by Kate O'Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - With Rose McGowan in place to join the cast of The WB's "Charmed," following the departure of Shannen Doherty, the main challenge facing executive producer Brad Kern and his staff is explaining it all in a way that makes sense.
Doherty's character Prue Halliwell, the eldest of a trio of sister witches living in San Francisco, apparently did not survive the series' cataclysmic third-season finale. And when your series' premise rests on there being three "Charmed Ones," that's a gap that must be filled.
Enter Paige Halliwell -- the long-lost younger half-sister of surviving siblings Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano). Kern plans either a two-part season premiere or a two-hour single episode, to air in late September, to explain the new character, the secret daughter of the sisters' mother and her illicit lover, a "White Lighter" (magical protectors that look after good witches).
Piper herself fell for her White Lighter, Leo (Brian Krause), but her mother's affair was expressly forbidden, and the child that came of it had to be hidden away.
"From Paige's point of view," says Kern, "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."
"It won't be a coincidence that she was named with a name that starts with a 'P,' like her sisters."
According to Kern, Paige's newly emerged power resembles Prue's ability to move objects with her mind, but because her father was a White Lighter, she will have other abilities as well.
"When we meet her," says Kern, "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."
"We hope to tap into that. It's also organic to the character. She brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to a grieving family. That's going to help us be able to honestly deal with the death of Prue, as well as being able to keep the fun of the show. Here comes Paige, who suddenly has all these powers and thinks it's pretty cool."