And within 5 minutes of the Secret Circle starting we learn that Nick had an older brother called Jake. See, see? I totally called it. No way were we going to go down to 5 witches. Someone call the advertising people and replace Nick with Jake (or, y'know, we could give Melissa some space... nahhhhh) and yes, the Circle is bound by bloodline! So Jake is a member of it as Nick's brother – replacement Nick!
And Jake is troubled... very troubled – and a thief and selfish and and and he jaywalks! EVIL, evil I say! And he used to date Faye (Mean Girl) and treat her terribly and he stole from Adam and Adam now haaaates him. And he's baaaaad. And they don't want him in the circle, no no no! Bad Jake! No Cookie
And something is threatening the young Circle – it set a fire and burned a crescent moon in the ground! This is a symbol of conquest and is used to threaten witches and is scary! (actually it's a symbol for Islam, by the look of it *side eye*) Naturally all attention focuses on the Big Bad Jake, which means it's definitely not him. And lo I'm writer- scary goth girl attacks Cassie in her house with... a spiky thing (honestly, grandma, get a security system or some wards or something!) And she wants Cassie's ! But Jake steps in to the rescue with a Pink Eye spell.
Cassie tells Jake about the circle (showing her sense has run out, since grandma told her not to) but Jake wants no part of it! And Adam hatesss him – which upsets Diana (Chief Scooby) because Adam likes Cassie and is acting jealous of Nick. And Faye (Mean Girl) is upset because Cassie and Jake have a connection and Faye LIKES Jake! Oh gods, another love triangle – moooore teen drama, moooore. And Diana learns about Adam and Cassie's love in the starrrrs – it's destined! It's destiny that they be together!
Cassie's grandma also tells Cassie that they have the super-special bloodline that makes them the super witches who should be in charge! Step back Diana, Cassie's the real Chief Scooby! We also get some more info about crystals – the ones the Evil parents want!
Can we see where this is going? Cassie is going to run around being a total Jake advocate and the others are going to still Hates Him Preciousss. And Jake wants nothing to do with it. But Cassie is right and true – and the real Chief Scooby – and she knows better! And she will bring them all together and they'll fight together and save each other's lives and all will be forgiven and they'll all learn to get along. It really looks predictable
But ooh there's a twist! Jake knows the attacker – Simone, who hates all witches. And they have a mission – together! But Simone doesn't trust Nick and attacks him – and gets stabbed when Cassie intervenes. Turns out we have a whole possee of witch hunters – and Jake is with them to avenge his family by killing all the witches. Because, of course, a witch working with witch hunters is very sensible. I begin to see why the last circle lost over half its members and had to be stripped of its power – if they had the same levels of common sense as their kids I wouldn't want them to have power either.
We have some sad scenes over Nick dying, but other than a few cameos there's not a whole lot, considering its been 2 days. It could be because we're focused more on Cassie who didn't know/like him that much and new dramas happening - the sad scenes that are done are good (Diana's was especially powerful I think) – but the only one who seems to be really grieving is Melissa (who goes back to Nick's house – doesn't she have a home?!). Of course this means Melissa, again, has no role to play this episode except be sad – she doesn't have any input in the decision on whether to accept Jake or not and the other Scoobies are meeting without her. At least Melissa is seeing through Faye every now and then
On the whole – predictability is a main factor. I think we've moved on from Nick's death ridiculously quickly and there's a lot of teen angst that is, frankly, tasteless – they're all having their little relationship dramas and Nick's body's not even cold in the ground yet.
As to suspense and twists... ugh it just feels so predictable. There's so little that's novel here.
Will Jake complete his mission? Will he join the Scoobies? Will he fall in love with Cassie? Will he betray the Witch hunters? Will we drown in teen angst and love triangles? Why am I even pretending these are questions?
