S02.E07: Past is Present

[Lady Calypso]

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HELP IS ON THE WAY – Harry (Rupert Evans) and Macy (Madeleine Mantock) make a startling discovery; Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) teams up with Abby (Poppy Drayton) against an unlikely foe. Mel (Melonie Diaz) must save Kat (guest star Shiva Kalaiselvan) from an uncertain fate. Jordan Donica also stars. PJ Pesce directed the episode written by Natalia Fernandez and Blake Taylor (#207). Original airdate 11/22/2019.

[UNOSEZ]

I dead ass watcged this episode and was confounded by how it would tie into crisis on infinite earths... Damn CW got me all twisted... Parker is still a bag of wet paper towels.. Is mel pregnant? ( well the actress)  they shot her like she's hiding a baby bump... Did Jordan know Macy was Maggie's sister or just a stranger.. And if not he's gotta be wondering.. Unless he thinks his ring is a light skin girl magnet... I like godric.. He's scummy but I'm good with that.. And I still adore abigael... 

[Cranberry]

Abigael is the most fun thing about this show right now and I'm disappointed that she'll likely have to die by the end of the season (as every time I think she may be redeemable, she does something even worse).

What the hell was with that proposal? There's no way that would ever work. Maggie had better say no.

Interesting move to write Mel's love interest off (temporarily?) before they even really got together.

[GaT]

They're trying to turn Parker & Maggie into the new Cole & Phoebe. I can't believe next week is the season finale & we spent the entire season in that stupid headquarters, & I still don't know why that company is part of the story.

[iMonrey]

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They're trying to turn Parker & Maggie into the new Cole & Phoebe.

Nick Hargrove is no Julian McMahon, that's for sure. I'm surprised they're revisiting this because this whole season has felt like a hard reboot of the show. And if Abigael would be persona non grata among demons if they knew she was half witch, why would they elect Parker, who is half mortal, as their supreme leader? 

Adding the dryads' magical fruit isn't helping make this season any less confusing and complicated either. We still don't know who sent the Dark Lighter to attack the Charmed Ones in the first place. And the demons saw the Charmed Ones on security video several episodes ago, so they know the Charmed Ones are still alive. Why didn't Parker? There seems to be some all-out war between demons and witches, but I'm not sure I understand where Abigael fits into all of this or what her end game is. 

And the Charmed Ones still don't have their powers back? WTF. Who thought it would be a good idea to take their powers away for a whole season? 

[Primal Slayer]

Can we get more Po3 scenes? Especially them just living their lives. I feel like it's rare that all 3 are in a real scene together that doesn't involve harry or a demon.

[AnimeMania]

Now the witches don't know what Ley lines are. If Harry wasn't there, they would be totally worthless. How do the Charmed Ones convince everyone at Safe Space that they can just hang around all day eating all of the Breakfast Taquitos without owning a business there?

[UNOSEZ]

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Now the witches don't know what Ley lines are. If Harry wasn't there, they would be totally worthless. How do the Charmed Ones convince everyone at Safe Space that they can just hang around all day eating all of the Breakfast Taquitos without owning a business there?

Maybe mel takes over the witch shop... And Maggie is the asst mngr of the place... Then its just macy lounging around.. And I dunno how many ppl are gonna notice her especially if she's in the war room all the time 

[Keywestclubkid]

18 hours ago, Primal Slayer said:

Can we get more Po3 scenes? Especially them just living their lives. I feel like it's rare that all 3 are in a real scene together that doesn't involve harry or a demon.

wouldn't that basicly be just any other cw show from the 90s? the whole point of the show is that they are supposed to be magical and they took that away ... I wish they would make them less dependent on harry and actually make them powerful with out him but for some reason this show has doubled down on whitelighter harry and focusing on him to the detriment of what charmed was supposed to be about ... this show doesn't know what the hell its supposed to be at all 

Edited November 24, 2019 by Keywestclubkid

[Camera One]

I too was surprised they brought back Parker since it seemed like they were committed to a new direction.  But this isn't the first show that would bring back old blood when their initial ideas begin to lose steam, as it did last week. 

The season is shaping to be a disjointed mess.  The Harry Darklighter stuff has little or nothing to do with the whole Demon Overlord plot, and then we also have side plots like Mel's friend and Jordan's cursed ring. 

