The Secret Circle – Cassie tries a Vulcan mind meld

I have to apologize for the tardiness of this post. Unfortunately, my local CW affiliate preempted Thursday night’s airing of The Secret Circle, showing instead an ACC basketball game. Normally, I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with that, but instead of my North Carolina State Wolfpack, they were showing some other chumps. Alas, I digress.

Since I watched the episode a day later than others, I benefitted from seeing the reaction to the episode on Twitter. I’m not really sure I agree with what I read. I thought the episode was good, not great. I enjoyed learning more about the ferryboat fire that killed so many of the previous circle, but that excitement didn’t extend to their children’s story.

I do like Cassie, Melissa and Faye (the others? not so much) as far as the younger circle goes, but the stories behind the next eldest circle are considerably more fascinating. Cassie and Jake’s journey through the latter’s memories were informative as to what some of the dynamics between them were before the massacre. It was really the first opportunity we’ve had to learn anything about Jake’s parents; the one thing I took away was how much of an influence John Blackwell was in their lives.

Though how those memories exist was a tragic story in itself that only got worse. Jake had to watch the events surrounding his parent’s murder once as a child, and then watch his mother die again in the present. Jake hasn’t exactly been the most sympathetic character so far, but I think his story in this episode will go a long way towards endearing him with fans.

The dynamics of the adult generation (Ethan, Charles and Dawn) versus when they were younger are pretty interesting. When Ethan mentioned Charles was a bully when he was younger, I couldn’t have been any more surprised. I always imagined the younger Charles not as the bully, but as the bullied child, much akin to an Americanized Severus Snape. Dawn, I imagine, was very much like her daughter is turning out to be. Seeing Dawn switch her manipulation from Charles to Ethan is a big indicator of exactly how evil she really is.

Did anyone else find it hard to believe that the town just left the wrecked hulks of the ferryboats to rust? We’re talking about a serious safety hazard. When I was in high school, we didn’t have circles of witches and the like, but we were certainly dumb enough to sneak onto something like that and hang out. In Chance Harbor, I guess they thought a run of police tape was a good enough safety barrier.

Notes & Quotes

• “So you’re an avenging angel now. Don’t they usually stay hidden in the shadows?” – Adam
  “Don’t you usually have a different girlfriend?” – Jake
• I loved the look of annoyance when Charles saw Dawn and Diana sitting together.
• “Diana said you were here, she didn’t say you brought your pet psychopath.” – Adam, about Jake
• Is anyone, anyone surprised that John Blackwell/Balcoin is still alive?

Clacked by Ivey West
on Jan 21, 2012 @ 00:15 EST5EDT