2.10 Curse Words

[Tim]

Once again, no "Previously  on" thing.

Well, Jordan is now in on the secret.  Maggie had no choice, in order to save him.  His 25th Birthday was here and a vengeful ghost, one of the witches that his ancestor murdered, was after him to fulfill the curse of his family.

Maggie was right to call the ghost out on this.  Jordan was in no way responsible for his ancestor's crime.  I mean if a Nazi war criminal escaped justice and died, should we go after the grandchildren of said Nazi war criminal? Of course not, they had nothing to do with their ancestors crime.

In many ways, the ghost plot seemed more like SPN than Charmed.  Just before the ghost appeared, the temperature dropped and Maggie could see her breath.  The ghosts possession of Swann was SPN like.  In the end, when Maggie returned the ring to the ghost, the ghost now at peace assumed a normal appearance. 

Just before the ghost left, she whispered something into Maggie's ear.  Although Jordan's life was saved, he still must make moral restitution, whatever that may be.

And Swann woke up with nothing more than a bad headache.  One again an Innocent was saved (two of you count Jordan).

Meanwhile, Mel and Ray confront the criminals whom Ray had been doing business with.  Despite her mistrust of him, Mel uses her powers to save Ray's life.  However, the criminals do get a hold of some black amber, no doubt this will be dealt with in a future episode.

So the sisters may be battling human villains before long.

In the end, Ray decides to leave, since he presence might put his daughter in further danger.  However, I get the feeling we'll be seeing him again.

The only thing I really didn't like was that whole Macy/Harry/Abbey thing.  It seems it was only included so Macy and Abbey could have a cat fight over Harry.  You could have removed this bit from the episode entirely and nothing substantial would be missing, IMO.

[Melinda Halliwell]

The ghost plot this episode had Supernatural vibes in terms of how the spirit was portrayed with the cold air, low temperature, and breath seeing mixed with classic Charmed season 2 'Pardon My Past' concerning Jordan's family curse plus a similar plot to the '80s horror film 'The Fog' but on a smaller scale in terms of victim and setting.

Could the writers have been inspired by those perhaps?

The Macy/Abbey/Harry sub-story I didn't care much for but Macy does need to tell Harry how she feels about him if she loves him that is.

Maggie was good here surprisingly from calling the ghost out saying it wasn't Jordan or any of his past relative's fault what his ancestor did who should've been the only one punished.

So the Safe Space building was and is still a safe place for witches to go then? Were covens like the ghosts sisterhood formed there maybe? Be interesting to hear one way or otherwise.

I liked Mel and Ray's sub trip to Las Vegas another setting used beside Seattle which was nice.

Ray knew Mel and Maggie weren't full blood sisters and his leaving because Marisol fell in love with someone else reminded me of Sam, Victor, and Patty's love triangle.

Him leaving again was probably the best thing concerning the people after him although he might come back I think.

What exactly can Black Amber do as well as resurrect animals or people which I'd like to know also?

Whatever the scales of justice are that Jordan must reset to completely break his curse I hope isn't too bad but knowing the girls secret now which I understood why he didn't freak out on will help Jordan out not having him do that alone then.

[Tim]

The ghost plot this episode had Supernatural vibes in terms of how the spirit was portrayed with the cold air, low temperature, and breath

Indeed, SPN has had a big influence on this show, it seems.

a similar plot to the '80s horror film 'The Fog' but on a smaller scale in terms of victim and setting.

Yeah, someone being punished for what their ancestor did.  Of course, this time, the ghost was talked down before she could fulfill  that revenge on an innocent person.

Whatever the scales of justice are that Jordan must reset to completely break his curshope hope isn't too bad but knowing the girls secret now which I understood why he didn't freak out on will help Jordan out not having him do that alone then.

I wonder if it will tie into the other storylines?

[adzpower]

I really enjoyed this episode, a good old-fashioned "save the innocent" episode. It worked well.

We all knew Jordan would be in on the secret eventually, looking forward to seeing how that evolves. He seemed to take it well.

I found the Harry/Macy/Abi stuff completely pointless, took me right out of the episode, there was no need to even have her appear in this episode, it added nothing to the plot. Seemed like they had to give Macy and Harry something to do for the episode so gave us that silly fake assassination plot with Abigael. Boring.

Loved Mel and Ray re-connecting, I noted they made their coffee's the exact same way, was pretty funny.

Surprisingly I found the best part of the episode to be Maggie, she did everything she could think of to save two innocents, she's back in the good books! Though I wonder why it took her so long to call for Harry? That was a little frustrating.

Anyone wanna take bets on the lab coats at the end being related to Macy's new love interest? If I recall from last week he had a lab and said testing was being done, would be a bit coincidental if they aren't related.

Overall a good episode, dragged down a little by a pointless sub-plot.

I will say I am definitely starting to miss the actual power of three, I miss all three sisters working together to take down a demon with their magic, is the reason they aren't using the power of three because Macy doesn't have her powers back yet? I can't remember.

[Tim]

I found the Harry/Macy/Abi stuff completely pointless, took me right out of the episode, there was no need to even have her appear in this episode, it added nothing to the plot. Seemed like they had to give Macy and Harry something to do for the episode so gave us that silly fake assassination plot with Abigael. Boring.

