Charmed ~ 1.04: Exorcise Your Demons

[luvbarryfefe]

The sisters begin to realize that juggling their two worlds is difficult as
they await a meeting with the Elders.

 

Original Airdate: November 4, 2018

Director: Melanie Mayron

Written by: Marcos Luevanos

Hey, everybody! Sorry, this post is super late going up, but better late than never, right? LOL Let’s goooo!

We open with a flashback from “Six Months Ago”. Marisol and Mel are talking to Angela Wu about that nasty Professor Thaine. Angela believes everyone will hate her if she talks about what happened, but Mel encourages her to press charges against him. She’s been hearing rumors about Thaine since she was an undergrad. Angela is crying.

FFWD to the present day. Mel is demon-sitting in the attic as they await the arrival of the Elders. Angela, in her magical bindings, makes a dive for Mel. She jumps back as Maggie comes in holding a copy of Inferno (Dante). Mel quips, “What ring of hell is this?” The Harbinger (or Harbie, as Maggie has nicknamed it) spews out threats about spreading pestilence, death, and disaster, leading to the rising of the Source. So, we do know for a fact, that the Harbinger is alive and well for now. You were right again, PrueTurner!! :)

A rat runs towards Harbie and the super demon kills it with one touch of his hand.

The next morning, Mel is in the kitchen with Macy saying she can’t go on like this. She’s exhausted. Maggie comes in complaining about how taking care of a demon is affecting her school life. She is about to flunk out. Sweet Macy is surprised she goes to school because she never sees her there LMAO Maggie tells them that if she fails World Lit, she will be on academic probation. She is thinking of dropping the class. Mel says no, drop Kappa instead. Mel, forever our Greek disparager lol

Harry zaps in when Macy calls him (she’s not here for another Kappa fight). She asks where the Elders are. He says they are making sure to find the right method to vanquish the demon and gather the correct supplies. There is no room for mistakes.

The doorbell rings. It’s Niko and her partner Trip. Angela’s mother has filed a missing person’s report. Angela was last seen at the Veras Halloween party, and they are questioning anyone who has seen her. They all claim it was too crowded for them to really notice her although Maggie says she was dressed as a zombie. Mel freezes the cops to call her out for the zombie mention. There’s a little arguing. Maggie points out Mel can’t look her girlfriend in the eyes. The police unfreez and rumbling starts from the attic.

Niko and Trip want to know what that noise is. The girls act oblivious. Then a woman walks in, all purposeful and haughty. She says her name is Charity Callahan. She’s an interior designer, there to redecorate the attic. Sure, Jan.

The officers leave, but not before Trip gives the girls one last side-eye. The sisters turn to Charity and ask who she really is. She tells them she’s an Elder. Macy is surprised because she doesn’t look old. She says they’re trying to rebrand. She is not an interior designer but rather runs an investment business based on funding female-focused capitalism. They ask her how they can save Angela. She responds that they can’t. She will have to be killed during the full moon. She sticks weapons in each of their hands, saying, “Alright, let’s go see this thing”. Wow, what an introduction to the Elders! Charity is … something lol The actress is doing a good job selling this role, I will say that. I just don’t completely trust Charity and I don’t think I’m supposed to.

Charity has done a containment spell to hold Angela in place while she examines or maybe just taunts her. Mel asks if all the Elders are sadists. She is disgusted at the thought of killing Angela (hey, so am I!). Charity comes over and asks if something is wrong. Mel takes her to task and Harry tells her to think of Charity as royalty (excuse me, Harry??). Mel tells him not to reveal her monarch side; she was just starting to like him. Samesies.

It is revealed that Marisol was an Elder. The girls are shocked because Harry had only ever told them she was a ‘senior witch’. The hell?! I am shocked too. I didn’t see that one coming. He starts trying to defend his omission when Charity literally mutes him. The girls find it hilarious, and yeah, it is kind of amusing.

