We start with a little brotherly brawl featuring Elijah and Klaus (refreshing change of pace from our usual dueling brothers). Klaus even removes the stake from one of the other brothers, Kol, and stakes Elijah. But, he doesn’t. He just puts it back in Kol after they decide to be in brotherly love again and destroy Stefan. Elijah also learns that Mikael is dead. Also, also, death has made Elijah even hotter.

Over at the Gilbert Residence, Alaric is hungover again. My man needs himself an intervention like whoa. He literally has a drinking problem, but there’s no time to confront it because everyone’s too busy staving off their imminent deaths. Him and Elena discuss his drunkenness and his relationship with Dr. Fell. (I love these two. I just want to put my arms around them for a family hug. And I hate hugs). Family time is interrupted by Mama Sheriff telling these two that the stake found in the Medical Examiner is from Elena’s family’s lake house and the only identifiable prints on it are Elena’s. Luckily, everyone knows Elena didn’t do it, but still, girl needs a break. (Or wouldn’t a ridiculous twist be that Elena is actually murdering all these peeps, ha. I don’t actually believe this to be true obviously, just commenting on how it’d be interesting if Elena just totally lost her marbles). Anyway, the question remains, who did it?

So, Damon meets Elijah in the woods because Damon left a little note for him in his pocket for when he woke up. He tells him about the mystery coffin. Elijah is trying to choose between Damon and the Gang and his bro.

Meanwhile, Abby, Bonnie, and Stefan are going to visit the hidden coffin to see if the estranged duo can get it open. It’s hidden in that place where vampires can’t get through in the caves. Stefan is then confronted by Elena, who asks if he killed Brian. Stefan is all but hurt about it, but please, it’s a legit question at this point.

Caroline and Elena go to pick up her dad at the hospital and Caroline has a little chat with Dr. Fell trying to feel her out. Dr. Fell says that she released him last night so Caroline gives him a call. She can hear his phone ringing in the hospital because she has magical vampire powers. She and Elena find him. He’s been stabbed to death. HOWEVER, like half the deaths in this dang town, he had vampire blood in him. So, he wakes back up in that transitional phase.

Back in the cave, Bonnie is explaining the whole Originals thing to her deadbeat mom. (She’s like, their mom loved them enough to make them all sexy monsters, and you just left me!! J/K – that didn’t happen). They do figure out from the grimoire that they can do an unbinding spell to get it open that requires the magic of two generations.

Our boys are walking together, and Stefan doesn’t think they can trust Elijah. They also don’t really trust each other.

Back to Caroline and Daddy. Daddy doesn’t want to transition because he still thinks vampires are gross and stuff.

Meanwhile, Alaric and Elena are trying to figure out who stabbed Brian and now Daddy. Alaric is banking on Dr. Fell. (Seriously, how tragic is his love life if that is indeed true – Isobel, Aunt Jenna, and now this beast? Yikes).

So, the boys were on their way to Klaus’s to have dinner with Elijah and Klaus. (Sounds like a great time and not at all the type of thing that would cause one IBS if they pooped. Vampires don’t poop, right? That’d be weird). There’s some banter, talks of reaching an agreement, and some discussion about pulling out other’s insides. You know, the usual.

Elena and Caroline are sitting outside her house as Mama Sheriff and Daddy are having some last moments together as he prepares for his imminent death (sad). Caroline wonders if Tyler did it. Elena shuts that down real quick. Caroline then asks Elena about the hardest part of not having a dad. Elena tells her that it was hardest when she realized all of the things he wouldn’t be there for, like things you just need your dad for. (TEARS for real).

Over at the weird dinner, Klaus tells our boys about Tatia. She is the original doppelganger that Klaus and Elijah once fought over. And her blood is what Mama Original used to turn them all into vamps. (Interesting factoid!)

Abby and Bonnie are still working on the spell; there’s some angsty mom stuff. They get close so Bonnie goes to call Damon to buy some more time. It opens when she’s gone and Abby’s face is all like AHHH! (We don’t see what’s in there, but I think we all have an idea at this point. Amiright?)

Damon is stalling and is like I’ll give you your coffin if you leave town. Klaus doesn’t want to leave Elena with these fools however. He then bites one of the random sexy girls hanging around. (All of these girls are dressed like waitresses in Atlantic City or something).

So, Matt and Elena get to her house (he came over to Caroline’s earlier to be a nice guy. Because Matt is awesome, and all of you who don’t think so can go make hay). The lights aren’t working, and there’s blood prints all over the place. They found Alaric, and he’s been stabbed. But, he’s not dead yet. He tells Elena to kill him because she’s supernatural, and that’s the only way his ring will work. (Need I point out again how badass Elena is? She just does it because it has to be done. Even though it’s hard).

Back to Klaus and the Gang, he’s like I want to offer to protect Elena. She can marry someone like Matt and make babies and be happy 4-eva. (And in turn, Klaus will get access to a doppelganger in a couple hundred years or whatever). Stefan is like no dice, and then Klaus puts his hand in the fire. He then send Elijah and Damon to find his coffin.

We then have some of the ultimate sadness with Caroline and Daddy saying goodbye to each other. She wants him to change his mind. He can’t because it’s against his beliefs and stuff; people shouldn’t cheat death. Caroline feels all sad that he hates who she fundamentally is. But, he doesn’t. He things she’s strong and good and all these other things (I may be crying as I write this). And Mama Sheriff is looking on. It’s all so sad.

OK, so turns out Elijah and Damon didn’t really leave. Instead, they woke up both brothers – Kol and Finn. Rebekah is awake also. There’s some maiming of Klaus because these peeps are pissed. They then tell the boys that they can leave because this is family business. Yikes!

So, Daddy’s dead. But, Alaric is alive, phew.

Stefan tells Damon job well done. And they find Bonnie and Abby in the cave passed out with the coffin open and empty.

The siblings yelling at Klaus when who should walk in? It’s Mama Original! Klaus thinks she’s there to kill him, but she’s actually there to forgive him.

