Macy takes the burden of the Charmed Ones by herself, Mel is desperate to regain her powers and Maggie goes to extreme ends to get what she wants.

As established in the season premiere, Macy is the only one of the Charmed Ones to still possess powers, owing to her demon half. The physical and mental toll this is taking on her is starting to show, as she shoulders the burden of saving innocent witches by herself. Additionally, she hasn’t been able to get much sleep due to Harry’s Demon twin appearing to her in her dreams to torment her.

This leads to Macy taking out her frustrations on Mel, who is having a tough time translating the Book of Elders, and who responds essentially by telling Macy to go f*** herself. As it happens, Macy is unable to do anything productive to help either, as the Book of Elders repels her due to her demon half.

Meanwhile, Maggie’s new role in Safe Space has allowed her access to all of the rooms, but Macy and Mel’s reckless use of Safe Space supplies has meant that they are cracking down on who has unlimited access to rooms. In order to maintain her card, Maggie hatches a plan to become the new assistant manager of Safe Space – despite having fewer than zero qualifications for said role. She discovers that Jordan is also applying for the position. While she first asks him not to apply, as she really needs the job (other people need jobs too Maggie. Come on), she ultimately resorts to magic to persuade the interviewer to give the job to her instead. This ultimately leads to Jordan having to leave Safe Space as he cannot afford the rent without the assistant manager job.

Elsewhere, Mel and Harry have dedicated themselves to deciphering the Book of Elders and have discovered a reference to something known as a Sentinel. In order to access this Sentinel, they decide that they need Katrina (the random wiccan) for help to access the astral plane where he is. I’m not entirely sure how they happened upon that solution, but let’s roll with it. So while they are there, they discover the Sentinel and he grants them back their powers. With her time freezing powers back in tact, Mel and Katrina get to the serious business that is kissing. Surprise! Katrina is suddenly beset with worms, just like those that we saw in the astral plane with the Sentinel. Mel freaks out and summons Harry, who can’t stop the worms even with his whitelighter power. They conclude that what is happening to Katrina must be the price for them having earned their powers back, and realise that it must be some sort of Elder test. In what can only be described as a very dramatic U-turn in logic, Mel and Harry end up on the roof and throw themselves off. Why? Because they believe that they never left the astral plane and this is some sort of test. They are ultimately proved correct, but the reasoning was beyond flimsy. They confront the Sentinel, who praises them for having figured it out and gives Mel a cypher so that she can decode the Book of Elders and start the journey to getting her own powers back. Happy days.

Macy has spent this time answering a distress call that takes her to San Francisco. While there, she finds a witch called Abigael (ridiculous spelling) before she finds herself knocked out too and held in a magical Farraday cage. The pair escape using science (somehow Macy electrocuted the demon captor using metal coils and a light, all without getting electrocuted herself. Not quite sure how that’s possible) and attempt to flee. Even with their two powers combined, Macy is ultimately forced to blindfold Abigael and jump through the portal back to the lair.

Despite being blindfolded, Abi deduces through a conversation that Macy shares with Maggie that they are the Charmed Ones and that they didn’t die after all. When approaching the Book of Elders, Abi is similarly repelled and Macy leaps into action, ready with a dagger to eliminate her new friend. Abi explains that she is part demon and part witch, and the pair lament over their respective difficulties with this. Suddenly, a green light starts to flash in Abi’s shoulder, revealing the presence of a tracker. The pair conclude that the Overlord will be pursuing Abi and, while he cannot materialise or enter the Command Centre, he will be able to appear in Safe Space, where both Mel and Maggie are.

Maggie and Macy lure the Overlord to the Command Centre, where he is stripped of his demonic powers, allowing Abi to vanquish him. Before he (apparently his name is Callum?) dies, he looks at Abi and says, “it’s you, isn’t it?”, which is beyond suspicious and something that Macy picks her up on afterwards. Abi pleads ignorance, but has a dagger behind her back. The screen warns Macy of a breach, just as Abi attacks. Macy manages to overpower her, but Abi distracts with the fact that they both have the matching green scar from being attacked by the Assassin.

In a bizarre turn of events, Katrina is shutting up shop in her wiccan supplies store when she finds the till full of writhing worms. When she closes and then reopens it, they have vanished, but she is clearly shaken and begins to cry.

Mark’s Maundering Musings

It was intriguing that the girls’ storylines were all so distinct in this episode. It made for a more varied hour, but I can definitely tell that they are pulling back from the family-based storytelling.

I really don’t understand this whole Abi storyline. I like her as a character, and it’s nice to have some fresh blood in a promising role. However, I am confused by what is happening with her. Is she a threat to the Charmed Ones? She had the opportunity to leave and yet she did not take it. So why did she try to attack Macy? And why would Macy stop from killing her just because they share the same green scar? Just because Abi is similarly being targeted by the Assassin does not immediately make her an ally, especially since she just tried to kill you Macy. Something is definitely amiss.

There is absolutely no way that the demon that they vanquished was the Overlord. Not least because his name was Callum. No major demon would be called Callum. That is ridiculous. His comment to Abi was further confusing. I feel like we’re being led to believe that she is the Overlord, but perhaps that is too obvious.

Maggie’s storyline this week reeks of entitlement. Why exactly should Maggie get this job? Firstly, it would have made so much more sense for Macy or Mel to go for the job because they actually have any work experience, while Maggie has literally got one year of university to her name and nothing else going on. Furthermore, why does she need to be assistant manager to have the key? They are witches. Surely there must be a magic duplication spell that must mean that they can keep a spare key? Or some cloaking spell to get into these rooms without being detected? Come on, girls, you really must have memorised more of the Book of Shadows before it was destroyed. Also, using a spell just to cheat somebody more deserving out of a job just because you want it? What gives, Maggie?

I can’t believe that Maggie wandered around saying hello to everybody in Safe Space by saying “Hi, I’m Maggie. I’m the new assistant manager.” You cheated to get the role, Maggie, and you’re clearly not proud of it because you lied to Mel and Harry about it. Moreover, she tells people that if they have any questions to come to her. How is Maggie meant to answer them? She has literally been working for them for a couple of days. She knows absolutely nothing about how it runs. Ridiculous.

I wonder whether Katrina knows everything that went down in the astral plane. I hope that nothing especially bad happens to her, especially as she only ended up going there because she was Mel and Harry’s anchor.

Next week