S01.E11: Witch Perfect

[Lady Calypso]

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SING A SONG — Macy (Madeleine Mantock) is eager to share the information she has learned with her sisters, but is thrown by their reaction to the news.  To cheer herself up, Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) decides to try out for an a capella group, but something doesn’t feel right about the group.  Meanwhile, Mel (Melonie Diaz) runs into an unexpected person from her past.  Rupert Evans and Ser’Darius Blain also star. Gina Rodriguez directed the episode written by Natalia Fernandez (#111).  Original airdate 1/27/2019 

[Lady Calypso]

So, this episode was fairly strong, and probably my favourite episode yet. It had a lot that I enjoyed and little that I hated.

First off, no Parker and minimal Parker/Maggie yawn-drama! Yay! A spectacular Jaime Camill guest star role as a formidable demon! Sister tension that made sense! 

Downside? Niko's back. I mean, I guess it makes sense for her to not have totally disappeared, but I actually like Jada, and Jada/Mel, so having Mel start to drift back into the Niko stuff. I thought they were smart to drop Mel/Niko for a reason. I'm hoping that's still the case. That being said, the Niko scenes were alright. 

The Mel/Maggie/Macy fight at the beginning was actually well done for this show's standards. I liked hearing each of the sisters deal with the revelation about their mother. I thought Macy wanting to know the truth made sense as she didn't know her mother at all, but her insensitivity about Mel and Maggie dealing with a life altering secret was hard to watch (but again, it makes sense since it reminded me that she only met her sisters a few months ago). Maggie having this revelation throw her off her game made sense as well. Mel finding solace with Jada was good as well. 

I lol'd at Harry not trusting Galvin with this secret. Although Galvin being in on the secret is working better than I thought, I still don't think Galvin/Macy should be a couple. He works better as that weird excited friend who's in on the witch secret. However, Galvin being so excited to be in on the secret doesn't work AS well because the sisters just found out themselves so shouldn't they still be just as excited? I'm glad they worked Galvin in finally, but I would have liked to see the sisters struggle with learning magic mor. 

Ok, usually I cringe hard at any singing stuff that goes on in a drama like this. However, it wasn't as bad as I thought. 

I did notice the lip sync on the spell at the end, though. Melonie Diaz, specifically, didn't have her mouth matching the words to the spell. 

What I did hate, though? Harry deciding that he couldn't be the Charmed Ones whitelighter and that they weren't really his family after finding out about his son. WTF, show? Ruining the one really good thing about this show? Also, didn't Harry die in the 1920s? Or was it the 1950s? Either way, his son being alive should make him, what, in his 70s, at best? 

[Keywestclubkid]

For the love of Jesus could they stop throwing new plot points in so quickly? She’s a zombie witch now? Lol Good gravy.... and if the sarcona witch is the daughter of witch and a white lighter why would they hire a private eye to follow her? What was that line my parents must have hired her? What?

Edited January 28, 2019 by Keywestclubkid

[Primal Slayer]

It was an ok episode. 

Macy seemed a bit to happy that she isnt half sister lol. I know they are going for awkward but it's funny because she just came off as more "ha ha ha" then "oooh" but I didnt mind it. 

I probably could've gone with a different plot to use Sirens and such as most of it came off as extremely corny and kind of felt like a different show with how over the top the acting was. Witches are immune to Siren songs not sure if I like that? I guess it just has to do with the whole "magical beings" bit. Though I wasnt fan of breaking a  Sirens hold on an audience....you just change up the tempo?

The power use went back to being a bit inconsistent with this episode. Mel uses her mind to freeze and Macy uses her mind to TK and then forgets that she has a power while being choked but maybe it was just because she was under duress? So The Power of 3 doesnt work when they are mad at each other, good thing this wasnt a thing in the original or else they'd be dead between Prue/Phoebe bickering. 

I know at this point it is beating a dead horse and I'm sorry but why does it take an entire team to vanquish the demon? Harry works Book of Shadows duty, sisters do Power of 3 duty while Galvin goes on trap the demon duty. I just cant wait for the day where they hopefully become more self reliant. 

Aww Harry, ready to find his kid and doesnt think he can continue to be TCO Whitelighter. Wish this was later in the series but whatever. You would think though that The Elders would want to make sure that he was back up to snuff since he is in charge of TCO.

So Macy died as a baby....which is why she has darkness inside of her? Certainly cant wait to see how this goes down next week. Though I wish Mel was there as the sisters rarely end an episode together as they are all off on their own storylines.

