Charmed season 2 episode 15 review: A waking nightmare

This week’s episode of Charmed departs from the usual monster of the week to instead have the sisters face their fears in a series of increasingly spooky nightmares.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Charmed ones. When we last left off, Harry secured the vial containing his darker half and we learned that Julian’s aunt is the corporate face behind the human effort to steal magic.

When the season began, Maggie, Macy, and Mel had completely lost their powers and home, and they’ve come a long way since to restore and grow their powers further. But they still do not have the Power of Three after learning that it inevitably destroys the sisterhood.

We pick up with the sisters discussing their decision to prioritize their relationship over magic as the map goes off and the Charmed Ones take off for Portland. They run into a henchman from The Faction who releases another Frankenstein, or “manster” as Maggie says.

The sisters are confident they can face anything, even without the Power of Three, but soon discover they’re wrong when the henchman is killed and they barely make it out alive, bringing back another victim with them — the last surviving Elder, Celeste.

In typical Elder fashion, Celeste is very mischievous and mysterious, quickly introducing some much-needed fun to this season of Charmed from someone other than Abigael. (For example, despite being at least 500 years old, she doesn’t look a day over 50 thanks to a magical stopwatch she built with her old friend Leonardo DaVinci.)

Things soon turn serious when Harry recognizes her from his Whitelighter creation, though, and storms out due to the onslaught of emotions he has. Macy follows him, kindly remind him that he needs Celeste, and he apologizes:  “I’m not accustomed to these feelings … rage.”

Celeste insists that they are facing the greatest threat the magical world has ever known and that they’ll need the Power of Three to take it on, but the sisters refuse and say they have it covered.

This brings up a big theme of the episode, and perhaps some foreshadowing for the end of the season, too: The Power of Three requires self-sacrifice, which is what is needed to protect the world.

Being an Elder, Celeste insists she knows what’s best and attempts to force the Power of Three on the sisters, who try to resist, forcing Macy to magically shove her against the wall and walk out in search of Harry once again.

But what she walks into begins a very Buffy-esque dreamscape alternate reality in the Charmed Ones’ house, where Harry is married to Abigael with two little girls and Macy has apparently abandoned everyone in order to pursue her science dreams with Julian.

Macy is confident enough to believe that she’s in an alternate reality, some kind of nightmare concocted by Celeste, and it’s one that neatly surmises all of her worst fears: Harry and Abigael happily together while Macy is isolated from her sisters.

Macy learns that Abigael has been “subbed in” as the new sister, and they all have the Power of Three. Macy knows right away that none of this can possibly be real and goes to her room to find her journal and prove it — which has become Harry and Abigael’s bedroom.

It doesn’t take long for Abigael and Macy to spark, though, and the two are soon fighting. “No matter what the reality, you are always the devil. Nothing will ever change my mind about that,” Macy says as Abi’s eyes flash red. Unfortunately, in the melee, Maggie tries to intervene and accidentally dies.

Macy wakes up back in Elder HQ and tries to tell her sisters what’s going on, but Maggie soon gets a premonition that the Frankenstein is in the building. The two seem to brush her off, and she ventures on.

Maggie goes upstairs and everyone is staring at her and laughing. She finds Jordan and tells him about the demon lurking, who responds that they can build a fort together. She asks why she’s being treated like a child, but looks in her reflection to discover she, in fact, is one.

Turns out, they aren’t awake after all. Like Macy’s dream, Maggie’s nightmare is also an expression of her worst fears: that she isn’t taken seriously by anyone around her (and maybe also male abandonment issues?).

Mel finds Maggie next and tells her she needs to go to her room, but is quickly killed by the Frankenstein demon with a single scratch on her face, who soon disappears. Maggie tells Macy they’re in a dream, just like Macy was.

Meanwhile, Harry walks in on Celeste chanting as the girls are sleeping, writhing, and moaning, “Help.” (It’s a pretty creepy scene.) He yells at her to wake them up, but she won’t, saying she’s trying to get them to face their fears of dying and that they should have woken up by now.

Harry, who is becoming delightfully sassier, tells her their worst fear isn’t dying; it’s losing each other. Celeste tells him if all three die inside their dreams, they won’t wake up, and Harry, ever the Whitelighter, demands to be put in their dreams.

And then it’s time for Mel’s nightmare, perhaps the most terrifying of the three: a horrorscape that places Mel in the Tulipe Institute as a patient. So perhaps Mel’s greatest fear is losing her mind along with her power.

Jordan (as his great-grandpa the witch hunter) lures Mel outside to where Maggie and Macy are burning at the stake. Meanwhile, Harry is tied up and about to be tortured by orderlies but somehow manages to escape.

He and Mel free Maggie and Macy, but they can’t figure out how to wake up from the dream, and they all figure one of them has to be sacrificed to the witch hunter. Of course, none of them will let any of them sacrifice themselves, though, and keep trying to be the martyr.

Ultimately, their love for each other allows them to wake up in time to hear the map chime just like it did when it all started. The girls go to Portland and find a dead witch (just like how Mel had died in Maggie’s dream).

The Frankenstein attacks them again and they run to orb away, but the black bead was destroyed in the fight. They decide to face their fears and reignite the Power of Three, deciding that whatever is going to come, they’ll face it together.

With the Power of Three activated, they handily destroy the monster. But will it be enough to defeat the Faction?

What did you think of this episode of Charmed? Do you think the Charmed Ones made the right call reigniting the Power of Three? Sound off in the comments below.