LOVE. I loved it all. More originals! Mama Original is here! Klaus is an emo weirdo. Elijah is hot. Rebekah’s here! Emotional stuff with Daddy and Caroline and Alaric and Elena. Great episode all around. I can’t wait to see the new dynamic now that the whole (alive) Original Gang is reunited. I am also crazy curious about who is trying to murder all these council members. I still think Dr. Fell is shifty even with her airtight alibi. Can’t wait to see the ball that the Originals throw next week! Squee!!

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday nights at 8 PM on the CW.

Let’s start with the bottom of the barrel and work our way to the positives.

Melissa is a drug addict
First this poor girl has had to mope around for half of the season being sad that her boyfriend died, and now she’s on her way to becoming addicted to the magical version of cocaine? She cannot catch a break. I know this is a crazy thought, but wouldn’t it be fun if Melissa interacted with the rest of the circle more than her silent presence in the obligatory group magic scenes?

Adam has a birthday party. Mostly, no one cared.
Aside from Diana and his father, none of his other friends seemed to care that it was his birthday. Diana goes through all the trouble to find pseudo-friends to come to his party and gives a sweet toast about him. Despite the fact that Diana is a nice person who loves him and isn’t filled with dark magic that threatens to consume her, Adam STILL WANTS CASSIE even those the two of them have ZERO chemistry.

Lucy is a turncoat, obviously. She’s also dead now…like every other guest star.
Nothing against Lauren Stamile (her guest spot on Community was fantastic), but she was stiff as Lucy. Lucy’s introduction on the boat in Jake’s memory was one of the best parts of the previous episode…and now she’s dead. She came in and gave us a whole bunch of potentially interesting exposition about Blackwell and the medallion, so not all is lost; it just would have been great to see a guest star with a significant arc rather than the continuous one-off characters that we’ve seen all season.

Best part of Lucy’s mini-arc? Watching Cassie let the anger take over and give her the power to control the fire to threaten Lucy. I love it when the show does real magic!

Jake and Faye get it on. YES. Let’s have more scenes with these two. Phoebe Tonkin has great chemistry with EVERYONE and I fully support her and Jake rekindling their old relationship, even if it makes the hot voo-doo guy jealous.

Charles saves Dawn with his crystal.
If my recaps have shown anything, it’s that the only part of this show that I think has worked from day one is Charles and Dawn. Every scene they have together just draws me in; I’m never bored watching the two of them. Charles showing up just in time to save Dawn from Lucy’s stab wound was predictable, but wonderful. Hopefully it will add a whole new dimension to their relationship. They’re always most exciting when they’re scheming as a pair rather than against each other.

Finally, let’s hope that Cassie’s super creepy call out for her dad at the end of this episode means that we’ll finally meet Blackwell next week. It’s time to stop dragging things out and get on with defeating the witch hunters!

The Secret Circle airs Thursday nights at 9 PM on the CW.

Harry Potter and the Trip into Jake’s Memory
Did the whole Cassie/Jake trip into Jake’s memory of the boat fire of 1995 remind anyone else of Harry’s trip into Riddle’s diary in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? Visually, it was awesome. Story-wise, it gave us an interesting jumping off point for the rest of the season: John Blackwell is alive! Can’t say I’m surprised, but it was a fun reveal nonetheless. Will Cassie and the others go looking for him? Will he magically appear in town now that we know he’s alive? How will Dawn, Ethan, and Charles react to learning Blackwell didn’t die in that fire? Maybe it’s best that they have that crystal. Wouldn’t want my favorite characters to die at the hands of their probably evil old circle-mate.

Also, who was that girl who saw Cassie in Jake’s memory? Was she a witch-hunter? Another witch? Demon? Just please let her be an enemy. I need someone to root against.

Sober Ethan one-ups Dawn
Conniving Dawn may have finally met her match. Sober Ethan is one hell of a player. (and maybe a little evil? Lying about his presence during that boat fire certainly isn’t a good sign) Proving to be less of a wimp than Charles, Ethan doesn’t seem to want to play Dawn’s games. I can’t wait to see what happens next with these two. Is it just me or does Natasha Henstridge have amazing chemistry with every (age-appropriate) guy that she appears on screen with?

Just say no to drugs, Faye
Faye continues to hang out with Lee at his sketchy voodoo lair. It seems like magic ingredients isn’t the only merchandise he sells. Drugs! Of course Faye couldn’t resist the offer of a special drug that’ll help her with her power from Lee’s friend, Callum. Lee opens up to Faye about his ex-girlfriend who’s in a coma after her addiction to that particular drug. I guess Faye hasn’t gotten the “Say NO to Drugs” talk from her mother, the principal of their local high school, so she just goes right ahead and takes the coma drugs from the sketchy guy who looks like a homeless man. Great decisions!

Melissa
Have the writers forgotten she exists?

And finally, just for fun I give you guys this: my useless suggestions for how to make this show better!

1. Expand the world
There’s a reason that shows like The Vampire Diaries and True Blood have more than one type of supernatural being. It expands the playground; there’s more story to tell and more villains to battle. More than anything else, those witches in Chance Harbor need someone to battle against. I don’t care if it’s a demon, John Blackwell, or even the other living parents, but those kids need a reason to unite and a reason to use their powers. This show has been at its best when there’s an enemy to conquer. Remember when Cassie woke up Heather and the circle had to battle the demon that possessed her? That was AWESOME. Let’s get some more of that going on.

2. Make the love triangle interesting to watch or ditch it
I’m as big a fan as the next girl of a good love triangle, but the Cassie/Adam/Jake situation is just boring. That’s a problem, especially on a CW show. The show hasn’t built a reason for me to care whether she ends up with either guy. Find a way to improve the romance, and the show will improve immensely.

