Loveday Writing

Mel hastily leaves SafeSpace and goes to the Manor. She tells Maggie about Ruby and Swan dating, and Maggie reveals that she found the spider the Tallyman sent to spy on them. However, she hasn’t figured out what to do with it, other than put it in an enchanted jar so it can’t spy on them, due to the lack of information on surveillance spiders. Mel asks if she spoke to Harry about it, Maggie says that she called but he didn’t answer, which leads to Maggie asking Mel if she has seen him lately. This makes them realise they haven’t seen or heard from him lately. When they realise Kaela was the last person to see him, they go to see her.

When they get to Kaela’s bus, Maggie accidentally walks in on her masturbating, as it’s her outlet for not being able to paint, due to her fear of accidentally painting and projecting something dangerous. Kaela tells them that the last time she saw Harry was at the Blue Camelia a week ago. When they wait for Kaela to put her shoes on, Mel asks Maggie why she was awkward with Kaela as she’s pretty much their sister, Maggie tells her that she’s not comfortable bonding with Kaela like a sister until they know for sure that she is their sister.

At the Blue Camelia, Jordan is shown playing Elf Poker with other magical creatures. The other players talk about the GemCast criticising the Charmed Ones and try to get details from him, but as he’s apparently not talking to Maggie, he doesn’t want to get into it. Meanwhile, Mel, Maggie and Kaela go to see Roxie, who already knows why they’ve come to see her, telling them she hasn’t seen Harry. While they’re in Roxie’s office, Mel is smelling a bottle of perfume which Ruby angrily tells her to put down, and Kaela admires a painting on her wall, which looks familiar to her, but she can’t place it. Moments later, Donnie arrives, holding everyone hostage by wearing a pair of annihilation quartz gloves and plans on blowing up the Blue Camelia in 30 minutes if he doesn’t see the Charmed Ones.

Roxie explains to Mel, Maggie and Kaela (and the audience) that if Donnie claps or if magic is used on him whilst he’s wearing the gloves, everyone and everything will be annihilated. Roxie tells them that Egyptian Nightshade, a natural magical potion can disarm the gloves. Mel suggests sending Maggie and Kaela back in time to stop Donnie moments before he activates the quartz, but she can’t go as she would be the one who would have to bring them back to the present. She also tells them not to leave the bar as she won’t be able to find them. While Mel successfully sends them back in time, when she goes to retrieve them moments later, she can’t find them and doesn’t know where (and when) she sent them. It’s revealed that Maggie and Kaela have been sent back to 1926.

Kaela suggests to Maggie that they speak with Roxie so they can tell her what happens in the future, however when they get to the bar, the bartender tells them that she’s out on business. Maggie then uses glamour powder so they’re dressed appropriately and they don’t stand out.

Back in the present, Roxie tells Mel that there are hidden tunnels everywhere within the Blue Camelia and she’s going to use them to sneak to the entrance and blow out as many candles as she can until she gets to Donnie’s, so he’s forced to leave. Mel offers to use her powers to lower the temperature, but Roxie refuses due to her time traveling power backfiring. She puts a protective seal on her office and tells Mel that she’s the distraction for Donnie.

Downstairs, Jordan tries to calm Donnie down and offers to heal his wound, however Donnie rebuffs him, warning him about using magic while he’s wearing the annihilation quartz gloves. Sunny, Roxie’s current bartender, tells them she has a First Aid kit. Jordan then offers to treat his wound with the kit and Donnie agrees.

Back in 1926, Carl, Blue Camelia’s bouncer is about to throw Kaela and Maggie out as he knows they don’t belong there. In a panic, Kaela claims she and Maggie are entertainers. When Carl asks dancer, Lady C, about it, Kaela quietly asks for her help and Lady C tells him that they’re with her. Back in the present, just as Donnie figures out there are tunnels in the Blue Camelia and nearly catches Roxie, Mel calls the bar to distract him. When he tells her about losing his job and about the death of the Lamia, she asks him how he knows about the Lamia. Roxie also discovers that the candles are red and questions why. When she blows one out, the patron who it belongs to blows up, which means that anyone who tries to leave will be blown up as well. When Mel and Roxie go back to her office, Mel questions whether Donnie put the hex on the candles as he doesn’t seem smart enough to think up of something like that.

Back in 1926, Kaela and Maggie have to perform a song to maintain their cover. While they struggle at first, they sing Lady Marmalade, which gets the crowd on their feet. They then hear a police-like siren and the Vittra shows up, raiding the place. The Vittra targets Lady C and chases her, but Maggie holds her off with some hand-to-hand combat. Lady C and Kaela make their way to Roxie’s office. Lady C is revealed to be a muse and her dancing has been overly inspiring people, to the point where they become violent. Lady C reveals her first name is Camelia and Roxie is her wife. After she knocks Maggie out, the Vittra finds Lady C and Kaela, but Kaela fights her off by slicing Seymour with a sword, with two magical cuffs falling out of the bag Seymour is kept in.

