Charmed (TV Series) The Fifth Halliwheel (2002) User Reviews

The Sixth Sense of Paige

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 14 July 2007]

The Seer blends a potion in chocolates to Cole give to Phoebe and conceive a son in the full moon night. When Piper and Phoebe save the life of the innocent columnist Karen Young, Phoebe has a premonition and realizes that Karen has been attacked and infected by a ball of light of a demon. When Paige unexpectedly arrives at home, she sees Cole using demoniac power in Karen. She tells to Piper, but she does not believe on Paige. Cole sends a demon to infect Paige to make her lose credibility.

In this episode, the evilness of Cole is increasing, and now his body is totally possessed by The Source. Together with The Seer, they are plotting against the Halliwell sister, and only the intuition of Paige is working, but her sisters do not believe in her words. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Paige e Cole" ("Paige and Cole")

A new era for the show

[maruma-11175 · 8/10 · 17 June 2022]

With the introduction of Elize and the Bay Mirror, this was the beginning of a new era for the show. However, there is something that has always bothered me. Piper ate the Seer's candy too and later, after being told she is sterile, ends up pregnant with the all powerful Wyatt. Yet, the candy angle is something that was never explored as the sisters never knew. In a later episode, Cole is surprised to learn that Piper is pregnant but never mentions the candy. He doesn't get a chance as he is told to leave.

The honeymoon

[Realrockerhalloween · 13 September 2016]

The fifth wheel dealing with the honeymoon of our two favorite couples while Paige feels left out without a man to comfort her. Phoebe helps an innocent, Karen Young, who was chosen by power collectors to host a power ball and take over her work load. This picks up wonderfully from the wedding where Cole has created the perfect cover with gaining a high level job, impressing them with gifts and acting only when it can be covered up like in front of Karen and Paige in a fragile state while under the illusion he's helping them making him a twirling mustache villain. The only thing that keeps him from being bland is the struggle of Cole's former self still thriving inside with The Source creating an alternate personality influenced by a demon presence held back by love and opens the floodgate of what Cole is and isn't responsible for.

Phoebe gaining her new job from the excellent advice and a reference from her innocent was a nice way to introduce the bay mirror becoming a key set for the remainder of the series. It was the only time it felt like a well oiled machine newspaper office instead of a gossip forum to come and go as you please making it detached from the real world.

The power collectors was a fun concept yet it falls apart in the end to me by never explaining why humans are needed to host the balls and they sit around trading instead of acting making them ineffective. Another was the chocolates the seer created to conceive a child with Piper eating one leaving it up in the air on if both sisters are carrying The Source's spawn. It feels weird and not needed since Piper hasn't shown troubles having kids or anything developing from it making it pointless.

From young adult series to family drama...

[m-47826 · 5/10 · 28 March 2021]

I wonder what got into the WB this season. The show completely lost its edge. Making it a family show was such the wrong call. And now it seems clearer why Shannen Doherty complained about future scripts. And why I don't really enjoy this season. Rewatching it made realize how lazy the writing got. It's exactly like season 3, only the new « middle sister » marries a repentant demon, who also tries adjusting to his human condition. Before gaining all his powers back... I'm not a fan of post-season 2 Phoebe, so this storyline wasn't the one that caught my attention the most. No matter how fun writers tried to make it look, it belonged in the « old » Charmed. Not this stupid and childish version of what it once was. Fillers we got lately, were very hard for me to sit through. Especially Lost and Bound, you could really imagine being paired with 7th Heaven. Not even the one where the source was defeated, managed to level it up. And don't get me started on The three Faces of Phoebe... Marry-Go-Round had funny bits, but that's it. Dark Phoebe is not there yet. The Fifth Halliwheel is the only really salvageable episode. But it still suffers from risk free ideas and the laziest writing, when Phoebe gets a job, right after saying she wanted one. Without casting a spell for it... Cole trying to make Paige crazy was cruel, but a nice change from all of the wishy washy stuffs, of previous episodes. The seer, played by Debbi Morgan, is also a very interesting new vilain, but evil Cole is what keeps me entertained so far.