Charmed: Season 1, Episode 12: You're Dead to Me

After a bizarre little hiatus

In fact, aside, why do American shows do this? Why? I mean I can get skipping an episode because there’s a holiday or something. But several weeks? Several? Why do you do this Americans? Whyyyy?

Anyway so after digging through various letters Macy, Maggie and Mel know the big secret of Macy’s past

So, it turns out Marisol and her husband were distraught by their dead baby daughter Macy so Marisol does the sensible thing and summons a necromancer from Tartarus - see this why she had the scythe to open Tartarus which no-one questioned. Marisol offers the freed necromancer anything in exchange for her baby coming back to life. I know I know, desperate mother and all but I lose all respect for a witch who makes bad open ended bargains like that - because really?

So after much very ominous black magic and hubby being kind of nervous, Macy is resurrected but there’s a price! The price is they can be together for 2 years after which if Marisol sees Macy, Macy will die, like Cinderella without the spinning wheels

Which… ok? I mean hey as far as sacrifices go it’s sad but the baby came back to life. I think you got off pretty easy. And also, this kind of addresses multiple episodes of angst over why Marisol never contacted Macey in a wonderful way. Hey she couldn’t or you died but she loved you so much! ANGST OVER

Angst over?

Why is this angst not over?

So Macy is now super unhappy because she’s DEAD and now ALIVE which makes her UNNATURAL and AGAINST SCIENCE.

Y’know, like telekinesis, teleportation, stopping time, reading minds and everything else you’ve been doing. The UNNATURAL AGAINST SCIEnCE train left the station several episodes ago Macy. She’s super sad so no-one can comfort her but Henry shows up to empathise because he’s also like totally dead and brought back to life. UNNATURAL AGAINST SCIENCE TWINS and it would be super hilarious if he was really offended by what she said but he’s not his all; understanding and says he understands that now you feel out of place and lacking a purpose - but how answers help

I call shenanigans. We’re milking this angst

Anyway - back to Macy in a moment since she’s the main plot line. Lucy, who is kind of awesome, invites Maggie to a Traffic Light party. Which is kind of a party where you have to colour-code your sexual availability? I dunno, it sounds like a much more boring Hanky Code for straight people. Maggie is upset because of Parker to which Lucy awesomely points out that this is not how you get over someone. Anyway, this party where no-one is allowed to look good in black will be relevant later.

Supernatural: Season 14, Episode 12: Prophet and Loss

Ok, Supernatural, is good at angst, emotion and seriously messed up relationships with lots and lots and lots of drama. But this episode turned that to 11. So. Much. Deeply. Unhealthy. Emotion.

So, Dean is still planning to lock himself in a magical metal coffin and have himself dumped in the Pacific ocean. He is conflicted about this because he has terrible nightmares about it. He is clearly really really not happy with his suicidal decision.

Sam hears this and tries to offer comfort to Dean - but Dean obviously pretends nothing is wrong because he’s Dean. To which Sam assures him it’s ok to be traumatised since he’s planning a fate that is utterly worse than death. Just like, so terrible. Sam is probably quite good at comforting - but then he isn’t trying to be comforting. He’s dumping as much awful on Dean as he can to make him reconsider.

Dean is resisting - he insists Sam not to try and distract him; that’s why he never told Castiel or Jack - he is doing this and doesn’t want anyone to shake his resolve

Of course Sam has already told Castiel - and they’ve done everything they can to find an alternative to seal in Michael, even calling in Rowena. They’ve come up with nothing

They begin their road trip to Dean’s horrible fate, Dean begins to talk about their childhood and how he regrets supporting their dad so much when he and Sam were at odds and how his dad, when annoyed at Dean, used to send him away. And as a long term 14 season Supernatural fan, can I say how much this moment mattered - because here we had Dean, Dean of all people, acknowledging that John Winchester was a less than perfect parent (yes I have always been in camp: John Winchester was an abusive father and Bobby was their real dad).

But Sam is not being dragged down painful memory lane, angrily and emotionally shuts Dean down. If he’s going to put Dean in a metal box in the ocean he is not having an emotional recap with him, absolutely not.

