Halloween has always been a favorite holiday in the television world, creating some of the most memorable episodes in many cases. Community had its zombie episode last season, Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer had its living haunted house, and now The Secret Circle has its first opportunity to join in the fun. Though it isn’t as great as those previously mentioned, it is a step up within the episodes of this show so far as it delves further into a story involving the witch hunters that have come to town.
The Relationships
I know everyone is more interested in the romance, but firstly it is great to see Cassie and Faye together again. Getting past the fact that Faye has some supernatural speed coming into play when she changes into the “costume” at the antique store (more like a scarf laid in just a way to cover her chest), she does have plenty of fun poking at the fact that Cassie is the reason for Adam and Diana breaking up. Also, somehow Faye managed to convince Cassie to have a party at her house since her Grandma is going to be away, and how could that possible get out of hand? More on that later.
Instead it is time to get the post breakup drama between Adam and Diana out of the way first. Adam is clearly upset about this breakup (whereas Diana seems far less emotional about it), blaming his father for what happened. The tension is still there between Cassie and Adam, but he really wants to get Diana back. As he says, he never knew his mother and his father is pulling away from him, yet through it all Diana was his home. Even with this fairly romantic admittance, Diana still can’t get past knowing that she is not the girl meant for him. In the end it doesn’t matter how much he says he is willing to fight for her because he will always be drawn towards someone else.
Not Suffering A Witch
In the beginning of the episode Cassie comes across another witch (turns out there are plenty more outside the circles, making it obvious that I need an encyclopedia of mythology or a rulebook describing just how this world of magic works) who owns a shop of artifacts. Usually it is necessary to be wary of the characters running shops like these in Halloween episodes (as the season 2 Halloween episode of Buffy taught me), but turns out this guy, Calvin Wilson, isn’t a threat at all. In fact, he is the exact opposite. First Jake threatens his life in order to keep him from telling Cassie anything, and then just when he thought that he might be off the hook Jake actually kills him! In a pretty gruesome way, might I add. I really believed that Jake was not going to be able to go through with killing the circle, and technically he still could turn around on this front, but we do know that behind those dimples there is at least a fraction of a monster. Which really deflates my dedication towards trying to come up with silly “evil” names to mock him with involving his super low v-neck shirt…
Hunters Travel in Packs
A few weeks back when Luke took Cassie to the dance I made a big deal about how there was finally another character involved in the show that was not connected to the circle or magic in any way (now that I think about it, what ever happened to Sally?); turns out I was wrong. In fact, he is part of a family that has dedicated themselves to hunting witches throughout the generations. In the end he gets burned alive, so scratch one off the list, but it is scary to think just how easily he and the other witch hunters were able to chloroform five different people at a party and then carry them away without anyone noticing.
This might show the stupidity of these characters, but at the same time it is a relief to see that Cassie doesn’t trust Jake after all this, because for a while it really seemed as if she was buying his story about Nick having secrets. Ok, ok, so I also noticed that she seems to go in for the make-out session with him in the preview for the next episode, but I am sure that somewhere in the back of her mind alarm bells will be going off, accompanied by “He knew about the third symbol!” flashing like a neon sign. Or maybe it is too much to ask that the circle believe a guy in a pig mask attacked him, yet apparently the hunters were so antsy to rid the world of their ungodly magic that they couldn’t wait a couple more minutes to start their special witch killing ritual. Or that there wasn’t a chair for him, or glass jar. Point is he is not doing the best to keep his secret identity a secret, and if we want to continue believing that she is not a complete idiot retracting everything she said in her final scene with Jake tonight, then it should be considered that she is actually using him next episode to learn what he is hiding.
John Blackwell
It is official, we now know who Cassie’s father is, and he goes by the name John Blackwell. The impatient part of me really wanted to find a way to discover that the leader of the witch hunters was her father, but I know better after all the attempts I have taken to solve this mystery. With that said, I do think Blackwell made an appearance in this episode, or at least his shoes did. At the end of the episode Grandma Blake finds Henry’s dead body at the lake house, as well as his crystal, and she tries to perform some sort of spell on him. Was it the same spell that revived Sally?
And shouldn’t corpses have some sort of expiration date? But before we figured out what exactly she was trying to do someone knocks her over the head and steals the crystal. After going into thoughts about whether he is just an extremely patient man who has no problem hiding in houses with rotting corpses, or if he has been following Grandma Blake and/or Cassie all this time, I was able to set my mind on the more important question of who these black shoes belonged to. A simple answer would be that it was Charles since he and Dawn have been hunting for the crystals from day one, but it is hard to believe that he would be that nonchalant about being that close to a dead body considering how he reacted to killing Nick. For whatever it’s worth, my money is on Blackwell. And if it is him, I really hope that we get to see his face sometime soon.
How to Kill Witches
Just as there was for the demon, apparently there is a proper way to kill witches, leading to two highly important quotes from Jake.
1 – “If you kill a bound witch the wrong way their powers can pass to other witches. Make them stronger.” With Dawn and Charles always lurking off somewhere plotting a way for them to get their powers back, a cynical person might connect this quote to these two, but a optimistic person would keep in mind that they have had conversations about the importance of protecting the children. Instead, maybe this quote has to do more so with the “accident” and what happened that night (or rather, what Blackwell tried to do that night). Especially considering the conversation between Calvin and Ethan in which Calvin makes the comment that Cassie had come into the store to ask “about some hunting acquaintances of ours.” Were they in Chance Harbor 16 years ago?
2 – “Cassie isn’t like other witches, Isaac. She’s stronger. We can’t kill her this way.”
Dark Magic
As of now Cassie hasn’t had to learn the way in which she can be killed, but she does unleash something new during this first attempt that shows her true power. For weeks now the magic has been hit or miss with how well it works, coming off a little too closely to the alien powers in Roswell, but today does bring about some magic that's a little more exciting than the usual spells the circle has been performing. For starters, there is the spell that Jake performs on the glass jars (answering the question as to why Cassie’s blood was stolen from her last week), and then there is the magic inside of Cassie. In addition to Jake’s second quote above Grandma Blake mentioned that Cassie was the most powerful of the witches in her circle, and tonight she got to prove just how true this is. Not only was she able to perform magic inside a circle of iron sulfide that was supposed to nullify their powers, but she was able to set Luke on fire all on her own while within it. With a scream! Ok, so the scream probably didn’t actually do it, but in this moment it was like she was possessed for a second, letting something out that was deep within.
Final Thoughts
With the witch hunters taking little to no time to carry out their attack on the circle, one has to wonder why they are here now. Was Luke keeping an eye on them to inform the others that the witches had bound their circle? Are they somehow connected to the “accident” and/or John Blackwell? And speaking of Blackwell, what is on the papers that Calvin leaves for Cassie? They have the initials JB written on them, and he says that she needs to learn about her father in order to protect herself, so hopefully we will get some answers next week about them. As well as learn what the heck they are doing with all the random bodies piling up. First Simone, now Calvin and Luke. A girl has to know!
See something I didn’t or have theories of your own? Write them below in the comments!
