In episode 2, "Bound", our heroine Cassie finds herself learning more about her mother's witchy past and coming to grips with her newly-discovered, uncontrollable power. Bad witch Faye is still power-tripping and almost kills a classmate and Diana wants the teens to bind their power together. Meanwhile, Faye's grandfather returns to town to nip it all in the bud and we learn that his generation stripped their children of power following the fire that killed at least one of each of the teens' parents. His daughter-in-law Dawn (Faye's mother and the high school principle) isn't so keen on giving it all up, however, and she and Charles (Diana's father) figure out a way to work around the pesky limitation.
In episode 3, "Loner", the teens learn that with the circle bound, their individual powers are gone; they can only perform magic together, much to Faye's dismay. The circle is not so secret anymore. Zachary Larson, of the parents' generation, discovers that the teens are practicing witchcraft and have bound the circle. Vowing to never let "it" happen again, he sets out to kill one of them in order to destroy the circle. Naturally, much of the action takes place in the dark corridors of the high school while there's a dance going on in the gym.
My general assessment of The Secret Circle hasn't changed much. It's polished, has an attractive and talented cast, a lot of teenage cleavage, small-town secrets, slick magic, and a pop soundtrack. Just as Cassie's wide-eyed, parted-lips look and Diana's goody goodiness were starting to get tiresome, Faye's character was becoming irritatingly cliche, and the relationship between Nick and Melissa sickeningly abusive, the writers stepped it up a bit in "Loner" to give us a hint of a darker Diana, a softer Faye, and smarter, more humane, and wounded Nick and Melissa. Cassie, our protagonist, may end up being the least interesting of all.
The Secret Circle is starting to blur that line between witchcraft and Witchcraft. There still hasn't been any talk of gods and they haven't referred to themselves as Pagans or Wiccans, but what was referred to as a journal in episode 1 was called a Book of Shadows in episode 2 and the familiar symbols, such as the pentagram, are there. Episode 2 also introduced the use of elements. The circle called on fire, earth, air, and water, along with metal and blood, perhaps deliberate attempts by the writers to put some distance between the pop culture fantasy and its religious counterpart.
I have some questions about The Secret Circle: What are Charles and Dawn's goals ultimately? Why don't any of these kids seem to ask their parents about witchcraft or entertain the thought that the adults have as much magical ability as they do? Why is the magical climax of every episode so epically cheesy?
The Secret Circle airs Thursdays at 9pm on the CW. You can also catch full episodes on the CW website.
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