"The Secret Circle" SnapCap: Bound and Determined

This week on The Secret Circle we learn that the unintended consequence of binding the circle is that none of the witches can individually do magic. Faye is not having it because it means she'll have to start remembering her locker combination and vows to find a way to undo it. Charles confirms that Dawn's father-in-law Henry is indeed dead and that his body is stashed at “the boathouse” to be discovered later. And I hope he means “a” boathouse and not “the” Boathouse, the cafe where Adam works, because that's gotta be a health code violation. Later he makes up a story that he and Dawn are dating so that his daughter Diana won't wonder why they're spending so much time together. I thought they were dating, and Diana's a little too happy at the idea of her dad going out with her high school principal. And I'm sure Faye will be thrilled to hear it. Cassie gets roped into decorating for the school dance by class president Sally, who later at the Boathouse minxishly suggests that if Cassie and Adam are going to keep eye-banging each other then maybe she should play homewrecker and get Diana out of the way. Instead Cassie accepts a date from Adam's friend, Jonathan Groff lookalike Luke. Melissa wants to go from being Nick's bang-buddy to dating in public. At first he says no but shows up to the dance anyway where he proceeds to treat her like dirt. After he gets a talking-to from Faye (who reminds Melissa that having lost both parents Nick is “double damaged”) he morphs into actual boyfriend material. Meanwhile Luke gives up on Cassie almost immediately because she's not focused on him during their date (it's mostly because she's dodging a would-be murderer but Luke doesn't know that). After the dance Diana takes Cassie home and breaks into a chorus of “Jolene”, begging her to please don't take her man, just because she can.

On the supernatural side, in addition to discovering the whole no powers alone thing, Cassie confirms that Sally doesn't know for sure what happened when she got whammied off the deck last week although she has flashes of Faye. Outside the Boathouse Cassie is accosted by Zachary, a fisherman who knew her mother Amelia. Faster than you can say “I Know What You Did Last Summer” Zachary starts yelling about the accident that killed off the parents and Diana has to help Cassie whammy him off. Cassie digs up her mother's old yearbook and discovers that Amelia and Zachary were friends, along with another girl named Heather. Zachary stalks Faye to the abandoned house but she gives him the slip and meets the rest of the circle at the dance. They slip into Principal Dawn's office and check Zachary's school records, discovering that he turned into an angry youth. They also find a newspaper article online that lists Heather Barnes as among the victims of the fire. Having now beaten the snot out of Charles, who had confronted him on his boat, Zachary heads for the school, needing to kill only one of the teen witches to break the circle. The circle splits up (a questionable tactic at best) and Zachary gets his hands on Cassie again.

The other five converge on them and whammy open some lockers, which is supposed to accomplish what I don't know, then whammy Zachary up to the ceiling and drop him. Dawn finds them and they make up a cover story which Dawn pretty much knows is a lie but goes with it because of her own hidden agenda. She and Charles drive out somewhere with Zachary trussed in the trunk. Dawn “marks” him with her blood so she can find him anywhere he is and threatens to “literally” make his life a ling Hell if he comes near the kids again. Sally's cleaning up after the dance and finds the scattered locker contents which I guess is supposed to be significant, although why she'd think “magic” and not “my classmates are messy jerks” I have no idea.

Turning to our SnapCap metrics:

BEEFCAKE: Nick has his shirt off. Of course Nick has his shirt off. But the talent pool on this show is deep and it needs to start showing it off. I had high hopes for Dave Baer's Zachary, recalling how hot he looked chained to Debra Morgan's bed in season 2 of Dexter but it doesn't look like he'll be back.

HEART/DRAMA: More will-they-or-won't-they drama between Cassie and Adam this week (It's a teen drama on The CW; of course they will) and more of Cassie's ambivalence about getting any more enmeshed in the whole witch thing. Also nice movement forward for Melissa and Nick. I hope Luke reconsiders and gives Cassie another chance. The show is striking a good balance so far between the teen drama and the more adult supernatural stuff and I hope it keeps up.

AFTERELTON BAIT: Look, just be happy Caroline's gay dad finally came back to town on The Vampire Diaries, OK?

HUMOR: Aside from a couple of snide comments from Faye, nothing in the way of humor.

PRODUCTION VALUES/ACTING: Phoebe Tonkin continues to impress me as Faye. She has that “hard shell surrounding a gooey candy center” thing down pretty well. I think she's keeping a secret from us, the viewers, and that she's playing the character as a lesbian who is in love with Melissa. Her smackdown on Nick about treating Melissa right was great and the little sidelong glances she throws back over her shoulder at Melissa are sweet. Another effects-lite episode with just the blowing papers and ceiling hit. I'm wondering if this is a budget decision or a story decision, or both.

So readers, are you still drawn to The Secret Circle? What did you think about the new no powers alone twist?