3. The parents or the children?
Whose story is it? The show spends so much time on Charles/Dawn (and now Ethan) and when the focus isn’t on them the show is mostly about Cassie & the circle trying to figure out what happened when their parents were young. Basically, it’s all about the parents. The parents are compelling in a way the kids just aren’t. The writers need to bring the children and their parents into the same story arc or just make it all about Charles, Dawn, and Drunk Ethan.

This all comes from a place where I really like about half of the show and am just tired of dragging my way through the other half every week. This show should be FUN; it has the potential to be fun, but it isn’t. Not yet at least, and I’m not sure how much longer I want to wait.

The Secret Circle airs Thursday nights at 9 PM on the CW.

We start with another Bonnie dream. Coffin. Klaus. Traps her in the coffin. She panics like whoa. Someone opens it. (At first, I’m like who is this? Did I forget a character? But, I didn’t – I’m too awesome for that). She tells Elena about the dream (and shows her the coffin stash); turns out it’s her mom that popped open the coffin in her dream.

Back at the Gilbert Residence, Bonnie and Elena are doing some research trying to find Bonnie’s Mom, Abby Bennett Wilson, because Bonnie thinks that her mom can help them with opening the surprise coffin. Damon comes in, and he found her already. Nice work Damon. (P.S. She looks a little cracked out in the picture).

Over at Caroline’s, Tyler comes over to apologize for being addicted to his sire. And guess who’s behind Door Number 2? It’s Daddy, Caroline’s Daddy to be exact. Tyler wants him to help him get over his sire bond and be a free man (like how he tortures the vampire out of vampires).

Meanwhile, Alaric is getting is flirt on with sort of sketchy Dr. Fell at the Grill. Damon comes; she leaves. They discuss how she may or may not be a psycho, as Damon just tells Alaric how her ex died.

So, Klaus has let himself into the SHBP. And then Stefan gets home? (Is he living there again? I’m a little fuzzy on this). Anyway, there’s a little more banter about Klaus leaving town, returning bodies, etc etc.

So, Bonnie and Elena are taking a road trip to the Carolinas to find her mom. They talk about her ma and also discuss the Elena/Damon kissing situation. Also, Stefan calls. Elena lies to him about their whereabouts. But, he knows the deal because he’s at Elena’s house looking at the picture of Abby. Uh oh, someone’s in trouble.

Alright, so Klaus is talking to one of his hybrid minions on the phone and tells him to do whatever they discussed already. Uh oh, looks like hybrid dude is already at Abby’s place. Problem!

The girls get there shortly after and talk to some kid named Jaime. Turns out Abby’s taking care of him because she used to be with his old man who is also a deadbeat parent (sort of like Abby, but different. That must be a real blow to Bonnie’s esteem that she can raise this random kid, but not her own). Abby then gets there and it’s awkward.

Back in Mystic Falls, Daddy is chaining Tyler up and wants him to turn on his own, to try to break his bond that is relying on his thankfulness to Klaus for not having to turn. He starts to turn, and it’s painful as always.

So, we learn a little more from Abby. Turns out she was Elena’s mom’s best friend. She cast a spell to put Mikael the way he was when Katherine found him. It tuckered out her magic or something, and the further she got from Bonnie, the less her magic was. So, she took this as an opportunity to run and start a new life as a normal lady or whatever (She sucks, for real.) Bonnie also informs her of Grams demise. Elena goes to wait outside while this convo is taking place, and Stefan is there.

Damon visits Dr. Fell who promptly vervain sedates him and takes some of his blood after Damon tries to discuss Brian’s death with her.

Meanwhile, Tyler is still turning. They ask Caroline to leave because she can’t take it. Daddy takes an ax to him; it’s sort of awesome. It’s just small little ax marks though; nothing to call the authorities over.

So, Stefan and Elena are fighting and then Jaime comes out and shoots Stefan with a gun loaded with wooden bullets. Abby then takes some magic dust and puts her hand over Bonnie’s mouth. (See what I mean about the sucking?)

Damon gets to Alaric’s and starts looking for bunny heads in the pots, ha. He tells Alaric what happened with Dr. Fell. Okay, so Jaime is now tying Elena up, and Abby is dragging Bonnie to the car.

Back in Mystic Falls, Tyler breaks free of the chains and lunges for Daddy, uh oh. But Dr. Fell used the vamp blood to heal Caroline’s Daddy from what would have been fatal wolfy wounds.

Abby then meets with the hybrid from before; she doesn’t think Bonnie will give up the locale of the coffins at this point. She tells Bonnie through typing on her phone to warn her friends. She needs to know the location because Jaime has otherwise been compelled to kill himself. Bonnie is sort of pissed that she’s choosing this random kid over her.

Elena gets the wooden bullets out of Stefan after knocking Jaime out. [Ed. Note: Sort of sweet but gross moment here.]

Klaus shows up at the witch house. Damon is there also. The witches are torturing Klaus with some killer headaches. But, they end up letting up and showing him the coffins because he threatens that he will end the Bennett line tonight otherwise. Damon did get the special coffin out of there ahead of time though.

Okay, so Elena gets all the bullets out and Stefan tells her she’s all strong and stuff. She tells him about the kiss. He looks all sad and walks away. But then they talk again. He apologizes for the kidnapping and she apologizes for going to see Abby without telling him. He then tells her that she’s better than Damon and him. Then he leaves there for realz.

Bonnie and her mom chat some more about how pissed Bonnie is because she is treating Jaime better than her. She doesn’t trust her. But, Abby really wants to help Bonnie now and maybe Bonnie can help her get her magic back.

Tyler visits Daddy in the hospital; he’s okay because of the blood. Daddy is ready to do it all again the next day. (I like his spunk).

Alaric is having a convo with Dr. Fell; she explains what she does. He shows off his magic ring. They kiss. Elena comes home and sees these shenanigans. Dr. Fell leaves. Elena’s cool about it.

Our boys are chatting at the SHBP. Good job for dragging the right coffin out. Stefan punches Damon for kissing Elena, but then finds an original dagger and is like what did you do?

