S6-14 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HALLIWELL

[Scott]

Enter Magic School. Wyatt orbs from day care back to the manor and places himself at the foot of the staircase where a mysterious door has now appeared on the first landing. The door opens, a head falls through as the body of Sigmund is slashed at the top of the torso by the headless horseman. Welcome to Magic School.

Enter Gideon. After Sigmund assures the Charmed Ones that he will be okay as long as his body remains in Magic School, the Charmed Ones, accompanied by Leo, pass through the door and are introduced to Gideon, an Elder and one-time mentor to Leo.

At Magic School, Paige and Phoebe find enlightenment, while Piper is merely the first to get her head lopped off. Paige replaces Sigmund as teacher of the high school aged group of magical students, while Phoebe goes off on a Vision quest where she learns of another nephew, her own daughter and a world free of demons.

This important episode not only introduces us to Magic School, a creative device that may cause more problems than it remedies, but also points us in the direction that Paige, free of her temp a week gig, will take and introduces us - sketchily at best - to the coming Avatar story arc.

[kat29]

I like this episode. Magic School was a great setting for stories, it was a shame they abandoned it for Season 8.

[vandergraafk]

True, but once Zankou had pierced Magic School and had broken the protection spell cloaking it, All Hell did Break Loose, as demons were free to abuse Magic School as they saw fit. During Season 9, the Charmed Ones would have restored Magic School to its previous status under the aegis of Leo. Unfortunately, fixing the access problems of Magic School does not eliminate the challenges that the concept of Magic School itself poses, especially when young witches can be taught powers that perhaps they themselves do not technically possess. In Forever Charmed, Leo is evaluating the efforts of young Matthew to teleport by orbing a book from across the room to his seat. Was Matthew a whitelighter/witch like Paige? Or, was he merely a witch learning a cool, new power? If so, then how are the Charmed Ones the most powerful witches of all time?

[kat29]

I think Piper and Leo getting married and having children opened the door for other whitelighters to start families, maybe Matthew is a child of a Whitelighter.

[vandergraafk]

That could be, but it seems a bit of a stretch. Suppose he wasn't though. It's true that this poses some problems, problems that have already surfaced when Ms. Donovan, the librarian, was able to teach herself astral projection. It was made worse when the Charmed Ones learned to master astral projection very, very quickly in order to vanquish Zankou. (Yes, I know that Phoebe had used it in Sympathy for the Demon.) But, I do think you can still preserve the unique status of the Charmed Ones while allowing for powers to be learned. The argument would have be something like: no matter how many powers can be learned, the Charmed Ones by their very nature possess not only greater overall capabilities, but because of the Power of Three, the sum is greater than the parts. Not even the Jenkins' sisters could match them.