Charmed season 2 episode 5 review: Harry dives into his subconscious
In this week’s episode of Charmed, Harry and Abigael dive into Harry’s subconscious to learn everything they can about the darklighter who’s taken Macy.
Last week’s Charmed ended with a stunning cliffhanger: Macy was kidnapped by Sexy Harry, who we learned is actually a darklighter.
The episode opens on a gorgeous full moon as Maggie and Mel jump through a portal, landing right in front of a demon. Maggie wields a vanquishing knife, demanding to know where Macy is, but the demon soon attacks and Mel kills him.
Another lead toward Macy is gone. Back at Elder HQ, we learn that Macy’s been gone for 36 hours, and they’ve been following the red dots on the map as their main clues to find her. But this clearly isn’t getting them anywhere (other than saving a few other witches along the way).
Mel proposes they do a banned and very dangerous tracking spell: Absum Veri. Harry, of course, is against it. He decides to comb through the Book of Elders for clues about the darklighter to figure out where he may have taken her. Maggie sides with Mel, and they decide to do Absum Veri anyway.
As Mel and Maggie leave to do the spell, they run into Kat, the witch shopkeeper who helped Harry and Mel visit the astral plane. Turns out, she is still having “residual side effects” — namely, seeing worms (but also hearing voices…).
Mel tells her she can’t chat right now — “family emergency” (boy, the Charmed Ones sure have a lot of those) — and they go back to the house.
Meanwhile, Harry tries to translate the portions of the Book of Elders about whitelighters, but to no avail. And that darn Abigael just can’t keep her mouth shut.
Being suspiciously helpful, Abigael suggests that, if they are in fact two halves of one being, or were created at the same time, they may share some kind of psychic connection. Harry, of course, argues that while this may be true, he has no idea how to access it, since the elders wiped his memory.
“And deleting porn cleans your hard drive,” Abigael laughs. Poppy Drayton does a great job with Abigael, making her witty and sarcastic dialogue pop, while always keeping her true motivations unclear. You can’t help but root for her a bit and want her to be on the Charmed Ones’ team.
Abigael says she can help Harry retrieve his memories, but Harry has to break her out of her containment spell (brilliantly). Left with few options, Harry decides to do it, and they go up to SafeSpace so Abigael can use her demon powers.
Abigael explains she shares a demon power with others in her family, one that can bring pleasure and pain, and takes Harry into his own subconscious via a demon mind meld (Star Trek anyone?).
Back at the house, Maggie and Mel dive into the tracking spell. Absum Veri requires an incantation over three of the missing person’s items.
Drawing a triquetra on the floor, just like in the Charmed logo, Maggie and Mel place a glass of milk in one circle (representing something she denies herself), a bottle of tequila in another (representing something she dreads–losing control), and a picture of their mom in the third (representing what she most desires).
Initially, Maggie and Mel can’t agree on the third item. Mel thinks what Macy most wants is a career while Maggie thinks it’s family. Maggie decides to “pull rank” as the empath and insists she’s right.
At first, it seems like the spell isn’t working, but then a hellhound appears out of nowhere in the house. They barricade themselves in the kitchen as the dog seemingly attacks them. Mel, of course, takes this as an opportunity to insist that Maggie was wrong about the desires.
Like Mel tends to do, she argues that Maggie has always been too focused on boys which is why she thought Macy most desired a family. Maggie, who has grown up a lot since season one, and who has also learned to stand up for herself, argues that this isn’t true, and at least she isn’t breaking their “no relationship” rule as Kat repeatedly calls Mel.
As things get worse for Maggie and Mel, Harry is just diving into his memories. It’s a sweet tour down Humanity Lane. Harry sees himself as a small child with his grandmother blowing out candles on a birthday cake, then his father sitting in an easy chair smoking tobacco and listening to the radio.
Harry even sees his first kiss in a game of truth or dare. It’s all very sweet. As they venture, there’s a cloaked, hooded woman walking in a darkened hallway. Harry wants to follow her, but Abigael encourages him to go deeper and darker in order to find out the truth.
Harry then finds his wife and learns he had a second family. It’s heartbreaking to watch Harry confront the not-so-great person he used to be as he learns how he could possibly have a dark side.
Harry refuses to believe he could have done such a thing to his wife and his son. He starts to blame Abigael, thinking she or the Elders planted the memories somehow, but Abigael insists they’re in the demon mind meld to find Macy, and reminds him of all that his darklighter has done so far.