We end with Klaus chilling with his hybrid and then someone grabs the hybrid’s heart out from behind. It’s Elijah!!! [Ed. Note: I may have yelled "hell yes!" at the screen upon Elijah's return.]

Pretty good episode! But man alive these kids have some parent issues! Loved the Stefan/Elena stuff. I don’t know, maybe I am Team Stefan? I JUST DON’T KNOW WHO TO CHOOSE! I’m super interested to see what happens with Bonnie and her mom. And what’s the deal with that coffin? Also, I still don’t like Dr. Fell; I kinda think there’s something still weird about her.

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday nights at 8 PM on the CW.

The theme of “Yes/No” seemed to be love — those who have it, those who want it, and those who don’t really know what they want. The episode starts with the girls and guys discussing Sam and Mercedes’ summer romance. They sing “Summer Nights” which prompted me to sing a long. What can I say, I’m a sucker for “Grease.” I thought it was a cute rendition. We then get to Becky Jackson, who has decided she wants to go out with Artie, because they both have disabilities. Aw, Becky. Sue tells Becky to put herself out there and ask him out. Also, Becky’s inner monologue is British ala Maggie Smith. Love it.

Meanwhile, Emma finds out that Coach Beiste and Cooter eloped, prompting Sue to say she’s going to call up David Boreanz. Ha! Emma is happy for Beiste, but is thinking about her own relationship and how she isn’t engaged yet. She sings “Wedding Bells” and it was nice to hear Jayma Mays sing again. I adore her. And an episode that places a lot of focus on her makes me happy. Also, the fact that Coach Beiste and Sue were wearing some sort of top hat was fantastic. I like that they changed the words to “Will You Marry Me, Will.”

Schue then tells the Glee Club that he’s going to propose to Emma. Of course, they all come out with their suggestions of what song/dance number he should use (or they should use to help him). Meanwhile, Sam is trying to win Mercedes back, and decides the way to do so is to join a Varsity team. The only team that will let him on at this point is synchronized swimming. Haha! NeNe Leaks plays the swim coach and surprisingly, she did a good job. She made me laugh with her tale of winning a bronze medal in individual synchronized swimming. Plus, we get to see Chord Overstreet with his shirt off so, bonus!

The first song idea for Emma’s proposal is a mash-up of “Moves Like Jagger” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Artie sings while he, Mike Chang and Schue dance to it. Nice to see some dancing going on. I really enjoyed this mash-up too. I mean, it’s no Adele mash-up, but then again, what is?! Artie invited Becky to watch as a “date” but Becky wants a second half of the date — dinner at Breadsticks. Which actually turns out to go well and they get along great, but Artie clearly just wants to be friends.

Later, Finn and Schue are picking out an engagement ring for Emma and Schue asks Finn to be his best man. Really? This was the only part of the episode that I felt was really contrived (well, this and the whole situation about Finn’s dad that we learn later). Would a teacher really ask his teenage student to be his best man and tell him that he has learned more about being a man from him than anyone else? I really doubt it. I’m not totally against the whole best man thing but I just think Schue needs some friends his own age. But I digress. Finn tells Schue he has decided to enlist in the army to follow in his dead father’s footsteps. Oh boy.

The girls decide to sing “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” for Schue to use to propose to Emma. I love me a Lea Michele/girls ballad, so I enjoyed this thoroughly. All the girls are thinking of who they love and surprisingly Mercedes thinks of Sam, which shakes her a bit. I love that Santana thought of Britt.

Schue, upon hearing Finn’s decision, decides to have an intervention of sorts with Finn’s mom and Burt Hummel (his stepdad now, I suppose). Finn’s mom tells Finn that his dad didn’t actually die a hero’s death. He got addicted to drugs after coming back from the army and overdosed. Whew, what a thing to put on a kid. I feel like this all sort of came out of the blue and I’m not sure how I feel about it, but I really doubt Finn is going to enlist in the army.

But back to the love theme. The Glee kids tell Artie he can’t lead Becky on, because it’s unfair. So he decides to tell her and of course, it breaks her heart. She goes to Sue, and they hold hands and watch Lifetime (“television for ovaries”) and eat ice cream and get through it together. I loved this, I really did. The softer side of Sue is nice to see on occasion.

Anyway, Will and Emma have a kind of serious conversation that I think Will meant to throw her off to the whole marriage thing. But of course, it ended up with her in tears. Meanwhile, Kurt, Finn and Rachel are having a pity fest about NYADA and their future. Rachel sings “Without You” to Finn and I ate it up. Lea Michele can sing to me any day. I loved Santana’s quip at the end of the song though about how Rachel made it all about her and forced everyone to watch. We need more Santana (and her solos) stat!

But in the end, it turns out Sam has the winning idea for how Will should propose to Emma. The Glee kids do an elaborate synchronized swimming song and dance number to “We Found Love.” It even involves Artie rolling himself into the pool, which was kind of ridiculous. But I enjoyed the crazy, elaborate way in which Will proposed. And of course, Emma says yes! But what most of us were not expecting was another proposal. At the very end of the episode, Finn proposes to Rachel. Whoa. Of course, we don’t get to see her answer, but scenes from the next episode show she may take a bit to think about it.

The ending surprised even me. I get why Finn did it and that he’s feeling lost in life right now. But I can’t see it ending well. I mean, maybe Rachel won’t get into NYADA and she’ll stay in Lima with Finn and they’ll be married, but that doesn’t seem like the “revolutionary” idea that’s being thrown around for season four of Glee. I am curious to see when Will and Emma’s wedding will take place and if her parents’ lack of approval will factor in at all. And will Mercedes finally admit her true feelings for Sam? I also think that Vanessa Lengies is definitely underutilized and I hope we see more of her in the near future. The next episode is the Michael Jackson tribute, which should be interesting. I’m sure there won’t be a ton of plot development as there doesn’t tend to be with tribute episodes, but I will say this, “Yes/No” is definitely a highlight of the season for me. I hope that it can keep up this quality instead of the up and down show it’s starting to become. Granted, the music will always make me happy, so I’ll continue to keep watching. I just wish all episodes could be great like I know they can be.