Abigail is the only character that tangentially connected the Darklighter and the Demon Overlord, and I'm getting sick and tired of her "secrets".  For me, she officially outstayed her welcome with this one.

It's not realistic at all that Parker could unite the demon world if he's as "good" as Maggie thinks he is.  It doesn't sound like he's all that good if Maggie had to convince him not to do the usual demon thing for every choice.  And he's pretty stupid if Godric wasn't included in the whole Admission By Torture ritual to pinpoint the murderer of the trees.  Abigail is a murderer of innocent witches and based on her "truth", would sadistically murder more innocents to further her cause, so it would be better for all if she had been executed.  It was very predictable that she would not be.  I can totally see her become a fan favorite and they will write in circles to come up with reasons to keep her.  It already feels that way.

Watching the main characters constantly in the dark is no fun.  Last episode, the Charmed Ones thought they defeated Harry Darklighter but nope, he's still six feet under and kicking!  This week, the Charmed Ones thought they stripped Abigail of her demon powers, but nope, she still has them and she's out to get you!  That's two episodes in a row of "defeating" a villain only to reset so the drastically weakened Charmed Ones would be at a disadvantage.  They might as well just set up a hamster wheel for us to watch.

Weirdly, I think the only thing I'm mildly curious about is how Jordan would react to finding out his bloodline is cursed and he's due to die at 25.  That would be a better storyline for Maggie than the tired angsty teen drama with Parker.  Though I can't see much long-term potential for the Jordan storyline either.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Camera One

[tennisgurl]

I am honestly surprised that they're bringing Parker back and the Maggie/Parker AKA Cole/Phoebe 2.0 story, as the show seemed to be totally scrapping season one more or less, but at least its something I suppose. You know, not to be a demon or anything, but I can see why Parker would see killing Abigail as the best call. She has already tried to kill him, said she wants to keep trying, has killed innocent people already (including all of the dryads in that field apparently, in what was actually a pretty creepy and affecting visual) and while Abigail is a really fun character, she is pretty clearly a bad person who will keep hurting innocents to advance her own agenda, so...

The reactions that everyone had about Jordan being cursed being "oh my god, what evil could he have done?" seemed kind of weird to me. I mean, yeah he could secretly be an asshole, but isnt it possible that he was cursed by an asshole witch? Are ALL witches good, are there no bad witches or witches who just make really crappy selfish choices sometimes? Anyway, this is at least a kind of interesting subplot, but thats an issue with the whole season. We have a billion subplots but nothing that seems to be a real full plot for the season. They arent even really monster of the week episodes like last season, its just a bunch of stuff happening that are only kind of tied together sometimes. Seeing the dead dryads also makes me miss seeing more magical creatures. 

[theatremouse]

I was (until now) under the impression they'd essentially replaced Parker with Abigail - and I was enjoying it, at least enjoying it more than I did him - but now they've just done waaaaaaaay too many bait and switches with her. I mean with the whole "no one is trustyworthy/can we trust this person" thing if every single effing time it's "actually that was a lie/part of the super-sneaky plan", I'm bored now.

I'm also slightly embarassed I laughed at the belabored lazy Susan joke, but I did.

[Jacks-Son]

It's pretty sad when your fans don't have a clue where the writers are headed and even worse when they themselves don't know. Maggie and Parker are a poor man's Phoebe & Cole.  At least they (Phoebe & Cole) both had powers.  Parker, for being the Demon Overlord, is still the lovesick puppy he was in season 1.  I believe when Cole was challenged, he would have accepted the challenge and dealt with it.  Parker seems to need Maggie's backbone as a substitute for his own missing one. Please show, don't get rid of Abigael, Poppy Drayton has been the only plus this drab season.  Keep her around.  I like her or Ivana Baquero from "The Shannara Chronicles" on my screen.  Speaking of "on my screen".  Why develop Kat only to send her packing?  I hope that's only temporary because she had nice chemistry with Mel and I'd like to see this rotating love interest for each of the characters ended.  It's silly and distracting and takes screen time away from the Charmed Ones. Unless, the show intends to stop our hearts with an Abigael/Mel love story.  Who knows?