Mel asks Charity if she knew Marisol. Charity affirms she did. Mel says if you did, you would know she would never kill Angela. She was trying to save Angela.

The question of an exorcism is raised but Charity says it only works if there’s a soul to be saved and Angela is gone. The Harbie will reach full strength tonight and there will be a deluge (I love that word!) of blood. Macy points out it's homecoming weekend and the hotels are all packed. There will be tons of blood to spill. Ewww. Charity says we will commence at sunset.

The girls head over to campus. Mel again reiterates that she is opposed to killing Angela while Macy is less concerned about ‘it’ being that it tried to kill her first. Mel wants to figure out a way to prove Angela is still inside the Harbie.

We cut to a quick scene of Niko and Trip sitting by their squad car. Trip is sure the girls are hiding something. Niko is not amused by his suspicions and asks him sarcastically if he thinks her girlfriend killed all those people too.

Maggie’s in class. Lucy and Parker are there. Lucy runs over, gushing about how she never saw Maggie here before. She says Maggie and her can walk over together to work on the homecoming float, but Maggie has to beg off because she says she’s about to fail the class and needs study time. Of course, the suddenly very generous Lucy calls Parker, the literary genius, to help Maggie ace her midterm. That’s convenient, isn’t it? LOL

Macy has the dead rat in a petri dish at work, looking at it in a microscope. It does something creepy. (I am convinced all of her work there is magic related at this point.) She starts in surprise and Galvin overhears. They get to talking, maybe very lowkey flirting, and Macy asks him if he had to kill one person if it meant possibly saving the lives of everyone else in Hilltowne (did I get the phrasing right??), would he do it? He says no. The possibility is still there to save that one person. Macy says they’re supposed to be scientists. Emotions are not based on fact. “Who’s to say emotions aren’t just as valuable?” Galvin retorts. I am feeling this cute little duo, just sayin’. But all their possible ship names suck. Malvin? Gacy? Oh, hell no!

Galvin points out that ever since Halloween, they’ve hardly had a chance to talk. He asks her to hang out at Homecoming, but she has to turn him down because of something with her sisters. He looks disappointed (the actor does the sad puppy dog-eyed look well) and says maybe another time.

At Vera Manor, Mel is with our favorite Harbinger trying to reach her inner Angela with a spell from the Book of Shadows. She gets Angela to briefly peep out and then the demon screams she’s never coming out again. Yeah, well, Harbie, I beg to differ.

Downstairs, Charity’s on the phone. Mel interrupts her to tell her about how she reached Angela. Mel points out that Charity is supposed to be all about women supporting women. Charity says a demon this powerful has never been exorcised. Mel is disgusted. Her mother never would have done this. Charity puts her on mute.

Mel shows up at campus with Harbie in the trunk of her SVU (I wanna know how she got him in there. Like, why couldn’t we see the scene? Did she have to wrestle Harbie into submission? That would have been priceless!). She asks for Maggie’s help to save Angela. They just need somewhere private to do the exorcism. Maggie thinks she knows of a place. They realize Trip is following them and freeze time to make a quick getaway.

Meanwhile, Mel is telling Charity and Harry that from looking at the rat under the microscope, she concludes that if the Harbinger gets loose, it will unleash a pandemic. (Why am I getting bad COVID-19 flashbacks? I wish we could blame that awful shit on a fictional demon!!) Charity tells her they won’t let it come to that. They go into the attic and find it empty. They know Mel took the Harbinger. Harry adds, kind of rudely if you ask me, that Mel’s specialty is disobeying orders.

Mel, Maggie + 1 writhing, snarling mega-demon, are in the float warehouse, I assume, after the parade is over, as the campus looks pretty deserted. Harry appears as they are scouring our beloved Book of Shadows for exorcism spells (apparently there are a lot of them. You just never know when you’re going to have to cast out Satan, right?). He says he has no choice but to take the Harbinger back to the house and perform the ritual killing. Mel can’t let him do that. She says she’s the one who’s responsible for getting Angela into this situation. She convinced Angela to speak out against Professor Thaine, and the pressure of it all became too much, and that’s why she OD’d.

