Banshees are former witches transformed into demonic beings with distinctive white hair and a high pitched scream. Their screams can burst glass and blood vessels, killing mortals or turning emotionally distressed witches into new Banshees.
Powers of a witch are capable of vanquishing a Banshee, as seen when Piper Halliwell blew up a Banshee with her new power.[1] When a witch is transformed into a Banshee, the only way to revert her is for her to deal with her emotional pain. However, the transformation will become permanent when she kills a person.
The Book of Shadows has an entry on Banshees, as well as a spell to track them. However, this will turn the caster into a dog, as only they are capable of hearing the cries of a Banshee other than the victim. The Book however lacks information on how to vanquish them, but Banshees are vulnerable to offensive powers, such as Molecular Combustion.
History
A Banshee in San Francisco
In 2001, a Banshee attacked several heart-broken people in San Francisco, such as a grieving husband and a teenage girl. To track the Banshee, the Charmed Ones cast a tracking spell, which turned Prue into a dog to hear her scream. Piper and Phoebe followed her and were able to save the girl. With a loud sonic scream, the Banshee tried to zero in on a grief-stricken Phoebe. Piper tried to attack the demon with her new power but missed, causing the Banshee to run away.
When Phoebe was alone in the attic crying over her loss of Cole, the Banshee sensed her grief and attacked her. Phoebe called for her sister but it was too late. The Banshee's screams turned Phoebe into another Banshee. Piper and Leo rushed into the attic and Piper vanquished the demon by blowing her up.
Once Phoebe turned into a Banshee, she leaped out the attic window, screaming and looking for anyone in grief. She stalked a woman in the streets, though she gave up when the woman's lover arrived. After Piper cast the spell to summon Belthazor, Cole showed up and his aching heart called out to Phoebe. Phoebe attacked Cole and they shimmered to the mausoleum. They fought each other and Cole pinned Phoebe to the ground. When she began screaming, he wrapped his hands around her throat to cut her off. She flung him across the room and Cole shifted back to his human self. He confessed his love for her and she could feel his broken heart. With a final scream, Phoebe then reverted back to herself as she was finally able to face her own pain. The spell that turned Prue into a dog wore off and changed her back to human form.[1]
The Round table
In 2003, when Piper temporarily gained control over Excalibur, a Banshee was brought to her round table of the strongest demons under the impression that they would unite to create an age of darkness. However, the Banshee was vanquished when Mordaunt stole her and the other demons' powers, in an attempt to take Excalibur for himself.[2]
Powers and Abilities
A Banshee killing a man with Sonic Scream
- Active Powers
- Sonic Scream: The ability to generate vocal sounds of a higher amplitude than a normal human.
- Super Strength: The ability to have magically augmented physical strength and stamina.
- Enhanced Agility: The ability that provides the possessor with inhuman agility, reflexes, and speed.
- Levitation: The ability to propel oneself up in the air and hover. The Banshee could leap great distances with it.
- Power Granting: The ability to grant any number of powers to another being. Banshees could turn a witch pre-disposed to emotional pain into a Banshee.
Appendices
Banshee entry in the Book of Shadows
Book of Shadows
A Banshee
- is a Demon who
- wanders the earth
- feeding on souls in
- great pain. Hunting
- only at night, this
- Demon uses her voice
- as a high pitched Call
- to locate a victim, by
- hearing the inner cry.
- She does this by
- zeroing in on the waves
- of pain that emanate
- from the stricken
- A Banshee then
- elevates her Call
- into a Scream, so
- powerful it kills
- those she targets.
To Track a Banshee
- The piercing cry
- That feeds on pain
- And leaves more
- Sorrow than it gains
- Shall now be heard
- By one who seeks
- To stop the havoc
- That it wreaks
Notes and Trivia
- Once a witch becomes a Banshee, she seems to remember nothing of her former life. When Phoebe was transformed, she attacked Piper and Leo without regard for their relationship.
- Despite the existence of male witches, Banshees appear to be all female.
- This is the first demon Piper Halliwell blows up on purpose.
- The Banshee's ability and method of turning a good witch into another Banshee are similar to how Furies also turn witches into one of their own. They both prey on witches with emotional distress, with the difference that Banshees target sorrow while Furies target anger. Both also managed to turn a Charmed One in the episodes that they are introduced.
- Like a lot of the demonic beings on Charmed, the Banshee is an actual mythological being. The Banshee is rooted from Gaelic and Irish Folklore. These cultures believed that a Banshee's, or Bean Sí's, scream would foretell an upcoming death. If the Banshee was caught, it would be obliged to reveal the name of the person who was supposed to die.
- In "Hell Hath No Fury", Phoebe described the Banshee as a demonic screamer, kind of trampy and feeds on pain.
- The back-up version of this page was sold in 2009.
- It is assumed that one of the creatures fighting on the Golden Gate Bridge in "Oh, Henry" is a Banshee because of her look, however, Banshees do not fly and this creature did. It could be possible that her levitation power might have advanced to flight after she received some of the Source's power.
- In the reboot series, banshees are a type of spirit that, having died in pain, spreads pain and misery in death. This depiction is much closer to that of real-world mythology, while that of the original series is more similar to the Dungeons & Dragons version.
Gallery
Behind the Scenes
Appearances
Banshees appeared in a total of 2 episodes over the course of the series.
| Charmed, Season 3 | |||||
| #01 | "The Honeymoon's Over" | #09 | "Coyote Piper" | #17 | "Pre-Witched" |
| #02 | "Magic Hour" | #10 | "We All Scream for Ice Cream" | #18 | "Sin Francisco" |
| #03 | "Once Upon a Time" | #11 | "Blinded by the Whitelighter" | #19 | "The Demon Who Came in from the Cold" |
| #04 | "All Halliwell's Eve" | #12 | "Wrestling with Demons" | #20 | "Exit Strategy" |
| #05 | "Sight Unseen" | #13 | "Bride and Gloom" | #21 | "Look Who's Barking" |
| #06 | "Primrose Empath" | #14 | "The Good, the Bad and the Cursed" | #22 | "All Hell Breaks Loose" |
| #07 | "Power Outage" | #15 | "Just Harried" | ||
| #08 | "Sleuthing with the Enemy" | #16 | "Death Takes a Halliwell" | ||
| Charmed, Season 6 | |||||
| #01 | "Valhalley of the Dolls, Part 1" | #09 | "Little Monsters" | #17 | "Hyde School Reunion" |
| #02 | "Valhalley of the Dolls, Part 2" | #10 | "Chris-Crossed" | #18 | "Spin City" |
| #03 | "Forget Me...Not" | #11 | "Witchstock" | #19 | "Crimes and Witch-Demeanors" |
| #04 | "The Power of Three Blondes" | #12 | "Prince Charmed" | #20 | "A Wrong Day's Journey Into Right" |
| #05 | "Love's a Witch" | #13 | "Used Karma" | #21 | "Witch Wars" |
| #06 | "My Three Witches" | #14 | "The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell" | #22 | "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World, Part 1" |
| #07 | "Soul Survivor" | #15 | "I Dream of Phoebe" | #23 | "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World, Part 2" |
| #08 | "Sword and the City" | #16 | "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father" | ||
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Season 3 episode, "Look Who's Barking".
- ↑ Season 6 episode, "Sword and the City"