Charmed season 2 episode 18 review: Lost memory lane

This week’s Charmed episode finds Harry having forgotten who he is while sending viewers down another character’s memory lane.

When we last left off with Charmed, the sisters successfully rescued Harry, but there was one catch: Harry’s memory was gone.

This week opens with the the Charmed Ones assessing the full extent of Harry’s damage, and it’s not great, as the Whitelighter thinks he’s Jimmy, the shady man he was before he became a force for good.

“I refuse to be held hostage by a trio of girls,” Harry whines, alerting all of us to the fact that he truly isn’t himself.

They manage to get one clue out of him from his time with The Faction, “The Forty Stone Parasite,” leading Maggie and Mel to track down more intel while Macy stays behind to make a lost memory balm.

As they make a plan, Mel suggests reaching out to Ray — she’s apparently stayed in touch with him since their last mission — sending Maggie into a spiral of hyperventilation and numb arms.

They assume something magical is at work, but Maggie insists she’s fine, sending Mel off to retrieve their estranged father as Maggie goes to the (still open, yet abandoned) magic shop in search of a calming tea.

But Mel soon texts she’ll be back with Ray in 30 minutes, and Maggie’s symptoms return. Thankfully, Jordan is there to help her breathe through it, telling her he’s seen his fair share of panic attacks.

"Maggie:  “This is a magical neurotoxin or something.”Jordan: “That mimicks the exact symptoms of a panic attack?”"

Though Ray comes locked and loaded (with a to-go murder board to boot), it’s harder for Maggie to get onboard as they go to investigate the Fort Easton Power Site and she learns more and more about Mel and Ray’s secret relationship.

When Maggie has another panic attack, Ray tells her they aren’t new — she had them as a little girl when he and Marisol got divorced. She finally explodes due to constantly being kept in the dark (which, totally valid). But her emotions shockingly vibrate out of her and onto two guards nearby who start fighting her. Another new power!

Mel kindly tells Maggie they can talk about everything once they get home, and they manage to break into the dam. Of course, some suits soon find them, asking if they’ve arrived for the demonstration.

They follow them inside where they see all the containers of the missing monsters waiting to be discharged as some sort of mystical power source or magical army. As they try to make sense of it, in walks … Julian!

I truly didn’t see this coming. Considering how honest he was with Macy, I thought he was only partly in on it and was mostly a patsy, but it looks like Julian really is a big bad. I actually really like Julian for Macy, (even though I one hundred percent ship Harry and Macy), so this kind of bums me out, but it makes it much easier for Macy to fully commit to Harry.

Meanwhile, Macy makes the memory balm, but when she touches it to Harry, something throws her across the room and the spell affects her instead, sending us down Macy’s memory lane.

The Macy we see in her flashback is very different than the Macy we know and love today, rocking long braids and a crop top as she belts Ceelo Green’s “Forget You” at a bar’s karaoke night in college. After her rousing rendition, she gets a refill at the bar when some guy comes up and grabs her butt. She brushes him off but he still won’t leave her alone, leading her to angrily tell him to knock it off — and a fireball to accidentally come out of her hands.

When College Macy gets home, she tells her dad (the excellent Leonard Roberts) who calls Marisol. It’s a poignant, and also frustrating sequence to watch Macy learn about her magical powers for the first time from her mother who she’s never met — and still can’t.

As memory Macy revisits her traumatized past, the present Macy is in more physiological danger. Though Harry tries to wake her up for a moment, the Jimmy in him wins out and he soon makes a run for it. But then he sees the pictures of him with Macy and her sisters and doubles back to help, just in time to find Macy bleeding from her nose and seizing.

Once again, Jordan saves the day by calling Macy. It’s a good moment of comedy as memory-loss Harry tries to figure out what a cellphone is and accidentally answers it.

Thankfully, Jordan gets the picture that something is wrong with Macy and rushes over with his med kit. (Yes, the man is not just a veteran, law student, and gym owner. He also has combat medical training.)

Jordan manages to keep Macy alive, but deduces that something magical is going on and Harry will have to heal her. Of course, Harry doesn’t remember how to do that. Luckily, Jordan spots a fresh scab behind Harry’s ear and theorizes that there may be a chip in his brain keeping Harry from remembering who he is (and from using his powers).

This is the part of the episode that probably most stretches its believability as Jordan tells Harry not to worry and proceeds to cut into his brain to remove a chip.

We get one last flashback with college Macy, though. After her mom explains everything to her, she tells Harry to erase her memory, giving us Harry and Macy’s actual first meeting. It’s bittersweet considering the circumstances, but perhaps also an indicator of their future fate.

With the chip out, Harry wakes up and remembers who he is and immediately pops up to heal Macy, and now, they both remember everything. Finally.

Maggie, Mel, and Ray manage to escape just in time allowing for a sweet scene between Maggie and Ray (I wouldn’t be mad at all if he stuck around more). But there’s really only one thing we care about: Macy, free of the burden of self-restraint, asks Harry to dance, and they finally, at least, for real, kiss! And for a brief moment, all is well.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Charmed? Did you like the Julian reveal? What about the romance between Macy and Harry? Sound off in the comments below!