While they’re on with that there’s another case building up - a man is killing people in ritual ways and carving into their flesh. Carving enochian into their flesh while making biblical-ish quotes

Sam naturally seizes on this and encourages Dean to go on one last case and it doesn’t take too much of a sell to convince him to come with. They contact Castiel to question who is running around knowing Enochian, suspecting that it may be an angel. Castiel quickly drops that he knows about Dean’s suicide plan (because he’s not great at secrets) and promptly gets on with telling Dean what a terribad awful idea this is.

Dean still won’t be shifted. And no they will never ever give up on talking him out of it.

So onto the case where they interview the twin of one of the victims who talks a lot about just how much his brother meant to him. Uh-huh this is not subtle. Not subtle at all, these pot shots at their feels.

A Tale of Two Demon Slayers (Accidental Demon Slayer #3) by Angie Fox

Lizzie is going to Greece to have a holiday with her Gryphon boyfriend in his ancestral home - while Dimitri can finally look to a future with his family and clan now the curse has been lifted

But peace is quickly menaced by an ominous prediction of Lizzie’s death. Oh and Dimitri’ ex who raises some disturbing questions about where Lizzie actually fits in his world.

This is one of this books that surprises me. The first two books of this series have… not been my favourite series, been often quite simplistic and sidelining just about everything that made this book so fascinating - like the biker witches

And a fair bit of that continues - the biker witches are still just a vague background group who don’t serve a great deal of purpose except to be the world’s worst house guests just so Lizzie can feel super super worried.

But it does equally feed quite interestingly into Lizzie’s conflict over just how much Dimitri has done for her, sacrificed for her et al. Which is an interesting element of self-reflection especially from a character who has spent most of her story so far being understandably self-absorbed. I mean this isn’t a character flaw on Lizzie’s part because she’s obviously gone through a lot, being a little self-focused makes sense. I don’t begrudge her a second of this because that’s natural, nor do I think her resisting further revelations or her objecting to anything stopping her having a break, just a brief break. This is a reasonable, human reaction. And it’s equally reasonable for her to, when she has a bit of break, to reflect on that and think that maybe the people around her have done a lot for her. I kind of think that the Witches deserve more of this reflection and realisation than Dimitri. But the whole conflict and internal debate is really well done.

I think that the book kind of misses what Lizzie did for them - saving the witches and releasing Dmitri’s family from a curse that was killing his sisters and destroying his family and future. I mean this whole narrative kind of misses that every side character would actually be dead if it weren’t for Lizzie. The balance isn’t all one way- and I think that this is pushed at least in part because they wanted Lizzie to have break up angst with Dmitri. Which I don’t get the need for, we don’t need a relationship drama as well as everything else and I think the relationship was already super shaky because of how very very.

Supernatural: Season 14, Episode 11: Damaged Goods

Time to cut down another storyline - Nick, Lucifer’s ex-host, who is now dealing with serial killer impulses and a desire to get vengeance for his family by finding Abraxas the demon who killed them. This involves finding various people who are probably really eager to co-operate with him but he decides to go with kidnapping threat and torture anyway

Because evil. Oh and he has an angel blade. Do they mass produce these things?!

But we also have Dean. Last episode we were told by Billie that there was just one possible way that Michael doesn’t escape Dean’s head and causes the world to end. Despite a regular habit of disrupting prophecy and rebuilding reality, Dean accepts this

I approve. This is very very very much in character. If it were Sam who was facing this certain horrible death, Dean would end the world first. But since it involves his own martyrdom and his own self-destructive impulses and lack of self worth, this makes perfect sense

Speaking of that unhealthy co-dependence. Dean decides to set that plan in motion by going on a little road trip to see Mary (staying in Donna’s cabin. Alone as she and Bobby had a little tiff but mainly because with this very personal emotional time for Dean I think Bobby-not-Bobby would just really complicate things. The Pseudo-father-figure-who-isn’t would be awkward). And he wants to go alone. He also hugs Sam goodbye

Sam is SUSPICIOUS. Dean does not go places without Sam. He just… doesn’t. That unhealthy attachment ensures it. Dean also doesn’t hug. Dean doesn’t do emotion like that. Hugs mean the end of the world. As Sam says. Which kind of annoys me because I think one of the advantages of having fourteen seasons is that a show doesn’t need to explain things like that, but hey.