So, Mel feels responsible for what became of poor Angela. The (misplaced) guilt is written all over her face, it’s in her body language. I feel bad for her. She’s become such an interesting, multi-layered character. I remember thinking she seemed almost a little one-note in the Pilot episode, but she’s quickly evolved into a complex heroine. That’s the wonder of good acting and more balanced storytelling.

And back to the attic, we go! Macy is with Charity. Charity compliments Macy’s leadership abilities. Macy asks if Marisol ever mentioned her. Charity says she never mentioned Macy but when they were young witches, Marisol asked Charity to perform a brutal spell to extract all her pain from a tragic loss so she could go on living. Charity didn’t know the reasoning behind the anguish spell until now. Macy cries. Aww. That’s so bittersweet. Because Marisol loved her baby a lot. She just had to give her up for some reason. Was it a Whitelighter thing, a la Paige in the original Charmed, or is something entirely different that separated Marisol from her first daughter?

Back in the float warehouse, Macy arrives and asks if she can help. She wants to save Angela. Blank pages in the Book of Shadows begin filling with words. Marisol has left her daughters a spell to vanquish the Harbinger for real. They all look a little awed and humbled. Harry steps up to say their mother knew this moment would come. It’s fated. Maggie asks if he will disobey the Elders. He says, not all of them. That earns a grateful smile from Mel. Yay. Is my Mel and Harry, buddies' agenda, a possibility again?

They decide to use an empty paint can for the sacred container to capture the demon - Harry quips it was either that or a crushed beer can. Leave it the jokester. They’re going to have to lay hands on the Harbinger which equals death. Macy comes up with the idea of using chemical resistance nitrate gloves from the lab. She is almost certain they will protect them. “Almost certain?” Maggie cries, getting a little whiny about how it will be a gazillion times worse for her because she can read monster thoughts.

Outside, Maggie runs into - you get two guesses, and the first one is right - Parker! Of course. He may or may not be bringing illegal fireworks to stash. They get to chattin’ a bit. Maggie says she is not smart like her sisters. She’s only at this school because her mom was an alumnus. (Did we ever hear the University’s official name? I feel like it’s never been said but then maybe I missed it.) Parker thinks she’s selling herself short. He talks about how good his brother is at playing the guitar. This brother can really “shred” apparently. He encourages Maggie to tell herself a different story - “you can shred, Maggie.” Okay, that is either cute or really hokey, I can’t decide, but whatever it is, it turns Maggie on because when Angela makes a racket inside, Maggie’s instinct is to distract Parker with a kiss. Which isn’t a bad kiss. It’s kind of a cute kiss BUT - and this is a big BUT - I feel like it’s way too soon for them to already be so into each other. I gather Parker is Maggie’s love interest, her intended mate for however long, but do we need to rush things between them? They’ve talked three times maybe in the course of 2 episodes. He’s dating another girl, someone who is kind of a friend. I don’t know. It still feels high school to me. The writers could have drawn out the suspense more. Just my opinion though.

Anyway, after the kiss which was much shorter than my last paragraph (LOL) Maggie says we can’t, we shouldn't have done that, it was a mistake, etcetera etcetera. Parker looks mega confused as she tells him he should go. I still feel confused too honestly.

Inside, Angela’s fighting like the dickens. Her containment spell has worn off. Charity shows up, detaining her. They all try to convince Charity to let them save Angela by telling her Marisol left the spell for them. Harry points out that she knows what it’s like to break the rules and follow her instincts. Hmm, whatever does that mean??

Mel tells Charity she doesn’t have to trust them, but she knew her mother. Trust Marisol. Charity drops her weapon.

