The TV Chick

After weeks of mostly disappointing Secret Circle episodes, it was great to sit down and watch the first truly good episode of the spring.

Secret Circle works best when it embraces it’s horror/thriller elements and tonight was a fine example of that! I fully admit to jumping out of my seat a few times when the ghosts were following Cassie throughout the episode.

The Medallion
I’ve spent a lot of time on these recaps talking about why the show isn’t working for me and what I’d like to see change; one of my biggest complaints is that the show needed to expand the world and introduce some outsiders and villains. Not only did we get villains this week, but we also got a (returning!) outsider, Isaac. Score!

At the end of last week’s episode when Cassie called out for her dad, I thought we were finally about the meet the elusive, not-so-dead Blackwell, but instead we got a family of creepy dead witches who want to lure Cassie into an unfortunate possession situation where she’s forced to give up a small necklace that holds the power of thousands of witches. (Let’s all take a moment to appreciate the location scouts and/or production design team on this show because they find some truly scary looking buildings. I would not set foot in that church at night if my life depended on it.)

One of the best parts of this episode was that after getting herself into yet another life-threatening situation at the church, Cassie saved herself; it wasn’t Jake or Adam, both of whom once again had a magical sense that Cassie was in trouble. If anything, the boys were a bit of a hassle as Jake was easily thrown aside by Cassie’s magic and Adam got himself possessed by a family of dead witches. Thomas Dekker did some fun work as Possessed Adam and instantly became 100x more interesting to watch.

Looking ahead, now that Cassie has broken the medallion will the evil stop coming to Chance Harbor? Will the show be go back to stalling for time now that the medallion is destroyed? Are the witch-hunters still important? Let’s hope Isaac sticks around for a few more weeks. He definitely knows a lot more than he’s shared with Jake, and I’m intrigued to see what other secrets he’s hiding.

Sleepover time!
What do lonely witches do in Chance Harbor on Valentine’s Day? Have a sleepover, of course. Trying to hold the power over her random hook-up with Jake, Faye decides to invite Melissa over for a sleepover. Naturally, Melissa invites Diana and the two of then decide to take the drug, Devil’s Spirit. This is how all of Faye’s sleepovers start, right? The entire ‘Melissa gets addicted to drugs’ story arc has been awful from Day 1, but at least it gave us that lovely make-out moment between Diana and Lee. Basically, it was all worth it for that. I choose to ignore his random comatose girlfriend.

Cassie & Adam
It’s about time! Personally, I find the pair of them dreadfully boring, but maybe the relationship version of Cassie and Adam will exceed my expectations. At the very least, their close proximity to each other now should give Adam more chances to be possessed. That was really the best thing his character has done all season.

The Parents
As much as I love Charles, Dawn, and Ethan, the show worked much better without them tonight. The story flowed without the constant disjointedness between the two arcs. Valentine seems to reinforce the idea that this show can’t sustain two generations of story at once.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doubting that this show can find a way to be entertaining, but it’s episodes like Valentine that give me hope for the rest of the season. Fingers crossed that this episode marks a new, less boring direction for the witches in Chance Harbor.

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