Different enemies collide while The Charmed Ones become stronger than ever as Charmed rockets towards the final episodes of its first season.

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Starring Melonie Diaz, Madeleine Mantock, Sarah Jeffery, Ser’Darius Blain (credit only), Ellen Tamaki, Rupert Evans and Nick Hargrove (credit only)

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As it turns out in this episode, the Elders have more to fear than just the Charmed Ones breaking their rules. Before the prophecy can be realised and the Source can arrive, all of the Elders must first be killed. The episode begins with yet another of the Elders being poisoned (presumably by Fiona (Leah Piper), because it’s a blonde woman), leading to the Elders wishing to cooperate with magic. This allows the Charmed Ones to share with them the working theory that Fiona, as Keeper of the Flame, is both keeper of the Sacred Flame as well as the Source of all Evil and that these are exactly the same thing.

Another growing concern throughout this episode is Macy’s (Madeleine Mantock) darkness, which seems to be affecting her throughout the day. She is snappy and standoffish with both of her sisters and even pushes Harry (Rupert Evans) when he tries to stop her from giving into her demonic powers. This vision does however allow Macy to see that Fiona and Alastor (Craig Parker) are working together, and that the Source and the Sacred Flame are the same entity.

Meanwhile, Mel (Melonie Diaz) and Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) finally cotton on to Lucy’s (Natalie Hall) strange behaviour when she visits the house and rips a page from the Book of Shadows. They take her phone and use Niko (Ellen Tamaki) to help track Alastor down to save Macy using her demonic powers again.

Niko is currently having drama as she struggles to reconcile her lack of feeling for her fiancée with her thinking of Mel, leading to the two of them kissing.

Halfway through the episode, we are left with only one Elder, when Hunter (Constantine Rousouli) attacks. While Harry protects the one remaining Elder, Maggie and Mel confront Macy over her continued use of her demonic half. The intervention leads to Macy attacking Mel, injuring her, which returns her to her normal state and sees her break Elder Bari’s needle to stop her descent into evil going any further. When talking in the Book Nook, which apparently their mother always spoke of and yet we’ve never really seen addressed before, Maggie discovers a book that has the same symbol on it that Maggie has been doodling all day. Using these books, they discover a secret passageway that leads them to a chamber where they each have a cabinet. Inside these are weapons for each of the sisters to use: a staff for Maggie to channel her emotion, a bracelet that allows Mel to manipulate time further as well as some knives, and Macy has a pendant that can help her to control her demonic side.

At this point, the sisters receive a phonecall from Lucy, who is at a party with Hunter, who says that they need to turn up with the last Elder to prevent Lucy from being killed. They do so, and manage to defeat Hunter using their new weapons and sense of sisterhood. Right before being vanquished, however, Hunter throws his weapon and kills the last remaining Elder.

Meanwhile, Charity (Virginia Williams) and Fiona come face-to-face. Fiona says that the two of them are strong enough to take on Alastor together, but Fiona is uninterested in joining forces. Instead, she wishes to help Alastor put the Source into Parker so that she can destroy Parker and, with it, magic. During this speech, Charity deduces that the Source cannot be brought back until she is killed, as she is still technically an Elder. Just as Fiona is about to unleash her deadly spell, however, Charity throws some green fire and escapes.

Niko has found information about Alastor’s whereabouts and hands it to Maggie. Mel speaks to Niko and reveals everything about their relationship history and changing Niko’s life with magic. Niko reacts understandably horribly, and says that Mel had no right to alter her life in such a heartbreaking way and that she didn’t do it for Niko at all, but rather for Mel’s peace of mind.

While this would be a compelling ending in itself, we then see multiple inhabitants of Hilltowne collapsing with bloody noses, including Niko. Whatever the reason, it cannot be good.

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Musings

If Marisol wanted the sisters to find the weapons, shouldn’t she have hidden it using the triquetra instead of that random symbol we’ve never really seen before? It would have made much more sense, and the girls would have found it sooner.

On that topic, wouldn’t the girls have been much better equipped had they had these tools right from the beginning of discovering their powers? It seems like bad parenting to me, Marisol.

I would love for Lucy to find out about the sisters at some point. She’s a delightful character, but she is just relegated to the background despite her wonderful portrayal.

Destroying the Elders in this episode somewhat destroys one of the more compelling evils within the show. It was quite interesting seeing how an institution dedicated to achieving goodness can also be dictatorial and outdated, and now they are all destroyed, with the exception of Charity.

I love Charity, though I do worry that her fleeing is spelling the beginning of some noble sacrifice story at her hand. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

I am slightly confused as to what Alastor was doing when he stabbed Parker with the Origin Dagger in the previous episode. Was he just making Parker a viable host for the Source? What’s happened there? It’s very unclear.

The Charmed Ones fighting with their new weapons was incredible. More of this please and thank you.

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The trailer for next week shows the Harbinger returning, and the inhabitants of Hilltowne Hulking out all over the place. Alastor’s defeat can’t come quickly enough.