Paige Matthews (née Halliwell) is a fictional character from the American television series Charmed, played by Rose McGowan from October 4, 2001, until May 21, 2006. The character was created by executive producer Brad Kern as a replacement for lead character Prue Halliwell, following the departure of actress Shannen Doherty. Paige is introduced into season four as the fiercely independent younger half-sister of the female leads, Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano). Like her sisters, Paige is a witch and more specifically, a Charmed One—one of the most powerful witches of all time. Paige is introduced as the secret love child of the Halliwell sisters' mother Patty (Finola Hughes) and her whitelighter (guardian angel) Sam Wilder (Scott Jaeck), making Paige both a witch and whitelighter. She was given up at birth and raised by her adoptive parents, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.
At the beginning of season four, Paige goes on to help reconstitute The Charmed Ones by taking Prue's place in the "Power of Three", following her death in the season three finale. Like Prue, Paige possesses telekinetic abilities, but due to her mixed whitelighter heritage, this manifests as the ability to orb ("teleport") objects from one location to another through a vocal command. As the series progresses, Paige also receives whitelighter abilities such as the power to orb herself and others, as well as sensing, glamouring and healing also the power of photokinesis. Paige's storylines have often revolved around her protecting innocents and defeating the forces of evil in San Francisco with her sisters. In the later seasons, she eventually receives her own whitelighter charges to train and protect as they learn witchcraft. Paige also has romantic relationships with fellow-witch Richard Montana (Balthazar Getty) in season six and FBI agent Kyle Brody (Kerr Smith) in season seven. In the eighth and final season, Paige marries a human parole officer named Henry Mitchell (Ivan Sergei).
The character was mostly well received by television critics, who complimented Paige's personality and felt that McGowan was the right choice for the role. McGowan won the Family Television Award for Favorite Sister in 2005 for her portrayal of Paige. In 2007, AOL TV ranked Paige at number 13 on their list of the Top TV Witches, the lowest of the four sisters. In addition to the television series, the character has also appeared in numerous expanded universe material, such as the Charmed novels and its comic book adaptation.
Casting and development The character of Paige Matthews was conceived by executive producer Brad Kern as a replacement character for Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty). In May 2001, it was officially announced that Doherty would be departing Charmed. The producers originally considered recasting the role of Prue with a different actress. Executive producer Aaron Spelling even approached actresses Tiffani Thiessen, who replaced Doherty on his previous series Beverly Hills, 90210 and Jennifer Love Hewitt to take on the role as Doherty's replacement. Spelling revealed to Entertainment Weekly, "Tiffani was our first choice to take over for Shannen - even before we asked Jennifer [Love Hewitt], but Tiffani told us she wants to do a half-hour comedy." Hewitt also declined the role. Producers then decided to kill off the character of Prue and replace her with a long-lost younger sister in favor of having "a fresh face" join the series. Spelling stated, "[The character's] going to be the long-lost sister Alyssa and Holly never knew [they] had. And wait until you see what we came up with to explain why she's been lost: Nobody ever knew she even existed."
Film actress Rose McGowan was later revealed to be cast in the role of Paige Matthews, her first role as a series regular on a television series. Kern stated, "From Paige's point of view, you go to bed one night and you think you're a single child and no one understands you. Then you wake up the next morning and you find out you've got sisters who are witches, who've got supernatural powers, who have a destiny that you must now share and embrace and you must learn your new powers." He later elaborated saying, "When we meet her, she will have been searching for many years, both for her birth parents, but also for an answer to that feeling that she's had inside of her that there's something special, there's something else that nobody has yet been able to understand and explain." On casting McGowan in the role of Paige, Kern admitted, "Our personal hope was to find somebody that would be of Shannen's calibre, that would have the sexiness, the edge and the range. That, for the age range we were looking for, is hard to find. We said, 'We don't want somebody conventional. We don't want a shrinking violet. We don't want just another pretty face that smiles and has great teeth. We want somebody who has an attitude.' I think Rose definitely has an attitude and that's an energy that we can take advantage of for the betterment of the show."
Appearances Television
Paige appears as the secret half-sister in the final five seasons of Charmed, portrayed by Rose McGowan within 112 episodes from 2001 to 2006. In the episode "Charmed Again", it is revealed that after Paige's adoptive parents (played by Lisa Darr and M. Scott Wilkinson) died, she went searching for her birth parents and suspected that she might be related to the Halliwell sisters. With Patty Halliwell (Finola Hughes) long since deceased, Paige relented on pursuing the matter further. After the Source of All Evil learns of Paige's existence, he orders her killed. Paige is eventually saved by Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) and her boyfriend Cole Turner (Julian McMahon) and then subsequently introduced to Piper Halliwell (Holly Marie Combs) and her husband Leo Wyatt (Brian Krause). Paige then goes on to help reconstitute The Charmed Ones by taking Prue Halliwell's (Shannen Doherty) place in "The Power of Three". This is made possible after it is revealed that she is the daughter of Patty and the Whitelighter Sam Wilder (Scott Jaeck), making her a "sister-witch" to Phoebe and Piper. The episode reveals that Paige was given up at birth to protect her from the wrath of The Elders if they were to discover her Whitelighter heritage.
