The Secret Circle "Lucky" Review

Everything John Blackwell does is viewed suspiciously by the other characters in The Secret Circle. His presence alone creates tension and conflict in each scene he's in. Such a figure should help a series overcome its major flaws. After a month long hiatus though, The Secret Circle is as dull as it was in February. Blackwell wants to protect Cassie from herself. Cassie believes she's in complete control over her emotions and magic (don't all teenagers think such nonsense?). The witch hunters disappeared, but they're on the periphery of our characters minds because Eben displayed potent power after being impaled to a tree by the four other members of the circle. The central story of "Lucky" helps to define Blackwell's role going forward; it defines Cassie's arc for the remainder of the season; and it adds a wrinkle to the 'written in the stars' nonsense Ethan's been blabbering about since the "Pilot."

Blackwell spends his time in "Lucky" searching for a mystical object. Cassie witnesses her father sifting through things in the abandoned house. She and Adam have a boring conversation about her father's possible motivations for searching the house. Indeed, the entire circle gathers to offer their theories about Blackwell. The group scene is as boring as one-on-one scenes because each actor delivers their lines stiffly and monotonously. No one besides Cassie, Adam and Jake care about Blackwell. Why, then, should the audience care? Initially, Cassie wonders if her father is in search of an object that could take away her powers. Father and daughter shared a conversation about Cassie losing the ability to control the dark magic. John speaks from experience, as a recovering dark magic user, that the magic possesses an individual and does not let go. John's been as consistent as the sun rising each morning: he said he returned to protect his daughter and nothing we've seen suggests otherwise. The object John wants takes power from witches but it's actually used to transfer power to someone. John wants to find out who transferred power to Eben on the day of the boat fire. Cassie remembers Ethan's mysterious presence in the boat but remains silent.

The school event which brings the characters together is a 'Casino Night fundraiser.' The event is pointless. Nothing happens inside of the school. Diana flirts with a boy. Faye kisses Lee; Lee's previously comatose girlfriend shows up because, apparently, anyone is able to enter the event without a ticket. Cassie and Adam engage in another serious conversation about their fathers. Outside, Blackwell's hanging around and then Ethan stabs him in the gut. Cassie chases Ethan, uses dark magic to trip him up, and then stands over him with a piece of wood, eager to bash the dude's brains in. John stops her though, and Ethan flees the scene. John interprets the attack as an extension of the jealousy he feels regarding the Amelia-John marriage; and, also, Ethan doesn't want anyone knowing about what he did in 1996. The dramatic scene convinces Cassie of her own volatility with dark magic. John promises to help her.

If none of the three paragraphs interested you, don't worry, because they didn't interest me. "Lucky" was a slog of an episode. The twists were obvious. The subplots were worse than the A story. The C story followed Diana as she sort of flirted with a wealthy Australian named Grant, who traveled around the world and wound up in Chance Harbor by 'fate.' The B story was about the Lee triangle. Eva, the once-comatose woman, got some powers from Faye when Lee drew power from her to help Eva. Eva, though, is a jealous woman; I think she murdered Lee, or turned him into stone (it wasn't clear because she transformed into a Mal-lite from Inception, even delivering the line "We were supposed to grow old together!" exactly as Marion Cotillard did). The secondary characters are written inconsistently. Their characterizations have been all over the place. One week, Melissa is a sad drug addict; the next she is planning Casino Nights and full of mirth. I'm sure the writers are biding time until the circle joins together to take out Eben in May, but man, the stories absolutely blow for the other characters.

I don't hate Cassie. The tiny corner of the internet that talks about this show does hate Cassie. The anti-Cassie folk make substantial points; specifically, Cassie's an inconsistent character, dominates the show, makes every other character worse. Of course, such writing is the fault of the writer. I'm disappointed by the inconsistency of the dark magic storyline. I thought we'd watch Cassie figure out the scope of her powers, and herself, and emerge a more mature, independent and responsible person. The writers lost sight of this aspect of the story. Adam became an active love-interest, Blackwell returned, and now she and Adam are mired in a curse for having sex. John explained to Ethan that 'written in the stars' is a curse, not a beautiful fate. A bunch of black crows died as a result of teenage copulation. Genre shows and horror films like to remind the viewer that pre-marital sex is bad and, well, it's still bad.

I'll hold out hope for the writers to return Cassie her more interesting dark magic journey. As a whole though, I don't think the show will whip something up to salvage the mess that this season is. Perhaps the show needs another episode or two for the audience to invest. Plot lines were dropped. Secondary characters disappeared. It seems like the writers desperately want to fix the show but never pinpointed its weaknesses. TSC is a mess.

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