[tennisgurl]

Rogelio! Awesome seeing him here, and he actually plays an effective villain! Go figure. I thought this was a pretty good episode, and I thought the conflict between the sisters was actually quite well done and understandable. Macy was rather blunt about finding out even more stuff that their mom never told them (and was maybe a teeny bit happy to not be the one half sister?), but thats kind of just how she is, and she doesent have the emotional connection to her mother that Mel and Maggie were. It all made sense based on what we know about them already, it worked quite well. 

Galvin is more likable now that he is in on the secret, but I dont know how long he lasts after this. Now that he knows whats up, he seems to be giving me an Andy from OG Charmed kind of vibe. I dont dislike him as much as I did, but I dont like him all that much either. I wish all three sisters had less subplots on their own, and they did more together, exploring their powers and getting to know each other. 

Oh Harry, you cant give up yet! Even if your son is alive, he must be an old man now, if he was a kid in the 1950s, when Harry apparently died. I wonder if this is more of the longer effects of Tartarus, and when he has some time, he can get some perspective? I mean, obviously he wont really leave, but its a question of why, not if. And I like that he is still dealing with the effects of being tortured in Hell for weeks, and he isnt just walking it off after an episode passes by. 

The accapella stuff was silly, but also fun, in the more light hearted way that I hope the show movies into for these kinds of episodes. I liked seeing Maggie's sorority sister, and that they are on good terms again. 

So, maybe the darkness in Macy is like she came back from the dead in some kind of dark ritual? Or did they give some of her soul to demons? Those parents sure did keep secrets, didnt they? 

I like Jada, I hope she doesent get written out just because Niko is back in the picture.

[AnimeMania]

My favorite part was when Mr. Morales steals Effie's soul and then drags her out by her leg. I was hoping Mr. Morales had thrown Effie's body in a dumpster and when Effie comes back in, she has french fries in her hair.

[GaT]

I spent a large part of the episode wondering where I knew the actress who played Effie from. I finally figured out she played Flo Fuentes in Pitch Perfect 2 & 3. Talk about being typecast, how many times is she going to play the Latin girl in an acapella group?

[welnoc]

Dear God, how I dislike a cappella! I wasn't terribly impressed with Maggie's singing and assume that she was lyp-syncing in the big number there towards the end? I'm afraid that I did find all of that quite cringeworthy.

I am beyond disappointed that the writers have decided to develop Harry's character with the maudlin "I need to find my child" schtick. Why don't they choose Whitelighters who were childless and single and had a well-developed sense of justice and responsibility? Harry's line about not being able to serve the girls properly was annoying. He's been through an extremely traumatizing event, they could at least send a temporary whitelighter to assist, not to mention some kind of otherworldly counselling!

Watching last night's episode, I finally realised what irritated me so much about this show -- to me, it feels decidedly amateurish. The acting is amateurish (aside from Rupert Evans) and so is the writing

I really don't know why I continue to watch this show except for the fact that there's nothing else on Sunday night. 

I have to say that Galvin's giddy delight was very enjoyable. And that's another thing I find irritating about the show; the incredible arrogance of the 3 young women. "We're badass Charmed Ones and we don't need no stinking guidance from anyone!" Where's the developing of skills, of learning their craft, and figuring out the supernatural world of which they were previously unaware, and the delight in their newfound world? Mel is the worst of the three. I'm tired of the total emotionalism rampant in today's television. I'd like to see people actually taking the time to figure things out, reasoning through ramifications rather than rushing in and always winging it. But maybe I'm alone in this. 

[CheezyXpressed]

I thought this was a great episode. The sisters fighting was believable and their annoyance at the spell not working at the end was funny. Compared to the other episodes, this one felt tighter. There were other plot elements, but it didn't detract from the sisters and the main storyline of this episode.

I still don't feel anything between Galvin and Macy, but I do like Galvin now. He's better when he's not being passive aggressive and I'm looking forward to his place among the Charmed Ones. Hopefully, if they break up, Galvin can still remains. Harry's snippy attitude towards him was funny and during that scene I felt more chemistry from Macy and Harry once again.

Macy being a zombie witch sounds more interesting than a demon one. She could have elements of a demon in her and without it she would die, so what would the Elders do if they knew that? They'd probably try to kill her since they don't like mixing of the species and abnormalities right? So we could see the Elders vs. the Charmed Ones by episode 12. We just have to wait a few weeks for that lol.