Glee airs Tuesday nights at 8 PM on FOX.

The episode begins with Han talking to the girls. She’s convinced Lucas is out there somewhere. Han comes clean and tells the girls that Lucas destroyed Ali’s memorial. And when she’s about to take some aspirin, she drinks lake water. Someone put lake water in her purse and on top of that, she gets an evil A message. Ashley Marin is asking about what happened, but Han’s being crytic. These Rosewood parents are pretty great, huh? Apparently, they found prepaid cell phones in and a receipt with a store name on it in the lake house. Spencer and Aria agree to go to Philly to look for clues.

At school, Holden asks Aria out. Go away, new guy! I <3 Ez! Meanwhile, Mona is talking to Han and saying that Noel Kahn was on the phone with someone all of Caleb's party. Shut up, Mona! Han has more important things to worry about than listening to you! Mona freaks out at Han's lack of attention. Ugh. It's not really a secret Mona was involved in a big wAy in the books, so I'm kind of guessing all this screen time is for a reason. But who knows, the show could always take it a different way. Anyway, in the school bathroom, Han is crying and clearly suffering from some sort of PTSD sitch. She then notices water on the floor and comes out of the stall to see the sink overflowing with a boat floating in it. And then gets a creepy A text. Oh man.

And Maya is back! She wants to see Em and she needs a fake ID. Hmm. Aria gets tickets to a play she was supposed to go to with Ezra to make him jealous when she and Holden show up. Good move, Aria...

At the Marin house, Han and Caleb are hanging out. Lucas is supposedly at his cousin's house. Caleb wants to help Lucas and go back to the lake house. Han doesn't want to find him. They get into a fight because he thinks Han isn't being honest. She gets a text from Mona about needing to talk. Bad time, biotch! Sigh, make up you two!

Spencer and Aria are in Philly and the place that was on the receipt is just a newsstand. Aria leaves to go meet Holden and Spencer realizes there is a blind school/rehab center in the area. Spencer investigates further and goes in and asks about Jenna but they won't give her any info. A guy overhears Spencer and tells her he knows Jenna. Spencer and the guy sit down to coffee and apparently Jenna helped him to come out of his depression. Jenna kept saying she had things to do back home and learned everything quicker than everyone else. When she goes to leave, Spencer is asked to sign in but instead, takes an old sign in book.

Han is about to be left home alone and Aria says she'll cancel her date and so will Em (who thinks Maya is hiding something from her), but Han encourages them to go. Don't you know being home alone is never a good idea, Han? I think these girls need a lesson from Kevin McAllister. Haha!

Later, Aria shows up to her date/the play and just like she expected, so did Ezra. They steal glances at each other and my heart melts once again. Spencer gets off the train and runs into Mona, who always seems to creepily be there. Mona gets all sad and pours her heart out to Spencer. Spencer says she can do better than Noel Kahn. Are we giving them a sweet moment to show bad things about Mona later?

After the play, Holden and Aria are talking to a teacher, and they find out Ezra had to leave 10 minutes in because he "didn't feel well." He had given his extra ticket to this woman. Holden figures out Aria really likes Fitz. Aw, he's pretty understanding. He thinks perhaps they can help each other out.

Back at the Marin household, Han seems like she wants to tell Ashley something but just keeps calling Caleb. She's worried. The back door comes flying open and Han closes it but then we see muddy footprints. Oh no!

And back in town, Maya comes clean to Em about someone she hooked up with while she was away. Apparently it was a guy. Hmm, interesting. I really wonder what will happen with these two. I miss Samara. I realize she's kicking some vampire ass (or really, in a coffin) on The Vampire Diaries but I'd love to see her return to Pretty Little Liars. I'd also kind of love to see Maya and Emily work it out. But Maya obviously is still interested in this guy, or there's something else we don't know.

Meanwhile, Lucas is in a hoodie traipsing around Han's house and she discovers him. Lucas says he never wanted to hurt her. Meanwhile we see Caleb come in the house looking for Han. Han calls Caleb (smart move!) who hears what's going on. Lucas was being super creepy and Caleb comes to the rescue. Apparently, Lucas wanted help from Han. All of Caleb's money is gone as well as some of his own money because Lucas got into gambling. He hands Caleb a bunch of money and is all apologetic. Caleb is all nice and understanding. Han tells him he's not who she thought he was (meaning A). I'm glad Lucas is a good guy but I do think maybe something with the gambling could be tied to A. Perhaps I'm reaching here.

The girls gather later and Spencer shows them the rehab center sign in book. Ali didn't visit Jenna the day she went missing (like she told them), but Garrett did. Jenna didn't sign back in so she could have been anywhere that whole night. Then, their Chinese takeout turns out to be dirt and worms. They all get a text that says "This is what live bait looks like. Now we're even, bitches. -A." At the end of the episode, we see someone unscrewing something.

Whew. What a night for our little liars. Obviously we are back to suspecting Garrett and Jenna are A or in on the whole A thing but I really think that A (or multiple A's) won't be who is right in front of our eyes. Clearly, Ezra is still in love with Aria but will A interfere? Can they find a way to be together? How does Holden factor in? Can they find a way to be together? How does Holden factor in? Also, Caleb is the person who has gotten the closest to figuring out something is up with the girls so will he get too close to the truth? I'm excited to see more!

Pretty Little Liars airs Monday nights at 8 PM on ABC Family.

Back in the fall when Secret Circle introduced dark magic into the equation, I thought we were on the edge of the show morphing into something great. Two episodes into the latter half of the season and all that potential has yet to transform into a consistently awesome show. The show vacillates between being a fun ride and completely boring. Sadly, this week’s episode fell into the boring category.

