#and the contrast between phoebe always eharing about her mother growing up and having just missed knowing her

[paigemathews]

I hate that call for so many reasons like. First off, it fucks up the timeline (which is honestly the least of reasons to hate it bc this is Charmed and Writers Cannot Do Math, but still.)

Second of all, we got quite a few episodes with a focus on Penny (the fairytale one, Wyatt's wiccaning), but we never got one with a focus on Patty. (The closest I can think of is Cheaper by the Coven, but she was sharing that with Victor and Penny so I'm not counting it.) We get to see Penny's personality, bits of her backstory, her approach to witchcraft and life, her dynamics with other characters, etc. But Patty? Nothing. Nada!

Third of all, Patty has a significantly less impactful presence on the show. She's in 11 episodes over the show's run, but three of them are literally just cameos (Thank You For Not Morphing, Fear and Eternity, and A Witch's Tail), four of them are flashbacks/in one scene (P3 H2O, Pre-Witched, and Charmed Again Part 1 and 2), and the last four still aren't very focused on her (That 70s Show, Just Harried, Cheaper by the Coven, and Forever Charmed.) Which sucks because

Fourth of all, Patty barely has a personality. (That sounds mean, but like...) We get scraps, but since she's always next to Penny, we really only see her in relation to her mom (dutiful daughter that tends to mediate between her mother and her husband). Which really sucks, considering how much interesting lore could be explored through Patty! Did she have any connections with other people in the magical community? How did she approach her own witchcraft? What drew her to Victor or to Sam? What was her stance on romance, magic, family, demons, etc.? How did she utilize her powers? What did she want for her future? Like genuinely there was so much to explore with Patty.

Fifth, Witchstock would've been a great episode to focus on Patty, if not maybe a few years later. The episode takes place when she's seventeen, but push it back a year or two maybe? (Also super casual reminder that Patty died at 28 and had Prue when she was 20, so that would also be interesting to explore why she married and had her so young.) It would have been a great chance to see her relationship with Victor, her approach towards family and motherhood, her stance on fighting demons and using magic, etc. Like it gives a different backstory for Penny, but it could've been used to flash Patty out in so much detail, man.

I know that they couldn't get Finola Hughes at the time, but like... She was around forty when portraying Patty anyways, and they did cast a younger actress to play Penny in the past. (I think that an age-accurate Patty might've been a little heartbreaking tbh bc she really was so young when she died, so seeing the girls realize that their mother died when at their age after doing this her entire life could've been interesting.) And I mean, they could still have Penny in the episode, exclaiming stuff to Chris and Leo, maybe also getting some more information about how Patty and Penny's relationship was like in the day-to-day. Idk, I just think that they definitely could've made it work anyways.