Dean heads to Mary, dropping in to see Donna, who is always awesome and show have had her own show like Wayward Sisters and I am NOT OVER THIS.

Donna also notices Dean is acting… oddly but he continues on to see Mary who, thanks to lots of phone calls with Sam, knows Something is Up and they do lots of family bonding and reminiscing while Mary tries to figure out exactly what is happening with Dean. I like this - I like the dynamic and the recognition that everyone is deeply worried but also fully away Dean will neither ask for nor accept help.

Summoned to the Thirteenth Grave (Charley Davidson #13) by Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson has been freed from the dimension she was trapped in… but only to find the real world is under a new threat: a hell dimension is spreading over the city… perhaps the world

A Hell dimension unleashed by Charley and Reyes… and only answering the hidden question of what happened to Charley’s mother may help them save the world and their daughter..

This is the final chapter in the story of Charley Davidson…. Which means I always am going to be quite bleak about all this. I am never happy about a series ending, especially not a series I’ve come to love. I will always be grumpy about this.

And that means I need to do an obligatory bias check - it’s ending and I am unhappy and I hates it I hates it I hates it!

But I do have some issues beyond my utter unwillingness to say goodbye

As I’ve said with this series, the balance of zaniness is a little off kilter. I always liked Charley and her silly habit of naming things (like her breasts: Danger and Will Robinson, or her car, Misery) but then she took it too far and started naming all the things. We still had the humour but it started trying too hard to be silly. This book we pulled that back a lot and got a lot more serious… perhaps even too serious. But it was focused on the plot… but lost some fun along the way

That plot is something I’m torn over. Like previous books towards the latter half of this series there’s a weird split between EPIC WORLD DESTROYING MASSIVENESS with gods and angels and demons and Charley being this incredible epic thing beyond comprehension with massive stakes beyond knowing while also being super super fun…. And then there’s a fairly mundane crime drama. And it feels… odd? Especially because in this book it feels especially strong because while we’re talking about the whole world ending in the not very distant future, neither Charley nor Reyes seem to make this a priority? I think part of this is the way it pans out: this shadowy hell dimension is consuming the city and will expand to consume the world with a side order of dangerous violent possessions. But Charley gets a rather dubious cryptic advice that she basically has to find out something from her past to get the answer. There’s no obvious connection so while the world is ending it feels like Charley is involved in something completely unrelated. While we have a much more focused and excellent classic Charley Davidson storyline of finding some missing people and using magic and investigative shenanigans to great effect - with the added bonus of Charley’s development with her new thread of ruthlessness. It was a great storyline which totally eclipsed the world ending and the actual finale of the series.

Charmed: Season 1, Episode 10: Keep Calm and Harry On

Harry is in Tartarus, the prison where the demons lock up their own worst. A place where you are tortured over and over with your worst memories so you can feel guilty and…

...wait, what? This is a prison for demons that tortures said demons by making them feel guilty? Despite Alistair McEvilName making it clear that demons don’t feel? I mean, showing demons all the bad stuff they did should be more of a greatest hits reel than actual torture? This makes no sense, Charmed.

So Harry is being tortured with memories of when he was alive before he became a Whitelighter which included such terribad awful deeds as bank robbery. What’s interesting is I did see a fan theory that the Whitelighters were actually bad people used to do penance in the afterlife by serving - which is somewhat backed up by his memories here

And also by the Charmed Ones turning to Charity and the elders and having them say “yeah, fuck it”. Partly it’s because they don’t know how but it’s also clear, despite Charity’s personal opinions, Whitelighters just don’t register very highly on their priority meter.

Of course the Charmed Ones aren’t having this and have a tantrum but Charity is determined they stay on topic - Mel to investigate the Sarcana and Macy to discover why Parker’s evil demon dad wants to run her lab in the first place.