I'm glad we got to see Lucy again and that there's no drama between her and Maggie. In a lot of shows, Lucy would be over and done with after her arc, so I'm glad she's still around and still friends with Maggie. That type of female comradeship isn't really show much so it's nice. I'd love to see more of her on the show and even finding out the girls are witches and helping them out. Her and Galvin working together as they try to help the Charmed Ones would be funny. And I suspect that the two of them would have good chemistry together too.

[Primal Slayer]

Could Marisol have any more secrets? The woman is tied to everything and was lying to everyone around her. They are putting way to much on her plate, don't they have a grandmother that can be shady? Which a lack of Grams is definitely showing and is needed.

[UNOSEZ]

Enjoyed the episode and one of the lingering questions I had has been answered... As Madeline and Sarah are both at least part black IRL I was wondering how Maggie and Mel  had the same dad in the show.. And now knowing that the dad knew of Maggie but for whatever witchy reason had yo stay away makes a bit more sense... I guess I'm the only one who enjoys Gavin and macy together... I like his energy and their common nerdiness... On a personal level its just nice to see a blk female on the cw actually date a blk guy... Sad about harry.. But he's going thru a lot and I'm sure he'll come around... Excited for when the show returns to get more info on Macy( who's my fave character)  being a zombie witch

[CheezyXpressed]

1 hour ago, UNOSEZ said:

I guess I'm the only one who enjoys Gavin and macy together... I like his energy and their common nerdiness... On a personal level its just nice to see a blk female on the cw actually date a blk guy.

I like them more as friends and they do bounce well together, but you do make a good point. I suppose Galvin's passive aggressive ways from the previous episodes just soured my feelings towards the relationship. Hopefully they'll develop Galvin more and I can start rooting for this relationship.

Since Galvin was affected by the Siren song, I guess this means that he isn't a witch. But his grandmother was, so we might get a Gram type character out of this if she's still alive.

[Xenith22]

8 hours ago, CheezyXpressed said:

I like them more as friends and they do bounce well together, but you do make a good point. I suppose Galvin's passive aggressive ways from the previous episodes just soured my feelings towards the relationship. Hopefully they'll develop Galvin more and I can start rooting for this relationship.

It took him a freaking day to come up with a decent response to Macy being a virgin last episode, when I feel like most decent guys who have actual feelings for a girl would not need more than a minute to tell her they did not care and she did not have to do anything she did not want to. With him also being the guy who already pretty much cheated on her hours after what was supposed to have been their first date...that seems to reflect on which part of him does most of his thinking and would make me hesitant to trust him.  While he has finally actually showed actual emoting in the past episodes and did not do or say anything douchy in the his episode he has to do a hell of a lot more for me to think he is not a dick and Macy can not do so much better.

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I lol'd at Harry not trusting Galvin with this secret. 

Especially since again he was seemingly cool with their decision of letting the random sexist guy at the college remember the secret just for kicks in the premiere.  Still waiting for that to come back and bite them or else a reveal that Harry went behind their backs and wiped him...

So did I imagine things or once again did we have clearly personal gain magic with no consequences (other than maybe a little bit of mess.)

Not sure I buy Mel being able to keep her composure regarding seeing Nico again anywhere near as well as she managed to shrug it off in this episode.

I found the whole siren plot to be quite meh.  The Maestro was charismatic, (although calling someone clearly doing an Lin-Manuel impression Mr. Miranda was eyeroll inducing) but otherwise the plot sequences were full of dumb.  First of all the cinematography was ass.  The over reliance on pointless jarring close-ups like during  his attack and transformation which pulled me right out, and what was with his appearance standing in the shadows like he was supposed to be  a mysterious dark figure and not someone we had just freaking seen in a scene not even 5 minutes ago.  Then there was the plot which started slow and boring and by the time it picked up was so full on holes and contrivances.  The biggest being it seemed like the singers were not actually under a trance themselves so umm seeing the heads snap back of everyone in the audience would probably cause most people to stop and not keep singing like nothing was going on. Also that is not how counter melodic frequencies work...nothing was cancelled out with an opposite pitch everyone just started singing something else in a completely random different key which by earlier rules probably should have killed everyone.  Mr. Miranda went demon mode on that singer before sucking her soul and then dragged her body out of the dressing room, and yet that is where she wakes up with conveniently no memory.   Macy just decides to watch the demon escape to potentially get away to kill more people so she can stay with Galvin whom she could do nothing for.  Heck she easily could have just roped his other appendages with her TK to prevent his escape and not even had to move...  Oh and I almost forgot about the extremely forced/contrived way in which Maggie came to touch Mr. Miranda's pipe organ....she just morphed into a toddler in that scene.

