The Big Picture

• Prue's death brought real stakes to Charmed, and her tragic story always fit her character the best.
• Losing Prue highlighted the dangers of being a witch, especially after Patty's death.
• Death was Prue's inevitable end, teaching her to accept it, leaving a tragic but fitting end.

Charmed, which aired from 1998 to 2006, saw three sisters band together to stop evil threats — demons, the Source of All Evil, and the like — as the most powerful good witches the world had ever seen: The Charmed Ones. These sisters were, originally, Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs), and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), three women who had spent their lives in San Francisco and were now tasked with stopping the city from being destroyed on a weekly basis. But, shortly after the third season finished, Doherty exited the show and Prue was subsequently killed off after Prue and Piper were left for dead by the Source’s assassin, Shax (Michael Bailey Smith), in the Season 3 finale.

Due to the behind-the-scenes issues presumably responsible for Doherty’s exit (of which there are many rumors that have been circulating for over two decades), many have speculated what the show would have been like if Prue had survived and one of the other sisters died — namely Phoebe — and left space for Paige (Rose McGowan) to join the family in their stead. However, whether or not it was planned beforehand, Prue’s death always made perfect sense and tragically brought real stakes to the Halliwells’ lives as witches in a way that the deaths of their mother Patty (Finola Hughes) and grandmother Penny (Jennifer Rhodes) never could.

Prue Had a Life That Followed Her Mother's in 'Charmed'

Throughout her entire life, Prue subconsciously tried to separate herself from her mother as much as possible. The thought of ending up like her mom terrified her, and she felt it an inevitability. Turns out, Prue was right, which made her end even more tragic than it would’ve already been. Fate puts Prue in similar shoes to her mother, as Prue even points out these similarities in the episode “P3 H20” from Season 2 as they face the demon that killed Patty — no successful relationship, responsible for a family, and the very real possibility of dying young because of being a Charmed One. As the oldest sister, and unarguably the most powerful of the three, Prue often takes the lead and stands up to protect Piper and Phoebe from whatever evil they’re facing. She’s the one consistently in front with her sisters on each side of her, ready to take the brunt of an enemy’s attack. This is even true when facing the demon that killed their mother, as Prue’s telekinetic powers are the key and she’s the one faced with going out on the dock in the lake to slay the monster.

Even with Prue aware of the similarities between her mother and herself, nothing really changed. She couldn’t find a successful relationship with a man, just brief flings like with Jack (Lochlyn Munro), and nothing would have taken Prue away from being the head of the family. The weight of that was never going away, regardless of the fact that Piper’s club began to give them the money to pay their bills.

After Prue’s death, Piper and Phoebe understand the severity and cost of being a witch far more than before. Piper’s biggest concern, up until Prue’s death, had been that her witchly duties would make having a normal life impossible. Phoebe, on the other hand, absolutely adored being a witch and thought it was fun — like we see from Paige and Billie (Kaley Cuoco) later in the series before they experience the cost and loss that comes with their powers. Losing their mother to a demon did emphasize how dangerous it could be, but it happened when the girls were so young that Prue was really the only one to understand how extreme the stakes were from the very beginning. Losing Patty hardened Prue and made her the family’s protector, which their grandmother always impressed upon them growing up. Ultimately, so much of Prue’s story added up to her tragically dying young.

Prue's Death Ultimately Made 'Charmed' Better

Most notably is the episode “Death Takes A Halliwell” from the third season, where Prue encounters the Angel of Death and attempts to fight him off as he tries to claim two innocents’ souls. The lesson of this episode, for Prue, is that death isn’t the enemy, and she cannot stop death from occurring no matter how hard she fights. It’s something she’s been fighting since losing her mother, and something she’s remained terrified of, with that fear only highlighted by the deaths of her longtime lover Andy (T.W. King) and their grandmother. But, since the episode aired shortly before Prue died, it also serves as a warning for Prue to not fight death in general. Death teases that it’s not Prue’s time yet, and if Prue did not have this untimely encounter, she may have fought death (while dead) and not found peace with her loved ones in the afterlife, as viewers had seen others do throughout the show.

There is no doubt that Prue would have rather died herself instead of one of her sisters, and it wouldn’t really have worked if one of her sisters had died. Prue wouldn’t have been able to continue on if she lost Piper and/or Phoebe. She was practically their mother for all intents and purposes, and spent so much of her life looking out for them and making sure they were always taken care of. That was, essentially, her purpose in the world, and she felt the pressure of that until her dying day. And, after losing one of her sisters, it seems improbable that Prue would have been able to open up to and let Paige into her world. The guilt would have eaten Prue alive, and she likely wouldn’t have been able to perform her Wiccan duties and keep the world safe. Prue had already felt the weight of loss so fully throughout her life, far more than her sisters due to being the eldest, and it would have pushed her over the edge. Even after Andy died, Prue considered giving it all up because of that loss in the Season 2 premiere when Abraxas threatened to take away their powers altogether.

In the end, Prue’s story ended exactly how the writers had always made it seem it would: Her death. While it’s sad (and this is coming from someone whose favorite character on Charmed is and always has been Prue), it’s also tragically beautiful. Viewers could imply that Prue reunited with her mother and long-lost love in the afterlife, content to watch her sisters live long, happy lives because of her sacrifice. Prue’s death gave Piper the strength to step up and an example of how to lead the family, and the other two sisters were always much more likely to accept Paige than Prue. Planned or not, the Charmed writers told an unexpected, devastating, and fantastic story with Prue. While it would’ve been great to see her get a happily ever after while alive, the ending fit the character incredibly well.

All eight seasons of Charmed are streaming on Prime Video.

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