While Maggie is in her room grieving heavily over Parker, a boy she’s known for a few days, being a demon and it just HURST SO MUCH. Mel offers comfort by comparing Maggie’s short term crush to her long term relationship with Niko - who, it has to be noted, Mel mourned approximately a tenth as intensely and for far less time. So, yeah… look Charmed I  get that your writers had no clue what they were doing when they started this season and tried to force in a clumsy retcon within like 4 episodes to remove Niko so Mel could hook up with the dark and dangerous Sarcana lady, but the way this has been handled is not just incompetent but also carries some really bad impressions. The same-sex relationship, which should have been longer term, more intense and more important than either Macy/Galvin or Maggie/Parker (both relationships are very very new) instead comes off as massively more dismissive than either.

So Maggie, the Empath, is in a full funk so decides to use magic so she doesn’t feel anything and my eyes are rolling so hard I have friction burns. I’m going to do my best to ignore Maggie and her drama

Macy now has to deal with Galvin who knows all about magic and, since they have no Whitelighter they can’t do the whole memory erase thing. But it’s fine because Galvin is totally cool with the whole witch thing and finds Macy’s magic fun and fascinating. Which I kind of like - I like the idea of people being intrigued and interested and even seeing the coolness factor of magic rather than, as is the usual trope, freaking out and hiding under the bed. What I’m less thrilled by is him putting this down to his grandmother being a Yoruba worshipper - because Yoruba is an actual religion and it seems more than a little exoticising; especially by linking magic directly to the predominantly Black people’s religion rather than putting it alongside.

She recruits him into investigating the company they work for, providing support, quick cover for why they’re there and generally being a great partner in crime and getting super close. So Macy drops the bombshell that she’s a virgin and Galvin is completely speechless and stunned about this way more than he was about her being a witch and my these people take virginity SUPER SERIOUSLY?! This causes a brief blip and them having to have a talk and Macy explaining that just because she’s a virgin now doesn’t mean she wants to be a virgin forever (which… ok? Do people need this explaining?) and Galvin somehow NOT seeing that line as a not-remotely-subtle-come-on hint.

They do discover that the evil company has been up to shenanigans trying to turn human DNA demon - though i don’t think this is nefarious so much as an attempt to heal Parker. They also find the company has run all the Charmed One’s DNA - and the results are weird. While Macy is the half-sister, the results point to Macy and Maggie being full sibling while Mel is the one with a different father

DUMDUMDUM have we ruled out someone mislabelling bottles? Have we considered that? No? Ok, we’re not going there? Ok. Back to the DUMDUMDUM!

Charmed, Season 3, Episode 9: Jingle Hell

After being clonked on the head by one of the Sisters of Arcana, she wakes up to find Jada saying that it’s totally a mistake and she’d totally like her in their club, what’s a little concussion between friends. Also here are our spooky crows which were present when your mother died, honestly they were on her side, pinkie-swear

Mel goes to Harry and Maggie to say that, hey, these people may have killed my mother. Maggie and Harry thinks it’s super dangerous and they really should back off but Mel’s all for it because being a witch is all about danger. I mean they’ve spent as much time on danger as they have the dubious relationships

Speaking of, clearly we need to spend far less time on this secret witch society because we have romances to deal with.

Yay.

So Galvin was hit by car last episode. Turns out he’s find and his leg is broken. He’s going home to family and Macy is angsting because she thinks it’s the magic mark of his grandmother. Because his grandmother used magic to protect her son from evil by having him hit by cars and be hospitalised. Because this is how protective magic works. Of course it does. I mean ye gods granny’s going to epic lengths to stop her son getting laid

So when Galvin visits and trips Macy spends an unnecessary amount of time avoiding him while Harry has to make small talk and give him cocito (also christmas cake is awesome, Maggie is just wrong). This is all such a really useful part of the episode. Really.

We catch up with Parker and his evil family. Parker and Hunter go rob an entombed saint in a cathedral in Bucharest. They steal the shiny necklace and are nearly killed by a priest who has a nifty stick of dropping you into a burning basement. Or possibly hell. Or tartarus. Instead Hunter kills him and steals the nifty stick.

