S03.E02: Someone's Going to Die

[Lady Calypso]

Quote

 

TRUST ISSUES - The Destruction of the Sisterhood looms large as the Charmed Ones (Melonie Diaz, Madeleine Mantock and Sarah Jeffery) face down The Faction. Harry (Rupert Evans) and Macy are divided over a potential ally - Julian (guest star Eric Balfour). Also starring Poppy Drayton and Jordan Donica. Menhaj Huda directed the episode written by Jeffrey Lieber and Carrie Williams (episode #302). Original airdate 1/31/2021.

 

[Primal Slayer]

First off....is something next Sunday? Why go on a 1 week hiatus after 2 episodes?

Other then that...so glad this "humans are trying to destroy magic" storyline is "over" it really ended up being....bad. The OG Charmed did a similar storyline with the doctor gaining their powers in s2 and it was handled so much better than this season long thing that resulted in whatshername being blown to smithereens within seconds and Julian died "off screen"? lol.

It did annoy me that they once again basically acted like The Power of 3 is a job, we only come together to say spells and then after its over we focus on the love interests in our lives. Macy immediately embraces Harry after the vanquish evil woman and then after that its each sister checking in with their love interests and being forced back together because of this magical virus. Hopefully we can course correct yet again now that S2 appears to be done.

[UnoAgain]

16 minutes ago, Primal Slayer said:

First off....is something next Sunday? Why go on a 1 week hiatus after 2 episodes?

Other then that...so glad this "humans are trying to destroy magic" storyline is "over" it really ended up being....bad. The OG Charmed did a similar storyline with the doctor gaining their powers in s2 and it was handled so much better than this season long thing that resulted in whatshername being blown to smithereens within seconds and Julian died "off screen"? lol.

It did annoy me that they once again basically acted like The Power of 3 is a job, we only come together to say spells and then after its over we focus on the love interests in our lives. Macy immediately embraces Harry after the vanquish evil woman and then after that its each sister checking in with their love interests and being forced back together because of this magical virus. Hopefully we can course correct yet again now that S2 appears to be done.

Yeah next week is the  super bowl... 

Poor Julian.. Went from rebound to misguided bad guy to good guy.. To weird CGI dead guy... 

Macy being all Harry-centric is gonna get old fast... Was nice to see ruby again... Dunno what the show is really doing with Jordan and Maggie... 

I do hope this new threat keeps the girls together and engaged with each other more.. And not Melt/Maggie over here with maybe Jordan and Macy/Harry over there... 

Let's hope this is the season we see some family from these women.. And some diff kind of magic... Stuff that isn't ao euro-centric... All cultures have their own spin on the magical world.. If witches demons and other creatures are in danger and the charmed ones are gonna be out and about saving folks.. I hope it won't always come down to some spell chanted in Latin

[iMonrey]

This felt like the Season 2 finale, which it probably was intended to be. But the way it ended doesn't give me a lot of confidence going forward. It still seems like they are biting off WAY more than they can chew. That's been the problem with this reboot from the get go.

I hate to say it but they really need to drop Abigael and Jordan and the whole thing with his curse. There are just too many subplots and nothing is really sticking. 

[Primal Slayer]

Do demons not kill humans anymore in this universe? They just focus on witches?

[tennisgurl]

It seems like this might have been what they wanted to do for the finale last season, but I am glad that they have already ended the "humans want to control magic" story, it was already boring. Poor Julian, he finally joined the good guys and that's what did him in. That and being the other romantic option for Macy who isn't Harry. 

Hopefully we can focus more on one specific story arc with some more monsters of the week, there are way too many subplots that just seem to drag on for way past their expiration date. I also hope that the issues with the Power of Three brings the sisters together again, they all got rather drawn apart last season in romances and subplots. 

[phoenics]

On 1/31/2021 at 10:10 PM, Primal Slayer said:

and Julian died "off screen"? lol.

He died onscreen - Harry was with him.  Harry put up his hand to heal him, but then he watched Julian's eyes turn from blue to dead brown.  Then Macy came back and saw he was dead.  His death was very much onscreen, though probably not the original death planned for Julian.  The writers on twitter said there were some challenges to filming due to Covid - they couldn't get Eric Balfour back in person so they had to do some CGI on him.  I was wondering in the previous episode that the scene where he's talking to Macy looked weird and now I know why. It was CGI.

6 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

It seems like this might have been what they wanted to do for the finale last season, but I am glad that they have already ended the "humans want to control magic" story, it was already boring.

It wasn't the season finale - it was the penultimate episode.  In S2 it would have been episode 21 of a 22 episode season.  The Valentine's Day episode is the real S2 finale.  We won't see their S3 course correction until episode 4 and then the season will end 14 episodes later.

