Harry’s infection with a mystery illness leaves Abigael and Macy at odds over the best course of action to save him. Meanwhile, Maggie and Jordan undertake their first magical mission together, and end up in more danger than they bargained for.

I’ve said several times that Abigael is easily the strongest character in Charmed, mostly because the writing combines so well with Poppy Drayton’s acting to never let the audience get a firm handle on exactly what it is that she wants and whose side she might be on other than her own. Sure, the writing occasionally just contrives to make her look near-omnipotent just to tie up narrative threads, but she’s still the best the show has to offer.

By contrast, Macy has always been the weakest character, and through no fault of Madeleine Mantock – the writers just seem determined week after week to have Macy be the third wheel, the character who is always in some sort of trouble, or somehow struggling more than the others. This all being the case, it makes a sort of perverse sense that these two should be stuck in a love triangle situation with Harry. What sort of messes that whole dynamic up is giving Macy another love interest along the way.

At any rate, of the two of them this time out, it’s Macy who gets put upon by the script (no surprise). As Harry lies dying, afflicted by some mysterious illness, Abigael has confident, assured certainty as to what the problem and solution are, and wants to act on instinct. Macy meanwhile wants to waste lots of time getting some complicated tests done to rule out every other possibility first. I’ll leave the reader to intuit which one of them emerges from this pissing contest looking better.

Meanwhile, Maggie takes Jordan with her on a mission to New Orleans to try to find out more about the mysterious group Mr Vera was mixed up with and exactly what they’re up to and why they’re after magical artefacts. This is apparently also part of Jordan’s start on ‘rebalancing the scales of justice’ to try to make sure his curse is lifted. It also seems incredibly reckless, but the shoe doesn’t seem to mind too much so I guess we shouldn’t either. Suffice to say, they end up in deeper than they thought they might be, things get very weird very quickly and yet another tiny sliver of sub-narrative is laid though we still aren’t really any closer to finding out what it all means.

And if you’re wondering about Mel? She’s definitely there, mostly looking after Harry and being a sounding board to draw out some more character stuff to confuse us about Abigael and her intentions. Other than that, she pretty much sits this one out, narratively speaking.

Verdict: Macy in doomed romance. Maggie falling for a boy. Mel wandering about the place looking disapproving at people. Plus ca change. 5/10

Greg D. Smith