Cassie/Adam/Cassie’s Father
Cassie and Adam discover that Cassie’s father owned, and at one point lived in, the abandoned house that the circle uses as their magical warehouse. The two explore the basement of the house and discover a symbol carved into the ceiling that Cassie believes belongs to her father. Cassie doesn’t actually find out much about him, other than getting Adam’s dad (who has finally found sobriety. For now.) to sort of admit that Cassie’s father started the fire that killed himself and the other witches in their circle. Dark magic at its worst! Looks like Cassie’s headed in that direction soon if she doesn’t get a handle on her powers. Although, maybe she could accidentally get rid of Melissa before finally learning to control her magic. Poor Melissa has had nothing good to do all season. Let’s just put her out of her misery.

Faye/Hot Voodoo Guy
Faye is still jealous of Cassie’s solo magic. She teams up with the hot guy from last week’s episode and he helps her use a spell, stolen from Cassie’s book, to channel Cassie’s dark magic for herself. I think we all could have guessed that this wasn’t going to work out. Instead of channeling Cassie’s magic, Faye ends up taking magic from the other members of the circle and has to force hot voodoo guy to tell her how to reverse the spell, which she does but not before starting a huge fire during a school dance.

Cassie/Adam/Jake
Cassie and Adam finally begin to accept their “destiny” and kiss in the basement of the abandoned house after surviving the fire. Heightened emotions and all that. I guess the Cassie/Adam shippers can go rejoice. (Has the show even been on long enough to have crazy Cassie/Adam shippers? I sort of doubt it.)

Just after Cassie and Adam kiss Jake strolls down into the basement breaking up their tender moment. Looks like next week, we’ll be back to the usual love triangle between these three. Hopefully, Jake brought along more exciting news and stories to explore other than his ongoing flirtation with Cassie.

Looking forward
As with any freshman show, there’s going to be a learning curve in the writers’ room as they figure out what stories work well and which characters pop on screen. For me, The Vampire Diaries didn’t become great until its second season and I think we’ll see a similar scenario for Secret Circle. But first, the writers need to figure out what kind of story they want to tell. Between Dawn/Charles, the Elders, Dark Magic, and demons/outside magical forces, there’s a bunch of stories and not a whole lot of cohesion between them.

The Secret Circle airs Thursday nights at 9 PM on the CW.

We start with Damon taking a shower with a chipper smiler on his face. [Ed. Note: It would be just fine if every episode started like this.] Meanwhile, Elena is working out with a vengeance at Alaric’s place. Guess these two had different reactions to their kiss the night before? Alaric comes in to where Elena is and is like what the what?! Nice job punching that bag, you okay? They also talk about how Jer Bear is packing and how it’s probably a good thing since the no-die rings seem to have a shelf-life. In our other scene, Stefan comes in when Damon is getting out of the shower and is like get your self together, we need to meet Bonnie to do some witch stuff. Also, Stefan is still a D-bag. I liked this at first, but it’s starting to give me the sads. (Spoiler Alert Future E: If you think you have the sads now, wait until the end of the episode).

Over at the witch house, Bonnie is doing a spell trying to open the mystery coffin. She can’t get it open. Also, the coffins suddenly disappear because the witches sense trouble coming. The trouble turns out to be a hybrid, which Stefan takes care of by way of ripping his heart out.

Over at school, Elena is decorating Caroline’s locker for her un-birthday. Elena tells Bonnie about sending Jeremy away and Bonnie is sort of pissy about it, but not super pissy yet. Bonnie then goes and chats with Jeremy for a bit about his approaching departure.

Elsewhere, Damon and Stefan are talking about how to open that coffin. Stefan is prepared to call Klaus’s bluff because he knows how much Klaus wants his family back (and Stefan wants the ‘brids out of town – I just coined that phrase – Copyright 2012).

Back over at the school, Caroline and Tyler are having a sad birthday conversation. He wants to put Caroline first but he is just so into Klaus, you know in his subconscious or whatever. He also gives her a lovely charm bracelet.

Okay, Stefan means business peeps. He goes to Klaus and is like get yo’ hybrids out of town or I’ll remove them. Klaus is like, well, then I’ll kill your friends or whatever they are. And Stefan is like, well, I’ll drop Elijah in the arctic. Klaus said he could trade a brother for a brother, ooo, things are getting interesting. This could be one epic pissing match. Before Stefan leaves, he kills that hybrid chick we’ve seen around for awhile now.

Elena, Bonnie, and Matt (poor Matt, I still feel bummed that he’s in the middle of all of this garbage) go over to Caroline’s to surprise her for her birthday with booze and cake. She’s not interested though. She’s all depressed about being dead and never actually turning 18. (Sniff, sniff, that is some sad stuff).

Tyler goes to see Klaus because Klaus beckoned him. Turns out, he wants Tyler to bite Caroline. Tyler is like, no way! Free will! Klaus dismisses him and is like oookkk.

Damon and Alaric are going to some fancy schmancy council event and they discuss Stefan’s humanity dimmer switch. Alaric sees Dr. Fell at the event (she knows about vamps p.s.).

So, Elena comes up with a good idea to help Caroline move on. They move the party to the cemetery. Elena thinks she needs to have a funeral for the old Caroline so new Caroline can move forward. Caroline also texts Tyler, oh brother.

Back over at the council meeting, Klaus has pretty much gotten the Widow Lockwood under his thumb with a cash offer and a promise to protect Tyler. Damon is all annoyed and the Widow Lockwood is like, you need to get your brother under control. Ugg, she is such a pain. Damon and Mama Sheriff are then talking and Mama Sheriff is like this is lame sauce. Damon likes how she’s all ‘strong and sheriffy,’ ha. Also at the party, Alaric goes to ‘rescue’ Dr. Fell as she’s hanging with this dude and arguing. The dude is like, she’s a psycho. The dude is Brian. He was her prom date and is currently a Medical Examiner.

So, Stefan kills another hybrid and Damon is like, please stop.

