Penelope Halliwell
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 Jennifer Rhodes as Penny "Grams" Halliwell |
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Penelope Halliwell (nee. Johnson[2] - also known as Grams and Penny) is a fictional character from the WB television series Charmed. She was the grandmother of the "Charmed Ones" (Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige), and great-grandmother of Wyatt and Chris Halliwell on the series. She is played by actress Jennifer Rhodes.
[edit] History
She was born June 23, 1931[2] in Boston, Massachusetts.[3] Her parents were Gordon Johnson and P. Baxter (the past lives of Dan Gordon and Piper Halliwell).[2] Her maiden name is either Johnson or Baxter. She was a witch and a descendant of Melinda Warren. She was born with the power of telekinesis (which she passed on to her granddaughters Prue and Paige, and great-grandsons Wyatt and Chris).
She first married Allen Halliwell, and took that last name. She gave birth to Patty, the future mother of the Charmed Ones.[1]
Penny was once a peace lover until Allen was killed by her former best friend, Robyn, and Robyn's warlock boyfriend, Nigel. As a result, she became a fierce demon/Warlock slayer.[1] She learned to focus her telekinetic power, and created spells and potions on her very own. She was known to be a very skilled and powerful witch, like her ancestor, Melinda Warren. Later in life she started her own coven with non-magical witches and her closest friends as members, including the Charmed Ones' Aunt Gail (who died in the second season after trying to steal the girls' powers).[4]
Penny was part of a college sorority in San Francisco with Aunt Gail during the 1950s. A picture of Penny and Gail were taken outside of the sorority house.[4]
As Penny became the matriarch of the Halliwell/Warren family, she fell in love with the Necromancer Demon.[5] But she couldn't be with him because, though he truly did love her, he used her to get to the spirits of the Halliwell/Warren line. She later vanquished him in the 1970s and then banished his spirit forever in 2003.[5] Penny's love for the Necromancer parallels her granddaughter Phoebe's love for half-demon and later Source of All Evil Cole Turner. (Piper and Leo's love is parallel to Patty's forbidden love for her Whitelighter, Sam.)
Penny married a total of four times (including the first one with Allen), and was engaged for a total of six times, but none of her relationships worked out. When Patty married Victor Bennett, Penny didn't allow her to take his last name, a tradition that was followed by the Charmed Ones.[3]
Penny witnessed the birth of her first three granddaughters Prue, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell, later earning the nickname 'Grams'. When Patty was forced to give immunity to a warlock named Nicholas, Grams had no choice but to bind the girls' powers, until they were ready for them.[3]
Grams was forced to keep the secret about the birth of Patty's fourth daughter Paige, who was fathered by Patty's Whitelighter, Sam Wilder, from everyone, even Paige's half-sisters.[6] Penny helped Patty and Sam decide that it was best to give the baby up for adoption as relationships between witches and Whitelighters were forbidden by Elders, who oversaw all good magic.[6] After Patty's death,[7] Grams became surrogate mother to Patty's first three children, and would continually argue with Victor about how the girls should be raised. Because of those arguments, the girls didn't see their father again for a very long time.
Years later, Grams developed a heart condition. She wanted to keep the girls from receiving their powers permanently, so she created a potion to strip them of their powers.[8] On March 5, 1998 she made the decision to give the sisters the potion, but before she could she had a heart attack and fell down the attic stairs.[8] She became a guardian spirit, keeping watch over her grandchildren.
As High Priestess, Grams performed the marriage ceremony uniting Leo Wyatt and Piper in spirit form.[9] Later, she appeared in both spirit form and corporeal form (with a body). When their first child turned out to be a boy, Grams was initially upset, as she believed the family line should only be female, but eventually she came to accept and love her new great-grandson Wyatt.[5] Ironically, Grams's belief that men couldn't be trusted with power, as it would ultimately corrupt them, turned out to be true in Wyatt's case (in a possible future). His brother Chris had to come back from the future to prevent Wyatt from turning evil and becoming a global tyrant. Graciously, Grams never said, "I told you so".
When Grams learned about Gideon's death at Leo's hands (because Gideon had tried to kill Wyatt), she was unsure if she could trust Leo to be around the girls. She's since learned to trust her family to make the right decisions without her input, but still provides them with assistance when needed.
Grams is also implied to be the force behind making the pages in the book turn when the girls hold their hands over it and ask for "a little help here."
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Witchstock". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 2004-01-11.
- ^ a b c "Pardon My Past". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 2000-02-17.
- ^ a b c "That '70s Episode". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 1999-04-07.
- ^ a b "How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 2000-04-06.
- ^ a b c "Necromancing the Stone". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 2003-05-04.
- ^ a b "Charmed Again (Part 1)". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 2001-10-04.
- ^ "P3 H2O". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 1999-12-08.
- ^ a b "PreWitched". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 2001-03-22.
- ^ "Just Harried". Charmed. The WB Television Network. 2001-02-22.
| Charmed |
|---|
| Main: Season summaries | Episode guide | Multimedia | Terms | Trivia |
| Locations and Artifacts: Bay Area | Halliwell Manor | Magic School | The Nexus | Book of Shadows |
| Good beings: Charmed Ones | Close friends | Ancestors | Family and friends | Whitelighters | Elders |
| Evil beings: Darklighters | Warlocks |
| Neutral: Avatars | The Hollow | Firestarters |
