Piper Halliwell

Piper Halliwell is a fictional character in the American television program Charmed. She is played by actress Holly Marie Combs.

Background
Piper Halliwell was born on August 7, 1973 to Patricia Halliwell and Victor Bennett, their second child. As a witch, she developed the power of molecular immobilization -- to slow down molecules to the point that they stop, so the object/demon looks like they are frozen. She is very caring and is the voice of reason in the trio of witches.

On March 24, 1975, she was visited by a future version of herself. It was also on that day that Patty signed a pact with the warlock Nicholas to make him a ring that made him immune to her daughters' powers. After Piper's little sister, Phoebe, was born in November 1975, Penny bound their powers to keep Nicholas from killing them and taking their powers. In the early part of the Charmed history, Piper is the middle sister of the three. She begins as meek, shy and very much the arbiter between her sisters Phoebe and Prue. Though Prue was the eldest, Piper was much more maternal.

Trained as an accountant and a chef, she worked as a bank teller after her college graduation, but was persuaded by Grams to resign. Right after Grams died in 1997, Piper worked as a private caterer and as a chef at a trendy bar/restaurant in downtown San Francisco called "Quake". She seems to be widely considered one of the better chefs in San Francisco (where the series is based).

Revelation as a "Charmed One"
Once the Charmed lineage is revealed, Piper is initially shocked, and then disturbed by her new powers, scared that she may hurt someone. Piper's inherited power is the power of molecular immobilization, also known as temporal stasis. This primarily gives her the ability to 'freeze' objects in motion by slowing down their molecular movement rate to such a point where they appear not to move. Her power is initially triggered by panic and Piper had to make hand gestures to cause things to freeze or unfreeze. If Piper's hands were tied, she'd be powerless. Piper at first could only freeze everything in her immediate location (within the room she was in) and the freeze would only last for a few seconds. She later learned to freeze and unfreeze on command, and selectively choose parts of objects to freeze or unfreeze. She could also freeze and unfreeze certain objects and subjects (like every innocent in the room). This power would keep growing stronger so that Piper can freeze for longer, and in a larger range of area around her. The phrase temporal stasis has been confused as a misused word for this ability but it actually is what the ability does (temporal means over a period of time and or denoting time and stasis is a state of balance between forces (equilibrium), and inactivity).

Later, she developed the more offensive power of blowing things up. This power works by speeding up the molecules of the desired object to the point where they separate with an explosive action. It uses a similar hand motion as she does for freezing and thus, she was hesitant to use either power initially, not knowing whether her targets will freeze in place or explode into bits. As with freezing, Piper learned to master this power and can attack with precision. This ability is known as Molecular combustion.

However, both powers are reliant on both her hands (to do the blasting/freezing motion) and her eyes (because she needs to see what she is actually freezing/blowing up), and quite a few creatures (good and evil) are resistant or immune to her powers (For example, when she attempted to use her power on Cole Turner/Belthazor, all that she managed to do was send him flying back a few feet rather than actually destroy him).

Although Piper usually has to use hand gestures to activate her power, in the episode "Once in a Blue Moon", Piper's anger at Phoebe and Paige caused her molecular combustion power to blow off the ceiling chandelier. Since her powers are based off of emotions, it is believed that Piper's combustion powers came around when she started getting more aggressive and confident.

Like the other Charmed Ones, Piper can also brew magical potions and recite/write spells. She is best at making potions, as predicted by Grams in 1997 before she died from a heart attack, because Piper is a natural-born and university-trained chef.

She has been a Wendigo, a ghost, a Fury, a superhero, a Greek goddess, a Valkyrie, the Lady of the Lake, a Hindu goddess, an Angel of Death, and a wolf creature that came out during a blue moon (alongside Paige and Phoebe).

Romantic life
She has fallen in love with a ghost, a banker, a construction worker, a warlock and her Whitelighter and husband Leo Wyatt. They had broken up for some time because their relationship could not work due to their conflicting magical destinies. Piper then sought out a normal relationship with a mortal, her next door neighbor Dan Gordon for almost a year before reuniting with Leo. During their entire relationship, Dan remained oblivious to the fact that Piper was a witch. He did eventually learn the truth. When he proved unable to handle the secret, Piper, with the help of a genie, had the information removed from Dan. Eventually the pair ended their relationship. Piper went on to reunite with Leo, while Dan moved away to further pursue his career. In a past life, as P. Baxter (cousin of Prue's past life P. Bowen and Phoebe's past life P. Russel), Piper had had to choose between Leo and Dan before, and eventually married Dan's past life Gordon Johnson (and eventually bore Penelope Halliwell). Thus, she is more or less her own great-grandmother and that of Prue, Phoebe, and Paige.

Piper and Leo still had to deal with the consequences of their forbidden romance after getting back together. When the Elders issued an ultimatum about Piper and Leo's relationship, Leo proposed to Piper, who, after some hesitation, accepted. They tried to marry in secret, but the Elders were told of their plans after Cole exposed them to the magical community and they took Leo away. When the Elders forbade Piper from ever seeing Leo again, Piper decided to go on strike from being a witch. But once she realized that she still had a job to do and she still had to save innocents despite her anger over Leo, the Elders sent him back, giving them a chance to prove that their relationship would not interfere with their jobs.

Leo and Piper were finally married by the ghost of her grandmother Penny in a special ceremony. The sisters' father Victor, Phoebe's half-demon boyfriend Cole Turner and Detective Darryl Morris attended the wedding, and the Elders sent Patty back to Earth for the day to attend the wedding as a gift. Their marriage has produced three children; Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, Chris Perry Halliwell, and Melinda Halliwell.

Professional life
Piper originally worked as an accountant for a small bank in San Francisco before quitting her job to pursue her dream of being a professional chef. A few months later, Piper landed a job as a new chef under the tutelage of Chef Moore at a high quality restaurant Quake. Only a week or two pass before Piper’s boss leaves Quake and she is promptly promoted to restaurant manager, a job that has her constantly working double shifts and unhappy.

After quitting Quake, Piper opens P3, a nightclub named as a tribute to the Power of Three and Prue, Piper, and Phoebe. P3 is made popular by the appearance of Dishwalla, a hit group whose manager is in league with Masselin, a demon who feeds off of souls he keeps trapped inside of him. The Charmed Ones defeat Masselin and the manager is arrested on kidnapping charges, but P-3 is established as a successful club. P3 closes briefly after Prue's death, though it reopens when Piper moves on and accepts Paige as her sister. P3 is open for at least 7 years, though in the series finale we learn that Piper finally becomes a chef in her own restaurant, as she'd always dreamed.

Charmed life
Piper is the second eldest of the Charmed Ones and inherently one of the most powerful. 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 embracing 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 on 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” as she 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 never for long.

After more failed romances 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 loss of Prue hits Piper hard, 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 Matthew Halliwell 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 were 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' 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 reconcilliation 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 ended 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, iss 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. Wyatt 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, though this plan is doomed to fail-- a plan Chris interrupts and is killed for. 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 was 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 Jenkinds 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 summonds 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, 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.

Deaths count
During the run of the series and her life as a Charmed One, Piper died 9 times.