Edited January 29, 2019 by Xenith22

[iMonrey]

I actually thought this was a pretty good episode and a step up from what they've been doing so far. The demon-of-the-week story felt very much like classic OG Charmed and they are finally getting around to addressing the mystery of their parentage and all the secrecy behind that (although it took them long enough). So this is what progress looks like. 

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 So The Power of 3 doesnt work when they are mad at each other, good thing this wasnt a thing in the original or else they'd be dead between Prue/Phoebe bickering. 

Actually that was a major plot point in 2 episodes of the original series - although in that case, the sisters had a big fight. It wasn't just lack of communication with hurt feelings.

[tennisgurl]

What really stretched credibility for me is when the actual music teacher was at the Greek antique shop, and the owner went off to answer a phone call...leaving his presumably rare and expensive antique flute that was under the counter just sitting there with some random guy! That is one trusting fellow. 

[Stardancer Supreme]

17 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

The Mel/Maggie/Macy fight at the beginning was actually well done for this show's standards. I liked hearing each of the sisters deal with the revelation about their mother. I thought Macy wanting to know the truth made sense as she didn't know her mother at all, but her insensitivity about Mel and Maggie dealing with a life altering secret was hard to watch (but again, it makes sense since it reminded me that she only met her sisters a few months ago). Maggie having this revelation throw her off her game made sense as well. Mel finding solace with Jada was good as well. 

I lol'd at Harry not trusting Galvin with this secret. Although Galvin being in on the secret is working better than I thought, I still don't think Galvin/Macy should be a couple. He works better as that weird excited friend who's in on the witch secret. However, Galvin being so excited to be in on the secret doesn't work AS well because the sisters just found out themselves so shouldn't they still be just as excited? I'm glad they worked Galvin in finally, but I would have liked to see the sisters struggle with learning magic more. 

I am liking the family stuff dredged up.  Macy was so happy to have a connection that she didn't consider her sister's feelings on having theirs broken.  So Dexter Vaughn is dead, and Ray whatever his last name is, is now in the wind. Who is Mel's father? She says Ray's name like he isn't her father.

Jada's parents are looking for her? Are they adoptive parents, because a witch and a whitelighter wouldn't have to hire a human PI to track her down...

Galvin has to stay a friend. It's funny to see him so geeked about the existence of magical beings in the world while the sisters are not.  If I found out I was a witch, I'd be excited!

I would expect Harry to step down from being their Whitelighter because his powers aren't currently working, not that he has to find his son. Charity broke the rules to tell him that the son is alive; she couldn't show Harry that his son is alive and well so he can get his head back in the game?

So Macy read most of the letters, while conveniently missing the one that mentions her death and resurrection? Huh.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Stardancer Supreme

[Primal Slayer]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I actually thought this was a pretty good episode and a step up from what they've been doing so far. The demon-of-the-week story felt very much like classic OG Charmed and they are finally getting around to addressing the mystery of their parentage and all the secrecy behind that (although it took them long enough). So this is what progress looks like. 

Actually that was a major plot point in 2 episodes of the original series - although in that case, the sisters had a big fight. It wasn't just lack of communication with hurt feelings.

Well yeah but in the OG they had to like REALLY break their bond and use magic against each other. This was just a simple fight. 

[iMonrey]

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 If I found out I was a witch, I'd be excited!

Maybe not so much when you found out demons are trying to kill you every day. 

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Well yeah but in the OG they had to like REALLY break their bond and use magic against each other. This was just a simple fight. 

Yes I realize it was a bigger deal in the original series. In fact one of the problems this show seems to have is borrowing themes from the original but not explaining them very well and taking liberties with what they mean or why they are what they are.  This is yet another example of that. 

[Xenith22]

1 hour ago, Primal Slayer said:

Well yeah but in the OG they had to like REALLY break their bond and use magic against each other. This was just a simple fight. 

To be fair they didn't actually totally lose their powers here like in the original series, this time it simply weakened them or actually to be more precise it was only their P3 spell casting that was weakened not their individual powers as Mel's freeze still held up well enough.  (Although her power usage is still an mess on this show thanks to the idiotic decision to have her power supposedly only work when she is calm and she is often clearly not and uses it anyways). Honestly I can actually buy and even appreciate that since their power is rooted in their bond as sisters, that the state of their sisterly bond can strengthen or weaken the effect of their P3 spells.   However I have zero faith in these writers to show even a modicum of consistency with this concept and not be a plot contrivance that pops up once in a blue moon or willy-nilly.

