Victor Bennett

Victor Bennett is a mortal and the father of the original Charmed Ones: Prue, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell.

After their divorce and Patty's death, Victor left the girls to be raised by their grandmother after constantly fighting with her about how to raise the girls. Victor reappeared in his daughters' lives after they became witches and restored the relationship with them.

History

Early life

Victor was born into the Bennett family, and may have had a "manic" sister, an alcoholic niece or nephew and an aunt named Sylvia. According to the family tree his birthday is actually February 16, 1949.

Marriage to Patty Halliwell

Victor Bennett married Patty Halliwell sometime before Prue was born in 1970. Patty's mother, Penny, was not pleased that her daughter had married a mortal. She had low expectations for men, especially mortal men. Sometime between Prue and Piper's births, Victor found out that his wife and mother-in-law were witches—and his daughters were witches as well. Victor attempted to adjust to his wife's Wiccan life with little success. He and Patty fought constantly over how to handle their daughters' magical heritage. Victor thought that magic was dangerous, and would hurt his girls. He wanted to raise them as normal girls, while Patty (with Penny's support) wanted to raise them as witches. It didn't help that he and Penny sparred constantly in a Bewitched-style, Darrin Stephens-Endora type relationship.

Sometime after Piper was born, Patty started spending more time with her Whitelighter, Sam Wilder. Victor was increasingly frustrated with Sam's growing involvement in their lives and with magic in general, and left the family for a brief time in 1975. However, he returned after finding out Patty had given him a third daughter, Phoebe.

When Prue was six, Victor rescued her from the Nothing found within the Ice Cream Truck used to capture demon children. According to Victor, while he managed to save Prue, Grams was horrified, believing that Victor only got lucky since he didn't have powers.^[2] Shortly afterward, Victor found out Patty and Sam were having an affair (whether or not it was a physical one was left ambiguous), and the two divorced sometime in 1977. Unknown to Victor, Patty was pregnant with a daughter by Sam, Paige Matthews.

Victor was still around for his girls after Patty's death in February 1978. However, unable to deal with Penny's overbearing nature, he left for good after a demon attacked on the night of Piper's fifth birthday.^[3] Prue and Phoebe were seven and three at the time, respectively. After Victor left, Grams warned the girls that he was a threat to them.

Reappearance

His daughters didn't hear from him again for twenty years. Victor suddenly appeared in San Francisco in 1998, not long after the girls' powers were unbound. Prue was suspicious of him, but Piper and Phoebe were more open to seeing him, as they had scarcely any memory of him. However, they grew suspicious of him after Victor admitted he wanted to take the Book of Shadows from the girls in order to protect them. When he persisted, Prue made her feelings clear on the situation by using her telekinesis to violently fling him across the room. It turned out that a trio of shapeshifters were using him to get the Book. By betting his own life to protect the girls, he finally re-earns their trust, including Prue's. However he leaves the sisters without a proper goodbye, instead leaving a home movie from the '70s of the girls on Christmas morning, on the Manor doorstep.^[4] Victor wasn't heard from again for three years. Piper tried to keep in touch by sending him birthday cards, but only reluctantly because he never sent them one.

Redeeming Himself

Unknown to her sisters, Phoebe began keeping in touch with their father through instant messages and e-mails. However, Victor doesn't appear again until 2001, when he comes to San Francisco for a job interview. While in town, he assists the sisters in helping to capture the demon children and bring them to the Ice Cream Man's truck. By saving Prue from the Nothing once again, Victor finally proves himself to Prue, and he and all of his daughters leave on good terms. Victor, finally regaining his place in his daughters' life returns to meet Piper's fiance Leo while also to ask for Phoebe's magical assistance when he attempts to put stock into a ghost town.^[5]

Victor has an immediate distrust of Leo once he found out he was a Whitelighter, as he believes that Patty's affair with Sam was one of the contributing factors to the end of their marriage. He is especially skeptical when Leo tells him Piper has a "higher calling"—it was the same line Sam used on Patty. Once Leo explains to Victor that despite what happened to Piper's parents, he is still marrying Piper no matter what, Victor seems to warm up to him, and is a witness to Piper's marriage to him. Victor also was shocked when Patty was temporarily brought back from the dead, however, they were able to come together to motivate Piper into going through with her wedding.^[6]

Oldest Daughter's Death

After the death of his eldest daughter Prue, a visibly saddened Victor returned to help put her to rest. Victor was outraged when an argument about the police case surrounding Prue's death occurred at her wake.^[7] Months later, Victor gave Phoebe away at her wedding to Cole Turner. Victor seemed to accept his daughters' newly-found sister, Paige.^[8]

Second Marriage and the Birth of First Grandchild

Sometime in 2002, Victor goes on a singles' cruise to Mexico, where he meets Doris, a demon in disguise. While it is not known for sure whether he was under the influence of a spell or not, Victor and Doris quickly fell in love and married. When he brought her home to meet his daughters, Doris showed her true colors and stabbed Victor in the abdomen, nearly killing him, before attempting to steal Piper's baby. She is eventually vanquished. Victor proves vital in this: despite being seriously wounded, he manages to climb down the stairs, pull Doris' partner away from an in-labor Piper, and throw him over the railing, saving Piper and allowing the girls to vanquish him and Doris. Afterwards, Victor witnesses his first grandchild, Wyatt, come into the world.^[9]

