*If you haven’t seen the eighth episode of season 4 “Black As Cole,” I would skip this post for spoilers.
I believe “Black as Cole” was meant to be a learning opportunity for Paige, expanding her understanding of good/evil but many comments here exaggerate the so-called “hostility” towards Cole—many felt she treated him terribly in the beginning when “Black as Cole” was really the only episode in the fourth season where Paige presses Cole in such a manner prior to him being possessed by the Source. I went through the script and saw they have four moments in the entire episode where they interact in some way, each of which I posted in the pics above. Looking at the text, I question the use of the word hostility as she never once berates him nor is she aggressive towards him. She instead asks critical questions.
A lot of comments oversimplify context to make an argument about prejudice against his demonic identity when the text explicitly states her main concern was his killing of an innocent man. Perhaps the biggest point to be made is Leo’s comment further explaining Cole’s unique situation as a half-demon doesn’t happen until the very end of the episode*. Prior to that, Paige was cutoff off and told it wasn’t the time to discuss complexities and to just accept they believe he’s a changed man. Frankly, that was unfair to Paige who was new to the craft and learning the rules which are very black & white as demons being hardwired for evil is absolutely part of Charmed’s lore; murdering an innocent is a cardinal law they are supposed to be unequivocally positioned against as good witches and also something one can’t simply move beyond (even if they were to murder someone while under the evil influence of a transformation).
Some said Paige had a grudge but besides an unfortunate one-liner later Paige says in an argument with Phoebe, grudge feels inappropriate to describe what really only happens in one episode which takes place in the span of a day. There seems to be an expectation that Paige should’ve immediately understood and accepted a complicated situation which feels unfair when it took the sisters a lot of time to process and understand the nuances of it all—and even they still got it wrong at times. Here’s an example from the beginning of the episode:
Piper: Looks like she wasn't the only victim. Scorch mark. Definitely demonic. Looks like one of Cole's, actually.
Paige: Don't you mean Belthazor?
Phoebe: Oh, it's too bad Cole can't check it out. He'd probably be able to tell us who did it.
Belthazor’s true form was constantly spoken about as absolutely terrifying and so it makes sense to me there would be a difference between knowing someone is demonic vs. seeing it and also how it would be jarring to learn/see his true form for the first time. It ultimately feels understandable someone would need time to adjust to everything she discovered in that episode. I believe this moment was meant to be a growing opportunity for Paige.
Paige does start calling Cole out later out in the season but she largely points out objective facts the sisters as well as Leo clearly didn’t want to critically engage—like Cole out of nowhere having the money to buy Piper and Leo a fancy honeymoon or Cole becoming a hotshot at a prestigious new job when he couldn’t last two hours at legal aid or Cole being able to grab an athame from an upper-level demon. There’s a lot more that can be said but I’ll end this by sharing it’s interesting Paige actually ends up being the most compassionate towards Cole in season five’s episode “Sympathy for a Demon” which couldn’t have happened without growing moments like this.
*I have thoughts about Leo saying Cole’s human form was completely subjugated—starting with how did Leo know that—which feels like an oversimplification and contradiction but that’s another post lol.
