Villainess Review: Ashley Fallon (Charmed)

Hard to believe that the original Charmed series is celebrating 25 years this month. I remember seeing the first promo for the series, which aired on The WB for eight seasons between 1998 and 2006. Originally, the series starred Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Milano as a trio of sisters who discover that they come from a family of wiccans. The series was the last great brainchild of the iconic Aaron Spelling, and regarding the three stars, Doherty played the eldest sister, Prudence "Prue" Halliwell, Combs played middle sister Piper Halliwell, and Milano portrayed the youngest sister, Phoebe Halliwell.

As we recall, Doherty left the series after Season Three, and the void was filled by Rose McGowan, who played Paige Matthews, a revealed half-sister of Piper and Phoebe. Other cast members on the show included Brian Krause, Julian McMahon (later of Nip/Tuck fame), and Kaley Cuoco--whose recurring role followed her stint on 8 Simple Rules. The series, as we also know, spawned a reboot that debuted in 2018 and lasted three seasons, and regarding the original, I watched my share of episodes, including a long stretch where I watched the latter half of Season Four while watching the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs. One of the first episodes I watched on its airdate is the subject of this review, "The Wendigo."

The episode started with Piper being attacked in a phone booth by a strange creature late one night, and it was quickly established that the beast that attacked Piper was known as a wendigo. In the episode, a wendigo operates (somewhat) similar to a werewolf; comes out on full moons, covered in hair, and an attack results in the victim becoming one. Other than Andy Trudeau, the investigation also involves Billy Waters (a hunter) and Ashley Fallon (an FBI agent). Already, I was thinking, "An actual FBI agent in an investigation involving a supernatural creature. Yeah, something's up."--especially since she seems to have knowledge of this sort of thing.

As for Billy, well, his hunt is a personal one: a wendigo attacked and killed his fiancee. He has some knowledge of how wendigoes operate, and he was shown in an underground parking lot sharing his knowledge with Fallon. One of the tidbits he mentioned was that wendigoes fear fire, making his statement as he was lighting his cigarette...with Fallon clearly flinching and seething over the flame. Oh boy. Billy wouldn't have time to react, as Fallon quickly went on the attack; snapping Billy's neck to make sure her evil secret remained just that.

Following Fallon's heel turn, we see Piper feeling the effects of slowly becoming a wendigo herself, beginning with sticking her head inside a freezer. We also see Piper actually dream that she transformed and attacked Andy, but after waking up from that nightmare, we see another trait: berating Prue and Phoebe incessantly. It's after Phoebe takes hold of Fallon's business card that she sees a premonition of Fallon transforming and going after Andy, so she and Prue have the important information needed. After handcuffing Piper in the attic, Prue and Phoebe hunt for Fallon, who is getting set to go on their own investigation with Andy.

The moon rises, and Piper transforms into a wendigo and breaks free; all the while, Fallon attempts to seduce Andy, who doesn't fall for her charms. At that moment, as we saw in Phoebe's premonition, Fallon transforms and attacks Andy, but before she could go for the kill, she is pursued by Phoebe and Prue, who are armed with a flare gun. Their first two shots come up empty handed, and they find themselves with one flare, two wendigoes approaching them, and a 50/50 chance of hitting the right one. Prue fires the gun, but at that moment, the flare stops. The frozen flare allows Prue and Phoebe to figure out that the wendigo that the flare was aimed at was Piper, and after Phoebe sends the flare towards the other wendigo, the end result is a fiery demise for Agent Fallon.

"The Wendigo," was the 12th overall episode of Charmed, and aired on The WB on February 3, 1999. The episode featured Jocelyn Seagrave as the evil FBI Agent, Ashley Fallon, and she's one of the best villainesses from the original series. It was pretty easy to figure out that Fallon was the wendigo; again, she's an FBI agent who happened to know just a bit too much about a supernatural creature. If your name isn't Mulder or Scully, that's pretty damn suspicious. The episode's highlight was Fallon's heel turn, especially her expressions. Her first one after seeing that flame was quite scary, and we see that same seething snarl as she kills Billy. It's followed by Fallon's evil glare, which pretty much solidifies that her villainous persona is now out in the open to the viewers.

Ashley Fallon was quite the villainess; seductive, bloodthirsty, and very vicious. A female FBI agent who was actually a monstrous and murderous beast by moonlight, just absolutely epic. What I loved was that this was the closest thing to a werewolf episode, especially since the episode borrowed a lot from the familiar werewolf folklore. Seagrave's portrayal truly stole the episode; she acted out Fallon's cunning yet villainous demeanor to absolute perfection. Once again, Ashley Fallon was one of the original series' best villainesses by far.

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Check out Ashley Fallon's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!