Loveday Writing

This season kicks off with Maggie celebrating her birthday by having a party in the Manor. During the party, Macy informs her that she got her dream job offer, however it’s at the University of Michigan, which is two hours away. Macy asks Maggie not to tell Mel about her job offer. While Maggie and Macy are partying away, Mel is upstairs in the attic having a meeting with a fellow witch, Anya, who informs Mel that her whitelighter, Angus, is missing. When Harry remarks that it’s out of character for Angus to disappear, Anya informs him and Mel that he left to respond to a distress call from a fellow whitelighter.

The next morning, while Mel is cleaning up the party gear and Maggie and Macy are hungover, Maggie lets Macy’s job offer slip, but before they can deal with it, a hooded magical assassin bursts through their front door. While they try to fight off the assassin, the assassin destroys the Book of Shadows, which leads to a portal being created for them to jump through. While the sisters manage to jump through the portal (moments after the assassin throws a dart into Macy’s leg), Harry stays behind to hold off the assassin, only to be stabbed by him. The assassin makes it clear that he knows Harry.

The sisters land in The Elders’ Command Centre with their auras and powers stripped. They eventually find a door to walk through, which leads into a switchboard room, with another door leading them into a Safe Space – a communal workspace building – in Seattle. While they meet a few people (medic/boxer, Jordan, and wiccan shop owner, Katrina) in the process of trying to get help, Macy’s injury worsens and she is lured out of the building by the sound of Harry whispering (although he can’t be seen). The sisters make their way back to the Command Centre as the poison spreads through Macy’s leg. Macy loses consciousness for a second and sees Harry, who is not acting like himself.

When they get back into the Command Centre, they see a red light on a map on the wall, which leads to a red button materalising in front of them. Maggie presses the button (and takes a mysterious floating black marble) and another portal is created, which takes them to a Bed & Breakfast in Vermont. Inside they find two dead witches who were killed by rat demons, who also try to kill them. When one of the demons gets a hold of Mel, Macy inadvertently uses her demonic powers to kill him, which allows Harry to track them and heal Macy. However another demon bursts in and tries to kill them. As Harry absorbed some of the assassin’s poison whilst healing Macy, he can’t orb them away, so they have to run. When Maggie realises that the marble is a way to conjure a portal to get back to the Command Centre, she and Mel jump in, whilst Macy tries to hold off the demon. The demon tells her that there is a war going on and tries to attack her again, but she and Harry get away.

When they arrive back at the Command Centre, Harry tells them that every century a whitelighter is selected to watch over every witch in the world and that the assassin killed him, but when whitelighters die, they are sent to the grave. However as he is the last whitelighter left in the world (all whitelighters except Harry died when the original Elders were killed in the previous season), he was revived (and this also explains why Anya couldn’t find her whitelighter). Harry also informs them that the Command Centre was created by The Elders in case of an emergency, and that with an assassin after them and a demonic war of some kind taking place, going back home is not safe and that they have to remain in this magical “witchness protection”.

Later when the four of them are out for drinks, Mel points out that the “witchness protection” is an opportunity for them to walk away from their magical obligations, however Macy and Maggie declare that they have to protect the witches left in the world. Harry then takes them to an empty construction site, where he reveals that the Manor went through the portal with them and is on the site, but it’s cloaked for protection, and they go inside, accepting that Seattle is their new home.

The episode ends with Harry starting to clean up the attic and having flashbacks to his attack, where it’s revealed that Harry managed to take the assassin’s mask off, and the assassin looked exactly like him.

Overall, I felt that the plot in this premiere was an exciting one, with the stakes being raised higher than they usually are, however I felt that the pacing was inconsistent. While I was on the edge of my seat for the most part, I felt the sisters roaming around Safe Space Seattle slowed the episode down too much. I was unsure whether the Safe Space was also a magical ruse of some kind, that would have made much more sense than The Elders placing the Command Centre exit in the middle of a random communal work space building in Seattle. I was also unsure if the two characters we met in the Safe Space, Jordan and Katrina, were important as not enough time was spent on them. Perhaps the Safe Space and/or Jordan and Katrina will be brought back in later episodes.

I also felt that Macy’s hallucinations of Harry deserved an explanation, sure you could dismiss it as part of the poison in her body, however as the assassin looks like Harry, it did make me wonder whether the assassin was trying to lure her back to the house so he could kill her. Maybe this will be explained in a later episode.

I also enjoyed the twist of the assassin looking exactly like Harry, or possibly being his double or evil counterpart. I’m looking forward to finding out who or what he is, and what his objectives are. I’m also looking forward to finding out more about the demonic war that is apparently going on.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid season premiere, however I’m hoping that fewer loose ends are left in the remaining episodes of the season.

Stray Observations:

–Harry showing up in the attic during the party after Mel calls for him, with a party hat on his head and a drink in his hand was hilarious.

–Three weeks have passed since the events of the season 1 finale.

–Harry’s mortal grave shows that his birth name was James Westwell and he lived from 1920 until 1957.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “All work and no play makes Mel a very dull witch.” (Maggie to Mel during her birthday party)
• “I don’t think they have weed dispensaries in hell.” (Macy to Mel when she sees a weed dispensary shop in the Safe Space, after Mel asks if they are in a version of hell)