The Charmed Ones must try to persuade the Perfecti to release Jordan from the Tomb of Chaos, but to do so they must perform a seemingly impossible task.

So having finally noticed that Jordan (and Abigael) were MIA at the end of the previous episode, the girls confront the Perfecti to demand the release of their friend. The Perfecti argue that Abigael is a Chaotic Being and therefore deserves to be locked in the Tomb of Chaos, and reason further that as Jordan was aiding her in whatever she was up to, he must be guilty by association. A show about witches and demons once again confronting the prejudice inherent in systems against people of colour within the frame of its own narrative? You’d better believe it.

In order to free Jordan, the girls must do the one thing they really don’t think they can manage – defend Abi and argue that she is, in fact a good person under all that… other stuff. Macy is understandably reluctant and Mel is mostly ambivalent but Maggie is determined she wants to get him back, partly because she’s in love with him but mostly because he’s a good person who’s suffered enough.

So begins the impossible quest of finding qualities about Abi which the girls deem laudable, not helped at all by the fact that Abi herself is not really interested in participating. Broken by the Tomb and specifically by its manifestation of her mother and the reminder of the traumatic horrors of her past, Abi has decided she very much deserves to be where she is and doesn’t want to leave. Defending someone you think is guilty is one thing – defending them when they think they’re guilty and deserve their punishment? That’s a whole new level of tricky.

But as the episode goes on and the gang do their best to out-argue the Perfecti in a magical courtroom hearing setting, we find out a lot about our (or at least my) favourite Charmed antihero. Not only did she suffer terribly at the hands of her mother, but her motives for helping the Charmed Ones haven’t always been as horribly self-centred as they might have seemed. There’s revelations here that aren’t really a surprise for anyone paying attention for the last two seasons, but it’s welcome to hear them given voice nonetheless.

As the episode heads towards its conclusion there’s stuff that happens which is quite obvious and other stuff which promises interesting things up ahead. As the credits roll, it becomes clear that this mid-season lull in the action the girls have been experiencing (relatively speaking) is about to come to an end in an explosive way – they’re likely going to need all the friends they can get.

Verdict: Explores one of my favourite characters in the show nicely. J’approve. 8/10

Greg D. Smith