This necklace will drain the powers of the Charmed ones if he gets Maggie to wear it then it will drain all the powers of sisters and make him fully demon and alive. This is pushed by his human mother - Jessica Vaughn, Macy’s new boss. Yes she hates the demons in the family but she wants her son to live even if it means draining the Charmed ones and making her son a demon

While Alistair McEvil, his dad has a more sinister plan. Apparently there’s a prophecy that says the Source of All Evil will be born into the body of a human born demon (or something similar) so basically he thinks if he turns his son all demon he will become the Source and their family will be super powerful especially with all those dubious morals and emotions silenced

Hunter the emotionless demon continues to feel affection and protectiveness towards his little brother. This is not a contradiction. Apparently.

So Parker also shows up to the Charmed Ones happy Christmas evening to give Maggie her gift and cough messily everywhere. He gives Maggie the necklace and she says, really Parker? Jewellery? We’ve known each other for a hot minute, isn’t it a bit soon for jewellery how wonderful it is.

Oh. She’s also looking forward to her dad visiting for the holiday. She has lots of positive memories and affection of him while Mel thinks he’s like the Worst and abandoned them and unreliable and Maggie is just too loving and caring and trusts too much and is going to get her heart broken. Yup check that subtle foreshadowing

My personal favourite thing about this episode is how Maggie repeatedly mentions her mind reading as the whole show tries to hand wave how utterly impossible it would be for Parker to actually conceal his identity. Like if they mention it often enough then somehow it will justify this plot chasm.

Anyway, Mel notices that the necklace Maggie has quickly changes colour (Maggie: clearly it’s a really elaborate… mood ring? I mean… really?) and Macy also sees Parker flinch away from touching Galvin with his magic mark glowing as he does. Together the sisters realise something is up, with Macy also contacting Mama Roz to ask “hey if a ward against evil glows and makes someone flinch, is that a bad thing” because they actually had to consult someone about that. Credit to Roz for not mocking them cruelly.

Hunter notices they’re on to him and his little brother and quickly knocks out and ties up Macy and then uses his shapeshifting to imitate her. But is now barred from the house by this magical mark which is… surprisingly powerful? Blocks all demons from the House? Maybe we should check Galvin’s grandma for Charmed One-ness?

Charmed: Season 1, Episode 8: Big a Boo

After last episode the sisters chase after the apparent lightning demon with the Scythe but she has shields and teleportation and is juuuust a little out of their league. So they stop and regroup and head back to the house

Which would make sense if lightning woman didn’t have the power to open that evil prison cell - which she does

I mean, regrouping is sensible. Regrouping when your quarry is about to do something apocalyptic? Slightly less so.

So back to the house and calling the elders - Charity - to try and brainstorm what bad wrong naughty things are happening. This will largely involve Mel and will be important. But this being Charmed each sister has a storyline so let’s jump on those first. And they are both free to go do their thing and live their lives because, unlike ol Charmed the powers that be seem ok with them having normal lives.

So - Maggie issue. Or rather Maggie and Parker. Parker is the New Cole, only more angsty and dying from his Humanness. We have this established with a scene with his evil dad, Alistair McEvilName and his older full demon brother, Hunter. And while Alistair is all pissy that he can’t make Maggie do his bidding, his evil demon shapeshifting smoke brother is really supportive and protective of his baby half-demon brother

Which is kind of weird because he’s also worried that his baby brother is really falling for Maggie which only humans do - this whole caring emotional thing isn’t demonic. Except Hunter obviously cares about his brother and they don’t see the contradiction of that.

Anyway apparently to help Parker live he needs a serum made up of the Charmed One’s blood and he needs it soon as he’s definitely getting worse. While trying to get Maggie a job with his company in Chicago and then a fake drug test (using blood? Not urine?) fails, just saying he’s dying and needs a plasma donation so of course Maggie volunteers (it helps that he’s always thinking JUUUUST the right thoughts when she touches him. Honestly, telepathy on these shows makes me think my brain is even weirder than I know it to be - someone reading my mind wouldn’t get useful coherent thoughts but coffee obsessions, random fantasies and freaky non-sequiter questions about camels in Peru).

