S04.E10: Hashing It Out

[AnimeMania]

LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD - As Mel (Melonie Diaz), Maggie (Sarah Jeffrey) and Kaela (Lucy Barrett) are navigating their love lives, The Unseen bring an epic battle to The Charmed Ones'. Roxie (guest star Shi Ne Nielson) seeks Harry's (Rupert Evans) assistance, but his mission uncovers something - and someone - unexpected.

Original Airdate: May 20, 2022

[janeta]

I'm so glad they killed off Sunny.

Does Mel know that Roxie's going back in her coffin for seven years?

[Primal Slayer]

This was a pretty bad episode. Probably the worst of the season.

The writers played fast and loose with it and did not go deep enough on what should've been the main plot...the big insurrection.

This is not the episode where give Roxie her own subplot about her lover that we've already learned about and moved on from. Especially when you are wanting to pair her up with Mel but you just gotta plant seeds for the drama that is there for ZERO reason.

This is not the episode where you have Harry on his own subplot in the land of the dead with another whitelighter.

This is the big episode before the finale where bad things happen and TCO are front and center fighting for their lives. But we didnt get that. Its a subplot within the episode. Their powers are taken away (shocker) and they have like 2 scenes of some type of actual struggle. And thats just Macy/Mel who need to get a message to Kaela/Dev for assistance.

Dev is the 2nd best character they introduced behind Kaela this seasons of course they end that romance by killing him...off screen but not right before he is able to essentially save TCOs by giving them their powers back (because once again..the sisters are never given the autonomy to truly save themselves)

The end was even more of a jumbled mess. Are we supposed to really believe that:

• Dev is dead and our Whitelighter Jr. just stands there and tries NOTHING to heal him? See if there's any semblance of life?
• Mel regains her powers, sees Dev is dead and doesnt think about using her powers to go warn her sisters of the upcoming doom and gloom or save Dev?
• That the Book of Shadows is so UNESSETIONAL that they dont notice that it is even gone?
• That somehow Dev is dead, they leave Kaela to weep and what seems to be the same exact night...Mel goes to have sex with Roxie and Maggie w/Jordan (or a cuddle) and then they are both fully dressed and finally consoling her?

I still cant get over how bland the fight was.

But I will give them a point for actually ending the episode on the 3 of them which is something that very rarely happens.

Edited May 21, 2022 by Primal Slayer

[iMonrey]

Why am I even still watching this? I don't know.

I was optimistic this show would get better under the new show runners but it's got the same old problems as before. Way too much going on. I agree with Primal Slayer - the whole subplot with Roxie and her wife is pointless and disconnected from the main story. They shouldn't have two unrelated stories going on at the same time. And Roxie is basically just Abigael 2.0. I'd just as soon they bring back Abigael, at least she was fun. Roxie is just boring and this whole Magical Nightclub thing is really, really stupid.

We are not invested enough in Kaela and Dev for the latter's death to have any real emotional punch. Dev was only introduced a few episodes ago. Same with Mel and Roxie. Who cares? Roxie has zero personality.

Harry is essentially astral projecting into the veil, so how can the ex-White Lighter knock him out there with a flashlight? His physical body is back in the real world. Stupid with a capital S. 

The show is learning way too hard into "magical beings as oppressed minorities" metaphor. I get where they're going with the magical community turning on the sisters because of a viral video and magical media propaganda but it's a little too on the nose and not based on anything the show has worked to establish. 

Quote

That the Book of Shadows is so UNESSETIONAL that they dont notice that it is even gone?

That, and as you point out, Mel should simply be able to reach back in time and grab it. AGAIN. This shouldn't be a crisis. 

[GaT]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Why am I even still watching this? I don't know.

Because it's been cancelled & you're just finishing what you started? 😁

[Camera One]

On 5/20/2022 at 11:06 PM, Primal Slayer said:

This is not the episode where give Roxie her own subplot about her lover that we've already learned about and moved on from. 

This is not the episode where you have Harry on his own subplot in the land of the dead with another whitelighter.

This is the big episode before the finale where bad things happen and TCO are front and center fighting for their lives. But we didnt get that. Its a subplot within the episode.

You pretty much said it all.  These Writers don't seem to know how to plot out a season.  The Roxie backstory should have happened after the episode where they travelled into the past.  Harry might as well be off on his own show.

And I'm still not sure why everyone wants that dumb bowl and why it re-glues itself together.  

Sunny was so irritating.  I'm glad not to have to watch her again, along with her band of entitled blamers.  Mel really should have just left her for dead in that snow globe last episode.

I actually liked Dev, so it's a shame they killed him off already. 

Are they going to bother to explain how Sunny got into their secret headquarters?  

[Rahul]

This reboot has never made much sense logically and I will watch almost anything witch-related, sadly, which is why I'm still here--but these new show runners had so many damn plot holes in this episode that it was mind boggling.

1. They established Kaela had the power to manifest physical objects with her drawing and intentions, but how exactly did her drawing tally marks on the glass equate to Sunny lost one of her nine lives?! (And what exactly is Sunny anyway--some hybrid catwoman?)

2. In a prior episode, they showed Sunny had expended six of her nine lives and even zoomed in on her arm, so her having four lives left seems like a glaring error in continuity.

3. In "Sisterhood of the Traveling Sandwich," they established Mel can now go back in time to send/retrieve objects. Why couldn't she just pull the Book of Shadows back from a time before it was stolen? (Introducing this power was a big mistake IMHO because it lends itself to serving as a deus ex machina in an endless series of similar situations. For example, why not go back to a time in the past when the unity bowl was in one piece?)

4. Less importantly, it was established that the Bowl of Unity had a preference for being split apart, so why was it whole again? 

5. In the episode "Unveiled" the sisters created blindaje poppets for all the people they cared allowing them to cheat death once. Presumably, Kaela would have made one for her love interest Dev at this juncture, so I was fully expecting him to re-awaken. Did the writers forget about this occurrence that happened just three episodes prior?

I was especially sad to loose a character who was drawn from Hindu mythology which seldom gets utilized in fantasy. Not only was the character charming and written with some nuance, but he seemed to possess more knowledge than the Charmed Ones about various magical entities, spell casting, potion making, etc. 

Echoing all the points Primal Slayer made.

On 5/21/2022 at 2:06 AM, Primal Slayer said:

This was a pretty bad episode. Probably the worst of the season.

The writers played fast and loose with it and did not go deep enough on what should've been the main plot...the big insurrection.

[...]

The end was even more of a jumbled mess. Are we supposed to really believe that:

• Dev is dead and our Whitelighter Jr. just stands there and tries NOTHING to heal him? See if there's any semblance of life?
• Mel regains her powers, sees Dev is dead and doesnt think about using her powers to go warn her sisters of the upcoming doom and gloom or save Dev?
• That the Book of Shadows is so UNESSETIONAL that they dont notice that it is even gone?
• That somehow Dev is dead, they leave Kaela to weep and what seems to be the same exact night...Mel goes to have sex with Roxie and Maggie w/Jordan (or a cuddle) and then they are both fully dressed and finally consoling her?

I still cant get over how bland the fight was.

But I will give them a point for actually ending the episode on the 3 of them which is something that very rarely happens.