‘Charmed’s Best Guest Star Was in Its First Season

The Big Picture

• John Cho’s guest appearance as Mark in Charmed made a significant impact on the show.
• Cho’s chemistry with Holly Marie Combs elevated the episode and their romance, providing a raw and romantic feel.
• Cho’s portrayal of Mark reinforced important messages about celebrating life and added depth to the show’s early episodes.

In the original Charmed, the Halliwell sisters used their witchy abilities to fight off demons, warlocks, and other magical and human baddies who threatened their beloved city of San Francisco (and the world). Along the way, Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), and Paige (Rose McGowan) helped many innocents who were either targeted by these villains or caught in the crosshairs of the battle between good and evil. Throughout the show’s run, many guest-starring actors delivered outstanding performances before their meteoric rise to fame. For instance, Amy Adams starred in Season 2’s “Murphy’s Luck” as Maggie Murphy, a woman cursed by a Darklighter who tries to lead her to take her own life. However, out of all eight seasons, the best guest star the series ever had was in one of the very first episodes: John Cho.

John Cho Guest Stars in ‘Charmed’ Season 1

In “Dead Man Dating” from the show’s first season, the Halliwell sisters are tasked with helping the ghost of recently departed Mark Chao (John Cho). As we learn with the sisters, Mark was murdered by a local gang leader, Tony Wong (Joe Hoe), because he resembled Wong just enough to fake his death (after burning Mark’s body). They are up against a clock while trying to get proof that Wong is alive because the mysterious supernatural creature Yama (Todd Newton) is intent on collecting Mark’s soul. The only way to stop Yama, and allow Mark to move on to the “good” place, is for him to receive a proper burial. But Piper can’t bring herself to tell Mark’s mother Lei (Elizabeth Sung) that he has died, so they have to resort to plan B.

Piper freezes Wong and takes a photo of him with the current newspaper, proving he is not dead. But, as we see several times early on, her freeze doesn’t last nearly as long as she hoped, and she barely gets away. Unfortunately, Wong and his men see her, so they later come back to kidnap her in retribution for what she’s done, forcing Prue and Phoebe (with Mark’s assistance) to use their powers to save her. Ultimately, they succeed in saving Mark, and Yama takes Wong’s soul instead. Thus, Mark receives a beautiful funeral before moving on with his long-departed father.

Mark Chao Helps Open Piper up to the Audience

In the short time it takes for the sisters to help Mark, he makes quite an impact on the sisters, which is what makes him the series’ best guest star. It’s particularly clear with Piper, as the two essentially fall in love. John Cho and Holly Marie Combs share great chemistry that elevates the episode and this romance as a whole. They have a great rapport, and Mark and Piper seem to truly understand each other in ways that we don’t see again throughout the eight seasons that followed. Even the incredibly bittersweet scene where Mark and Piper “touch” each other, despite not being able to feel one another because Mark is a ghost, becomes one of the highlights of the episode because of their work. It easily could have been super cheesy, but instead feels raw and romantic.

Mark revives Piper’s hope for and belief in true love after her failed romance with the demon Jeremy (Eric Scott Woods). It also opens the audience up to Piper better than the first few episodes do. Before this episode, she was a bit more guarded, playing the peacekeeper between Prue and Phoebe. She doesn’t grieve Jeremy, despite being in a relationship with him for six months. We get to know Piper, but here we see a much more vulnerable side to her. We see what she wants from life and love, and how those things impact and drive her daily. We see how simultaneously easy and difficult it is for these girls, particularly Piper, to open their hearts to love. And, the jokes about Piper falling for a ghost after her last boyfriend turned out to be a demon don’t hurt either.

Mark Reinforces an Important Message for Prue in ‘Charmed’

As the sisters help Mark, Piper, and Phoebe are also attempting to throw a surprise birthday party for Prue. However, Prue is adamant that she doesn’t want to celebrate her birthday, shutting them down and pointing out that this has been an ongoing problem for the sisters throughout their lives. After their mother died so young, and as Prue rapidly approaches the age when their mother died while unknowingly putting her in similar shoes to their mother, moving forward in life is difficult for her. But, Mark’s words of encouragement to celebrate her birthday because life is short, and his regret for doing exactly what she is, leads Prue to “allow” her sisters to throw the surprise party that is already in action at the manor.

John Cho Set a High Bar for ‘Charmed’ Guest Stars

As this episode aired so early into Charmed’s run, it became the prime example of how impactful a guest star could be on the show. Cho added so much to Mark’s story that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, particularly in his “romance” with Piper. He made Mark such a beautiful, sympathetic character, emphasizing how tragic dying so young could be — which isn’t something easily felt for some of the just as tragic characters on the show. If anyone else had been cast as Mark, this story wouldn’t have worked nearly as well and had such an impact on the audience. Even while Charmed was finding its footing with exactly what stories to tell using its villain-of-the-week format, this managed to become one of the series’ best episodes solely due to Cho’s work with the stars.

Every episode of Charmed is streaming on Peacock.

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