Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings!    For this week’s Femme Fatale Friday, I have decided to write about my favorite Charmed character again.   But in particular, I want to focus on her potential for evil as shown in the lore of the show!    I find this to be a very fun Spooky Season topic to examine for Femme Fatale Friday.

Now, I already did a long deep dive into Phoebe Halliwell as a character for a Femme Fatale Friday a few months ago, but this one will be an analysis of her relationship with good and evil.   All the way back in the first season, in the episode “Is There a Woogy in the House?” we as an audience learned that Phoebe was the only Halliwell sister born in the Halliwell Manor.   This is a key point because the Manor was built on top of a Spiritual Nexus.    The Nexus can be swayed to be either good or evil depending on who has control over it.   This is why so many demons had attempted to gain control over the house at different points in the series!    This relates to Phoebe in that by being born in the Manor, on top of the Nexus, she also has the ability to be swayed to the greatest of good or the greatest of evil.

I think that the very point of her having the potential for the greatest acts of both good and evil is an inherently intriguing plot point.   Plus, it makes her both the most relatable Halliwell, in that she is far from always perfect or always good, and also the most powerful.   I say that because true power often lies in not being incapable of doing great harm, but in realizing and admitting to yourself that you can and even want to do evil things, but choose not to do them in favor of doing good!

Later on in the season two episode “Pardon my Past” we learn that Phoebe had actually been evil in her past life.   This is also the first we learn of Phoebe’s soul and her propensity for falling in love with demons, which will be a recurring theme throughout the rest of the series!   In season three, she met the first great love of her life in Cole Turner, whom she originally thought was just a district attorney, but is later revealed to be the demon Belthazor.   However, his love for Phoebe ends up preventing him from fulfilling his bargain with the Triad to kill the Charmed Ones to regain his human father’s soul, as he instead killed (or as we learn later tried to kill) the Triad instead.    Phoebe does not vanquish Cole, even though she told her sisters that she had, showing her compassion for this half-demon man she had fallen in love with!   While Cole is running from the Source, he ends up being able to win Phoebe back, which is part of their epic love story arc.   In the season three episode “Bride and Gloom” we get to see Phoebe turn evil again, but this time Piper joins her since Prue was kidnapped and turned evil, and they all became evil.   Of course, this was easily solved, but it is a super fun episode I had to mention.

So, season four is the obvious point where most people think of Phoebe in her ability to be swayed to evil.   During the fourth season, Phoebe makes a potion that is able to strip Cole’s powers and turn him human, which is used in dramatic fashion by a woman desperate to kill Belthazor because he had killed her fiance.   Phoebe stated that the demon was dead and Cole was an innocent man, once again showing her compassion.   Cole is later there when they vanquish the Source of All Evil, and unbeknownst to anyone Cole got the powers of the Source.    It was around this time that Cole and Phoebe had officially become engaged and they began planning their wedding.    The Source within Cole made sure that he married Phoebe in a dark way because at that point the Source knew that he needed Cole’s body (the power was possessing Cole’s body, and it is made clear that Cole is not in control of the Source but the other way around) and Cole needed Phoebe.   Not long after the wedding, the Seer whipped up a potion that allowed Phoebe to conceive the Heir to the Source of All Evil.   This meant that when she found out the truth of Cole being the Source, she chose her husband and unborn son over her sisters.   That is how she was crowned Queen of the Source of All Evil!   This famously only lasts for an episode, as she cannot stop herself from helping an innocent and reaching out to her sisters when she has a premonition.   Cole, as the Source of All Evil is swiftly vanquished in one of Phoebe’s most heartrending decisions.   The next episode sees her lose her baby as well but she also realizes that the baby was never hers and Cole’s, but instead was always that of the Source and the Seer, who died when she tried to place the demonic babe inside her own womb!   That level of trauma is why Phoebe nearly decided to give up her magic and not help Cole get out of the Demonic Wasteland in the season four finale “Witch Way Now?”     

That is also what led to Phoebe being a workaholic shell of her former self at the beginning of season five, as she desperately wanted to get her divorce from Cole and move on with her life.   It is also revealed in the season five episode “Sympathy for the Demon” that Phoebe’s biggest fear is no longer losing a sister, but instead, her biggest fear is being evil!    That is something that Phoebe must contend with over the next years, even after Cole was vanquished in the alternate timeline the Avatars made in “Centennial Charmed” Phoebe’s fear of becoming evil again did not abate.    Over time, she learned to see past her own mistakes and the flaws of times gone by.   In the season six episode “Used Karma” we are shown what chaos Phoebe’s lying to her boyfriend Jason brings into her life.   Later in the season six episode “Crimes & Witch Demeanors” she lost her active powers due to her abuse of them over the last two years, which is one of the best things that could have happened, as it helped her reassess her priorities.

Over the last two seasons, Phoebe gets back on track, learning to have work and life balance.    Thanks to Cole’s interference in the season seven episode “The Seven Year Witch” he made sure from the Netherrealm where he was trapped that Phoebe did not give up on love and helped Piper and Leo reunite.   It is in that episode that we learn that Cole was the one who sent the former demon Drake to Phoebe, hoping he could inspire her to take a chance on love again!    This once again shows that Phoebe has a soft spot for demons and truly has endless compassion!   In season eight it is even Phoebe who is the last to give up and Billie and the first to forgive what had happened.   

At the end of the day, Phoebe’s potential for great good or great evil leaves her as the most loving and compassionate of all the Charmed Ones.   Her understanding of herself and others is part of what led her to study psychology and why she loved being an advice columnist.   She truly began to understand over time that because she had such potential for both good and evil she needed to be careful in what choices she made.    All of this is why I adore her more than any other Charmed One in this series!    I hope you have enjoyed this Spooky Season Femme Fatale Friday analysis of Phoebe Halliwell and her potential for evil.   Who was your favorite Charmed One?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Phoebe and Cole at the Dark Coronation when he became the Source of All Evil.   I found the image on https://destinedthenextgenerationofthewarrenline.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Coronation.

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Watching

• Charmed (1998)