The TV Chick

Does everyone remember when Vampire Diaries first started and it took a few episodes to start getting good? Well, I think Secret Circle overcame that hurdle tonight. Episode four, “Heather”, was AWESOME. Also, terrifying. Seriously, I had to cover my eyes for a good portion of the last third of the episode.

Ever since she returned to Chance Harbor, Cassie has been searching for answers about her mom. Tonight, she got them! And what did we get? Demon snakes. I’m going to have nightmares forever about a tiny demon slithering into my ear and taking over my body. Thanks for that, Secret Circle!

Tonight’s episode picked up right where last week left off. Cassie wants to search for Heather at her brother’s house in Finn Creek and asks Diana to help her. Diana’s too busy, so she suggests Adam step in as her alternate. Great idea, Diana, force your boyfriend and the girl he has crazy chemistry with to head out to an emotionally charged situation together. That’ll end well for you.

Cassie and Adam (buddy system for the win!) head out to Finn Creek. They meet Heather’s brother, Wade, at his dilapidated shack, and convince him to let them see Heather. They head into the back of his house of horror and find a comatose Heather sitting in a rocking chair like a scene out of some 1960s horror flick. Creepy! Cassie heads over to get a closer look and apologizes to Heather for what Cassie assumes her mother has done…and then Heather lunges at her with some intense crazy eyes.

A stunned Wade pulls Heather off and Cassie and Adam book it out of there. They head back to Cassie’s house and she shows him her Book of Shadows. That sounds dirty…but sadly, not so much. Still just friends. But now, they’re friends that are going to brew a potion together so they can do a spell to release Heather from Cassie’s mom’s spell.

Diana shows up, mid-brew, and shuts down the party. This magic is dangerous. They don’t know what’ll happen, and Diana informs Cassie that neither she nor Adam will be participating anymore. If only Faye had been creeping in the background so she could have made the “whipping” sound as Adam followed Diana out.

Fortunately for Cassie’s curiosity, Faye has much lower magical standards than Diana. For the simple price of letting Faye read her Book of Shadows, Cassie can get a new partner in crime magic. Sold!

The pair head out to Wade’s creepy shack, recite a spell a few times, and wait for the magic to happen. But I guess that magical recipe didn’t let them know that the spell had to marinate for a few minutes because they have to split because Heather is fully cooked. Unfortunately for Wade, he’s around when Heather finally wakes up. As a present for taking care of his comatose sister for 16 years, Wade gets thrown into a wall by the demon possessing her.

Demon Heather just walks right in to Cassie house. Do these high schoolers not have to read In Cold Blood? There are valuable lessons to be learned here. Cassie comes downstairs to find a mostly lucid Heather looking for Amelia, Cassie’s mother. Heather reveals that Amelia tried to stop the evil demon that went inside of her on the night of the fire. Apparently, where magic exists evil flocks.

Then the demon fully possesses Heather, Emily Rose-style, and knocks Cassie out. Faye comes downstairs and ends up having to run for her life as Demon Heather enters her murderous stage. Thankfully, the curtain on Cassie’s window is open and Melissa and Nick are getting in on across the street and Melissa notices that Faye’s potential murder might be more urgent than Nick’s sexual desires.

The whole Circle shows up in time to save Faye from Heather, who runs out into the street and gets hit by a car. She went out in a blaze of glory. Whew, that was a close one. Demon = defeated…or is it?! The tiny demon snake crawls out of Heather and onto Nick’s jacket. Later that night as Melissa has a sleepover with Nick (Great life choices…) and the demon slithers past Nick and into Melissa’s ear. As if I wasn’t already afraid of snakes and leeches, now I have to worry about being possessed by one of them. TRAUMATIZED FOREVER.

Aside from the snake demon and the nightmares I’m definitely going to have about it tonight, this was the first truly great episode of Secret Circle. I can’t wait to tune in next week and find out how the circle deals with Melissa’s possession!

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