Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Secret Circle, Season 1, Episode 18: Sacrifice



So we begin with Cassie at her work in the coffee shop bumping into Adam the Wet Lettuce with lots of undertones of angst since he has forgotten he loves her. Melissa finds it sad and romantic and wonderful, Faye I being, well Faye. And Adam is asking for extra work staff for his bar for the weekend – of course Melissa is there to help straight away and Faye can be bribed into it.

And then we cut to the bad guys! Eben the Evil Black Witchhunter is chasing someone into Chants Harbour where he has to let him go.

Richard (Super Evil Parent #3) shows up to commiserate for the heartache he’s called and invite Cassie to mini-golf. Yeah, I’m bemused too – I think it’s a television thing, to show how out of touch a parent is we have them utterly unable to recognise how old their children are.

Meanwhile the man who was chased by the witch hunter shows up at Jake’s house and they start fighting until Cassie shows up and their combined presence lets them use magic. Turns out he’s a witch hunter (so, obviously, friends with Jake). He has news for John Blackwell (Evil Parent #3) but Cassie, in a stunning display of common sense, argues against trusting the witch hunters yet again. Turns out Eben has been resurrecting demons.

What are demons? Well I can understand you asking that, after all they were a major major plot point in the series that then fizzled into nothing.

So they summon John and Jake says he trusts the witch hunter because he can’t think he’d lie to him. Someone pick my jaw up off the flaw – honestly, how many times do they have to manipulate this man? Of course, with equal amounts of ridiculous trust, Cassie and Jake decide to let John question the hunter alone (oh and their “tying him up” means binding his hands only and leaving him alone in a kitchen, no doubt full of knives and scissors). The chief witch hunter wants demons to destroy witches – and he’s working with a witch to do it.

Really, the witch hunter decides demons are a better choice? And the witch is happy to go along with this? Eben has become obsessed with magic and demons it seems. He’s going to try and summon demons in Harbour woods in the same way that John did 16 years ago, intending to give the demons human bodies.

Wait. Are we retconning the canon AGAIN? The fire was about demons and then it was about witch hunters and now it’s demons again?

Anyway, turns out it involves a human sacrifice and Samuel (Road Kill Witchhunter) was going to be Eben’s sacrifice (and, yes, that mean John practiced human sacrifice before as well). And, of course, Cassie is a witness to the proceedings and we have a full blown pout. John summoned demons but didn’t need a sacrifice because of his super dark magic blood. He wanted to use demons to fight off the witch hunters and her mother, Amelia, stopped the demons from possessing the circle, though not before it hurt Heather

Now while we have that major demon witch hunter plot going on, the rest of the circle are involved in utter pointlessness. I thought we were done with the plot lines where Cassie and Jake run off and do their own thing while everyone else plays on the sidelines? At the bar Grant and Diana continue the awkward flirting thing and Diana decides to go on a date with Grant instead of helping in the bar, Adam gets to play paternal as well – adding yet more sogginess to his Wet Lettuceness. The date ends up in an ice rink and Grant asking Diana to sail away with him – on the first date. Wow, man moves fast. Diana decides to follow Grant back to his boat after all to surprise him and discovers he’s lying. He’s just one of the crew, it isn’t his boat. Are we shocked?

Diana then has a massive sulk before Cassie calls her to help.


Actually serving the hockey team drinks causes Melissa and Faye to debate dating unmagical men like Diana is (yes, a backhand compliment for their waiting on the team is quick to make them think). This causes Faye and Melissa to both compete for the same guy 0- my gods, is that actual agency from Melissa, actually pursuing her own agenda? Someone catch me, I feel faint from sheer shock! Of course that may be a little too much self-confidence for Melissa (though, really, 2 women fighting over one guy is not the most ideal of storylines anyway) and she enlists Adam’s help to use magic to dazzle him with hockey knowledge. What she needs magic to compete with Faye?

Faye calls no fair and enlists Adam to help her to magically flirt back. This could go on all night except his girlfriend shows up – Adam now steps in in outrage that Kyle, the hockey player, has been flirting with Melissa and Faye all night when he has a girlfriend (though Kyle does point out that THEY were flirting with him but he could have said at some point). Which maybe it would have been good – except Adam completely loses it in a way that goes way beyond white knighting. Because he’s still lost his love for Cassie and he hates losing it and is trying to get it back.

Back to real plot lines, John has gone alone with Samuel to demon site. He hasn’t brought the circle because he wants to protect them (and, of course, he does have power though he’s hiding it). And Samuel is showing all the signs of demon possession. Of course John is no fool (perhaps the only member of the cast who isn’t) spots it and puts Samuel in a circle.

But witch hunter Eben shows up, already with the powers he’s stolen – he hits John and starts using some blood magic to raise the demons, taking them inside of him and fleeing

The kid’s Circle arrives and frees Samuel, causing Cassie to use dark magic ineffectually to try and stop him since Circle Magic doesn’t work. John distracts him and then shows the Circle he does have power still – and he’s way way way way way better at it than Cassie.

John claims he didn’t show Cassie his magic because he can’t convince her not to use magic if he showed her his. Which they all seem to buy.

Time for a dramatic show down in the house. John gives them a peptalk on the evil of the witch hunters and why witches have hidden for centuries. It’s actually pretty dramatic, albeit rather overdone. He has decided that witchcraft is the only answer to face the witch hunters and he’s done running from it. To face Eben they need more power – and the only power to face demons is in the crystals. Each family has a crystal and together they are more powerful than any demons.

So now they are hunting the other 5 crystals. Oh and John digs up a body which suggests, yes, he did sacrifice someone 16 years ago


I’d almost say Faye and Diana are right – it is always about Cassie and, yes, it’s a problem. But the timing was the worst possible – by making Diana complain when there are demons on the loose makes her complaints seem petty and childish and dismissible. She does have a point – but not right now.

Witchunters, you have a knife make with the stabbing. Or get a gun! Why do you always try to use magic to fight the witches?

I’m actually reassured that the Circle is now seeking the crystals because it means the plot lines are all finally coming together – same with the demons coming back. Crystals, demons, the parent circle, it’s all starting to form one damn storyline at last. This could be promising!