Patty Halliwell

Patricia "Patty" Halliwell was the daughter of Penny and Allen Halliwell. A descendant of Melinda Warren, Patricia was gifted with the power of Molecular immobilization. Against the wishes of her mother, Patty married a mortal, Victor Bennett. She became the mother of Prue, Piper and Phoebe, who would later become The Charmed Ones. She would later fall in love with her Whitelighter Sam Wilder and have a fourth daughter, Paige. Patty was killed on February 28th, 1978 by a Water demon.

Early Life and Family
Patty was born on April 5, 1950. At her Wiccaning, the Necromancer attacked trying to feed off the life force of the Halliwell matriarchs, but Penny was able to banish him, which would stick for about 50 years. ("That '70s Episode", "Necromancing the Stone")

As a child she showed herself to be a rather clever witch, making up her own spells. She made one up when she was nine to counter the ones her mother cast. ("Cheaper By The Coven")'

Later in her life, Patricia met and married a mortal named Victor Bennett. Penny didn't approve of him and didn't allow her to take his last name. She gave birth to three children; Prue at 20, Piper at 23, and Phoebe at 25. Patty and Penny protected the girls from many demons when they were young. ("That '70s Episode," "Just Harried")

When Victor found out Patty was a witch, he tried to be open-minded about it, but frequently argued with Penny about how his daughters should be raised. Victor believed that they should be raised as mortals, but both Patricia and Penelope agreed that they should be raised as witches and embrace their destiny. Tired of constantly battling with Penny, Victor left Patty and the girls. ("Thank You For Not Morphing," "We All Scream For Ice Cream")

With Victor gone, there was no real money coming into the house anymore. Patricia was forced to get a job to pay for the expenses of the house. She got a job as a waitress at a corner restaurant, Buddy’s. It wasn’t the best job but there was an income. According to Prue, she would work all day, and come home at night smelling of hamburgers.

On March 24, 1975, Patty was tricked by the warlock Nicholas into blessing his ring, to give him immunity from the Charmed Ones' powers, including the premonition power of her unborn child, Phoebe. To protect the girls, Penelope and Patricia bound the girls' powers. The spell was never broken until Penny died. ("That '70s Episode," "Something Wicca This Way Comes")

Also, just after concieving Phoebe and while still with Victor, Patty was approached by a future (to her) verion of Piper and her husband Leo who were trying to save Phoebe and accidentaly traveled too far in time. After hearing about what happened, Patty insisted on helping and came up with the plan to have Penny help. After arriving some time after her death, Patty approached Penny who fainted at her appearence. Thus Piper was forced to tell her that she was dead. Despite this, she continued to help and with Penny and Piper changed the future. She later went to see Victor with Piper and enthusiasticaly greeted him, unaware of their divorce until he told her. Shocked, she remained with him and caught up. He informed her of Prue's death, something Piper had been avoiding telling her. Later, she was sent back to her own time with no memory by Coop and she agreed it was for the best as she didn't want to remember about Prue's death.

Not long after this, Patricia fell in love with her Whitelighter Sam, and became pregnant. Patricia, Sam, and Penny kept the baby a secret, fearing the consequences if the Elders were to find out, not even telling the girls. On August 2, 1977, Paige was born and left at the local church with a nun named Sister Agnes, in a blanket with a “P” on it. Patricia was 27, the age at which she died. Patricia asked the nun to give her daughter a name that started with a P like all of the others in her immediate family. ("Charmed Again")

It is revealed that before she found out she was pregnant with Phoebe she was a smoker. When in the past, Phoebe encourages her mother to quit. It is unknown if Patty returned to the habit after the birth of Phoebe, or that of Paige.

Molecular Immobilization
Patty's power was molecular immobilization, just like her daughter Piper and her grandmother P. Baxter. She would work with her mother to protect the girls from the evil that would attack. ("That '70s Episode") She was also assisted by her whitelighter, Sam Wilder. ("P3 H2O")

Basic Wiccan Powers
Like other witches, she possesses the knowledge of witchcraft and the basic magic skills, such as scrying, spellcasting and potion making.

Premonition
While she was pregnant with Phoebe, she was able to use the power of premonition, though it only comes randomly. ("That 70's Episode")

On Piper's wedding day, she told her daughters that she was never worried about them because she had a premonition of this very moment on the day Phoebe was born. This means that just like Wyatt, Phoebe had powers from the womb and Patty intercepted them.