You too, Adam, I see.  This whole subplot could have been jettisoned and I wouldn't have minded.   We're doing quite fine without the Cains.

Surprisingly I found the best part of the episode to be Maggie, she did everything she could think of to save two innocents

And she succeeded.  The Vera sisters have a good track record when it comes to saving Innocents (unlike the Halliwells, who constantly dropped the ball on this).

I will say I am definitely starting to miss the actual power of three, I miss all three sisters working together to take down a demon with their magic

All three did use a spell to expel the ghost from Swann (even though the ghost was willing at that point). 

Can the ghost be counted as a third Innocent, as she was prevented from committing a murder.

[Melinda Halliwell]

I noted the coffee scene with Ray and Mel to making them the same way which earned a laugh from me. Like, father like daughter, it would seem.

I also want to see the power of three saying spells more as they did here which had been missing some weeks since.

[Katie]

I miss the Power of Three, to be completely honest, this show is hardly about the Power of Three, or even about the sisters as a unit, considering we rarely see them together and they always are off with their own stories.

I liked this episode but hated the B plot. I really am sick of Abigail, the last episode proved, how much I enjoyed the show when she or Parker are not around. I'm going, to be honest, I really hope Abigail is the big bad and dies, so we can be rid of her. She just keeps making me think of Billie or Cole who just takes attention off the sisters and doesn't add much.

If Abigail wasn't in this one, I'd give it an A, but I'll give this one a B+ due to her and that pointless plot.

This episode should have had Macy and Harry included in Maggie's plot, while Mel and Ray did theirs, or even had Harry with Maggie and Macy with Mel and Ray. That would have really been way better.

But the rest of the episode was great. I loved Ray's inclusion, even if he left, as it was character development for the sisters, that was more family than love interest plot.

I loved Mel and Ray when they did the same thing with their sugar and cup at the coffee shop. It made me laugh.

[Dark Avenger]

The best part was when Mel and Ray were acting like father and daughter in the coffee shop.

Please kill the Cains. I'm so over, Abigail. Whenever she comes on-screen, she just takes me out of the episode. That was the worst part of the show. The sooner she and Parker go, the better.

Yeah, I do miss the Power of Three and spells. However, maybe the show really wants to put distance from the original and wants to be its own show. That's okay. But, I do hope they get powers back.

I'm with Katie, that they should have ditched that annoying B plot, and just had Harry and Macy being included in either Mel/Ray's story or Maggie/Jordan's. We really didn't need three plots in this one.

I actually got Supernatural vibes too, when the spirit was portrayed with the cold air, low temperature. I also got X-Files vibes when the writing on the glass, because the writing was word for word what they did in one episode with a haunting.

Apart from the boring and useless Abigail plot, this was a good episode. 

[adzpower]

The writers could have put Macy with Mel and Ray, it would have been interesting to see Macy observe their father-daughter relationship and perhaps see her connect to Ray, something we never really got with Paige and Victor.

As for Abigael, I would actually like her a lot more if they just flat-out made her pure evil, just a no-noncense villain out to kill them all, blood-thirsty. Instead they're inserting her into this Macy/Harry love triangle and it feels so incredibly forced, stop trying to make her more "human" and tone down the overt innuendo's she seems to come out with every other line and just make her a proper villain! Then at least she might go back to being entertaining at the very least.

I'm sure messing with Harry is just some ploy but if she wanted to kill the charmed ones well she's had plenty of opportunity to do so by now what with her knowing all about their loss of power and where their base of operations is.

I don't even understand why they haven't tried to vanquish her yet, she's a demon who killed a lot of witches, why are they even entertaining her when they should be plotting her death? It doesn't make sense!

[Dark Avenger]

Yeah, I really do think that could have been interesting to see done with Mel, Macy, and Ray. And yeah, they didn't do that with Paige and Victor either. I don't like how both shows have ignored the half sister interacting with the father of another sister.

It would have been great if she was pure evil. The show is lacking a decent villain/big bad. Apart from Alistair last season, we really haven't had a true villain who was pure evil much in the show, which lasts a while. I guess Darklighter Harry counts, but still, not too many.

I guess they are wanting to play the is Abigael really evil or not story for a while more.

[Tim]

Please kill the Cains. I'm so over, Abigail. Whenever she comes on-screen, she just takes me out of the episode. That was the worst part of the show. The sooner she and Parker go, the better.

I think we're all agreed that they Abigael thing was the weakest part of an otherwise excellent episode.

The Cains should have been left behind with Season One, IMO.

[Melinda Halliwell]

Definitely Tim.

[Tim]

As I said, the whole Abigael thing could have been taken away and nothing substantial would be missing. 

It had no effect on the other two storylines.

[Dark Avenger]

Exactly Tim. If I ever re-watch this episode, you can bet, I'll fast forward all her scenes.

[Tim]

I mainly followed Maggie's story. 

Nice that, once the ghost got her ring back, she was willing to let Jordan go.   No 1950's black and white morality here, thank God.