and definitely none from season 5 onwards. I hated the direction that was taken after the end of season 4. The reason this episode hit the list is because showed just what someone would do for love, although after this was when Cole's character was completely destroyed. After refusing to vanquish Cole in "Sleuthing with the Enemy", Phoebe helps Cole become Good. However it just isn't meant to be as Cole becomes the new Source of All Evil. Once again, choosing her heart, Phoebe becomes Cole's queen, yet her loyalty to her sisters and saving innocents means that she continues to save innocents while protecting demons. It shows what most people go through - not wanting to lose their friends and family because of the man/woman that they have chosen.

4. Déjà vu All Over Again
The Seson 1 finale showed that some people just aren't meant to be saved, no matter how much you want it to happen; something else that many people go through. The Charmed Ones find themselves stuck in a timeloop by a demon and it will only end when all three have been killed. At the same time, they are trying to prevent the death of a friend and loved one, Andy.
In the end, Prue has to make the decision that vanquishing the demon and stopping the time loop over saving Andy.

3. Hell Hath no Fury
Another episode that dealt with the grief that fans were feeling over the loss of a loved character. It also dealt with the different stages of grief many people feel at the loss of a loved one. This is the episode that Piper turns into a Fury because of her anger over Prue's death. Piper's anger is actually aimed at her sister for leaving her and the episode serves as a great send off to the eldest Charmed One. The best thing that I like about this episode is how it shows the different ways people deal with grief. There are some fans that disagree with Piper blaming Prue at the end of the episode but for others, including me, it seemed completely natural.

2. Morality Bites
Ever wondered whether something you have done will be the cause of something happening in the future? This episode shows that what the Charmed Ones do out of revenge does have ramifications in creating a modern day version of the witch trials. While Prue and Piper try to save Phoebe from being burnt at the stake, all three learn some very valuable lessons about the "wrong things done for the right reason, are still wrong things". Something that fans still wish they'd remembered from Season 5 onwards to this day.

1. All Hell Breaks Loose
The season 3 finale and also Prue's last episode. This episode showed just what could happen if magic is exposed. A media frenzie outside the Charmed Ones' house leads to one of the sisters shot, one trying to save her and the third sister in the Underworld. In the end, after a sacrifice from the third sister to stay in the Underworld, time is reset to before magic was exposed.
This was the episode that left all fans with a cliffhanger knowing that one sister would be killed but not knowing which one until the Season 4 premiere.

All seasons of Charmed dealt with issues that most people face everyday but with the added mix of magic and demons. Maybe this is what made it so popular because people, young and old, could relate to the show and enjoy it for many different reasons.

Comments

  1. Very good job, Lexi! I thoroughly enjoyed your list and your reasonings. I found it funny that although your intro mainly talked about the two boys, you made it clear that none of the latter episodes are in your favorites list.

    I don't have time to list the why's, but I wanted to post my listing of top episodes. This isn't in order - that's not something I can do either - nor could I drop it down to the top 10. But for another site, I "graded" all of the episodes (from A+ to F-) and these are the ones I grade as A+, listed in Episode Order:

    That 70's Episode
    Morality Bites
    Awakened
    Give Me a Sign
    Murphy's Luck
    Chick Flick
    Astral Monkey
    All Halliwell's Eve
    The Good, the Bad and the Cursed
    Sin Francisco
    Brain Drain
    Sense and Sense-Ability
    I Dream of Phoebe
    Show Ghouls

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  2. OOPS! Did it too quickly. A few others that I gave an A+ - also all-time favorites:

    Love Hurts
    Deja vu All Over Again
    P3 H20
    Once Upon a Time
    Charmed Again, Part One and Two
    Paige From the Past

    Add these to my previous list and you have my Top 20. I truly can't narrow it down any more than that, except that "Morality Bites" will always be my all-time favorite.

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  3. Thanks for your top 20 Es. It was so hard to make my top 10 and I went back and forth with a few episodes. Really it's a top 11 since Charmed Again Parts 1 and 2 are two episodes and I joined them into one. Morality Bites and All Hell Breaks Loose should really be joint number 1 since it was the acting from Alyssa Milano (in Morality Bites) and Shannen Doherty (in All Hell Breaks Loose) that really put them in the top two but I had to make a decision on the order. I think the cliffhanger for AHBL helped put that on the top spot. I think that would have been a great way to completely end the show had that been the decision.

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  4. I agree with that, but if you just look at that episode as a single episode, it's really not that great of one outside of the acting and directing. There are *so* many holes in the plot and both the sisters and Leo act so stupidly in so many different ways, that I only gave it a B+. I truly think that had it not been Prue's last episode (as indeed it originally was not supposed to be her last - all three were supposed to survive), it also would not make most fans' Top 20, much less Top 10.

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