WHAT EXACTLY IS COLE DURING SEASON 5?

[vandergraafk]

In the Charmed Cafe, I was invited to comment on Cole's character in Season 5. Though I am still working out the analytic framework, here is a partial explanation of what I think Cole was and how this fit in Charmedverse.

"Well, I, for one, am not certain how to classify Cole Season 5. Certainly, he had powers that he had collected from the demonic wasteland. Is that sufficient to classify him as demonic at this point? Maybe yes and maybe no. True, Phoebe is quick to call him evil: repeatedly. A Witch in Time, Sam I Am, The Importance of Being Phoebe are just a couple of the examples. But is he really demonic?

To go out on the limb, I might call Cole at this stage: pre-Avatar. By that I mean, he has amassed such a tremendous amount of power gathered principally from the demonic underworld; yet, Cole generally refuses to employ these towards traditional demonic ends - whatever those might be. He is neither good nor evil. By Season 5, Cole had moved into a state "beyond good and evil".

I don't mean this in the traditional Nietzschean sense. What I am suggesting here is, as Cole notes in Sam I Am, "I can't do good, and I won't do evil". Now, the good he is referring to is in reference to what the Halliwell sisters and the Elders supposedly represent. He will never solely use his powers for the greater good. For him that is a meaningless concept. What matters most is that he craft a world in which he has complete control. The most overt expression of his narcissism is evidenced in the attempt to re-engineer a world where he and Phoebe are together: Centennial Charmed.

The Avatar attempt to re-engineer the world according to their pre-cepts, however, runs completely contrary to the narcissism Cole exudes. Because his attempt is thwarted, Cole never has to subordinate his ego to collective control, though Avatar Alpha hints that this is required. Indeed, it is the complete subordination of the ego, the narcissistic impulse, that distinguishes the Avatars from Cole.

One might note that the Halliwell also appear to be moving into a pre-Avatar stance as well. Their refusal to subordinate their use of power solely for the purpose of the greater good has allowed them to use it for the purpose of crafting a world in which they can achieve a degree of normality. Piper and Phoebe are the two sisters who most exhibit this tendency. Perhaps it's Paige's whitelighter side that prevents her from embracing her own egocentric impulses. However, the evidence from Season 6 suggests that this is not always the case. She creates a boy toy, and creates Mr. Perfect for Piper on a one-day trial basis.

Hence, one might argue that as a consequence of their own (ab)use of magic, the Halliwells had placed themselves in similar position as Cole during Season 5 by making themselves amenable to the Avatar pitch. Of course, they refuse to submit to collective control when they see that this conflicts with their original pre-cepts, first articulated most dramatically in Morality Bites."

[vandergraafk]

Ljones in the Charmed Cafe took this position with respect to Cole, especially as it relates to Season 5. She noted:

"You have to understand. I never bought the "demons are inherently evil" line. Or that Cole had the potential to be good, because of his human heritage. That all seemed too one-dimensional and cliched to me. I had hoped - with Cole's introduction - that the series would eventually evolve beyond that kind of thinking . . . at least for the sisters and Leo. Unfortunately, I ended up being disappointed. And for the writers to have Leo state that Belthazor was some kind of evil entity that took over the innocent Cole really seemed hard to believe. Even as a human, Cole was completely capable of embracing evil, like the Halliwells and Leo."

Earlier, she pointed out:

"Belthazor was not some evil entity that took over the "innocent" Cole Turner. Belthazor and Cole were the same individual. Cole/Belthazor was a human/demon hybrid. Nothing more, nothing less. The stripping of his demonic half in "Black As Cole", only made Cole half the individual he truly was.

Besides, one doesn't have to be half-human, half-demon to have both good and evil within you. You can be a human, a whitelighter, or a human/whitelighter hybrid to have both good and evil within. The Halliwells and Leo all proved that they can be just as monsterous as those they claim to fight. The problem is that the show's writers and Brad seemed scared to fully accept this - except with Prue's character in "Death Takes a Halliwell"."

In response, I noted that:

"Well, I don't have any insider information. If we take Baccara's statement seriously, then Cole will become the most powerful demon of all time in a rather short amount of time. However, I would note that Charmed always dealt in possible futures that may or may not materialize. Cole, himself, at this point does not aspire to be the King of the Underworld.

In Sam I Am, Cole laments to Phoebe that he cannot ever seem to please her. He notes, "I can't do good, I won't do evil" and suggests that not only does she not have the foggiest idea what is on his mind, but her definition of "good" leaves little room for him. Prior to this Cole has done several "good" deeds - helping Phoebe in A Witch's Tale, saving a burning woman in Siren Song, rescuing Phoebe (again) in Happily Ever After and (again) in Witches in Tights - but none of these seemed to persuade Phoebe or her sisters since sometimes things did not go perfectly as planned (he strangles Phoebe in Siren Song). On balance, though, one must admit that Cole was trying.

Yes, Cole has a tremendous array of powers culled from the demonic wasteland. But, he generally refuses to use these to aid and abet a demonic revival. Indeed, when he does use them - Sam I Am and beyond - they are generally used to provoke an attack by the Charmed Ones in order that they might vanquish him.

One cannot argue that Cole acted in this "morally ambiguous" manner because of his half-human, half-demon nature. In Season 5, he was a magical creature suffused with so many powers that he became an attractive candidate for the Avatar pitch. Maybe the original Avatar story arc with Cole at its centerpiece might have brought us back to "Cole is evil". Then, again, I can certainly envision a scenario where Cole breaks with the Avatars as he too realizes their totalitarian objectives.

For me, this Cole remains the most fascinating and the most frustrating. Fascinating obviously because Cole is working through devilishly difficult issues that do not easily resolve themselves into simple black and whites. He is shade of grey writ large. Frustating it is, though, because the story arc ends too abruptly with the exodus of Julian McMahon. Where Cole ends up, of course, we learn in Seven Year Witch. But that is an ending predicated on the events in Centennial Charmed. Imagine Cole's character without Centennial Charmed."

Colehellangel took a different approach, one that focused on the relationship between Phoebe and Cole, especially when Cole and Belthazor constituted a duality. Colehellangel argued:

"I don't think he has the ability to be good just because he is part human. I believe what made him good was Phoebe's love and his love for her. He even stated in his sweet letter at the end of Womb Raider:

"I was dead before I knew you, I was born the day you loved me. And my love for you will keep me alive forever."

Its the power of love that made him good for as long as he was. Its stated in Hell Hath No Fury that Cole had many victims being an over a century old demon. He did a lot of killing regardless of his Human half. It seemed that he was quite content with being evil and taking innocent lives which was mostly likely also highly influenced by being raised only by his demon mother.

But when he meets Phoebe it's like be becomes a new person, and now wants to embrace more of his human half, the half of him thats capable of love.

What I am saying is that his love for Phoebe is what fed his human half and kept it alive and dominant. Even after he was possessed by the Source, the one part of his human half it did not consume was his love for her."

That this does not apply to the Cole in Season 5 seems obvious. However, the absence of that love in Season 5 and the ever dimming prospects that Cole could reclaim it might well have driven Cole to despair and eventual suicide by witch.