Edited January 29, 2019 by Xenith22

[Primal Slayer]

8 minutes ago, Xenith22 said:

To be fair they didn't actually totally lose their powers here like in the original series, this time it simply weakened them or actually to be more precise it was only their P3 spell casting that was weakened not their individual powers as Mel's freeze still held up well enough.  (Although her power usage is still an mess on this show thanks to the idiotic decision to have her power supposedly only work when she is calm and she is often clearly not and uses it anyways). Honestly I can actually buy and even appreciate that since their power is rooted in their bond as sisters, that the state of their sisterly bond can strengthen or weaken the effect of their P3 spells.   However I have zero faith in these writers to show even a modicum of consistency with this concept and not be a plot contrivance that pops up once in a blue moon or willy-nilly.

I think it would be one thing if P3 was just weakened but it was flat out not even working. But yeah I doubt they will keep it consistent. 

[K42]

Holy crap, does the youngest sister keep looking more like Paige or what? She's more Rose Mcgowan than Rose Mcgowan herself! Holy crap!

Also, that's some serious ass manor! Puts the old one to shame! I love this Charmed. It's so different from the original.

Edited January 29, 2019 by K42

[AngelKitty]

I enjoyed this episode. I like how the mystery of the birth father isn't that he's a demon.

[Cranberry]

The show's still throwing too much at us (we just found out that Macy and Maggie are the full sisters, and now we find out Macy's essentially a zombie, too?), but this episode was much tighter than usual. The plots were well-connected -- Maggie was upset at her audition because of Macy's announcement, which is what led the Maestro to choose her to sing the dissonant (and very on-the-nose) "Killing Me Softly," and the sisters couldn't stop him until they'd all worked out their differences, leading to Maggie wanting to learn more about their parents from Macy. It worked.

Still not loving Galvin as a romantic interest, but I agree that he's fun as the friend who just gets super excited about magic. Glad to see Lucy not actively hating Maggie, although the way the actress plays that girl, I always doubt her sincerity. Jada's interesting but I don't know her well enough yet to have an opinion on her as a romantic interest. I enjoyed Jaime Camil as the Maestro. The Harry stuff was the only part that fell flat for me. It's too early in the show's run for us to really care that the sisters could lose their whitelighter.

All in all, though, while this wasn't perfect, I think it was my favorite episode yet.

[iMonrey]

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 Jada's interesting but I don't know her well enough yet to have an opinion on her as a romantic interest.

Ultimately, I have to believe Jada is doomed, because it's going to come down to her versus the Whitelighters. Unless they do a complete 180 from the original series I don't think the Whitelighters are going to turn out to be the bad guys Jada is making them out to be. So at some point Mel will have to choose, like of like Phoebe had to choose between her sisters and Cole in the original series. That's kind of where I see this whole thing going.

[Camera One]

This was an average episode.  The plot of the week was alright though not too engaging.  It was nice both souls were saved in the end.  I did like Galvin helping out.  I'm finding Harry's subplot rather boring.  You'd think they would have done that secrets spell earlier to find out who killed their mother, if it was so easy and consequence free.  The fight with the sisters was a bit difficult to watch.  Macy's apology wasn't worded very well.  "I'm sorry if you were offended..." or a variation of.     

[Chas411]

I hate singing episodes. They’re so boring. I’m not even surprised this was Maggie’s plot.

I thought Macy was pretty insensitive. Especially how she jumped to trying to discuss everything with Maggie While leaving Mel out. 

Also im confused I thought Mel changed history so she and Nico just broke up earlier in the relationship but now it’s like they never met?

Edited June 4, 2019 by Chas411

[SyncMaster]

On 6/4/2019 at 9:16 AM, Chas411 said:

Also im confused I thought Mel changed history so she and Nico just broke up earlier in the relationship but now it’s like they never met?

Yes, the spell that Mel cast was so that she and Niko had never crossed paths with one another which meant that they were never in a relationship.

[christie]

On 1/28/2019 at 10:37 PM, tennisgurl said:

What really stretched credibility for me is when the actual music teacher was at the Greek antique shop, and the owner went off to answer a phone call...leaving his presumably rare and expensive antique flute that was under the counter just sitting there with some random guy! That is one trusting fellow. 

Yeah, that would never happen; maybe he was talking on the phone to the sign writer about the spelling mistake in the Greek. 

I loved the music teacher.