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.

Charmed: Season 1, Episode 11: Witch Perfect

The director of an acapella music group goes to Greece and ends up being possessed by an ancient Greek item in a shop in Athens. He even does the patented possession neck snap.

Y’know, life in Urban Fantasy worlds must be damn interesting for anyone dealing with anything historical.

How does this link in to the Charmed ones? Well, Maggie has decided that with her demon boyfriend and little sojourn in Tartarus what she really needs is some close harmony singing

Uh-huh well done, Charmed, that’s a convoluted link almost on par with some of the ridiculous convoluted links of the original series. Hey "Witch Perfect"? It's doing that old Charmed thing of making pop culture references like 6 years after they were relevant

Harry is also kind of depressed because he’s trying to gather his memories about his not!dead son and also seems to have some lingering tartarus badness clinging to him. Oh and he really really disapproves of Galvin knowing the truth but respects the sisters insistence he not have his memory wiped.

But, of course, the true revelation of last week was Macy discovering that she and Maggie are actually full sisters, her dad, Dexter Vaughn, being both their dads while Ray was Mel’s dad. Nervous and excited she tries to explain this to her sisters and it doesn’t go down well

I actually like this argument because all of it kind of goes back to where they all are at the moment and how they approach this revelation.

Macy is happy - because she hasn’t exactly lost anything with this revelation. Her father is her father, her mother is her mother, she still has two sisters but if anything is even closer. More, with her inclination towards facts and knowledge she is fascinated to discover new secrets and new knowledge. She’s happy and interested and excited

While Mel is more reeling - she’s discovered she’s the half-sister after being so close to Maggie for so long. But more, we were told that Mel was always super close to Marisol only now she’s learning that Marisol kept more and more and more and more secrets from her - witchcraft now seems to be the least of it. Mel feels reeling and wounded and hurt.

And Maggie, having already felt betrayed by Parker, wounded by the fact that Ray, her apparently-step-father didn’t come home for Christmas and now her biological father apparently abandoned her is just hurt and deeply deeply upset

On top of that Macy feels attacked by them being a little shoot the messenger while they feel insulted by her glee and Mel actually has a good line about how Macy tries to police how they react to this and push them into how they SHOULD feel about this (positive) rather than acknowledging how they do feel about it,.

This causes all kinds of drama. Of course. Macy goes to Galvin, very angry and expressing that to him while he gently pokes that maaaaaybe they have a point. She decides to do something deeply unwise and cast a secret reveal spell

And my gods how that spell didn’t backfire I do not know. This spell is DESIGNED to backfire. It was written by a supremely messy spiteful witch cackling away as she imagined all the many ways it could backfire.

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 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

Charmed, Season 1, Episode 6: Kappa Spirit

Moping time - and Mel hasn’t been out of bed since she magically removed Niko from her life. And I thought - and kind of hoped - that this episode would be all about either removing this terrible event or at least underscore how absolutely awful this event was and how much Nico and Nico and Mel’s relationship meant.

Except we’re going to talk about sororities

And before I even get into this recap I want to say how annoyed I am by this because this show - especially this show that was waving around its progressive credentials to the hilt - is perpetuating some awful tropes here. I mean well fecking done you didn’t kill your lesbian, have a cookie - the bitterest, most awful cookie in the world - because removing her from the plot while erasing their relationship from memory is just killing her without the damn blood

Having Mel’s sisters cluster round her bed to poke her, gods Mel, haven’t you mourned the love of your life long enough?! Any longer and we’ll have to spend some actual episode time on it! We have sororities to worry about!

Oh and Harry has got her a new job which is another layer of angst. Or rather the angst because we’re not going to make this relationship valuable

Yes. I am annoyed.

So after some brief researching over whatever demon was killing elders (lightning demon. Unfortunately there’s a lot of them it seems) they cover the real worry: Maggie is on the outs with Lucy and won’t be able to join Kappa

THE HORROR (bye Niko)

So it’s time to go out and have mojitos and talk about Mel’s lost love Kappa. Only the Kappa sisters are there and Lucy is still not a fan! So Maggie decides to go take a pitcher of Mojitos to Lucy to try and make nice… and it’s kind of… not good because it kind of feels like Maggie is pushing to get back into Kappa hear more than acknowledging Lucy is pissed for a reason. Lucy is hella pissed and tries to pour that drink over Maggie’s head which… I kind of understand? And, quite good, Maggie accepts she’s kinda got this coming but Macy and Mel with telekinesis and time freeze make sure their sister isn’t getting no diet cocktails poured on her hair.

So Lucy is still pissed. In fact even her sorority sisters are kind of out of line. So Lucy goes back to the sorority house to meditate to a haunted candle

Oops, haunted candle.

So when Maggie, unable to take the slightest hint, knocks on the Kappa house the next day she finds that Lucy is both a) still pissed and b) joined by a new Kappa in full 80s gear called Brenda who both hates Maggie and is encouraging Lucy to hate her even more.