Okay, so Tyler comes to the cemetery and him and Caroline go and talk. He tells her he loves her and he is in control of himself. They then kiss and Tyler bites her (subconsciously, accidentally?). And Caroline is like get out of here! Matt and Elena go and look for them when Stefan appears and swipes Elena.

Stefan and Elena are in the car now and Stefan is driving fast and loose. He has Damon on the phone and is like Klaus can’t make more hybrids if Elena is dead (or a vamp). He then calls Klaus and they chat. Stefan forces his blood into her mouth so that she’d turn into a vamp if she dies. He picks up speed, Elena’s crying. Things are nuts. Klaus gives in and says he’ll send the hybrids away. Stefan then screeches to a stop, phew, stressful. Elena is hysterical and furious as she thinks Stefan only cares about revenge and he almost killed her where her parents died (and where she almost died). She says ‘are you trying to make me hate you?’ And he says he doesn’t care.

Klaus comes to the Mama Sheriff’s house as Matt brought Caroline home all sick and dying. Mama lets him in. Klaus and Caroline then sort of have this tender conversation. It’s sort of weird. He tells her he can let her die or he can let her have the world. She drinks and lives.

Meanwhile, Damon picks Elena up from where Stefan left her and they talk about how they can’t be together right now.

The next day, Jeremy is getting ready to leave and Bonnie does come to say goodbye.

And Caroline is a-ok! She also finds a jewelry box with a note that says ‘from Klaus.’ Inside is a diamond bracelet. Interesting.

Meanwhile, Elena is over at the bridge being mopey. Matt comes over to her (he’s so sweet). She feels like she’s disappointing old Elena and her parents. So, Matt does a little eulogy for old Elena and throws some flowers over the bridge.

Dr. Fell is over at the Grill where Alaric is and is pleased to see someone else day drinks, ha. She says she just lost a patient.

We then end with Mama Sheriff showing the dead body of that dude Brian (he’s been staked, but he’s not a vamp). Uh oh.

Solid episode, not my fave ever, but good. As always, I really liked the stuff with Caroline. Candace Accola plays that role so well. I can’t wait to see what happens with her and Klaus and her and Tyler. I’m also interested to see if Dr. Fell is indeed a psycho or if there’s something else going on here. All the Stefan stuff is so good, but it really is sad to see him like this after he worked so hard to maintain his humanity. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday nights at 8 PM on the CW.

So after the girls found the phone, they quickly discover that the phone is locked. The girls want Hanna to hand over the phone to Caleb, but she’s very reluctant. I get it. Letting another person in on all this crazy is maybe not the smartest thing to do. Anyway, the phone rings and they don’t know what to do with it. More glass comes raining down on them and they get the hell out of dodge. One of my favorite lines of the episode was Emily saying “These aren’t highlights Hanna, I have glass in my hair!”

The girls decide to go to Caleb with the phone. He starts to transfer all the locked up files and the owner shut down the transfer remotely. He might be able to get some files off the phone but not all of them. Han is reluctant but finally agrees to let him help.

Meanwhile, Aria is still being punished for the whole Ezra relationship. Her parents want her to cut him off completely and not say goodbye and spend less time with her friends. Boo!

Spencer goes to talk to Toby. She doesn’t want to shut him out. But she is so close to being able to tell him the truth. They kiss. Aww. But it’s interrupted when Garrett, who is fighting with Jenna on the phone, approaches. She won’t answer the door. Spencer hides so Garrett doesn’t see her.

At school, Caleb and Han talk and he’s worried she doesn’t trust him. Oh Caleb, you are doing dangerous things, don’t pry further. Lucas is acting weird, even for Lucas.

After Em takes a make up test, Ella asks her about Aria, and Em says she’s someone you should be proud of, nothing changed. Aria leaves a super sad message on Ez’s phone from Hanna’s phone. Spencer wants Em to go with her to snoop in Jason’s house because she’s convinced he’s helping Garrett and Jenna. Em tells her to ask Han and offer her the lake house. Han is studying with Lucas and she wants to throw Caleb a surprise party. Lucas is being so so weird and doesn’t want to help Han. He finally agrees. But as we find out later, he’s crAzy.

After school, Em is doing community service at a crisis hotline and has to help read out a sample call. As she reads it, she realizes it might be a call from A. Or someone helping A. Interesting!

Later, Byron goes to visit Ezra. He wants assurance that Ezra will never see Aria again. He threatens Ez with the police. Nooo why???? I mean, I get why. I do. But I think Byron is being a little bit harsh, even for Byron. As Aria points out later, he should take a good look in the mirror. He of all people, who had an affair with one of his students, should maybe not be so hypocritical. But I digress.

At school, Han runs into Noel and Mona. They want to come to Caleb’s party. Not a great idea. They are creepy. Em shows the transcript of the mysterious Crisis Center caller to the girls. Aria is on lock down, so she can’t help or come to the party. Caleb gets the girls and shows them that he found a picture of the dolls (from the end of season one) on the phone. He wants to know more but Han is not willing to share. Are there going to be relationship troubles for Han and Caleb because of the phone? And A? I hope not! But A has his/her way of getting in everyone’s business.

Back at the Montgomery household, Byron and Ella talk. He wants to call the police but Ella tries to talk him out of it. She doesn’t want Aria to be humiliated even more. Go Ella!

Meanwhile, Han goes to see Ezra. She says the girls don’t feel the same way about him and Aria. Aw. So cute. While all this is going down, Em is at the Crisis Center with Spencer, when the phone rings. The woman who runs the center signals for Emily to listen in. Em and Spencer pick up the phone and it’s the transcript caller. It’s Lucas on the phone. He says the only solution isn’t going to be pretty. He’s in too deep. Whoa! Spencer and Emily try to convince Han that A is working with Lucas. But she doesn’t believe them. Get with it, Han!

Aria finally gets a hold of Ez and he tells her she can’t call there anymore. SADNESS. MY SHIPPER HEART MELTS. Yes, that is what I wrote in my notes and I am sticking with it. I know they will find a way to be together in the end but that phone call was just so sad.

