Contributor: John Keegan
This episode finally started to take some of the disparate elements of the past several installments and make some sense out of them, which was a desperately necessary move. At the same time, I’m still waiting for some elements to move forward and become important, and it seems like the writers want to keep the circle broken for the time being.
One big problem is that Faye’s decision to do her own thing, while perfectly justified, feels like it has incorporated elements that came out of nowhere. I thought I had forgotten some major introduction for Lee, but it turns out that he was pulled into the story rather randomly a few episodes ago. I’m a regular watcher; if I missed that, I’m sure others have, too. Yet Lee is rather integral to Faye’s slide into darker and darker territory. While I think this will be a good direction for our hedonistic bad girl to take, why not have it come out of something more firmly established in the show?
While it should be more interesting, I’m getting tired of the enigmatic goals of the previous generation. For whatever reason, I have a hard time telling Ethan and Charlie apart, because they haven’t been established as distinct characters nearly well enough. I was fairly confident that they wanted to steal the power from the current circle, yet in other respects, they seem to be trying to protect them. It just hasn’t gelled.
On the other hand, the revelation that John Blackwell is still alive could explain the way the parents have been depicted. What if the older generation wants to take the power to prevent the current circle from making the same mistakes, and to fight Blackwell in their place, as some sort of penance?
I want to see how the revelations about the witch hunters in this episode might tie into that sort of interpretation. As it turns out, they were more than willing to use magic to kill witches that might be using dark magic. That implies that they might have been the ones that killed Cassie’s mother and others earlier in the season, and that means that Cassie’s struggle against her inner demons puts her in the crosshairs.
Could that be why Faye is being tossed into her own subplot? It makes her vulnerable if she continues to exercise poor impulse control. Since at least some of the circle is still standing by Cassie, it makes more sense to have the witch hunters take a shot at Faye, thus forcing her to either run back to the circle for help or accept their intervention. And if they managed to use that opportunity to put a face to the witch hunter threat, a compelling villain to drive the rest of the season, that would be an added bonus.
I would also love to see Cassie track down her father, get to the bottom of the mystery regarding her sibling, and perhaps be tempted to gain the power that he obviously possesses. It might actually help give Cassie and her temptation to use the power a more substantial expression than, say, changing the color of a dress. The writers keep teasing that Cassie will stray into darkness, but so far, it hasn’t been very convincing.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 7/10
