S03.E04: You Can't Touch This

[Lady Calypso]

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The Charmed Ones (Melonie Diaz, Madeleine Mantock and Sarah Jeffery) encounter a new, magical obstacle as they try to relaunch themselves in the human world. Also starring Rupert Evans, Jordan Donica and Poppy Drayton. Bola Ogun directed the episode written by Joey Falco and Geraldine Elizabeth Inoa (episode #304). Original airdate 2/21/2021.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Did I miss something in the last episode where the Charmed Ones are magically alive again to the world? And able to live normal lives, magically get jobs? 

[UnoAgain]

22 minutes ago, Primal Slayer said:

Did I miss something in the last episode where the Charmed Ones are magically alive again to the world? And able to live normal lives, magically get jobs? 

Naw they didn't really explain it yet... Tho with the "Faction"gone I'm sure they came up with an excuse and a reason for faking their deaths that the folks in Michigan bought... And then its just about restarting in seattle... I enjoyed the sisters bonding at the end... And that the threat is really old... Seemed like macy wasn't using Latin when she summoned the chupa-alma... So good on the show for moving a hit diff... Also great work with giving Macy so many diff looks hair-wise....  So I'm a bit miffed having to look at Maggie and Jordan's hair... Those two are not prepping for us mixed kids very well... 

[Primal Slayer]

 I totally forgot that Macy had a force field power. I was so confused by what she was doing. Though I dont know why she didnt just use her TK to the demon in place? BUT hey! They all used their powers! Do you know how long its been since they've used their powers? Feels like FOREVER. It was nice that we finally got a demon demon and not a guy in black demon.

7 minutes ago, UnoAgain said:

Naw they didn't really explain it yet... Tho with the "Faction"gone I'm sure they came up with an excuse and a reason for faking their deaths that the folks in Michigan bought... And then its just about restarting in seattle... I enjoyed the sisters bonding at the end... And that the threat is really old... Seemed like macy wasn't using Latin when she summoned the chupa-alma... So good on the show for moving a hit diff... Also great work with giving Macy so many diff looks hair-wise....  So I'm a bit miffed having to look at Maggie and Jordan's hair... Those two are not prepping for us mixed kids very well... 

Glad I am not going crazy and that they just went back to their normal lives as if their deaths had never happened.

Yes, the end of the episode with them actually conversing was great. This is literally the most screen time they've gotten together since S1. Only took them having to be COVID safe to make it happen. If only that is how they ended the episode instead of having them go their separate ways again. The show is definitely not about sisters but about them as individuals who just happen to be sisters.

[UnoAgain]

20 minutes ago, Primal Slayer said:

Yes, the end of the episode with them actually conversing was great. This is literally the most screen time they've gotten together since S1

True.. Still macy is gonna need a non Harry story to have.. And harry is gonna need to spend more time with the other sisters. .. And not have that time be about Macy... 

[Cranberry]

3 hours ago, UnoAgain said:

Naw they didn't really explain it yet... Tho with the "Faction"gone I'm sure they came up with an excuse and a reason for faking their deaths that the folks in Michigan bought... And then its just about restarting in seattle...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that one throwaway line -- "Here I was thinking our lives could go back to normal now that The Faction's gone" -- is all we're gonna get on that front.

The curse that won't let them get too close amuses me. With that plus the bustling market where everyone was invisible, this show has been the most inventive I've seen when dealing with Covid.

I had no idea that Mel was still with Ruby. Really? She's such a nonentity on the show. 

I feel like if you're a witch who's constantly dealing with crazy situations and you wake up covered in dirt or with a twig in your hair, you don't just say, "Huh. That's weird" and move on, but maybe that's just me.

I honestly couldn't tell you what powers each of the sisters has at this point. That big fight sequence was just shimmery colors to me.

[iMonrey]

First off, hate Maggie's new hair. Second, WTF is going on with that house? They said it was no longer invisible. So is it no longer on the roof of safe space Seattle? Then where the heck is it? It's not back in Michigan. How do you just move a whole house somewhere? Wouldn't someone notice if a whole house just appeared on their street one day?

The forced distancing is a little too meta for Covid times.

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I honestly couldn't tell you what powers each of the sisters has at this point. That big fight sequence was just shimmery colors to me.