Like her sister Prue, Paige was born with "the ability to move things with her mind". Since she possessed the missing power, she was able to take her place in the Power of Three, thus reforming the Charmed Ones. Due to her Whitelighter heritage, however, her magical method of movement causes "objects to orb from a location to another". Paige has also shown the ability to impart momentum on these orbing objects. Throughout season four, Paige shows that she has inherited a variety of Whitelighter powers such as orbing, and sensing. While Paige finds it easier to develop a friendship with Phoebe, she initially butts heads with Piper, but eventually the two sisters develop a mutual respect.
Later in the season, Paige reveals her identity as a witch to her childhood friend and "sometimes" boyfriend, Glen Belland (Jesse Woodrow). Once she develops more control over her witchcraft Paige is able to help her sisters' avenge Prue's death and vanquish the Source twice – both in his original incarnation and that of his next incarnation, Cole Turner. During the finale of season four, Paige and her sisters are visited by the Angel of Destiny (Dakin Matthews), who offers them the chance to live normal lives without magical powers or the threat of demons. Over the course of the episode, Paige eventually convinces her sisters to decline the offer and remain Charmed to continue doing good in the world.
At the start of season five (2002–2003), Paige is officially promoted to social worker in the episode, "A Witch's Tail (Part 1)", but by the end of the second episode, "A Witch's Tail (Part 2)", Paige quits her job to pursue being a witch full-time. During this season Paige meets Sam Wilder (her birth-father) and slowly comes to terms with letting him into her life. Meanwhile, she struggles with living up to the legend of her deceased half-sister Prue and her title of "Superwitch". When Paige masters a difficult spell created by Prue, she appears to come at peace with her sibling rivalry. Later in the season, Paige, alongside Phoebe, trains to be a midwife in order to deliver Piper's baby. When Piper gives birth to a boy she names Wyatt, she also gives him the middle name Matthew in honor of his aunt Paige.
In the sixth season (2003–2004), Paige grows tired of unemployment and obtains a job at a temp agency. While employed on the various jobs via the agency, Paige finds herself drawn into various magical endeavors concerning members of the magical community. Through one of these magical journeys she meets and later dates a witch named Richard Montana (Balthazar Getty), a relationship which mirrors the love affair Phoebe had with Cole as Richard attempts to avoid the temptations of dark magic. The couple eventually break up, but not before Paige binds Richard's powers so that he doesn't feel the temptation to misuse his powers.
Also in this season, Paige becomes the second person to discover that the sisters' new time-traveling Whitelighter Chris Perry (Drew Fuller) is actually Chris Halliwell and the second child of Piper and Leo. He has come back in time to prevent Wyatt from becoming evil in the future. Together, Chris helps Paige and her sisters discover that a powerful Elder named Gideon (Gildart Jackson) wishes to destroy the Twice-Blessed Wyatt, an act which causes Wyatt to turn his back on good in the future.
During the start of the seventh season (2004–2005), Paige fights to keep Magic School from closing after the death of its headmaster, Gideon. The Elders then place Paige in charge of Magic School as the new headmistress once they realize how deep her dedication runs. Also this season, Paige befriends federal agent Kyle Brody (Kerr Smith), and the two eventually grow close over their mutual investigation of The Avatars, powerful beings who are neither good nor evil. After initial hesitation, Paige and her sisters join sides with The Avatars in their plan to turn the world into a utopia against the warnings of both Kyle and The Elders. When The Charmed Ones discover that the new utopia robs the world of their free will, they join sides with Kyle and the demon Zankou (Oded Fehr) and force The Avatars to restore the world to normal. Kyle, however, is killed in the process, but is resurrected as a Whitelighter as a reward from The Elders for helping to defeat The Avatars. He says his goodbyes to Paige, before leaving to start his new life.
In late season seven, in episode seventeen "Scry Hard", Paige grows tired of being cooped up in Magic School and desires a reprieve from her duties as headmistress. At the suggestion of Piper and Phoebe, Paige instates the now human Leo as the new headmaster of Magic School in her place so that she can take a break while Leo can work in a place safe from the harm of demon attacks. The following episode, "Little Box of Horrors", The Elders manage to convince Paige that her continued quest for a life outside her role as a Charmed One stems from her destiny as a future Whitelighter. In the episode "Freaky Phoebe", Paige takes on official Whitelighter duties and gains her first charge in a witch named Mitchell Haines (Seamus Dever) who has the power of superhuman speed. In the season seven finale, during a suicide mission to vanquish Zankou, Paige and her sisters fake their deaths in order to escape the constant threat of demon attacks as well as police and government investigations.