Charmed season 2 episode 12 review: Dark side of the whitelighter

This week’s Charmed is a depressing romp as multiple plotlines come together in an episode that’s more than a little bit messy.

Last week’s Charmed saw Harry and Macy’s feelings come to a head as Harry fought for his life and Abigael came to the rescue.

This week, we pick back up with Helen, the original whitelighter, who’s been living with her dark half at the Tulipe Institute for decades. Buckle up for a depressing ride as threads from the first third of the season get woven together in an episode that’s a little bit messy.

The Charmed ones are doing a spell over the triquetra to try to restore their powers, but it doesn’t work. The magic electricity fizzles out between Macy and her sisters, so Macy assumes she’s the weak link.

Meanwhile, Abigael is still trying to put the moves on Harry. And I still don’t know whether it’s because she likes him or because it’s part of some long con. But at least we got this exchange:

"“You’re a demon.”“Half. And it’s not sexually transmitted.”"

Before anything too frisky can happen, though, he gets called away to the Tulipe Institute, inciting Abigael to light her tender roast duck on fire. Harry orbs there and it looks like The Walking Dead. He finds Helen who tells him that her darklighter half has escaped.

The Charmed Ones are drowning their sorrows in the bar at SafeSpace. Mel, who has had nothing to do this season, and little in the way of romance compared to her sisters, gets hit on by a cute bartender named Ruby and it’s about time! Gay rights!

Macy is struck with a breakthrough that her demon powers may be blocking her witch powers from returning and goes to see Abigael, so Maggie and Mel go back downstairs to Elder HQ to find Harry with Helen.

They wonder why the Elders left Helen’s darklighter half alive, and Helen tells them (in broken words) that darklighters can’t kill whitelighters, which means the opposite is also true. Mel and Harry realize this means Sexy Harry must still be alive.

Maggie holds Helen’s hand to use her powers and sees an intersection in Plymouth, Massechusetts. Harry and Maggie go while Mel stays behind with Helen to do more research.

Helen sees the box Harry found of Helen’s records and Mel opens it for her to look through. What follows is an incredibly depressing recounting of how terrible people’s lives were (and especially women) back in olden times. Add a magical splitting of yourself in half and Helen has had a terrible life.

Macy asks Abigael, whose apartment seems to be growing more lavish and extreme each week, to strip her demon powers. Macy sees the dinner table and Abigael tells her Harry left after they “finished.”

She agrees to help Macy, and Macy surmises that Harry didn’t actually stay for “dessert” and that Abigael has agreed so she can impress him.

Abigael takes Macy on her elevator down to a “subterranean dungeon” (much to Macy’s horror) and reveals the very much still alive Parker.

Abigael explains she pierced him with an instrument that sent his smokier demony self to Abigael’s dungeon. She brought his body along later and put the two back together. (What kind of nonsense is this?)

Abigael asks Parker for the ritual knife that would have stripped her of her powers, but he refuses to help, so she tortures him. He’d rather die than help her, which Abigael is more than willing to help with. But Macy convinces Abigael to let her talk to Parker alone.

She tells Parker if he helps her, he’ll really be helping Maggie. He gives Macy a letter for Maggie, who hesitates–Maggie is finally starting to move on with Jordan.

Macy agrees to give Maggie the note, so they get the knife. Abigael tells Macy she has to get down on her knees, enjoying every moment of it and Abigael performs the ritual, stealing Macy’s demonic powers. This is a BAD IDEA in every sense of it.

Even if Macy can restore the Power of Three, Abigael is more powerful than ever and has also cemented a tentative alliance with Macy and Harry. I honestly can’t believe Macy would be so dumb.

Over in Plymouth, Maggie and Harry follow the very obvious trail of the insane darklighter and Maggie tells Harry not to feel guilty about having feelings for Abigael. But, he insists he’s supposed to see things in black and white.

Honestly, I’m glad they’re addressing the lack of moral nuance that witches have. It feels a bit reductive that a person can be boiled down into a “good and bad” half. (I wonder what Chidi Anagonye would have to say about it.)

They’re having a lovely cemetery walk, à la Buffy and Giles, when Maggie loops her arm through Harry’s and gets a premonition just in time to knock him out of the way of Helen’s darklighter. He grabs her and is barely able to hold her back, and tells Maggie to kill her.

Maggie, of course, hesitates because she’s an empath, so the darklighter breaks free and attacks Maggie. Maggie uses Mel’s insights from Helen’s box of emotional horrors to break through the terrifying exterior of the darklighter and into her emotional core, promising they’re not like the Elders.

They port the darklighter back to Elder HQ and put her in a containment spell, calling the newly demon-free Macy back for help.

Helen asks for them to be merged, so Macy goes to look for a spell in the Book of Elders and she’s able to touch it without being hurt. The darklighter hears the word “elder,” though, and goes berserk.

So Helen takes a knife, which always seems to be just lying around, and stabs herself in the chest, killing the darklighter. Harry tries to heal her, but apparently, whitelighter magic doesn’t work on self-inflicted wounds. (What kind of Catholic nonsense is this?)

The darklighter dies and her spirit goes back into Helen who is herself again for a brief moment before she dies. I told you to buckle up for a depressing ride, didn’t I?

Helen’s ridiculously tragic life inspires Mel to carpe diem go hit up Ruby. (We got literally less than two minutes of this, so there’s not much to write home about yet, but I’m glad Mel is getting some attention!)

In the same vein, Maggie texts Jordan and responds to his party invite, so Macy doesn’t give her Parker’s note. Solid choice, Macy, but one that will surely come to bite her later.

Macy, ever the nerd, seizes the day by going back downstairs to reclaim her magic. She uses some of the black amber and tries to levitate a feather, but can’t. Harry walks in as she’s having a meltdown and comforts her. He tells her it’s not over till it’s over and they kiss!

Except they don’t.

Macy just imagines kissing Harry and is very overwhelmed by it, as we all are. This love polygon is going to be dragged out for decades, but I’m enjoying every moment of it.

What did you think of the latest episode of Charmed? Let us know in the comments!