Billie Jenkins - Character Background

Character Background

Billie Jenkins is introduced in the show's 8th season as a young college student, a witch who pays more attention to demon-fighting than to her education. At first she is introduced as a new charge for Paige Matthews, who is annoyed because this comes at a time when the Charmed Ones want to remain hidden. Billie's character is quickly established as a powerful witch who claims to need no help.

When Billie discovers that Paige is a Charmed one, she quickly persuades the sisters to teach her everything they know about witchcraft; in return, she'll keep their identities secret. The agreement proves mutually beneficial as Billie keeps the sisters' secret while learning about her craft and carrying out magic-related tasks for her mentors.

Billie's backstory involves the abduction of her sister, Christy Jenkins, by mysterious demons with unknown intentions. This is Billie's main motivation for her constant training. Her main objective is to find out who kidnapped Christy and to save her if she is still alive while investigating just why it happened. Upon meeting with an Angel of Destiny, Billie is assured that her sister is alive and she will eventually find her. As the season progresses, her sister is revealed to have been kidnapped by the Triad, a trio of upper-class demons thought dead, because she is the key to the "Ultimate Power". As stated by the Triad, this is Billie herself.

Billie is finally reunited with her sister after 15 years. She starts to teach Christy how to control her powers. When Christy is kidnapped by the Triad-sent demons, Billie goes to rescue her, unwilling to lose her again. While they are both down in the Underworld, Billie persuades Christy to vanquish the demons. Together, with Christy's pyrokinesis power and Billie's telekinetic powers, they kill the demons.

However, neither Billie nor the Charmed Ones know that Christy is working with the Triad, the same trio of demons who sent Cole Turner/Belthazor after the Charmed Ones. Christy's sense of morality has been badly warped; she thinks the Charmed Ones are actually evil. The Triad were persuaded by Dumain, an "imaginary friend" of Christy's who is really an upper-level demon, to let Christy be freed in hopes that she could turn Billie against the Charmed Ones.

It is originally believed that the Triad are the major threat the sisters face. This is not the case as Leo Wyatt, Piper Halliwell's husband, is not returned by the Angel of Destiny after two of them are vanquished. The remaining Triad member reminds Christy that Billie is the "Ultimate Power", and she must save her from the Charmed Ones, who have since been vilified. Through manipulating certain events, Christy manages to convince Billie that the Charmed Ones are on the verge of being corrupted by their power. Billie turns on the sisters, although she is reluctant to kill them.

Billie and Christy face the sisters in the Halliwell Manor, with both sides empowered by the supernatural force called The Hollow. Because each side has taken in The Hollow and Billie and Christy have stolen Wyatt's magic, their powers are evenly matched. The vast amount of power quickly spirals out of control, resulting in a massive explosion which obliterates the Manor and kills Phoebe, Paige, and Christy. Only Billie and Piper survive. After the battle The Hollow returns to its containment.

Following this destruction, the Angel of Destiny brings back Leo and states that the battle wasn't supposed to end this way. Piper finds Billie buried in the rubble and starts beating her, but Leo distracts Piper and lets Billie escape. While Piper attempts to find a solution with Leo, Billie returns to the Magic School and finds Dumain, who tells her she can project herself back in time and save Christy. However, when Dumain tries to get Billie to go to the Triad first, she realizes that she's been used all along. She projects herself back in time to try to prevent the recent events and to persuade her sister to stop trying to kill the Charmed Ones.

Billie arrives at the Manor to find her past self and Christy heading downstairs to confront the Charmed Ones. She tries to warn them, but her past self throws her into the wall. Events would have carried on as before if Piper, helped by Patty and Penny who had been recruited from different times in the past, hadn't banished the Hollow before the explosion happens. With these events changed, and all the witches now alive, Billie tries to reason with Christy. But Christy won't listen, even Billie reveals that Dumain tried to get her to go to the Triad first. A disillusioned Billie realizes her sister has turned into a killer.

Billie returns to the Manor and tells the Charmed Ones that she now realizes Christy and Dumain have been using her. The sisters are skeptical at first, but hear her out. Using her powers to project herself and the Charmed Ones to the Triad before they called up the Hollow, they find that Dumain and Christy have also traveled back to warn them. The Charmed Ones vanquish the Triad with potions, and Piper blows up past and present Dumain. Billie begs Christy one last time to reject evil. Instead, in an act of rage, Christy launches a huge fireball at Billie and the Charmed Ones. Billie is forced to kill her in self-defense by telekinetically deflecting the fireball back at Christy. With her entire family now gone (Carl and Helen had been murdered by demons sent by the Triad), she breaks down and the Charmed Ones comfort her.

When the Charmed Ones start to write down their story, it is revealed that Billie remains a close family friend and the sisters' strongest ally. She is seen in the finale babysitting Phoebe's two oldest daughters. Out of the three sisters, she was closest to Phoebe, because even though Paige was her Whitelighter, Phoebe was the one who was always there for Billie and always saw the best in her. Phoebe was also the Charmed One who most strongly protested killing Billie after the secret of the "Ultimate Power" was revealed.

Though Billie and Christy were both witches, albeit ones that manifested their powers later in life than normal, their parents had no magical powers and were mortal. Both of their parents were the product of unions between a witch and a mortal, resulting in normal mortal children with latent witch genes. It is confirmed that Billie's grandmother was a witch.