Maggie is confused because she’s never met this woman before and part of Rushing for Kappa involves knowing who all the current members are. And no current members would be running around in 80s fashion. They do some research - Mel joining to avoid the job interview that Harry has set up for her. They realise Brenda is a ghost and there are 10,000 different kinds of ghost (honestly i kind of like the idea of 10,000 different kinds of ghost)

Charmed, Season 1, Episode 5: Other Women

Harry is now living with the Charmed Ones which comes with funny little misunderstandings around the bathroom which apparently doesn’t have a lock. What bathrooms don’t have a lock?

Also Harry in a dressing gown? Yes. Yes we can have that. Yes yes we can. Oh yes

This episode actually contains a lot of good which is a little surprising after the last couple episodes have kind of raised progressive issues and then dumped all over them… but this kind of followed through and then dropped something pretty awful to ruin it all.

So, the elders have the Book of Shadows for vetting and research and everyone has relationship issues. Maggie feels super guilty because Parker kissed her and now he’s dumped Lucy and she’s super super sad and is recruiting Maggie to try and figure out who Parker is cheating on her with. Which is awkward. And Macy is having problems because Galvin has pretty much given up on her and is now with beautiful, successful woman Summer.

But the main issue is Mel. Last episode Tripp, Niko’s partner, was killed and the elders both faked his suicide and had him confess to being a serial killer in his suicide note and dumped lots of evidence on him as well. Needless to say Niko is pretty traumatised by this - not only that a man she cared about and respected killed themselves and was a serial killer but she’s a detective and noticed nothing so she’s beginning to doubt her own abilities and self worth and believing everyone who disparaged her.

Naturally seeing this utter self destruction in the woman she loves is devastating for Mel. But Niko has received messages from Tripp which point to him having evidence about the death of witch elders - several women being murdered including Mel’s mother. She also learns that Tripp has hidden evidence including DNA - she’s super excited about this and thinks Mel will get on board because, of course, Mel has been insisting her mother was murdered since the first episode. This is why Niuko broke up with her - because of her obsession with her mother’s murder. So Mel suddenly saying that nah they shouldn’t investigate this strikes Niko as rather odd.

But there’s motive - a shapeshifting demon is trying to track down this information and that evidence and is willing to kill to do it. He’s faking being an FBI agent, is able to assume Tripp’s shape and follows Niko to Tripp’s fishing cabin where he has lots of evidence for the conspiracy and hidden witch elder DNA. As one does. Niko finds it (honestly her only just remembering this exists kind of makes me think that maybe she isn’t that brilliant a detective) and the shapeshifter arrives to knock her out and set the place on fire with eerie green hellflame. Mel manages to save her despite the time magic resistance

The demon makes another attempt in the hospital, stopped only because Mel realises there’s two nurses and actually (and perhaps most shockingly) calls Harry for help - he’s also been the one offering most comfort and support for her in this hard time. I like this because it’s dealing with their antagonistic relationship and developing a new level between them.

To the others - Macy is super jealous of Summer who has an amazing resume and is just practically perfect in every way and Maggie suggests (having read her mind to get in on the whole drama) that she’s a demon. Macy refuses adamantly to demonise another woman in the name of jealousy but Maggie suggests that maybe Summer is an actual demon. Consulting Harry, he concedes she could be a succubus and gives some pointers on how to identify one (I actually like the idea that demons with wings and tails etc hide them but then replicate them as tattoos because it’s overtly giving the nod to a trope that is used a lot with little explanation). And she has those tattoos.

Charmed, Season 1, Episode 4: Exorcise Your Demons

Apparently we need an emotional prequel to really get Mel invested this episode and to properly feel bad so we’re going to have a prequel to when Angela was reporting being molested by Professor Frost Demon to Mel and her mother and she was worried about the consequences since the professor was so influential and powerful. Her mother wisely offers support but leaves the decision to Angela - while Mel pressures her to report

Now to the present Angela is tied up in the attic burning rats to death and generally being demonic and scary. They’re waiting for the elders to drop in and tell them what to do so they can get rid of the spooky demonic houseguest.  Also Maggie is worried about flunking and Macy makes a quip about her never attending class. Oh Charmed poke that fourth wall, lampshade that she has never actually attended a lesson

For more complications, Niko and her partner Tripp drop in to ask about Angela because she was last seen at their party. It doesn’t help that they’re super nervous and awkward. Thankfully, mid interview, an elder arrives. Charity is classy, clever and clearly capable of pulling out some awesome cover stories to shoo the police out of there. She’s also skillful, magically awesome, able to silence Harry when he insists on talking too much, runs a progressive organisation providing micro-loans to develop female entrepreneurs and is generally someone who is pretty impressive to everyone

She also reveals that the Elders are actually senior witches (and not necessarily super old) and that their mother, Marisol, was also one. This should be a surprise to no-one but everyone acts surprised mainly because it’s a departure from old Charmed canon but also weird because Mel was calling them “hasbeing witches” last episode… so did she have sudden amnesia

In all I quite like her introduction because she’s not a caricature of awful. It’s clear there’s a lot about Charity to respect and honour - if not necessarily to be as obsequious as Harry is. I do like it when authority figures aren’t presented as incompetent monsters just to make rebellion easy and cool - I like the added conflict that comes from disagreeing with an authority figure who is worthy of respect and may actually be right.