Parker & Maggie?  Snooze-fest. ZZZZZZZZZ.  Macy and Harry?  Weird!  Piper & Leo were cool because they just clicked and actually pursued or at least flirted with each other.  Macy and Harry, although I like Harry, he's just not clicking with Macy.  Hell, even Galvin, as boring as he was and a welcome subtraction from the cast, never clicked with Macy. I can't quite make up my mind about Madeleine Mantock.  She seems to have become the go-to African-American female love interest in SyFy shows lately: "The Tomorrow People"; "Into the Badlands", both cast her as the love interest but there are other actresses out there who could play the part as well, so Ms. Mantock seems to have cornered a little bit of that African-American female SyFy actress market.

Jordan, meh, don't care.  His ring is more important than the character and please do NOT pair him with Maggie. Parker is bad enough.

[Featherhat]

From what I can remember of TTP, Astrid was more Black Best Friend and "secretly in love with main character Best Friend" than main love interest. She was frequently sidelined, which caused a lot of frustration in the fandom here. She ended up in a relationship with John but Stephen (main character) wasn't in the slightest bit interested and had several other love interests and Cara was much more the leading lady. And I was frustrated by that because I prefer MM over PL who really was cast in every Sci fi CW pilot for a while there.  

I think past CW experience is often essential for getting cast in a role like this but in S1 she wasn't a love interest anymore than the other three girls were reduced to "love interest". The sister bond is supposed to be the main relationship, although they have definitely struggled with it at times. Parker/Maddie is still dragging on and was the bigger deal in S1. I like Macy/Harry and I don't think it came out of nowhere - there was subtext in S1 but it is a little awkward for me, especially as they jumped straight into Darklighter Harry plot as well. 

This season I have no idea where they're going. It was a brave decision to completely reboot and get rid of all the supporting cast (or so we thought). But replacing it with SSS and random characters I care even less about, taking away most of the powers (cost cutting?) and the lives they had in and around the university for the generic bunker is all a bit dull. 

Abigail is certainly a welcome presence because PD is charismatic and lively but the gang are stupid to keep her there with them because she's proven they can't trust her and she's only ever on their side to save herself or secretly further her agenda. 

[phoenics]

On 1/2/2020 at 3:45 AM, Featherhat said:

From what I can remember of TTP, Astrid was more Black Best Friend and "secretly in love with main character Best Friend" than main love interest. She was frequently sidelined, which caused a lot of frustration in the fandom here. She ended up in a relationship with John but Stephen (main character) wasn't in the slightest bit interested and had several other love interests and Cara was much more the leading lady. And I was frustrated by that because I prefer MM over PL who really was cast in every Sci fi CW pilot for a while there.  

I think past CW experience is often essential for getting cast in a role like this but in S1 she wasn't a love interest anymore than the other three girls were reduced to "love interest". The sister bond is supposed to be the main relationship, although they have definitely struggled with it at times. Parker/Maddie is still dragging on and was the bigger deal in S1. I like Macy/Harry and I don't think it came out of nowhere - there was subtext in S1 but it is a little awkward for me, especially as they jumped straight into Darklighter Harry plot as well. 

This season I have no idea where they're going. It was a brave decision to completely reboot and get rid of all the supporting cast (or so we thought). But replacing it with SSS and random characters I care even less about, taking away most of the powers (cost cutting?) and the lives they had in and around the university for the generic bunker is all a bit dull. 

Abigail is certainly a welcome presence because PD is charismatic and lively but the gang are stupid to keep her there with them because she's proven they can't trust her and she's only ever on their side to save herself or secretly further her agenda. 

I mostly agree - especially the parts about Madeleine - she did get short shrift in TTP, so I'm happy to see her getting her due here.  She's easily - aside from the guy playing Harry - the strongest actor on the show.  She is probably stronger than he is in actuality.

The way I see it - the show is completely redoing the world-building and starting over with it and slowly building elements - including  how they are getting their powers back, if at all, etc and how they learn to use stuff.

I'm really enjoying it - for some reason I don't mind this show doing its own thing.  Unlike Roswell, NM, which I hate for screwing up my favorite characters, this show has characters with different names, so they should have more freedom to switch things up and I really appreciate the slow world-building.