Not only does this get him Maggie’s blood, but Mel donates at the same time so bonus. + 10 points for Parker

Along the way Maggie decides she doesn’t actually want to go to Chicago to work or as an intern over the summer as she’d much rather spend the summer with her sisters since they could all die at any time.

Which brings us to Macy. She’s working away and her boss looks at this hardworking employee putting in unpayed overtime and declares that she needs a better work life balance! Go home you can totally be a workaholic later! Uh-huh. I’ll believe in witches, magic and all kinds of demons but I’m not buying this boss being all concerned her staff are working too hard.

Maggie agrees and thinks Macy needs to date more and be more outgoing and fabulous (and also touches Macy’s hair which Macy quickly tells her is a complete no-no and should not be happening which is nicely addressed) in part to try and get her to sign up for a dating app. Macy is reluctant, pointing out that because of sexual racism, Black women and Asian men are the least likely to be swiped on dating apps and it’s not worth her time… at least it’s not worth her time until Maggie agrees to the do the dishes

Supernatural: Season 14, Episode 7: Unhuman Nature

Jack collapsed last episode and his three dads are all panicky about how to help. Castiel tries to use his angelic abilities, but he has no idea what is wrong with Jack or how to fix him

In desperation they take him to a hospital, desperately trying to get through his admissions process when he has no surname, family or officially presence. But medical technology also doesn’t work so well with an ailing Nephilim.

Running out of options, with lots of powerful grief and Dean especially falling apart, they turn to Rowena

I always love a visit from Rowena! She isn’t thrilled about helping a nephilim and especially not the son of Satan - thinking that anything to do with satan is better off dead. But she can’t resist Jack’s innocent charm, even if he does kind of accept she may be right

But even Rowena’s magic doesn’t work. She does diagnose him though - a Nephilim needs grace to live. An Archangel Nephilim needs archangel grace. Which is a problem because all the archangels are dead.

Everyone starts brain storming except Jack - who wants to spend some time living and asks Dean to take him out. Which includes Dean showing him how to drive. Yes, drive his car, his baby; he doesn’t even let Sam do that. I like that a series of 14 seasons can have moments like this that have been so well established - and I like that they didn’t feel the need to make that point in this episode. We have fourteen seasons already we don’t need to make this clear.

They also fish with Jack being all gushy about this because he wants to spend more time with dean while he still has time left

And this whole scene, whole arc, is beautiful - but why Dean? There’s Sam and Castiel saying how hard it is to lose a son, and how this hurts more than their previous losses - but even they are talking about how it hurts Dean especially. I think the habit of Supernatural to focus more on Dean than the others takes something from the show. Especially this where Jack has, if anything, been closer to Sam and even closer to Castiel than Dean.

Castiel thought he had managed to track down Sergei, a shaman, who may be able to help - but only seems to exacerbate the problem. Castiel is duly enraged

But they now have no hope for Jack

Charmed, Season 1, Episode 7: Out of the Scythe

Emotions and secrets and life changes are the themes of this episode. So, each sister is having life changes:

Macy has just been promoted by her new boss, Julia, who is known as a hardarse. She thinks Macy would be an awesome boss but there’s a hitch - she also needs to make some major economies which means firing Galvin. Macy is all “nooooo he my friend” and Julia hits back that men do this all the time then go play golf. Which is a gendered way of saying “if you’re a supervisor hiring and firing goes with the territory time to be professional.”

And are they friends? I mean the last half a dozen episodes have kind of shown them to be super super awkward lately

She decides to see Galvin for a dinner firing only he babbles constantly, stops her getting a word in edgeways and praises her lavishly for her promotion while positively

Mel is struggling choosing her Thesis, with Harry gently prodding her to choose soon, even suggesting she use her time bending powers to give herself more time to choose because he cannot give her more extensions. She is dodging the subject and currently working as a bar tender

And we have Maggie who is still mooning after Parker. And using the magical training orb to have fantasies about him. And part of me rolled my eyes at Maggie’s pathetic fantasies but then I roll them twice as hard at the writers who think this is a woman’s sexual fantasy. Because really? Really really?