I actually really liked this storyline, but agree that the threads were hard to follow for some (not for me, but I really liked what I was seeing and remained engaged enough to catch them).  My main criticism was that it ended pitifully.  All of that build up and Viv was vanquished more easily than the ice dude was in the S1 pilot. LOL - what the hell show?  Kind of a cop out.

But the magical pandemic?  Well now that might have some legs in the stakes department.

I personally prefer the darker tone of s1 and I gravitate to huge big concept, world ending kinds of storylines with a major threat that feels insurmountable - but only if the payoff is worth it.  And the payoff here was ... lacking ... although in the end, it looks like the real danger was less Vivian, but more her poisoning the entire magical world - which she did.

I wish the show had built that ending up more?  Like if they had made it some kind of quest Viv was on the whole time in order to do something really bad - like poison the magical world - and actually SUCCEED at it - it would have been better because now we could see in the true s2 finale (on feb 14th) how they overcame the huge obstacle of saving a dying magical world.  Instead I thought we were gearing up for some epic battle of TCOs vs a horde of human zombies with demon powers.

Also - Viv absorbed all kinds of demon powers willingly - she had to die.  And technically they didn't kill her - her own inability to absorb all of that magic did.  Gray area? Although I agree with the criticism of the lack of spell casting.  Fan criticism that their Power of Three feels more super-hero-ish is fair.  In the OG, the witches used their powers a lot and they were kinda super-hero-ish.  But the Power of Three spell was always an actual spell.  I hope they get back to that in S3 - or level it up a bit.  Although in S1 when they faced off against Faith using the power of three that was awesome - the sound effects and visual effect of that was really awesome.

I would also like them to bring back some of the bad assery spell casting Macy did when she did the whole voodoo doll immortality stripping spell.  Whew.  That was so good.

I do hope next season brings the sisterhood to the forefront more.  I still want to keep Hacy (obvs) but Harry is going to need to step up his side of that - right now Macy is doing all of the work.  That's egregious because Harry was supposedly the one who caught feelings first, but he's still never verbalized any of that to her.  I read a review the other day of last week's episode and there was a line in there that claimed Harry loved Macy since he first set eyes on her and I was left wondering where I missed that scene?  Unless they are getting that from the scene in Macy's past where Harry comes to fix her from having demon fire coming out when she was in college?  I mean I can fanwank that is when he fell for her - but if it's true that Marisol wiped his memory of that incident then ... ?

I don't have an issue with the girls having love interests - but the sisterhood does need to be centered more.  But I didn't have an issue with Macy hugging Harry - she's clearly in love with him and was worried about losing him.  The reboot is unlike the OG in that their whitelighter is always there with them - and let's be real - Harry is the most talked about and popular character on this show according to google trends. They can't just shuffle him off somewhere and only focus on the girls.  But they shouldn't only show Macy with him alone - last year they did a better job of this than in the last two episodes, tbh (well, except for that part after Macy was rescued from Jimmy - that scene of the sisters Mel and Maggie comforting Harry instead of Macy made no sense to me at all).  It should have been them comforting Macy and then Harry coming in later to talk and say what he said to Mel and Maggie and Macy all to Macy.  

Anyway - here's hoping the real S3 (episodes 4-18) will take the best of S2 and S1 and balance them better.

 

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by phoenics

[tennisgurl]

14 minutes ago, phoenics said:

It wasn't the season finale - it was the penultimate episode.  In S2 it would have been episode 21 of a 22 episode season.  The Valentine's Day episode is the real S2 finale.  We won't see their S3 course correction until episode 4 and then the season will end 14 episodes later.

 

That makes quite a bit of sense. So the next episode will more or less be the new third season with the new main plot. I would really like to see more of a balance of bigger plots and "case of the week" plots, and would balance the tone out a bit more. Its a bit frustrating, because this show has so many individual parts that I really like, and a lot of really cool ideas, it just needs to find a way to make all of them gel together a bit more. 

[Primal Slayer]

I wonder if they will ever find a way to bring the sisters "back to life" and in a stable location where they can invite people over. 

Also anytime I hear anyone on this show, especially some God being person use the term "command center"  I just cant help but laugh. It is so Power Rangers.

[Cranberry]

On 2/2/2021 at 11:29 PM, tennisgurl said:

So the next episode will more or less be the new third season with the new main plot.

Nope, the next episode (episode three) is the equivalent to the season two finale. The next main plot should start in episode four.

This show is really bad at raising the stakes. I never worried that anyone important was going to die. I never felt that Viv was a formidable opponent. Every problem these girls have is easily solved by some spell they just happen to remember. It's boring. And Jordan and Abi really need something to do if they're going to stick around. Did we even see Jordan do anything this week besides sit in the woods and talk to Maggie? I feel like, dwindling hourglass sand aside, his curse storyline also has no sense of urgency.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I wonder if they will ever find a way to bring the sisters "back to life" and in a stable location where they can invite people over. 