They venture on and find a door with screaming behind it. It’s locked and Harry can’t open it. The cloaked woman walks past again, but Abigael keeps Harry at the door. He throws himself at the door but can’t break it down. Finally, he finds a slat in the door and slides it apart. He’s able to reach through and open the door from the inside.
Back at the house, Maggie and Mel lure the dog out of the house and swap the picture of their mom with a laboratory brochure and do the spell again. But the desires still aren’t right — the hound only gets stronger and jumps through the house.
The low-budget CGI dog gets bigger and meaner. Mel and Maggie remind each other of the stakes: Each time they get it wrong is another minute that Macy is missing and the demon dog gets bigger.
Mel apologizes to Maggie for getting the spell wrong, too. Wishing they could get inside Macy’s head, they finally realize they can — Macy has a journal in her nightstand. Since the demon dog has quieted down, they risk it and go out in the hallway, making a run for it.
But, of course, once they’re in Macy’s room, they can’t find the journal. It’s not where she normally keeps it, and time is ticking as the dog threatens to break into the room at any moment.
In Harry’s mind, behind the door is a painting of the “infamous” Castle Breithe. Harry takes this as a clue and demands Abigael take him back. “I’m going to Scotland. Are you coming?” And, amazingly, they actually got some B-roll of Scotland! Man have they stepped up their game for season 2!
Harry and Abigael port into the castle, and Harry immediately recognizes it. It’s where he learned to heal and he remembers an Elder cutting her hand.
As he begins to piece things together, an assassin comes for Harry, but Abigael kills it with a fireball just in time. She’d had a brush with these guys before when she was only 13 years old, and her father sent them after her because she reached out to him. (Abigael’s really trying to get us on her side here. And it’s kind of working!)
They find a slab with Celtic symbols engraved on it, and Harry physically reacts upon seeing it, almost hyperventilating. Abigael encourages him, and he touches the slab.
We get the biggest flashback yet as Harry remembers a group of hooded witches chanting over Harry’s body when a dark spirit comes out of his mouth into a bottle labeled James Westwell (his human name). They put a lid on it and lock it.
We learn that when the Elders died, so did all of the darklighters. All that’s left are broken glass and ash. But Harry’s connection to them was severed, and so was his darklighter’s. Harry finds his darklighter bottle, perfectly in tact and empty. Harry figures that someone must have let the darklighter out, which means he has a master. (Perhaps the demon overlord? We know that dude isn’t dead.)
Over in Macy’s bedroom, Kat keeps calling as the sisters are running low on options. Finally, she texts Mel: “Marisol wants you to know what you’re looking for is between the sheets.” At least Kat is being haunted by a good ghost!
The sisters find Macy’s journal in her hope chest with a sixth grader level drawing of Harry (too precious!) and realize Harry is all three things: what she denies herself, what she fears, and what she most desires. They redo the spell with only the drawing of Harry in the middle. Right as the hell hound busts through the wall, it turns into a normal mastiff whose eyes then flash coordinates on the wall.
Back at SafeSpace, Harry is frustrated, feeling that he’s at a stalemate. But Abigael insists he knows the darklighter better now that he knows his own mind. He insists Abigael take him back to his subconscious one more time to find the cloaked woman.
As it turns out, it’s Macy, looking beautiful in a velvet green cape. Harry soon realizes that she’s there from the darklighter’s memory as she says, “I’m sick, Harry. Can you heal me?”
The screen flashes to the boiler room scene from the first episode when Macy was hallucinating Sexy Harry and Harry and Macy reenact it as he establishes his psychic link with the darklighter, reliving the moment.
Just as soon as he grabs the psychic connection, it’s over — he’s back in SafeSpace and Abigael is gone. It’s not too surprising she took the chance to leave, but she also voluntarily helped Harry before she did so…
Back in Elder HQ, Maggie and Mel plug the coordinates into the map, but they still don’t see any red dots. They don’t understand how Macy isn’t showing up as being in danger.
Harry explains that she isn’t in any danger (yet), because both he and the darklighter have feelings for Macy, and for better or worse, they are the same.
Finally, the Harry and Macy feelings are out in the open! (Well, at least to Maggie and Mel. Macy and Harry haven’t had the chance to tell each other yet.) With all that happened, next week promises to be a thrilling ride as Maggie, Mel, and Harry rescue Macy from the darklighter.
Next. Charmed season 2 episode 4 review: Harry uncovers his dark side. dark