She’s also having trouble choosing her major and considering dropping out because she’s not sure about academia in general. Something she explains to Parker when they finally get together - Lucy has moved on and sends a group text saying they totally have her blessing. That was super quick and easily resolved… hand wave that storyline! Handwave it away! (And I generally approve of getting her blessing because, sure, you don’t own your exes. But if you’ve hurt a friend by kissing her boyfriend, respect demands not jumping on that boyfriend if you value that friendship). They have a low key date with veganism and lots of hyper empathetic insight which makes Parker feel all understood as they both discuss the overwhelming expectations their family puts on them. Parker talking about his rich family why Maggie dealing with a family of brilliant academics and the pressure to go to college from all of them

It’s all going well, but when she kisses Parker she hears his thoughts - that he has a secret he hopes she never learns.

This puts her off - but when she tells Macy, Macy wisely points out that lots of people have occasional dark thoughts and that doesn’t make them bad people so Maggie should explore more.

So Maggie goes to see Parker and walks in on him injecting himself. Because she hasn’t seen the 9,678,976 shows which have done the “legitimately taking medicine mistaken for drug use” storyline before now. She storms off in a huff before, inevitably, by the end of the episode when Parker reveals he actually has an immune system condition which will probably kill him before he’s 40 and this is why he injects himself. He finds himself feeling weak because of this and his whole family cruelly treats it as a dirty secret. Of course Maggie hugs him and tells him she’s not abandoning him. He thinks how wonderful it is that he has told her his secret

A Mark Unwilling (The Reckoning #1) by Candace Wondrak

Lexa’s family had every privilege - of course they did, they paid for it with Lexa’s soul.

She always knew that some day her demonic master would come to collect - but who knew that would be the least of her concerns with cultists, vampires and, most of all, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding free

The demonic mark on her body may make her invincible but with the apocalypse rising even she may not survive this

A lot happens in a very brief space of time in this book. It doesn’t exactly make it hard to follow per se, I mean I could tell exactly what was going on but it felt rushed without a lot of layers.

We open the book introduced to our protagonist, Lexa is a woman whose soul has been sold to some mysterious demon by her parents when she was still in the womb. While this has the nice benefit of being unkillable and presumably other side effects to being soulless, it also means she lives with the knowledge her parents sold her soul. This comes with like, ALL the parental issues and understandably - I mean we have parents who are not necessarily bad and are quite caring and a very privileged upbringing but that undertone of them having sold her soul colours their entire relationship. But we don’t really have time to explore it and instead we just end up with a bad mother character and a loving father character who gets written out before his position on the pedestal can be made more complicated or nuanced

And because the four horsemen of the apocalypse land so quickly after the book starts we never really get a chance to see Lexa’s relationship with them - or even what being marked actually means. This happens for a few other baseline things we start the book with - like her friend David, a 300 year old warlock. This means… I’m not even sure. He has magic and he’s old so he has knowledge which makes him quite useful to Lexa but I would have liked seeing more time of them together, more time to show the relationship and why this relationship is actually there. Or even what a warlock actually is.

And this could work is, during the plot, we actually worked with these relationships, but we hit the ground running and we don’t really stop. But not only do we not really stop, but the action is kind of disjointed. We have a cop who is also Marked but apparently to a Greek god - and everyone just kind of runs with this without explanation. Ok, how do they fit in this cosmology? What does this mean?

And then there’s a pack of vampires who are involved for… reasons? I mean they may know about the potentially upcoming apocalypse but we’re not sure why or how and they can’t actually explain themselves but they spend so much time being menacing and misunderstood. And there’s the blood moon so badness is happening with them so, again, we never really develop any relationships or world building or what they mean because we have ACTION. And maybe could explore that but we also have a member of the party who can see the future and there’s a cult involved and she needs rescuing and why why why why why is this all here? Slow down, slow down, I can’t even remember any of these character’s names an-