S02.E08: The Rules of Engagement

[Lady Calypso]

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MID-SEASON FINALE – Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) makes a life-changing decision that her sisters and Harry (Rupert Evans) fear will destroy her. Madeleine Mantock, Melonie Diaz, Jordan Donica and Poppy Drayton also star. Kelli Williams directed the episode written by Zoe Marshall (#208). Original airdate 12/6/2019.

[GaT]

I was just going to type something about how maybe they haven't filmed the 2nd half of the season yet, & they could still fix this mess, but then previews came on for the 2nd half returning in January, so I guess the mess continues.

[AnimeMania]

I was still holding out hope that there would be a little female empowerment left in the show, but all a see are women losing their power, lying, spying, sleeping/seducing to get what they want. Then stabbing a man if the back to gain power. Why is everybody in love with Harry? The women can even read a book without help from Harry. If I ever thought that men were trying to subvert the message of "girl power", this would be the show I would point to.

[iMonrey]

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I was still holding out hope that there would be a little female empowerment left in the show, but all a see are women losing their power, lying, spying, sleeping/seducing to get what they want. Then stabbing a man if the back to gain power. Why is everybody in love with Harry? The women can even read a book without help from Harry. If I ever thought that men were trying to subvert the message of "girl power", this would be the show I would point to.

Honestly, just . . . ditto. 

I want to like this show so bad. The cast is great. But whoever writes this show just doesn't get it. With each passing episode, the Charmed Ones just look dumber and dumber. Maggie is an idiot for trusting Parker, Mel is an idiot for wanting to turn into a fly (I mean, what about the invisibility potion?) and Macy is an idiot for going along with any of this.

Harry is an idiot for trusting Abigael. The good guys are brain dead.

And wasn't the point of them losing their powers so demons couldn't track them? Well, everyone knows where they are now! Plus it seems like now they're getting different, lesser powers. Maggie has visions . . . of Jordan. That's her power, she gets Jordan visions. And now Mel can turn people into ice. Hey . . . that's what Piper did when she turned evil back on the OG series. 

There was also an establishing shot of the manor exterior at the beginning of this episode and there was a big old tree in front of it. I thought they moved the manor to the rooftop of Safe Space Seattle. They put a tree up there too? And how is it nobody has discovered an enormous house on the rooftop? 

This show. Arrrrrgggghh.

[Cranberry]

We learned in the first episode of this season that the house is cloaked and on an "empty" lot, so at least that's explained (there was no tree on that lot, however). Everything else, though, is a mess. Parker's heel-turn, Parker "dying" but not really (where are the stakes!?), both Harry and Macy suddenly falling for bad guys, anyone trusting Abigael at this point, still no powers (or minimal/occasional powers) by the mid-season finale...

I don't get it, because this show came from the people who gave us Jane the Virgin, and while that show could be silly sometimes, it was good. It was funny, it had a lot to say about family (both blood and found families), it was sweet without being saccharine, it had great character development... this show has none of that. I guess as a developer/ one of many exec producers, Jennie Snyder Urman isn't steering the ship as much as she did as JTV's showrunner, which is a shame.

[Camera One]

This show is getting outright irritating to watch.  I know there needs to be conflict, but watching the protagonists fall for every trick in the book, exactly as the evil mastermind had planned it, is just boring.

The whole wedding was obviously not going to work, so we were just watching it unravel in the most predictable fashion.  I'm not sure what we're supposed to think of Parker after his horrifying behavior in this episode.  Are we still meant to believe he's pure goodness inside if not for his demon half?  Was he force-fed the first apple, or what?  

Abigail is annoying since she just gets whatever she wants due to everyone's stupidity.  How would her plan had worked if Mel didn't become a fly and tell Maggie she saw Parker with the apples?  Godrick clearly expected Maggie to go snooping.  

Speaking of Mel, the dire "You might be Cursed as a fly for all eternity!" was resolved with a few random guesses in front of a mirror.  It was almost like a joke.

I suppose the positive is that FINALLY, their powers are back, but that was anticlimatic as hell.  Macy didn't even touch the black substance.  It would have made more sense if the Power of Three had to touch it at the same time to get their powers back.

Harry is an idiot.  I don't remember seeing any progression for how he saw the good in Abigail until this episode.  It seemed pretty sudden to me.  So how's he going to feel when even more witches will die because Abigail pins Parker's death on The Charmed Ones?  I guess now that he has memories of his past, his uncontrolled sexual urges are back?

I don't see any interesting avenues for the plot to go from here except more of the same.  Do they try to defeat Abigail until they capture her and then she tricks them again?  Plus don't forget there's still the repetition of the Dark Lighter returning from 6 feet under.  Parker's return was pointless except to reset the hamster wheel of Season 2.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Camera One

[GaT]

11 hours ago, Cranberry said:

Parker "dying" but not really 

I knew he was going to come back somehow, because that's exactly what they did with Cole, and they are just recycling that Phoebe/Cole plot. 

[Camera One]

Unlike Cole, Parker is not convincing at all as a villain.  I haven't read any interviews for this show this season, so I read a few on EW.

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Parker goes through a lot of ups and downs in this episode. Were you surprised by what a dark turn he ends up taking? 
NICK HARGROVE: Yeah, it was definitely tricky to figure out how to get into that headspace because I’ve always felt like Maggie and Parker, their relationship has always been the one thing that bonds him to his human side. This is a first time that Maggie is seeing him in his human side being demonic and evil. For me, the influence of the apples played a big part in his transition over to that more evil side. That gave him that little bit of a push.

Even the actor seems to be trying to reconcile the character's actions in this episode.

I also read an interview promoting the season premiere back in October:

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RUPERT EVANS:  We’ll just have to wait and see how it all pans out. We’re filming right now. We’re edging into episode 8, so we’re really only one-third of the way through right now. There’s a lot to play with, so not even I really know what’s going to take place. The only people that really do are the Elder showrunners — Liz and Craig know far more, but they’re being reticent about telling us.

So they were already 8 episodes in by October, and they had actually planned this circular story.  

[dini]

I only got round to watching this today. I couldn't bring myself to watch all of if. I stopped watching about 10 minutes in. 

That's me out.  😬

I like the cast, but I watch TV for escapism. This has just become annoying. 

[ursula]

Extremely disappointed the wedding didn't stick. I half-expected them to go through with it just because it was so obvious that they weren't going to, if that makes any sense. It would have definitely shaken up the story. Alas. No balls. 

[iMonrey]

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I suppose the positive is that FINALLY, their powers are back, but that was anticlimatic as hell.  Macy didn't even touch the black substance. 

Their powers aren't back. Macy didn't get her TK power back, she just never lost her demon fire-throwing power. Mel has some weird variation on her freezing power that actually turns things to ice, and Maggie's new power is that she has visions about Jordan. Wow. 

With any luck, the black goo that Mel touched is slowly restoring her power, maybe that's why it's in some weird lesser state right now. Hopefully Maggie and Macy will get their goo on if that's the case.