Later, Han and company are trying to set up Caleb’s party at the lake house. Spencer is trolling around her lake house attic for party supplies and finds a backdrop where the picture on A’s phone was taken of the dolls. Lucas comes up and is acting all weird like. Get out of there, Spence!

Before heading to the party, Em goes back to the Crisis Center to return the transcript she “accidentally” took. Em has to answer the phone and it’s Lucas again. He says he has to take care of ‘this’ tonight. He’s in Spencer’s lake house attic. He says that he keeps seeing her face and how hard it’s going to be to lose her forever. AH! Obviously, he’s talking about Hanna.

Back in Rosewood, Aria’s family runs into old family friends and their son Holden. It’s clear that both families want them to do some hanging out, so who knows what this means for Aria and Ezra. Later, Aria leaves Ez a message to please be patient. Aw!

At the lake house, Spencer tries to tell Han about Lucas and A, but she is in crazy planning mode. Em tells Lucas not to do something he’s going to regret. And he has this look on his face like maybe Emily knows too much. Spencer and Em then find out Han’s with Lucas in a boat going to set up fireworks. Oh boy. Lucas gets all creepy and crazy in the boat. He tries to hit Hanna but she thinks fast and he falls off the boat. As she tries to get away, something is preventing her from steering and she falls in! Spencer and Em are going crazy shouting for her but it’s foggy and crazy and they can’t do anything.

Han gets out of the water finally and is totally shell shocked. And then Mona and Noel show up and they were conveniently “out for a dip.” As much as I like seeing shirtless Noel Kahn….ummm creepy! Caleb arrives and Hanna weakly declares “Surprise!” Then they see the boat moving. At the end of the episode, we see a sneaker and someone fishing it out of the water.

Whew. What an action-packed episode. So, here are my theories. I don’t think Lucas is A. I think he may be working with A. I think he is probably still alive somehow. It would be too simple to just kill him off. I think he was supposed to kill Hanna or do something crazy like that but couldn’t do it because Hanna fought back. This sort of alludes to a scene in the book where Hanna almost gets killed but ends up being able to fend off the person who was A. I have to say, I expected more from Lucas. I could see that something was up in the Halloween prequel episode, where he was being tortured by Alison. But maybe the whole Hanna/Lucas relationship was set up for us to expect more from Lucas so that when he turned all crazy and vengeful, we would be surprised. I am curious to see if Lucas comes back to Rosewood (if he is alive), and how A is going to continue to torture the girls. Clearly, a new cell phone will be purchased, so I’m sure the evil texts will continue. The second half of the season is off to a great start and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Pretty Little Liars airs Monday nights at 8 PM on ABC Family.

Cassie
Poor Cassie is struggling with the discovery of her dark magic. She eventually turns to Diana’s grandmother, Kate, who is the latest of the mythical Elders to drop by to “visit relatives.” These people may be powerful, but they are not subtle. Kate immediately senses that Cassie is struggling with her dark magic and offers to help. I’m pretty sure every single person in Chance Harbor was taught the wrong definition of help as a child because they ALL do it wrong. Seriously, why bother trusting anyone? They’re all such turncoats. Kate tricks Cassie into traveling with her into a random deserted part of the forest so they can do a spell together. I guess Cassie was never taught about “Stranger Danger” as a child either. Never wander into the woods alone with an almost complete stranger, kids. You’ll end up performing a weird ritual and then being buried alive.

Naturally, Cassie accesses her dark magic to blow that coffin all to hell, and crawl out of the ground like a phoenix rising from the ashes. So fierce.

Acoording to Kate, Cassie is the witch version of the messiah. She’s the one they’ve been waiting for. A witch strong enough to tip the balance between good and evil. Such a powerful future for such a tiny, blonde person.

Cassie/Adam/Diana
Sigh. Not a strong week for Chance Harbor’s most troubled love triangle. Cassie fears her dark magic and confides in Adam about the discovery of the Balcoin blood line. Diana sees Adam searching articles about dark magic and he admits it’s for Cassie. Cue Cassie who thinks Adam has betrayed her. The anger is too much and the darkness comes out as she uses her mind to choke Adam. Thankfully (I guess), she comes to her senses before she kills him.

Now that would all be fine and good, if not exactly inspired writing, but what happens next is just too much. Adam CONTINUES to pursue Cassie and even goes as far as apologizing to her for betraying her trust. SHE ALMOST KILLED HIM. Adam should not be apologizing to her. He should be getting as far away from her as possible. Sometimes he’s more of a girl than the girls on this show are.

Diana does what she does best and continues to be a nice person who sits quietly while her ex-boyfriend hits on his new target in Diana’s room. Time to get a backbone. Or find a new boy. Either would be acceptable.

Faye/Melissa/Random New Hot Boy
Faye is upset that she’s not the most powerful witch in the circle. She meets a hot boy while trying to cast spells on her own. They have nice chemistry. That’s about all I took out of this story. Boring, boring, boring.

Charles/Dawn
We really got to see the extent of Dawn’s desire to regain her powers. Telling Charles to kill his own mother is a new low. Sadly, he’s so whipped that he was mostly ready to do it by the end of the episode. This was the first time we got a clear picture of how long Charles has been interested in Dawn…and how long she hasn’t been interested. Kate’s grand speech to her son telling him not to be weak might help him resist Dawn for now, but I think we all know that their tense break up scene won’t be a permanent solution.

Looks like Chance Harbor’s power(-hungry) couple is a couple no more. I love Charles and Dawn and all of their scheming plans, but I think I might love revenge Dawn even more.

Like just about every episode of Secret Circle, “Darkness” had a few strong moments with hints of strong potential for the series but on a whole it failed to hit that special, adrenaline-filled viewing experience that The Vampire Diaries finds every week. Not to say this episode wasn’t good, it just wasn’t great.

The Secret Circle airs Thursdays at 9 PM on the CW.