Angela’s in a big royal float chair, strapped down by magical bindings. She’s thrashing and howling. Maggie gives herself a pep talk - “I can do this. I can shred.” (I hope that’s not going to be a running line from here on out lol) The girls start reading the exorcism spell. Everything is shaking wildly, lights are flashing, and there’s wailing and gnashing of teeth. Where is Linda Blair (An Exorcist reference. Please forgive me!)?

Maggie uses her mind skills to talk to Angela. Angela tells her she can’t do this, she’s scared. Maggie answers, tell yourself a different story, you’re strong, you can do it. Angela is fighting to come to the surface just as Trip comes running in with a gun. Harry tells him to stay back as Charity whips the gun from his hand. There is some more screaming and then Angela violently vomits up - not pea soup!! - a great gush of black tar-like stuff (YUCK!) into the paint can, which is quickly slammed shut.

Angela’s bonds break and Mel exclaims that she’s breathing. However, someone else is not. Our suspicious friend Trip is DOA. A beam fell upon him in all the supernatural hijinks and he’s solid gone. Mel is horrified.

Back at the house, Charity tells Mel she dealt with Trip’s death in a way that won’t raise suspicion. Well, that raises my suspicion! Again, Mel blames herself for someone else’s misfortune because she says, if she had talked to Niko, Niko would have kept Trip away. Guilt will get you every time.

The girls are with Angela when she wakes up. She doesn’t remember anything, but she did hear a voice that made her feel strong and not so alone. She can’t believe she’s alive. She hugs the girls. I am so happy Angela gets her life back. I have been intrigued about her since the mention of her name came up in the Pilot Episode and now knowing she gets to live some semblance of a normal life is a nice thing to think about.

Harry is downstairs, complaining about the awful tea the sisters have. But he also congratulated them because they really did it. He says Charity has left to take the sacred vessel somewhere safe. The girls ask about his history with her and all he’ll say is he’s old AF and has a past and it’s nunya business.

Harry says the Elders will still be displeased by their disobedience and there will be consequences but it’s tomorrow’s problem. Mel stops him to tell him he was rad tonight. Is 'rad' still a thing? Eh, I don’t care because I liked it. Harry is tolerable when he’s around Mel. They have a nice growing bond between them that is entirely platonic and that's rare and oddly comforting.

Parker shows up at Maggie’s to study and she thanks him for what he said because it helped her. She got an extension on the midterm and is going to study and pass herself to prove she can do it (brava!!). She says the kiss was a mistake, one they can’t make again. (We’ll see how long that lasts. I am betting by the end of Episode 5; they’ll have locked lips again. That said, I am not putting any actual $$ on this bet because I’m broke haha) They part ways. Maggie has a cute, soft, vulnerable look on her face that is screen-capture-worthy. (If only I had a program to make screencaps with lol)

Mel tells the girls she can’t get Trip out of her head. She failed him and she hasn’t heard from Niko. Macy reminds her she saved Angela and their mom would have been proud.

The scene moves to the staircase. Poor Niko is crying her eyes out, talking about how they found him (Trip, of course) at the warehouse. He had hung himself and they think he was responsible for all the murders. She cries that she really thought she knew him, she really thought he was her friend. Mel looks sad as she embraces weeping Niko. Aww this is tragic. Can you imagine having to keep a secret like that from your lover? The whole “I’m a witch” bit is one thing, but this is a completely different level of secrecy. This might not bode well for MelKo. (That’s the ship name I’m using for them. Unless they have another one?? Idk)

And then we arrive at the end of our episode. Our friend (or not) Charity walks onto an elevator with the sacred container. A noticeably attractive man joins her and asks if she’s willing to switch paint cans. She’s only too willing. He says it’s nice doing business with her and strides off with our friend Harbie in hand.

Roll that cliffhanger!!

