S03.E08: O, The Tangled Web

[Lady Calypso]

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Macy (Madeleine Mantock) reels from an encounter with the Shea Group and Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) uses her psych background to get to the bottom of it; Harry (Rupert Evans) and Mel (Melonie Diaz) must detangle an ancient feud.

 

[Primal Slayer]

The CW loves a good backdoor pilot so why dont they just spin off Abigail into her own show? I feel like the writers would love to write for her full time. If Harry's the glorified 4th sister, she's definitely the glorified 5th sister. 

I feel like Charmed focused longer on Abbys demonic face than Supergirl has managed to do on J'onns martian face so that's a definite plus. 

The witch vs. witch storyline was boring.

I did like Mel using her literal freezing powers in this episode, her putting out the flame was nice along with the ice daggers.

Charmed doesn't know how to do subtle PSAs, they like to spell it out for you, hook, line, and sinker. It just rarely is well written. 

Oh...we are expanding the Charmed family...yay. 

[UnoAgain]

As someone who's been karen'd I felt macy's rage and exasperation.. It was a confusing and maddening encounter and like this scenario it was in a work setting where my "other-ness" was a topic... And we also get to my mind the first utterance of mysognoir on a tv show that wasn't overly a black show.. So kudos to the writers for all that... Yeah it was heavy-handed.. But ain't shit subtle about being karen'd....  I was hoping instead of witch x witch feud it woulda been witch x demon... But the demon was in the right.. And we still coulda had the confirmation bias angle and maybe even finally get around to macy dealing with her demon stuff which seems to still be forgotten... I like Abby and I like Jordan.. But I do hope we can start to move fwd with her plot.. And maybe he gets a new hairstyle... 

[Cranberry]

This show doesn't really do "subtle," but the "Karen" plot didn't bother me. I've seen far more egregious things in the news in the past couple years, so it was completely believable to me that some clueless white PR person would bungle things this badly and lash out when called on it. I'm surprised she didn't flat-out say that an "angry Black woman" was threatening her when she called security. I'm sure she doesn't consider herself the least bit racist, either. 

The warring witches stuff was resolved a little too quickly (another Charmed trademark), but it was a good enough story. I liked that the culprit was a witch and not a demon, but I agree they could have done more with it.

I still think the writers are setting up an eventual Abi/Mel pairing. Abi's overly concerned with what Mel thinks of her, insulted Mel's "simpering barista" in this episode and tried to make Ruby think Mel was cheating on her a couple episodes ago, and also flirted with Mel in that episode. (She flirted with Jordan in this one, but quickly pointed out it was a joke.) Macy's already calling out the fact that Mel basically has a soft spot for Abi. I'm okay with that, as long as her redemption is done well and she doesn't lose all her bite -- I like a morally ambiguous character, but one who's ultimately on the same side as the protagonists. I also don't want this potential romance (or any romance) to eat the show -- the show should be about the sisters over all, and I feel like the writers have been doing a better job of that this season.

[iMonrey]

This episode felt like a bit of a mess to me. Last seasons' problems seem to be creeping back because it was sort of all over the place. Too much stuff going on at once, all packed into one episode. I'm not clear on what this curse, or allergy, or whatever is keeping the sisters physically apart, has to do with these stone tablets and the weird, ancient demons they've been encountering, or the demon Alcatraz they wound up in last week. On top of that you've got whatever's going on with Abigael and her demon side trying to kill her, and these little subplots with Maggie doing her school projects and Macy doing whatever with Safe Space. And what about Jordan? Is the curse on his family gone now?

I don't know why Macy didn't just turn around and walk out as soon as she realized they just wanted her as a spokesmodel. And I wasn't real clear on the connection between Safe Space and whatever operation this was that mistreated her. 

Finally, I don't mind if the show does something topical, but I felt like the situation with Macy and "karen" was sort of ham-fisted and clunky. They could have done something similar under less forced circumstances. I spent the whole episode not understanding what happened until the very end, so I wasn't properly able to invest.

Edited March 29, 2021 by iMonrey

[tennisgurl]

The story with Macy and the Karen was as obvious as this show always is when it comes to social issues, but it was pretty well done. I can totally see some clueless white PR women trying to do damage control and in doing so exposes her own racism, and you could really feel Macy's anger and humiliation over it. Not subtle, but handled pretty well and its a good topic to discuss. I could feel the cringe at the stereotypical "staving African" pictures came out. And they wanted Macy to wear some sexy outfit over pictures of people dying of Malaria? THAT was going to solve their PR problem? No wonder Macy walked out. 

There is just way too much going on this season, every episode has way too many subplots. The feud between the witches had potential, and I like that it was a witch who hurt the other witch and not a demon, but it felt like it was way too easy to get them to mend fences. Also, did they really get into why they're coven split up? It felt like an idea that was struggling to find room to grow. I did like having a Mel and harry plot, they always work well together. 

Abi seems to be on a different show. I like having a more morally ambiguous ally for the sisters, but she takes up so much screen time in plots that have nothing to do with anything else. Its like a backdoor pilot that never ends. 

[Primal Slayer]

My biggest issue with the Karen was that they tried to do so many issues within 1 character/episode. They had that woman hit them all besides calling Macy an angry balck woman or the racial slur. 

Macy has to deal with racism, Mel with transphobia, Maggie with sexism. Maggie's has probably been dealt with the best thus far just because it hasnt felt like it they slapped us in the face with it. 

[Happytobehere]

1. This is not the title that appeared with this episode on my tv.

2. So this was the Macy interacts with a white woman episode. Has she never met one before?

3. The nasty, treacherous, backstabbing, kidnapping, demon chick doesn’t get why she is unlikable? 🤔 Okay.

[iMonrey]

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My biggest issue with the Karen was that they tried to do so many issues within 1 character/episode. They had that woman hit them all besides calling Macy an angry balck woman or the racial slur

My issue was that there were too many people standing around witnessing the exchange for Karen to pull that "I'm being threatened" crap. Including the woman who brought Macy there in the first place. If this would have happened in a private office or out in the hallway and she pulled out her phone I would have found it more credible. There are ways to tell this story, but this wasn't a good one.

[janeta]

I would certainly hope Ariel quit that job....

[Camera One]

Getting back to finishing the season.  I found this episode rather tedious to watch.  For some reason, I thought something magical happened to Mel with that elevator, not realizing it was a flashforward to her getting kicked out by security.  The Abigail stuff was boring as usual.  I liked Jordan, but dragging him into her subplot is making him boring too.  The fighting witch subplot felt like a C plot which randomly led to finding the second half of the tablet, which I don't even remember since I so infrequently watch an episode.