An ominous vision for Maggie, combined with Mel’s warning from her future self, prompts the Charmed Ones to start dabbling in time travel, but they are not prepared for what they find. Harry starts to suffer some unusual side effects from the process of becoming mortal. Mel struggles with her new reality.

Last week’s closing reveal, that Mel is now carrying her future self’s baby, came very much out of nowhere, but it’s hardly the last curveball that the show has for us, in an episode that’s fairly brimming with surprises.

Unable to actually touch her sisters still, Maggie is forced to rely on going through various objects in the house to try to get some sort of vision that might help explain future Mel’s dire warning to her past self. When she finally strikes lucky, the vision is disturbing enough that the girls reach one inevitable conclusion – they need to travel to the future to find out what’s going on. Or at least two of them do, Mel being left behind to sort out other things while Maggie and Macy take the plunge.

They say that time travel is often the refuge of genre shows which have run out of ideas, but in fairness, Charmed has dabbled in this area before and got away with it. The girls consult Celeste and borrow her special watch to fling themselves a few years forward, but they are in no way prepared for what awaits them.

Meanwhile, Harry’s process of becoming mortal turns out to have some interesting side effects, considering the age of the soul he borrowed to help with the process. Thought this may at first seem like simply a chance for Rupert Evans to have a bit of fun on the set, it actually leads to a much deeper and more introspective reflection on the nature of Harry’s existence, the part Celeste played in his being made a Whitelighter and the motivations she has for helping him.

As for Mel, understandably she’s freaking out a little – who wouldn’t, having just suddenly been made pregnant with the baby of their own future self? Mel is worried that this is not what Ruby signed up for, and begins to act strangely towards her girlfriend. This may explain why Ruby does something you really wouldn’t expect as the two of them try to make preparations for Macy and Maggie’s return. Though they seem to find their way through it, I think there’s still more that the show intends to explore here – never let it be said that Melanie Vera’s love life has ever run smooth, after all.

Verdict: Though it’s starting to feel like there’s a new world-threatening thing every week or so, this is a decent and interesting episode full of surprises and with a lot of heart. 8/10

Greg D. Smith