Thoughts to ponder:

a) My mom half-watched the show with me tonight as she was putting together some Halloween presents for the family. She is a fan of the OG Charmed. We watch it together often. She said this version of Charmed seemed boring because there were really no action sequences. As she put it, all anyone seemed to do was talk, talk, talk. I don’t think the show is boring by any stretch of the imagination, but I did notice this episode was pretty dialogue heavy. Do you think the show needs more physical scenes and more active demon-fighting? Or are you okay with the status quo?

b) Thoughts on the Elder, Charity?

c) Thoughts on Parker and Maggie’s kiss? Too rushed? Hot? Not hot enough?

d) Who do you think the man was in the elevator at the very end with Charity? Where do you believe Harbie is headed now?

e) Are you satisfied with the resolution to Angela Wu’s story - assuming it’s resolved, and she won’t be repossessed lol

Episode Quote:

Maggie: Please tell me you have a plan other than driving a super lethal demon around Hilltowne in our hatchback.

Comments

[prueturner]

I knew the Harbinger was alive! At least for this one, anyways. I'm curious to see what anybody would want with a paint can full of demon haha.

I liked this episode, especially the focus put onto the differences in opinions/priority between the sisters--Mel's reasoning is very, very sad. Poor Mel, blaming herself :( I do notice that Mel is flip-flopping a lot--she'll stick to her guns and then go and blame herself. She learned a lesson at the end of the last one too lol.

Also, I think Macy's change of heart did make sense, and I loved the insight into her character. Also poor Galvin. I can see why this would be something that splits them apart even though I really, really want them to get together--but I don't really know where else they could go with it than if he finds out or dies (and I'm worried he's going to die because I can't see Macy choosing to tell him).

Also re: ship names for Macy/Gavin--I agree that they're not very easy to smush together. Maybe Macvin?

I am interested in the whole "something out there is killing elders" thing, hopefully they expand on that a little--did it have something to do with why Marisol died? I am excited to see that Niko was investigating further into the sisters. Very dramatic, especially at the end with Trip! It kinda made me think a little bit about the whole utilitarian thing--they did end up with one person dead after all.

Charity's method of "dealing with" Trip's death definitely made me suspicious of her and then that scene at the end with the demon? At least, I think it was a demon.

I liked Maggie's reason for being hesitant to touch demon-Angela, and then her getting over that to help Angela out, but I did not like Maggie and Parker kissing, especially because I can see like a million different ways that she could have distracted him. I totally agree that it's too soon for them to start like-liking each other (especially because he has a girlfriend!!).

Mel's comment to Harry about monarchism totally made me laugh and did remind me that he's actually 1. old, and 2. British, plus I think it was a fun moment for Mel. Also on the "Harry is old" thing, I can't wait to see what parts of his past get brought up in later episodes.

As for the action/dialogue ratio: in my opinion, this one was a little dialogue heavy, but I imagine that's because they had to spend a lot of special effects budget on the exorcism scene LOL. I think it would've been funny if she still had demon makeup on when they were done--wasn't it a Halloween costume?

I think Charity is kind of a "girlboss" model, in the more toxic sense of the word. Like she's using it for PR but actually just wants everyone to do things her way. That said, I am curious to see how the hypnosis/spell/whatever the deal was in the elevator affects her--is she always like this and just easy to manipulate?

I think elevator man is probably another agent of the Source--maybe taking Harbie to possess someone with slightly less meaningful connections to the sisters?

I would like to see or hear about Angela again, but I do think her story's probably wrapped up now. Unless she does actually rush (pledge? I don't know how sororities work) Kappa like they mentioned while she was in a coma.

[luvbarryfefe]

I always like reading your thoughts so much because they give me something new to think about. I really do want to know who/what is killing Elders and if it's the Source or something else. I agree about Galvin and Macy's future or lack thereof. They're super adorable but they're kind of in a Dan/Piper situation. Nice human guy meets witch and now what?? Where do they go from there? I don't see a long-term thing here. I am enjoying the twists and turns the show is taking right now.

I need to get to watching Episode 5. Hope to 'hear' your thoughts on that episode too!