Molecular Combustion
If she would've been alive longer, she might have possessed molecular combustion, figuring how Piper got it as an advancement of her molecular immobilization. However, there is very little possibility that she could have gained this power as she never displayed it, having her power for over 20 years, in comparison Piper's powers advanced to this level after 3 years of gaining her molecular immobilization power. Also, her daughter is a much more powerful witch than she was.

Death
She added several entries into the Book of Shadows herself, including a page devoted to "The Place of Magic on the Rearing of a Child." She would later add a description of Barbas, the Demon of Fear from the afterlife to help her daughters. ("Reckless Abandon," "From Fear to Eternity")

In February 1978, she and Sam were working on a way to vanquish a Water Demon that was killing people at Camp Skylark. Patty told Sam not to interfere because it was too strong. He feared for her life and tried to stop her. Patty realized the best way to vanquish the demon was with electricity, and decided to use a battery at the end of the dock. Sam tried to stop her, but Patty froze him before he could. Unfortunately, freezing Sam caught her off-guard, and allowed the Water demon to attack and drown her from the inside, killing her. ("P3 H2O") Prue was particularly devastated by her mother's death; for some years afterward she was unable to say "I love you" to anyone since it was the last thing she'd said to her mother. ("From Fear to Eternity")"

Afterlife
After Patty died, her mother Penny took custody of her daughters. Occasionally, Penny would go up to the attic to summon Patty back so they could talk, and discuss the girls. ("Pre-Witched")

After Penny died, the girls received their powers and became the Charmed Ones. Penny and Patty acted as guardian angels to the girls, helping where they could without directly interacting with them. Mostly, they would flip the pages of the Book of Shadows to give them assistance. ("Charmed Again") When Patty once helped the girls, the attic smelled of sandalwood, a scent she often wore ("From Fear to Eternity").

On Friday the 13th, 1999 when Barbas, the Demon of Fear, came after the girls, Prue found an entry her mother had written on how to defeat him. Later, when Barbas tried to drown Prue (the same way Patty had died) Patty appeared to her and reminded her that her destiny was different from Patty's. Prue was able to escape, and defeat Barbas. ("From Fear to Eternity")

At the conclusion of the two-part episode Charmed Again Part 2, after all the sister's met together at P3, Piper and Pheobe used a spell to summon their Patty so Patty could meet the daughter she gave up and so Paige could meet her mother at last. This is one of the instances that Patty became corporeal by stepping out of the candle circle used to summon her so she could embrace Paige.

When Piper was newly pregnant with her first child, she had fears about leaving her baby as her mother had left her. So she cast a spell to make her fearless, and so became captured by a demon and was later dragged into the water. Patty appeared to her and encouraged her to believe that her destiny was different from Patty's. She then offered her hand, when it was actually Phoebe's, and was able to free Piper from the chain that was tying her down. (A Witch's Tail, Part 2)

It seems that Patty is able to commune and interact with her daughters when they are drowning, as though to save them from dying the same way she died.

Patty was also able to return to Earth in corporeal form for Piper's wedding, and after being summoned by her mother in season seven. ("Just Harried", "Cheaper by the Coven")

Trivia

 * In the whole series there are only two occasions where we see Patty use her Molecular Immobilization power. The first is in P3 H2O when Phoebe sees her use the ability to keep Sam out of harms way in a premonition. The second is when Piper and Leo go back to the past in Forever Charmed, Patty mistakes the two for demons and tries to freeze them but only freezes Leo. This implies that Patty's power worked in the same way that Piper's did and therefore she can't freeze good witches.
 * Finola Hughes didn't portray Patty until the characters third appearence in the series. Her first appearance was on a family video in Thank You For Not Morphing and she was played by Alyssa Milano. Her second was in the water in From Fear to Eternity, in which she is portrayed by an unknown actress who's face is not shown.

Appearances
Patricia Halliwell appeared in a total of 11 episodes throughout the course of the series.
 * Season 1 -
 * Thank You For Not Morphing - portrayed by Alyssa Milano
 * From Fear to Eternity - portrayed by unknown actress
 * That '70s Episode - From early 1975


 * Season 2
 * P3 H2O


 * Season 3
 * Just Harried
 * PreWitched - From flashbacks of early 1998


 * Season 4
 * Charmed Again Part 1
 * Charmed Again, Part 2


 * Season 5
 * A Witch's Tail, Part 2


 * Season 7
 * Cheaper By The Coven


 * Season 8
 * Forever Charmed - From early 1975