I know right? All 3 sisters had the same sparkly mojo in that final scene. Why didn't Mel just freeze the monster? This show really, really sucks with details and rules.

It's very vexing. So much potential and I really like the cast, but the writing for this show is so sloppy and hard to follow.

[tennisgurl]

So it seems like we are resetting again for the new season (or what would have been the new season) and its actually going back to be more like season one again. The college setting returns, Mel is teaching while Maggie is a student, they are back to being themselves, they seem to be trying to mix and match the two seasons styles to see what they want to keep. I am glad I'm not the only one confused about the sisters being back to normal, does that mean they are going to tell everyone that they aren't dead? Go back to their old jobs, see their old friends to let them  know they're alive? What are they telling people about where they've been? 

A curse keeping the cast from touching is certainly a creative way to deal with COVID, a magical spell that enforces social distancing. This weirdly  allowed the sisters to have a lot of actual scenes together, which has really been missing from the show so I was happy to see that. The sisters have spent so much time in their own subplots that the show has lost the connection between the three of them that should be the shows core. 

I am glad that they seem to be committing to Harry and Macy as a couple now, after so much time I am just glad that we are moving forward with them. Mel is still with Ruby? I had to look on the Wiki to even remember who Ruby was. 

The big fight was just a bunch of lights and sparkles, I really wish the show would use the sisters actual individual powers more often. I am glad that the demon was an actual monster though, and it looked pretty cool. It wasn't just another person wearing too much eye liner. 

[iMonrey]

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The big fight was just a bunch of lights and sparkles, I really wish the show would use the sisters actual individual powers more often. 

Exactly when did they figure out they had this weird force field power? And that all three of them had it? I hate it when they just start pulling whatever power they need out of their asses at any given moment. It's dumb and it's lazy. Especially when Mel could have just frozen the monster.

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I am glad that the demon was an actual monster though, and it looked pretty cool. It wasn't just another person wearing too much eye liner. 

It looked just like a Leviathan from Supernatural. Same network too, I wonder if it was repurposed footage.

[Primal Slayer]

51 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Exactly when did they figure out they had this weird force field power? And that all three of them had it? I hate it when they just start pulling whatever power they need out of their asses at any given moment. It's dumb and it's lazy. Especially when Mel could have just frozen the monster.

Thats the thing lol...only Macy has that force field power. She kept it from moving by putting in a force field (oy vey) while Maggie used her empathy to make it calm down and not fight them and then Mel used her heat power to heat it up to death...they all just look the same but different colors....the OG was very effective without having to use visuals to show us that they were using their powers. 

[SyracuseMug]

Was Maggie having another panic attack when the professor called her rude? It wasn't clear to me what had happened until she went to the library and tried to refocus. And then I don't recall anything more being said about it.

Edited February 23, 2021 by SyracuseMug
Left a word out.

[Primal Slayer]

21 minutes ago, SyracuseMug said:

Was Maggie having another panic attack when the professor called her rude? It wasn't clear to me what had happened until she went to the library and tried to refocus. And then I don't recall anything more being said about it.

I thought it was her empathy taking on everyone's emotions?

[Cranberry]

7 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Second, WTF is going on with that house? They said it was no longer invisible. So is it no longer on the roof of safe space Seattle? Then where the heck is it?

It was never on the roof... the show made it a little confusing because they panned over some roofs before reintroducing the house in S02.E01, but it's in an "empty" lot. It would still be weird for an old house to spring up out of nowhere in an empty lot, though!

[GaT]

I seriously hate Maggie's hair. It probably wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much of it, but it just overwhelms her whole head.

[phoenics]

12 hours ago, Primal Slayer said:

I thought it was her empathy taking on everyone's emotions?

No, it was a panic attack.  That's why she flashed back to Jordan helping her recover from another panic attack last season.  They spent multiple episodes building up the "Maggie has panic attacks" both in the first 3 eps of this season (mostly episode 2-3) and last season (episode 19).

 

[Primal Slayer]

1 minute ago, phoenics said:

No, it was a panic attack.  That's why she flashed back to Jordan helping her recover from another panic attack last season.  They spent multiple episodes building up the "Maggie has panic attacks" both in the first 3 eps of this season (mostly episode 2-3) and last season (episode 19).

 

Oh. Oh well.

