An internet UFO hunter may hold the key to the recent appearances of powerful creatures. Mel has relationship issues. Maggie goes to war with her nemesis on campus. Abigael reaches out for help.

Lots going on in this week’s instalment of Charmed, but whereas some of it is fairly interesting, other parts feel a little recycled.

The girls spot a video of a UFO hunter which seems to show familiar symbols and may hold a clue as to recent events, but unfortunately Mel has a socially distanced date and Maggie has to run to do a thing, so it’s up to Macy and Harry to pair off and deal with that sub plot. When they meet the man, he’s not magical at all but he does seem to have a mysterious artefact in his possession that could provide some answers. Now all they have to do is get him to part with it and work out how to make use of it.

The first part is in truth fairly simple, but the second part leads to Harry being in some considerable danger. I don’t love this subplot for a number of reasons, not least that the writers choose to entwine the ‘Harry suddenly realises that he is too old for Macy’ bit into it as well that I hoped we had dealt with last week. It does however (eventually) seem to point to some answers as to exactly why the world suddenly seems to be getting a lot of new monsters in it, though it does rather echo a feature from the first season – I guess it’s not copying when you’re re-using your own material?

As to Maggie, she gets to play out the ‘Maybe I should think about things before I go barrelling in’ routine that’s been thoroughly well-worn by her so many times already. When her first movement therapy class seems to have been sabotaged, she immediately decides she knows what happened and enacts ‘revenge’ without stopping to think. Of course, she ends up having had the wrong end of the stick, feeling stupid and having to make peace. Aside from the fact that she’s supposed to be the empath of the group, the other odd thing is how the episode dovetails this with Jordan’s latest struggle, which feels equally silly. Suddenly he’s realising – after a career in the military and studying law for several years – that working for a large law firm may involve him compromising his personal beliefs to do the job. Le gasp, etc…

Mel meanwhile gets two whole subplots to hold down, one involving her relationship with Ruby which seems to be going pretty well in spite of not being able to touch one another but oh look, here comes an opportunity for her to sabotage it with a bit of jealousy! Let’s forget that she’s always been the most level-headed of the group, and that she’s never shown any particular inclination towards jealousy in the past – her current girlfriend has a housemate who wears bikinis and bakes muffins. Case closed, green eyes activated!

Fortunately Abi makes a welcome appearance to spice up proceedings a bit. Something is trying to kill her in her sleep and she doesn’t know what, but it’s got her genuinely afraid – enough to ask Mel for help. The chemistry and tension between the two characters is used to good effect here and it’s easily the strongest part of an otherwise middling to poor episode, especially when the identity of the mysterious assailant is revealed. It’s a shame that everything else is so dull.

Verdict: Starting to lose the early momentum it had built – please don’t let it go back to just drifting in circles again. 5/10

Greg D. Smith