Charmed season 2 episode 16 review: Love and war

This week’s episode of Charmed throws Maggie and Parker together once again while Harry and Jordan further investigate the Faction.

Now that the Charmed Ones have regained the Power of Three, this week’s episode finds them once again hunting down the Faction (the faceless demon mafia attempting to steal magic, revive corpses, and create Frankensteins).

This begins with Macy doing more made-up science magic to trace the Frankensteins to a facility in Idaho. It’s all a little too hot for Harry to handle, so he goes to do surveillance, taking Jordan with him. I was slow to come around on Jordan, but I am now very much enjoying his weird presence, especially as a foil to Harry. (Mixing up characters is always a treat.)

It’s also fun to have an outsider — a “normal” — brought into the fold. It raises the stakes while also creating new scenarios. (Like Jordan asking Harry if he’s a male witch and Harry rolling his eyes and muttering, “Oh give me strength,” before explaining his Whitelighter role.)

The facility they sneak into is some sort of morgue, so Jordan takes a sleeping potion to appear dead while Harry snoops around. But this also allows him to receive a suitably vague message to warn the Charmed Ones from the beyond.

Which leaves the Charmed Ones to return to the politics of the demon world after they unwittingly kill an heir to some sort of demon throne saving another witch.

Now may be the time for me to voice, if I haven’t previously articulated it, my complete lack of care for the investment Charmed has given to the politics of the demon underworld this season. In other hands or on other shows, it’s something that could be very fun (for example, Angel or Wynonna Earp). But sadly, on Charmed, every time we come back to the machinations of Godric, Abigael, and Parker, I lose interest fast.

There are too many players with too many varying motivations that are unclear. And how it fits into the larger picture is also lost. Whether we keep coming back in order to watch the characters clash or because it matters to the plot hasn’t been teased out, and that should be figured out by this very late point in the season.

That’s what leads us to the trite spot of an influencer (yes, as in a social-media influencer) being a powerful demon that Abigael visits with the Charmed ones in tow in order to gain allies after Godric turns the tables on her and sides with Parker.

It’s a cheap and easy joke, one that feels obvious and shoehorned in. As with many things in this episode, if thought out, it could have been funny if pushed a bit further.

What really matters here, though, is that Maggie and Parker are forced together yet again. This is also a good time to talk about Parker, who I think has been wasted and almost retconned this season.

First-season Parker was unequivocally reaching for good and fighting with all of his power against his demonic inclinations to be human. That has almost entirely gone away this season with virtually no reasoning in favor of making Parker an easy obstacle with Abigael and Maggie.

Charmed has made Parker almost comically evil at certain points this season while still placing him in the role of hero. I don’t think the writers have decided where Parker (or Abigael, for that matter) stands. Some ambiguity is okay, but the audience also needs to know who to root for and against.

Abigael’s plan doesn’t work for too long when Godric and Parker show up at the influencer/demon’s house. While Parker rescues Macy and Maggie, Abigael and Mel are left behind and taken prisoner in the same cell that Abigael had kept Parker.

Apparently, killing both Abigael and a Charmed one (Mel) would allow Godric to take over as the demon overlord, but does any of this actually matter? (See above rant on demonic politics.)

Just as Godric is about to strike, Parker shows up and announces, “Nobody takes the crown or kills my sister but me.” (Sigh. I truly don’t know how I’m supposed to react to this.)

Meanwhile, Macy and Maggie use the cloaking serum and untie Mel and Abigael while Godric is distracted by Parker, but it wears off too soon. Thankfully, Macy has a brand-new power of immobility out of nowhere and is able to freeze the crowd while Parker throws a green fireball at Godric before they all port out of there.

Once again, circling back to how am I supposed to feel about Parker, the episode ends with the once demon overlord telling Maggie that Abigael stripped his powers. Fortunately, little empath Maggie has grown since the first season, and tells Parker they can’t be together just because of that after all that has happened.

The episode ends with Jordan waking up alone and unable to find Harry anywhere as he runs outside and sees a car driving off. Harry, mistaken for his sexy half, gets swept into the lion’s den and will surely have to be rescued by the Charmed Ones next week…

How do you think we’re supposed to feel about Parker on Charmed? Sound off in the comments below!