Back in the present, Roxie and Mel return to the secret tunnel. Mel is ready with a sword to slice off Donnie’s hands, however Roxie takes the sword and is about to slice his hands off when she is stabbed with a thorn. The thorn has come from Sunny and it’s revealed she tipped Donnie off about the Charmed Ones being at the Blue Camelia. Mel comes out but instead tells Donnie that no-one else has to get hurt, and that he wanted a Charmed One and now he has one.

Back in 1926, Lady C takes one of the power cuffs and places it on herself so she can keep dancing without overly inspiring people. When Kaela sees a different painting in Roxie’s office, this makes her realise that Mel sent them back to the 20s because the painting in the office in the present had the date March 3, 1926 graffitied on it, and she can use her power to tell Mel the date via as many paintings as possible using her projection power. Maggie casts a spell to ring an alarm for Mel so she can find the painting and them. Mel hears the alarm and she brings them back, with Maggie using Egyptian Nightshade that she got from Lady C on both Donnie and Sunny.

Donnie and Sunny are taken away from the Blue Camelia while Mel, Maggie and Kaela watch the GemCast on them. While Mel points out their actions were taken out of context, Maggie tells her it doesn’t matter, the Tallyman has everyone scared.

The episode ends with Harry returning to the Blue Camelia, struggling to pour himself a glass of water and asks Roxie what she did to him, and Kaela seeing what her biological parents look like for the first time via a filiation frame and a spell. Mel and Maggie have never seen Kaela’s biological parents before, which adds more mystery to her origins, and how and why she is Macy’s replacement.

When I started watching the episode, I didn’t have much faith in it due to the fact that the season so far has been a lacklustre slow burn, however I grew to like it more as it progressed. I found the time travel and 1920s element, especially Kaela and Maggie’s musical number a lot of fun. I also appreciated the tight writing of the time travel subplot, especially the tie-in of Maggie and Kaela helping Lady C and the reveal of Lady C being Roxie’s wife. I also appreciated the many callbacks to previous episodes, which was mostly done with the reappearance of magical creatures from these episodes. I also appreciated the present day being portrayed in real time from the moment Donnie stepped into the Blue Camelia.

However, like the previous episodes there were many flaws with this one as well.

For one thing, Jordan reappears and apparently he’s not talking to Maggie, which from what I can tell, wasn’t mentioned in the previous episode as he didn’t appear in it. After trying to attend to Donnie’s wounds, we also don’t see him again, he just disappeared as quickly as he appeared without explanation.

With Harry still away and Dev not making an appearance, Ruby had to guide Mel, Maggie and Kaela on magic and dealing with the threat of the week, she also served as a great audience surrogate by pointing out how dangerous and problematic Mel’s time travel plan was, and how her surprise at it going wrong was ridiculous. Also, Mel’s time travelling power progression wasn’t explained thoroughly enough.

While the Tallyman was mentioned he once again didn’t make an appearance, we’re almost at the halfway point of the season, while I get he was behind what happened, I still feel like his story arc is too slow of a burn.

Overall, while this was a fun episode, the quality of the writing was too inconsistent for my liking.

Stray Observations:

Episode title origin – Mel experimenting with her new powers by sending a sandwich she makes in the episode’s opening moments back in time.

-Rupert Evans (Harry) directed this episode.

-Donnie has mushrooms growing on his feet.

-Donnie is portrayed by Ryan Beil, who I recently saw and reviewed in the second season of Upload.

-Swan makes her first appearance this season.

-According to Roxie (and Mel agrees) apparently Maggie and Kaela being stuck in the 80s is worse than being stuck in ancient Rome or a future robo-apocalypse.

-Maggie never leaves the house without glamour powder.

-The Bee Bops were the Blue Camelia’s band in 1926, suggesting they are immortal. While they were dressed in 1920s attire, they were using modern instruments. Whether this is a continuity error or can be excused due to magic remains to be seen.

-The original series also had an episode partly set in the 1920s.

-Kaela tells Mel and Maggie that she last saw Harry a week ago, considering that the previous episode’s beginning picked up moments after the third episode ended, the timeline is pretty precise.

-Mel’s developing time travel powers and retrieving the sandwich in the past reminded me when Phoebe gained the Astral Projection power in the original series, specifically the episode The Eyes Have It.

-It would have been good to know if Loretta was magical or not since she is married to a hobgoblin.

-The perfume Mel checks out in Roxie’s office is revealed to be Lady C’s.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “That ogre friend of yours, Louie…” “He’s a gnome.” “I don’t care what he is…” (Loretta-Donnie-Loretta)
• “You are never going to believe who Ruby is dating!” “Kristen Stewart.” “Weird, that would have been easier to swallow, but no.” (Mel-Maggie-Mel)