Okay, so we all know that the official family tree is fucked to hell and back bc what the fuck is any of that, but (I think! I'm having difficulty being able to make out shit on any of the images) that the generation before the 1920s cousins are four siblings, and three of them have the 1920 cousins. (This is all based around the family treeSo hear me out: Paige actually has a 1920s past life, but we just don't see her.
It looks like the other three Warrens on the family tree lived a lot longer, while the fourth, Brianna Warren, died in her twenties/thirties. (Yes, she is also the supremely skilled witch who separated the Lord of War from his sword.) So Brianna, this powerful and skilled witch, perhaps a bit of a globetrotter for her current era, one who searches out evil to vanquish demons, has a child and dies young. (Recurring theme in this family, isn't it?) Perhaps no one knows who the child's father is, perhaps he's evil or dead, doesn't matter. She's raised alongside her cousins, with their parents who are still there. (And I mean... A Paige!past life, a free spirit interested in the world who feels like an outsider in her family? A recurring feeling through her future.)
And P. Warren (to fit the other cousins' names) feels like she doesn't fit in, but y'know who also begins feeling like an outsider? P. Russell as she falls under Anton's sway and begins resenting her cousins. (And we can throw in something about P. Warren feeling so much weaker than her mother and unintentionally downplaying her own power bc of it, especially in comparison to P. Bowen, so P. Russell doesn't view her as a threat in the same way bc Bowen has the power and Baxter has the lover and business but Warren doesn't have anything except a desperate need to find a place she belongs that is so easy for Russell to exploit as she turns, something that may have intentionally held the potential to keep her good that is twisted against her family.) And so they become closer, but even Warren can't deny the way that Russell is changing, becoming harsher and more cruel with the way that her spells are changing and she's offering out curses or hexes (little ones, she assures her cousins who initially eye her out of worry but soon enough becomes suspicion), but Russell is the one who so wholeheartedly embraced her (with Bowen being as cold and aloof as her powers and Baxter being so fixated on her own life with her husband and business) that she hesitates and doubts herself.
And finally Baxter and Bowen tell her their suspicions, that Russell is lost to them, but she refuses to believe it. (She can't deny it, but she's still their cousin, it can't be.) That spell and plan in Pardon My Past was premeditated obviously, but Warren couldn't commit to it. Exactly why she's not there that day has multiple options: she was searching out a way to vanquish Anton and save Russell from herself, Baxter and Bowen deceived her into being away bc they weren't sure who she would side with, or even she knew about the plan but left because she couldn't be apart of it. Either way, she comes home eventually, and Russell is dead and the aftershocks rend apart their family even further and she leaves once again, becoming her mother and chasing down evil to destroy those who destroyed her mother, her cousin, her family. (A lot of the illustrations in the Book stem from her, a nod toward Paige.)
And eventually, she dies and is reincarnated and Phoebe doesn't consciously recognize her, but Paige's past life was the only one uninvolved (as far as she knows at least) in her past life's death and they'd been close in their past lives so it's an unconscious friendliness that explains why she pushes their friendship/sisterhood so hard is bc of that past still resonating in her soul. And Paige's uneasiness with her and with her relationship with Cole stems from the knowledge of what was going on with Russell and Anton, and she unconsciously reflects it again. And Phoebe gets upset bc again (all of this is unconsciously, none of them know about the way that their past lives are rippling into their present lives) Paige isn't defending her and is being untrusting just like the past life but- This time, Warren and Baxter save Russell. Paige and Piper save Phoebe, and that's the difference.
