Paige: Planned or coincidence?

[The Matriarch]

As we all know, the show was pretty much lucky that they could actually bring in a half-sister that resulted from Patty & Sam's affair after the death of Prue.

Now the question is, do you think a half sister was planned in season 2 for just in case or was Brad Kern simply lucky that he had that opportunity laid out for him?

And what if season 2's P3H20 was never made, how would Paige have come about then?

[Dark Witch.]

This is really interesting, and very hard to forsee.

I dont think Brad planned it at all. I think that it was sheer luck. For by looking back at the episode, the whole point of it was to show that Piper and Leo were the same love story as Patty and Sam. Though it was definately a long shot for them to have kids.

If P3H20 never happened, I have NO IDEA how they would bring Paige in, and to be honest, the show probably wouldn't have continued. Or there might have been an affair with another man for Patty or something. Not to say Patty was going around or anything, but they would have to stretch it to bring Paige in.

As I said before, I think they were extememly lucky that they had made the episode, for if they hadn't and didn't put that storyline in, they wouldn't have been able to continue without making another storyline.

[Nerf]

Well, I did read that there were rumblings even in S2 that Shannen wanted to leave. So maybe they did put that story line in as a precautionary measure.

But mostly, yeah, I think it was just luck. Very good luck. If it hadn't happened, then any other way to bring her in would probably not have worked. As Dark Witch said, I think it wouldn't have ended right there. Which would have sucked.

[Active Engaged]

Hmm. I thought about this a while ago and thought that maybe they set that storyline up as a safety net. So if one of the girls quit or was fired they could bring Paige in. Or, it could have just been pure luck.

[Lexi]

I thought they put that storyline in as a way to set up the whole Piper/Leo thing. So that Piper and Leo didn't feel as guilty for being with each other because even though it was against the rules. I never really thought of it as a way to bring Paige in, just in case.

[Harrison]

Pure coincidence. The point of this episode was clearly to build on some key arcs and character development issues for Piper and Prue. I can't remember anything terribly important for Phoebe in this episode.

Piper: Her worries about a relationship with Leo needed to be dealt with and her love with him needed to be rekindled.

Prue: I'll always believe that death defined Prue. It was because of her mother's death and her father's disappearance that she became the woman she was. This was just another one of those episodes helping her to understand why those things happened and how they shaped her personality. Another episode that explored this territory was in "Death Takes A Halliwell".

By the time the season three finale came around they had already researched and brainstormed the possibilities of how to carry on, thus, they used this episode as a foot-hold and came up with the Paige we all know and love.

[Lexi]

This episode was for Phoebe to relive her mother's last moments in the form of a premonition and realise that she did have the inner-strength to do that. There wasn't really anything else about Phoebe, but I do this it was for her inner-strength.

[Deleted]

I loved how Phoebe was forced to live her mother's last moments, the way she tried to keep the kids out of the water, especially when she blew the powder on them and went, "Okay, now remember kids, on your way to bed, water bad, land good, water bad, land good." It's one of my favorite moments in Charmed, as is Piper and Leo reading the love letters, Piper realizing that Leo will always put his duty in front of his love (DON'T I WISH!), so she tells him good-bye and instead begins falling even more for Dan, the way Patty would've still lived had she not fallen for Sam, and, of course, both Prue and Sam facing their fears and getting rid of the demon who killed his love and her mother. The shows I always loved best were the ones where all three sisters had important parts in the show, which is why I hated when Piper and Leo became the stars after Chris showed up and Phoebe and Paige were just the co-stars in their shadows.

I'm with Potter. I think the fact that Sam and Patty had their affair had absolutely nothing to do with possibly setting up a "replacement sister"--that just like the fact that the "C" in "All Halliwell's Eve" could be for Cole or Coop, or the fact that it was PHOEBE's heart who Melinda Warren touched when she saw the long line of strong daughters and then PHOEBE was the only one who had just daughters were just pure coincidences.

During S2, I didn't hear anything about Shannen possibly leaving or even being unhappy or having problems with Alyssa (that didn't start until S3)--during S2, they didn't even know if there would be an S3 much less S4. And as shown throughout the series, they very, very obviously never looked beyond the current season because they never knew if they would be renewed until late, late in the season--any of the season finales could've been a series finale except for "Oh, My Goddess", and in that one, at the time it was aired, they had no idea if Brian Krause was going to renew his contract. To this day, the one change I wish for Charmed more than any other is that he hadn't--it would've taken care of all the other things I didn't like!

It's part of the fun of writing a series like the ones we have here--the author can plan 3, 4, 5 even 6 years in the future and not have to worry about being renewed or actors leaving or all of the other stuff that happens in real life, especially on a minor network like The WB.

[Criminally Vulgar]

This actually came up at CTP WAY back when. I still remember a couple of the points I made:
1) In When Bad Warlocks Go Good, the Rowe brothers (aka the Evil Charmed Ones) were two warlocks and a half warlock brother, just as the Charmed Ones later became two witches and a half sister witch
2) I noticed in Wicca Envy, that there were four magic orbs in the lantern when the girls relinquished their powers
3) the WB used the tagline "The Power of Three may be broken" for its trailers to promote the season 3 premiere (will update with a link to the trailer- YouTube is down right now)