Meeting his Second Grandchild

When Chris Halliwell comes to the present from the future to save his brother Wyatt from becoming evil, Piper calls on her father to help understand why he is so distant towards her. To Victor's surprise, Chris is excited to see him; according to his grandson, they have a very close relationship in the future, and were drawn closer after Piper's death when Chris was only fourteen. Victor advises Chris to try and get close to his mother because he couldn't during his life, and tells him that he possibly already changed his bleak future by coming to the past. Additionally, Chris tips Victor to stop smoking cigars, telling him it will have a big impact on his health in the future and Victor does so immediately.^[10]

Finally Getting a Chance to Parent

After baby Chris is born, Wyatt expresses some jealousy towards him, using his powers to orb him away; one time, he orbed him right to Victor, who brought baby Chris home. From there, Victor gets involved with the problems surrounding Chris' Wiccaning and Wyatt and Chris' sibling rivalry. When a temporarily resurrected Penny casts a spell that accidentally transfers Wyatt and Chris' rivalry into the sisters, they are turned back into their adolescent selves. Victor and Penny bicker about the best way to handle the situation, and eventually summon Patty to work out their issues. Patty sides with Victor, causing Penny to leave. Patty and Victor ruminate on what kind of parents they would have been had they stayed married, and Patty lived to see the girls as teenagers.^[11]

When the sisters prepare to fight the demon Zankou, they leave Wyatt, Chris and the deeds to the manor and Piper's nightclub P3 with Victor, making him their official guardian in case they do not survive.^[12]

After the Charmed Ones are assumed dead by both the magical and mortal communities (even though they faked their deaths), Victor still maintains his role as the boys' guardian, even after the Elders try to talk him into giving the boys to them. The sisters use their powers to glamour into Victor's nieces. When the Charmed Ones come out of hiding and reveal that they are, in fact, still alive, the charade ends.

Before the sisters' last Ultimate Battle that kills Paige and Phoebe, Piper leaves her sons with Victor to protect them. Wyatt is taken by the demon Dumain in order for antagonists, Billie and Christy to have enough power to summon the Hollow. Victor finds out that baby Chris has received his powers and encourages him to use them to orb Wyatt back, successfully. When Piper and Leo go back in time with Coop's Ring to bring Paige and Phoebe back to life, they meet a younger Victor and Patty in the 1970s, on the day that they conceive Phoebe. When they bring the Patty from the past to the future, she meets an older Victor, who tells her that they divorced. Afterwards, she stays with him to catch up. Victor also informs Patty of Prue's unfortunate fate and the two part on good terms.

Encouragement to Henry

Nearly two years later, when Victor comes to the Manor to watch over the kids while the battle with Neena is occurring, he realizes from Paige's husband Henry's bad attitude that he is having doubts about his life with Paige. Victor tells him about his own troubles being married to a witch and the struggles they faced and his regrets about walking out on his family. Victor tells him that if he wasn't who he was, Paige wouldn't be able to do her duty; Victor advises Henry to give Paige strength. Henry thanks Victor and generates a new attitude. When Victor asks about the extra baby in the room, Henry names him "Henry, Jr". Coincidentally, this is the only time when Victor and Sam are in the same place at the same time, though it is unknown if they had any interaction.

When all magical beings were stripped of their powers and mortals gained the ability to use magic, Victor was forced to take seven of his eight grandchildren into hiding to keep them safe from the chaos that resulted from the switch. Phoebe only kept the newborn Parker because she didn't want to add Victor more stress, but eventually has to hand her into his care as well when they travel to the All to battle the Darklighter Rennek. After order was restored to the world, Coop, Henry and Leo go to retrieve the kids.

Danger from Prue

Roughly one year later, Prue accidentally merged with the demon Heremus. When she visited Victor at his apartment, the two reminisced their past, until Prue turned angry about his abandonment and attacked him. Piper was able to stop her in time. After this, Victor was sent to stay at Magic School along with a pregnant Phoebe and the kids for their safety until the situation with Prue was resolved.

Professional Life

• Businessman: Victor's actual job is left ambiguous, though whatever it is, it has allowed him to move back to San Francisco, giving him the chance to be near his daughters and grandchildren.

Notes and Trivia

The Victor Bennett article has a Photo Gallery.

• Victor was originally portrayed by Anthony Denison in the season 1. Denison was not asked to return when producers found him more fitted as a love interest for Shannen Doherty's character, Prue Halliwell. The character of Victor was recast for season 3.
• Victor was initially named Victor Halliwell.^[13] However, Penny's last name was also Halliwell, which she took from her husband, Allen.^[14] Therefore, Victor's last name was changed to Jones,^[15] but was finally settled on Bennett.^[16] His name was once misspelled as Bennet.
• Victor was the first parent to appear in the series and has appeared in each season except for the second season. He has appeared in 14 episodes, which is the same amount as Penny Halliwell, but 5 more than Patty Halliwell.
• As a mortal, Victor likely acquired a power during the magical switch caused by Rennek in season 9. However, he is only mentioned during the arc and never appeared. 
• During his first appearance, Victor addressed Prue by her full name "Prudence", but never did again after the episode.
• Victor appeared in Charmed Again, Trickery Treat, and The War on Witches. He also appeared in a vision in the short story, Patty's Awakening, of The Warren Witches.
• Victor's counterpart in the rebooted Charmed is Ray Vera, an archeologist and schemer, who is at odds with his daughters. He never knew his ex-wife and daughters were witches until they told him in season 2.
• A mortal named Viktor also appears in the reboot, a likely reference to him.

Appearances

Victor Bennett appeared in a total of 14 episodes and 3 issues over the course of the series.

References