S1-9 THE WITCH IS BACK

[vandergraafk]

The witch is back. So, too, is the warlock. Yes, in the first of many diabolical plots to come, Rex and Hannah secure a locket that holds the essence of a warlock who attempted to copy the powers of many a witch in the 17th century. Before she was burned at the stake, Melinda Warren condemned Matthew Tate, warlock extraordinaire, to the cursed locket. Using their auction house connections, Rex and Hannah bring the locket to Bucklands and hope that Prue will be the Charmed descendant who can open the locket and free Matthew.

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Xenith added this comment in the Charmed Cafe in response to a statement by Elder. First, let's consider Elder's comment, then Xenith's reply:

That whole Melinda storyline bothers me.
For starters, Matthew got all the powers back in 1692 but apparently lost them when Melinda did her jailhouse spell (is that an Elvis tune I hear?)
Anyway, we never do see the powers returning to Melinda as we do other times with Cryto and a few others througout the series.

Anyway, we never do see the powers returning to Melinda as we do other times with Cryto and a few others througout the series.


Xenith replied:

We didn't see them be returned because Matthew's power was not to steal powers, but to copy them. Which means Melinda still had her powers, so there was nothing to return. His copied powers would just have gone into the void when she read her spell.

[vandergraafk]

I shared Xenith's assessment and added the following:

Xenith is quite correct in stating that Matthew Tate's power was to copy witch powers. He had already copied the power to blink, unbeknownst to Melinda, and he had copied Melinda's powers too. Thus, when she condemned him to the locket, there were no powers to be returned since Melinda had never lost them in the first place.

Though it is true that Melinda possessed all three Charmed powers, the assumption is usually made that these were rather primitive and limited in scope. The prophecy itself suggests that these powers would grow through each successive generation of Warren witches. Perhaps contrary to Phoebe's assertion, when Melinda Warren is conjured to the 20th century, she never does use her powers, even though Phoebe assures Prue and Piper that, according to the Book of Shadows, she will. Thus, we never get a glimpse of what her powers might have been like.

Of course, my purpose in revisiting the Witch is Back was not simply to enjoy a fine episode, despite Prue's telekinetic projection of a chair at Matthew Tate in the kitchen. Rather, it was to determine whether 20th century Melinda was the source of confusion regarding Piper's power. She was not. 20th century Melinda never describes her power as the ability to freeze time. We are left with Phoebe as the sole source of the misconception. In Something Wiccan, it is her exposition regarding the Book of Shadows that lets us know that Piper has the ability to freeze time, a power she of course does not have.

[vandergraafk]

Xenith offered this clarifying comment:

We are left with Phoebe as the sole source of the misconception. In Something Wiccan, it is her exposition regarding the Book of Shadows that lets us know that Piper has the ability to freeze time, a power she of course does not have.


Actually that's not entirely true, as I think you missed a line from the Witch is Back.


Quote:Matthew: I want what Melinda took from me. I want all three powers back. (He grabs her.) Defend yourself. Stop time.


So Matthew Tate apparently also had the misconception of what the power was. Matthew Tate who was very close to Melinda Warren, also thought that the power was to stop time. So that makes it seem like it's quite possible that Melinda Warren also didn't quite grasp exactly what her own power to "freeze" was.

Before I had a chance to reply, Elder offered this bit. Xenith then continued his explanation.He then added this as well:

Stupid question about the Melinda/Matthew situation:

I don't recall how Matt gets the powers, but let's say he just needs to grab a witch.
Did he need to grab Melinda three times or just once? And how did he know he was geting another power apart from one he already had?

Based on his line of "I want what Melinda took from me. I want all three powers back. Defend yourself. Stop time." this must mean he needs to grab Melinda once for every power.


And besides, I thought blinking was a warlock power. Melinda states that Matt got the blinking power from another witch. He should have that just by being a warlock, right? He doesn't have to play grab-a-witch to get it.


Xenith wrote, "I'll quote the show:"

Quote:Melinda: Matthew’s gift is to copy the power of a good witch when it’s used against him.



So to get Melinda warrens 3 powers, he would have needed her to TK him, freeze him, and touch him and get a premonition.

As for blinking we can only guess that as of Melinda Warren's time it was a power held mostly by good witches. Over the years most good witches who had the power must have been killed off, some of them having their power stolen in the process. It must be a power that can then be passed on genetically easily so the warlocks that stole it reproduced and passed it on to future generations of warlocks... Or else somewhere along the line someone figured out how to add the power of blinking into part of the ritual transformation process from a bad witch into a warlock...

I gave this extended comment in reply:

Let's start with the last question first. Xenith, your conjecture seems quite possible. Matthew copied this power off of a contemporary of Melinda's. She unfortunately was unaware that he had copied this power, too. Given that Matthew retained this power upon coming out of the locket, it is necessary to assume that not all of his powers were sent to the void or negated by the curse. Apparently, Melinda's spell was limited to only her powers.

As for grabbing, I don't know how this phrase got into the mix. Matthew does not require Prue to grab her in order to copy her powers. As I understand what unfolded in The Witch Is Back, Matthew copies the power as soon as Prue used it to slam him into the door. Now, Phoebe is a different matter. Direct contact with an object or person is required for her to obtain a premonition. When she is grabbed by Matthew, she has a premonition that Matthew copies. Clearly, he needs to "grab" the person with the power of premonition. As a result, he would have only had to clutch Melinda once. I suspect that he copied this power first, for Melinda would have been especially wary of him after he had copied her first power.
As for good witches having the power to blink, there are two ways to examine this. Either Melinda was wrong in assuming this power had been copied from a good witch and that blinking truly is a warlock power. Or, you are correct in surmising that this power was lost to good witches through persecution and ultimately came to reside with warlocks and become a power unique to evil. This would explain why blinking, when the sisters acquire this in Bride and Gloom, is evidence of their having turned evil.

Suppose the former is true and Melinda is simply wrong about blinking. Suppose it had never been a good witch's power. Then, when Melinda condemns Matthew to the locket, only the powers that he are copied are stripped from him. Inside the locket, he retains his warlock powers. The curse, however, prevents him from using any of these powers to extricate himself from the locket. (Is this a precursor to the Painted World?)

Xenith is quite correct in his assessment of The Witch is Back. Matthew demands that Melinda use her power to freeze time. We can infer that Melinda also believed the same. Since she may have written the prophecy in the Book of Shadows, we can infer that perhaps she, as the author of this bit of the Book of Shadows, is the source. As such, this represents a fuller explanation than I attempted. Phoebe gives us the Book of Shadows version that Melinda surely must have penned. Matthew confirms this in The Witch is Back.

[avallach]

As I said in the Introductions thread, this was the first Charmed episode that I seen. It seems to be loosely based on the 1988 horror movie "Warlock" (of which there had been a few sequels). In the movie, an evil warlock escapes being burned in 1691 Salem and cast a spell to transport to 1988 Los Angeles to find a grimore (evil magical book of spells), to find a spell to destroy creation. In his wake, he leave a bloody and gruesome trail (typical of horror movies in the '80s).

[vandergraafk]

I probably remember this, but thanks for the reminder. Charmed paid homage to a lot of these classic horror flicks, I imagine.