Which is the situation they have here - because Charity’s plan to stop the Harbinger is to kill Angela, something they need the power of three for and some big big daggers. Mel is, of course, super against this. Maggie is aghast they’re being asked to make such a big decision. Macy, however, is more clinical and factual - she thinks Mel is being super emotional about all this and they should consider the Elder’s wisdom and maybe killing one to save many is necessary.

Charity gives them various tasks and Macy goes to work and her studies kind of confirm her theory - the rat the demon killed has like Super Smallpox and if the Harbinger escapes (scheduled for that full moon) then everyone is going to be squished. But when talking to Galvin she’s surprised that he doesn’t agree that killing one person to maybe save everyone is a good idea: that maybe is a hook. He also thinks it’s a very cold decision and while logical lacks emotion - and asks why she thinks emotion is so unimportant. It gives her more to think on even as she ducks out of another date with him

Maggie actually attends class and tells Lucy, the kappa head, that she’s really struggling so she offers up the services of her boyfriend Parker to help tutor Maggie

And I need a moment to talk about Lucy. Part of me wants to praise Charmed for not making Lucy a vapid mean girl shallow stereotype of awfulness… but I’m also not entirely sure the writers realise that’s what they’ve created? I just get this idea I’m supposed to roll my eyes at her even though by all accounts she’s kind, she cares about Maggie, wants to help her and even tried to get Mel booze at their dry party (when Mel through baking powder at her). Which sounds ridiculous - but considering Lucy has every reason not to like Mel, she was still going out her way to make Mel feel welcome. She may not be the deepest pond but she seems to be a good person.

Charmed, Season 1, Episode 3: Sweet Tooth

So, the theme for this episode is social justice concepts that the writers don’t seem to entirely understand and then actively sabotage!

Anyway, the sisters are training in a simulation to fight big bad demons with Henry and it all goes wrong because Maggie starts texting her sorority sisters mid battle, Macy freezes up and can’t use her powers and Mel decides to cast a super powerful spell she’s learned which catches them all in the blast radius

So, lessons learned: Macy needs to stop overthinking things and actually just go with the low and use her powers. Maggie needs to stop letting her sorority concerns distracting her. And Mel needs to be less reckless with her magic

I mean, even low level D&D adventurers know to watch your spell blast radii

Henry also has a big dramatic speech about the big bad Harbinger that they’ve heard so many times before they can quote it. He reveals that the Harbinger must have possessed someone - so Mel wants to charge in throwing magic around campus which Macy and Maggie don’t agree with and Henry suggests they wait for the elders to give them some input. Mel mocks the very idea, deciding they’re washed up has beens

Hey, y’know passion for social justice should not really come with dismissing experienced people because they’re old: especially since there’s a strong implication they’re female as well.

Mel decides she wants to cast a spell that will lure all demons within 20 miles so they can find the Harbinger. Macy is less thrilled with this plan and suggests they listen more to Henry since he was right about the whole spirit board thing. Mel will not succumb to his patriarchal control

So we have the reckless magic theme - in addition to throwing magic nukes within spitting distance and wanting to being mass attacked by who knows how many demons, Mel also repeatedly freezes entire rooms full of people, just asking for people to come in and find the room frozen or for her to unfreeze and not be stood in the correct place and everyone will notice her teleporting (or notice they’ve lost time). Henry, exasperated, puts a magical tracking bracelet on her to alert him when she uses magic

She is, naturally outraged by this because it is restrictive, infantilising. I could now have a discussion about having female characters show agency by having them repeatedly make obviously ridiculous and dangerous decisions, react with aggression when criticised for them and eventually have a man control them and seem JUSTIFIED because their decision making is just so bad it feels like someone has to. But I don’t have to - I just have to drop this Spunky Agency link here.

Macy does some science and they realise the Harbinger could probably be exposed if it ate sugar. Uh-huh, in the US? It better not eat. Anyway this prompts Macy to bake lots of biscuits (Americans, Henry is right) so they can get people to eat them and expose their monsterness. They go around pressing biscuits on people - including Angela. Angela was the woman who went into a coma when she was attacked by the Ice Demon professor and she has woken up - just as the Harbinger arrives. Mel is quick to realise they may be a link and talks to her, offering biscuits and reconnecting. It doesn’t work - which I’m honestly thankful for because otherwise the universal presence of sugar would make this the shortest possession ever