[phoenics]

7 hours ago, GaT said:

I seriously hate Maggie's hair. It probably wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much of it, but it just overwhelms her whole head.

They are allowing the actress to wear her natural hair texture.  Maybe she just needs it without bangs?  But I love that she gets to wear her naturally curly hair.  Sarah Jeffery talks on instagram about how liberating it has been to wear her natural hair and how it is recovering from years of damage at always straightening it due to the pressure to wear it straight and assimilate.

I think people who don't like her new hairstyle might like to take a peek and read what she says about it herself here. I think eventually it will look like her instagram pic on the show too - this must be some interesting in between phase?

 

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by phoenics

[phoenics]

15 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Exactly when did they figure out they had this weird force field power? And that all three of them had it? I hate it when they just start pulling whatever power they need out of their asses at any given moment. It's dumb and it's lazy. Especially when Mel could have just frozen the monster.

 

Its only Macy that has this power.  I think it was S2Episode16 when Macy used it on those demons when Godric was about to kill Mel and Abby and take over as Overlord.  Parker phased in and shocked everyone while a cloaked Macy and Maggie freed Mel and Abby.  The cloaking spell wore off and left them vulnerable to all the demons present (there were at least 30 of them) attacking.  Then Macy reacted and we saw the force field power for the first time.  Mel or Maggie asked how she did that and Macy said she didn't know.

I almost thought they were gonna never let her use that power again and was so happy to see it on Sunday's episode - so gonna have to disagree that the writing was dumb and lazy since they clearly showed this power before.

All 3 of them got powers last season that were slightly more than the powers they had previously (with the exception of Mel, but that's mostly a matter of interpretation).

It looked just like a Leviathan from Supernatural. Same network too, I wonder if it was repurposed footage.

I think it's actually more like the demo-dogs from Stranger Things - given the dimensional rip the next creature came through at the end of the episode, I think the Stranger Things idea fits, although there is speculation that

this is an The Old Ones storyline from the OG comic

.  If so, I am SO excited and can't wait.  With only 14 episodes left this season, they won't have time for filler so hopefully the episodes can all be way more intense.

Really loving this season (I'm counting "this season" as S3Ep4 onward because technically this would have been the season 3 premiere episode if covid hadn't interrupted filming last year) even better than the last!  Feels like a perfect mesh between Season 2 and Season 3.

 

[phoenics]

16 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

The big fight was just a bunch of lights and sparkles, I really wish the show would use the sisters actual individual powers more often.

They did each use their individual powers.  Maybe the special effects were too similar, but I didn't have trouble differentiating between them?  Macy used her force field power, Maggie used her inception power and then Mel used her molecular manipulation power. 

Maybe if you skipped a lot of S2 or forgot the three individual and amped up powers they got in the S2 episodes (counting the first 3 eps of S3 which were technically from S2), then I could see how this might have been confusing.

 

[Primal Slayer]

2 hours ago, phoenics said:

 

Maybe if you skipped a lot of S2 or forgot the three individual and amped up powers they got in the S2 episodes (counting the first 3 eps of S3 which were technically from S2), then I could see how this might have been confusing.

 

They rarely use their powers so its easy to forget them. Especially when its only used once or twice. 

[GaT]

7 hours ago, phoenics said:

They are allowing the actress to wear her natural hair texture.  Maybe she just needs it without bangs?  But I love that she gets to wear her naturally curly hair.  Sarah Jeffery talks on instagram about how liberating it has been to wear her natural hair and how it is recovering from years of damage at always straightening it due to the pressure to wear it straight and assimilate.

I think people who don't like her new hairstyle might like to take a peek and read what she says about it herself here. I think eventually it will look like her instagram pic on the show too - this must be some interesting in between phase?

It looks much better in the IG post, I think you're right about the bangs. I don't have a problem with it being curly, I have a problem with her looking like she's all head.

[iMonrey]

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Thats the thing lol...only Macy has that force field power. She kept it from moving by putting in a force field (oy vey) while Maggie used her empathy to make it calm down and not fight them and then Mel used her heat power to heat it up to death...they all just look the same but different colors....the OG was very effective without having to use visuals to show us that they were using their powers. 

