So, the theme for
this episode is social justice concepts that the writers don’t seem to entirely
understand and then actively sabotage!
Anyway, the sisters
are training in a simulation to fight big bad demons with Henry and it all goes
wrong because Maggie starts texting her sorority sisters mid battle, Macy
freezes up and can’t use her powers and Mel decides to cast a super powerful
spell she’s learned which catches them all in the blast radius
So, lessons learned: Macy needs to stop overthinking things and actually just go with the low and use her powers. Maggie needs to stop letting her sorority concerns distracting her. And Mel needs to be less reckless with her magic
I mean, even low
level D&D adventurers know to watch your spell blast radii
Henry also has a big
dramatic speech about the big bad Harbinger that they’ve heard so many times
before they can quote it. He reveals that the Harbinger must have possessed
someone - so Mel wants to charge in throwing magic around campus which Macy and
Maggie don’t agree with and Henry suggests they wait for the elders to give
them some input. Mel mocks the very idea, deciding they’re washed up has beens
Hey, y’know passion
for social justice should not really come with dismissing experienced people
because they’re old: especially since there’s a strong implication they’re
female as well.
Mel decides she wants
to cast a spell that will lure all demons within 20 miles so they can find the
Harbinger. Macy is less thrilled with this plan and suggests they listen more
to Henry since he was right about the whole spirit board thing. Mel will not
succumb to his patriarchal control
So we have the reckless
magic theme - in addition to throwing magic nukes within spitting distance and
wanting to being mass attacked by who knows how many demons, Mel also
repeatedly freezes entire rooms full of people, just asking for people to come
in and find the room frozen or for her to unfreeze and not be stood in the
correct place and everyone will notice her teleporting (or notice they’ve lost
time). Henry, exasperated, puts a magical tracking bracelet on her to alert him
when she uses magic
She is, naturally outraged
by this because it is restrictive, infantilising. I could now have a discussion
about having female characters show agency by having them repeatedly make
obviously ridiculous and dangerous decisions, react with aggression when
criticised for them and eventually have a man control them and seem JUSTIFIED
because their decision making is just so bad it feels like someone has to. But
I don’t have to - I just have to drop this Spunky
Agency link here.
Macy does some
science and they realise the Harbinger could probably be exposed if it ate
sugar. Uh-huh, in the US? It better not eat. Anyway this prompts Macy to bake
lots of biscuits (Americans, Henry is right) so they can get people to eat them
and expose their monsterness. They go around pressing biscuits on people -
including Angela. Angela was the woman who went into a coma when she was
attacked by the Ice Demon professor and she has woken up - just as the
Harbinger arrives. Mel is quick to realise they may be a link and talks to her,
offering biscuits and reconnecting. It doesn’t work - which I’m honestly
thankful for because otherwise the universal presence of sugar would make this
the shortest possession ever
Angela is the
possessed one - this isn’t kept as a secret even slightly, with her drinking
blood and storing heads in her fridge.
A more poignant issue
tearing at Mel and causing conflict between her and Henry is having to keep her
secret from Niko. This is especially difficult with a series of close calls and
the fact Niko is a detective. This is what she does. On top of that, Niko is
already wary of Mel because she fears Mel falling back into her obsession over
her mother’s death and is suspicious of any secrecy from Mel. Mel tells Henry
how heartbreaking this for her
Which is understandable because keeping secrets from loved ones is hard. Except she compares it to being closeted. And after making a big speech at what a gift having an accepting mother was and how amazing it was to be openly gay, she then hacks that off at the knees by drawing a comparison between having magic powers and fighting demons to being gay. By deciding to compare the closet - with all the messages of self loathing, conversion, therapy, constant acting and pretending for years, to not using super powers. Not for something you’ve known about for a week that hasn’t had close to the opprobrium, soul searching or societal weight or context behind it.
Yay straight actors playing gay with straight writers putting words in their mouths.
Macy also continues
to have issues with Galvin - he flirts with her a lot and she keeps trying to
keep him at arm’s length, refusing dates and generally keeping space between
them. Personally I think wanting to keep romance and work life separate isn’t
bad… but Maggie is definitely pushing Macy to have more fun and be less serious
Which is why she
invites Galvin to the party. What party? Well, in her quest to join the
sorority, Maggie has been kind of slacking and to make up her credentials for
the sorority she offers the use of the house for their hallowe’en party - since
there’s a ban on alcohol on campus.
To make sure it’s an
awesome party she also uses a lot of magic - cue the Personal Gain warning.
Obviously the others are less pleased by this idea but realising they could
test a lot of people for sugar all in one place, so they go along with it. And
there’s a nice scene where Maggie pokes Macy about why she is so against being
sexy (hey, I thought her Ruth Bader Ginsberg costume was cool but needed
explaining) and Macy has a great personal development story about going to a
nearly all white Boarding school and being pigeon-holed into a very narrow
role: the smart and serious one. Not the sexy and fun
To which Maggie
reject this little box and picks a costume - Persephone. Which Galvin ius very
very impressed by. But he’s less impressed by how little time Macy spends with
her. Nor can Maggie with her sorority sisters - who are duly impressed by her
awesome party though. And whil Mel tries to talk magic with Niko - while
dressed as a witch - Niko has to leave the party because there are three bodies
on campus
A nun, a woman who
was running a purity party and a misogynist podcaster and likely an Incel. So
three virgins. Henry realises that they’re being killed by the Harbinger
because virgin blood is empowering and they plan to leave and seal the house -
protecting the partiers from attack (though they doubt the virginity of those
inside for snarky jokes because SLUT JOKES ARE PROGRESSIVE!)
Except it doesn’t
work - because Angela the Harbinger is there. Mel wants to go in spells blazing
but wiser heads decide to lure her out - with Macy’s blood. Because she;’s a
virgin. There’s a brief moment of shock at this 28 year old virgin and she
feels embarrassed before both sisters dismiss that this is a reason to judge
someone. Mel even saying, rightly, that virginity is a false, patriarchal
concept
Which is true and I
applaud. Except the show has JUST ESTABLISHED THE SPECIAL MAGICAL PROPERTIES OF
VIRGIN BLOOD! You can’t dismiss virginity as a sexist, heteronormative,
fictional concept and then say how magically special it is.
They lure the demon
out, are surprised to see it’s Angela, and then their big spell falls apart
because Maggie’s personal gain woo-woo catches up with her. She has to drop the
glamour before she can rejoin the fight - which has Macy running from Angela, using
her telekinesis to fend her off. Which works - because when her adrenaline is
flowing and she isn’t over thinking her powers work perfectly. Problem 1
solved!
But instead of the
big spell, Mel uses her nuke - which she’s been warned about (shall I
include the Spunky agency link again?) it knocks Angela down… and Macy. With Macy not
breathing and near death - luckily Whitelighters can heal.
Aftermath: Angela is
restrained, the party was awesome and Maggie is accepted by her sorority
sisters, Macy kisses Galvin, and Maggie sees that Nice Guy Who Has Been
Flirting With Her is dating Lucy the head of the sorority
And he is so
definitely going to be evil. Yes yes he is.
Maggie and Henry have
a heart to heart - she admits she has been reckless and she’ll change. He
admits that he has issues due to his losing a charge when she was reckless and
told people her big secret and ended up dying after being shut up in a mental
institution. He removes the tracking bracelet and promises, after the current
war is done, to fight to get her permission to share her secret with Niko.
Hopefully this heralds these two characters working together with less sparks
