DID CHRIS REALLY DIE?

[Scott]

The character of Chris has fascinated many Charmed fans ever since he first made his appearance at the end of Season 5. Some hated him for being so obnoxious. Some bemoaned the loss of air time for Leo (or so it seemed). Others eventually grew to love the character of Chris, especially after Chris Crossed, the seminal episode that introduced us to a horrific future.

During his brief tenure on Charmed, Chris was involved in many, many activities. He managed to anger just about every one of the Charmed Ones. Several times Leo threatened to have the Elders send him back to the future. Phoebe tried to pick up on him. He's a cad, he's hostile, he's obsessive compulsive, he's even neurotic. Alas, he was stabbed by Gideon. We see him dying at the manor, as Leo becomes enraged enough to seek the vanquish of Gideon. His body disappears. Did he die or just fade away at the end of Season 6?

Well, Chris was stabbed by an athame(?) that Gideon had especially prepared for piercing Wyatt's protection shield. Chris died gradually. The fact that his body disappeared has been taken by some to mean that his timeline had been so altered that any trace of his time travel to the past was eliminated, except among the memories of those who interacted with him.

This explanation fails on several counts. First, Chris did not just return to save Wyatt from turning evil. There was the matter of the Titans. Nothing he did, could have done, would have done or ought to have done could have prevented a demon from liberating the Titans and thus ushering in the events that led to Leo becoming an Elder.

Second, those who advocated alteration by absence overlook the lack of information we have regarding the potion, spell or whatever Gideon endowed the athame with. One could argue, as indeed I do, that the athame was designed to not only penetrate the protection shield, but to vanquish Wyatt as well. That Chris was stabbed with this self-same athame understandably led to his vanquish. Thus, like many a demon vanquished, Chris would have disappeared, too!

Third, we should also consider the consequence of darklighter poison on whitelighters. Though we only have one instance where a whitelighter actually succumbed to darklighter poison (Natalie in Blinded by the Whitelighter), her body would presumably disappear as a consequence of vanquish by poison. After all, whitelighters are already dead. The potion must simply inhibit their ability to corporealize permanently!

[whichwitchiswhich]

Alright I see that. Mmhmm. But, if I may pitch another point of view, instead of looking at it like before Gideon's death and after Gideon's death, the future could have made a change anytime before that (and who knows how far back). It could have changed just because of the fact that they all knew about it, were expecting it (not for it to be Gideon but someone) and were not about to stop at anything, and they became destined to stop it. If Chris had not come back from the future to tell them, it would have taken them by complete surprise or at least their focus would have been somewhere else. But instead, Chris was kind of like a message to them. Also, he does try to find a portal back to his future even in the middle of the season to see if it had changed at all. And even if that was before Chris Crossed (can't remember) in which case we see it hasn't... he obviously thought the future might have already been changed. So who's to say it didn't change before Gideon died?

On the other hand. I can accept the fact that future Chris died - that he faded away because of Gideon's magic and not because the future changed; that makes since what you explained.

But I still don't understand how Chris would have to be resurrected for the spin-off like vandergraafk said. Bottom line is... future Chris got killed, yes... but that did not kill his origin: baby Chris from the main timeline. He is alive. And with a different future too as we find out in the end. None of that will actually happen to him. In reality he doesn't really die; however, he WOULD have had his future NOT changed. Whether that change took place while his future self was visiting or anytime afterwards... I guess we'll never know. But I can't help wonder that if Chris had come back long enough to just warn them, would that have been enough? The Charmed Ones knowing (and trusting Chris, which took a while) or not knowing could very well be the deciding factor couldn't it? And besides, the last we ever see of the bad future is on Chris Crossed which is hardly even half-way through the season.

Did the screen writers even think this through or mean to go into depth? lol is there even a real explanation?

[vandergraafk]

Well, I don't think the entrance or exit of Chris was well thought through. The entrance was muddled. Season 5 does not connect well to Season 6, though the connection can easily be made. Still, baby Chris does mean that Chris is alive. Future Chris needs to be saved, lest he die at age 22 in the past. Either a Charmed spin-off chronicles the adventures of Chris and Wyatt in their adolescent years (until Chris goes back in time). Or, the series saves Chris and allows his future life to be lived out after he returns from the past.

[Rosie]

I'm confused. Chris dissapeared yes. But was that the end of his life? Or did he go back to the future...
If he did die, he was still born. So did it matter that he died while he was in the past?
Grrr I'm trying to get this straight. So future chris never got to go back to a new future. So it kinda sucks that baby chris wont remember all the good he did. For all we know, the baby will grow up to be someone else, because he has a brighter future. But still, it won't be the Chris we all knew and loved.
I don't think it would be good enough if he just came back to warm them, cause who knows if they would of figured out it was Gideon all along without him?
Maybe its better that he didn't get to go back, because even though the world would have been better, he would still have had to live with the memories of how bad it was before. But I still think it sucks, that like I said before, he won't grow up to be the Chris we all knew and loved.

[vandergraafk]

Well, as I have argued elsewhere, the fact that baby Chris was born proves nothing except that future Chris really was borne to Piper and Leo and is half-Elder, half-witch. Now, baby Chris will know nothing of his future-in-the-past unless his aunties or parents tell him. Baby Wyatt won't be much help either since he barely grasped any of what was happening.

Still, this baby will grow up to at least venture back in time to save Paige and probably Phoebe from imminent death, as well as to rescue the Elders from the threat posed by the Titans. Chris can only escape this time loop if Paige can find a way to send him back to a future which Chris has never experienced in order to avert his death at the hands of Gideon. Will destiny allow this? Will the Elders thwart Paige? Will Paige arrive at a spell in order to accomplish this? These are the questions I ultimately hope to answer in my novella "Saving Chris's Life", a preview of which can be sampled in the fan fiction section. Thanks for your query.