It didn't read that way, hence the general confusion. I didn't see any evidence Maggie was "calming it down." I saw Macy say she couldn't hold it then Maggie said "I got this" then she looked like she was just adding to whatever Macy was doing. Then Mel was supposed to finish it off and it looked like she was just doing the same thing.

I know that Mel got some weird version of her freezing power last season. I don't remember whether she was able to also heat things or not, but regardless, neither she nor Maggie had ever shot colored mojo out of their hands in order to affect their powers.

[Primal Slayer]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

It didn't read that way, hence the general confusion. I didn't see any evidence Maggie was "calming it down." I saw Macy say she couldn't hold it then Maggie said "I got this" then she looked like she was just adding to whatever Macy was doing. Then Mel was supposed to finish it off and it looked like she was just doing the same thing.

I know that Mel got some weird version of her freezing power last season. I don't remember whether she was able to also heat things or not, but regardless, neither she nor Maggie had ever shot colored mojo out of their hands in order to affect their powers.

I agree it was messy, it took me a minute to figure it all out. I think Mel got her freeze and fire power in the same episode? She's only used them once so easy to forget.

[phoenics]

On 2/23/2021 at 6:07 PM, iMonrey said:

I know that Mel got some weird version of her freezing power last season. I don't remember whether she was able to also heat things or not, but regardless, neither she nor Maggie had ever shot colored mojo out of their hands in order to affect their powers.

Macy shot colored mojo out of her hands in the episode I described in an earlier post (S2 - the episode with the bee demons) - Macy held off a horde of demons with her new power toward the end of the episode. I was glad to see her do it again on sunday because I worried the other time would end up a one-off.

Maggie shot colored stuff out of her hands in the first episode of this season when she accidentally incepted Mel.  The part in the kitchen when she tries to make Mel go back to normal is where the power came out of her hands.  It also happened in S2ep18 when she got really mad and the power burst out of her in a huge shockwave.  But the part most like what she did to the creature was S3Ep1 at about the 15 min mark.

Mel didn't actually shoot colored stuff from her hands.  Her power manifests as light on her hand, but the power is clear - like a wave of hot air - when she does the heat power.  When it's cold power I think it might look icy coming from her hand, or nothing, I can't remember.

But I get the color differences (Macy - blue, Maggie - pink/magenta, Mel - clear, except the light on her hands, which is gold for heat and not sure for cold) may be hard to see and kinda subtle.

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by phoenics

[phoenics]

On 2/23/2021 at 11:03 PM, Primal Slayer said:

I agree it was messy, it took me a minute to figure it all out. I think Mel got her freeze and fire power in the same episode? She's only used them once so easy to forget.

Mel has used her freeze power three times - once against Parker, once to freeze the rod to save Jordan in the club and again when showing their dad they were witches.

She's used her heat power (or attempted to) three times: once to open the gate at Fort Easton Power Site, once to try to burn that monster in the hallway at some Faction facility when she and Harry went to get the darklighter bottle and also when she tried to burn the hybrid monster at the docks right before they found Celeste.  She also used it to heat up coffee or something right after she got the power.

And I agree they haven't used their powers enough in S2, but it looks like S3 is fixing that.

[Camera One]

This episode is giving me a bit more hope for Season 3, considering it's the actual start of the season with the last three being the delayed ending of Season 2.

I like seeing the sisters out and about having sort of normal lives.  I'm glad it wasn't just me confused about why they didn't have to pretend to be dead anymore.  

I also agree with everyone above saying it was nice to see the three sisters using their powers together.  I guessed that Maggie was somehow changing the monster's emotions but that could have been spelled out better.  I too was confused about what Mel was doing with her powers but manipulating molecules to make it burn makes sense.  I have mixed feelings about the case-of-the-week format, but they just weren't very good with season-long stories last year, so I don't mind this too much.  Not having Abigail around helped and I hope she's gone forever but of course she isn't.

Macy was sort of frustrating with her pushing Harry away but I'm glad she "learned" her lesson by the end of the episode.  Maggie's professor was a total pill, and I hope her new "nemesis" isn't going to become a love interest.  It's hard to believe that the roommate who's a bully would have chosen to take *that* class.  I liked seeing Mel making a connection with that student but maybe she could have seen the discriminatory behavior outside of the classroom (though that wouldn't allow Mel to act by prescribing that book for the class to read).

Edited May 9, 2021 by Camera One