Also anytime I hear anyone on this show, especially some God being person use the term "command center"  I just cant help but laugh. It is so Power Rangers.

Yeah, I never understood the move to Safe Space Seattle and the invisible house sitting on top of the building. That's just so bizarre and hard to rationalize. Does Safe Space Seattle really exist and are they sponsors or something?

[Terrafamilia]

Hey, Julian, one aluminum carrying case right at hand upside Viv's head and you would have gotten the stupid prism and stayed alive.

I guess those magic detectors we were told the Faction had weren't all that sensitive given they didn't register the magical impersonation spell.

Once everyone was noted to be okay after Viv blew up real good a normal person would immediately have checked on the well-being of the magic tree and amber instead of waiting for hours and then only at the prompting of a sick witch hocking up ash. These are clearly not normal people.

Watch enough television and you'll come to learn that everything caused the Dark Ages. And the pedant in me wants to point out that the so-called Dark Ages was a western European thing, not a global thing.

Maybe they'll be able to save the witches from the magical pandemic fairly quickly but then drag their feet when it comes to saving the demons, say, until 90% have been killed off. But I'm sure they'll come up with some reason why they just have to save all the demons possible.

[phoenics]

On 2/4/2021 at 5:33 PM, iMonrey said:

Yeah, I never understood the move to Safe Space Seattle and the invisible house sitting on top of the building. That's just so bizarre and hard to rationalize. Does Safe Space Seattle really exist and are they sponsors or something?

The house doesn't sit on top of Safe Space.  When the house was in Hilltowne it did sit on top of that weird magical crypt place where they were able to amp up their powers though.  But I think that's all gone now and didn't come with the house when it was moved to Seattle.

Only the Command Center sits underneath Safe Space Seattle - that's why Julian bought Safe Space - so he could dig underneath and get to the tree and amber, etc.  This is also why Maggie had to get a job as assistant manager at Safe Space because they needed a key card to get access to Safe Space and the special room that led to the entrance to the Command Center.  Since the house was cloaked to keep them from the darklighter, they couldn't use the Command Center marbles to go from the CC to their house and vice versa.

The Vera-Vaughn house is somewhere else in Seattle entirely.  It was moved from Hilltowne to an empty lot in Seattle and has nothing to do with SafeSpace.

 

On 2/4/2021 at 8:21 PM, Terrafamilia said:

 

I guess those magic detectors we were told the Faction had weren't all that sensitive given they didn't register the magical impersonation spell.

 

IIRC, Julian-Nadia said that it was meant to keep magical creatures out.  Which begs the question of whether it would detect and prevent a potion being used on Julian.  Since Viv was able to use the bracelet thingee and almost petrify that other man on the inside, I'm gonna go with their faraday cage didn't prevent magic on the inside - only from keeping magical creatures out.

[phoenics]

On 2/2/2021 at 10:01 PM, phoenics said:

 

I personally prefer the darker tone of s1 and I gravitate to huge big concept

I meant to say I prefer the darker tone of s2. I know I'm in the minority, lol.  S2 really hooked me on this show when S1 failed to do.  But I do hope they manage to balance the best of both.

[Camera One]

If Macy hadn't insisted on going to the facility with Harry, then the evil villainess wouldn't have been able to see into her brain to know how to get to the Tree and the black amber.  I was expecting Macy to feel guilty for that.

On 2/4/2021 at 5:21 PM, Terrafamilia said:

Hey, Julian, one aluminum carrying case right at hand upside Viv's head and you would have gotten the stupid prism and stayed alive.

I was thinking the same thing in that scene.  Their plan was dumb.  Why did Julian disappear for that long?  He could have incapacitated his aunt away from the top secret facility and that clawed hand thing.  

Quote

Once everyone was noted to be okay after Viv blew up real good a normal person would immediately have checked on the well-being of the magic tree and amber instead of waiting for hours and then only at the prompting of a sick witch hocking up ash. These are clearly not normal people.

That is really ridiculous.  It was obvious Viv went into the room with the Tree yet they never went inside to look at what happened?  

Quote

Watch enough television and you'll come to learn that everything caused the Dark Ages. And the pedant in me wants to point out that the so-called Dark Ages was a western European thing, not a global thing.

Plus the Dark Ages wasn't actually all that "dark".

Overall, the climax was lame.  At least this episode didn't have the deathly boring Abigail so it was more watchable than the last one in some ways.  Though the premonitions about "someone is going to die" was annoying.  It didn't take Maggie's powers to guess it would be Julian.