Macy finds herself suffering increasing lapses in her memory, and turns to Charity and Harry for aid and comfort. Mel is suspicious of Charity’s interest, and she and Maggie turn elsewhere for advice. Alistair continues to plot to get Parker back under his influence.

So, after revealing to us that Charity herself had killed Mel – Maggie and Macy’s mother – and showing us Charity also murder Elder Barar, it seemed pretty clear cut that we were headed for an immediate and messy showdown. Except that isn’t what happens, Macy instead waking up in bed from a ‘nightmare she can’t remember’ and with no memory of those events. A different writers room might have left the question dangling a little for the viewer as to whether we’d seen what we thought we had or whether it really had been a nightmare conjured by Macy’s demon side, but instead it goes the simpler route, letting us know that it was all real and leaving us to endure the tension of watching Charity pretend to be on Macy’s side while manipulating events against her.

Fortunately, Mel’s involvement with the Sarcana means she has a healthy amount of scepticism when it comes to the Elders – Charity included – and she for one isn’t buying Charity’s line on all this, especially when the possible ‘solution’ to Macy’s ‘problem’ that starts being mooted is binding her powers, potentially breaking the Power of Three forever. This leads Mel and Maggie to go and seek assistance from an unusual source, and it’s nice to see a sort of pragmatism that’s always at work in the mechanics of the show, with allies of convenience often being made and certain characters developing beyond what they initially present as.

Cleverly, while the show can’t avoid the conclusion we know is coming – that Charity’s machinations will be discovered and the truth will out – the show then barrels on into a whole other level of uncertainty. Everything the viewer might assume they have known up to that point gets slightly twisted again, and suddenly it seems like there might be a whole hell of lot of stuff to squeeze into the remaining six episodes of this first season. While we know that Charity killed Marisol and others, the reasons why aren’t 100% clear, and nor is the relationship between Charity and two other significant players in the show. It’s perhaps this that steered the writers away from playing with whether or not the events Macy had witnessed were real, because that may have added another level of confusion to what they’re trying to do.

As the minor subplot, we have Alistair’s continued manipulation of Lucy to try to get back control of his son Parker. It’s not really clear where this part is going – one might assume that the show is gearing up for some sort of conflict of loyalties arc for Parker’s character in the future, torn between his heritage and his love for Maggie, and it seems clear that Alistair has designs on the Charmed Ones for one reason or another, but it’s difficult to say for sure at this stage how this one will play out.

Verdict: Surprisingly sophisticated plotting turns what could have been an obvious episode into another puzzle piece in the overall mythos of the show. It’s certainly getting better in its closing half of this maiden season. 8/10

Greg D. Smith