Charmed goes back to its roots in newest episode

The CW’s Charmed reboot is back with a new episode titled “Unveiled,” continuing their stellar fourth season as we progress beyond the halfway point.

Following last week’s episode, which ended with the revelation that The Unseen, a fringe anti-Charmed Ones group works for The Lost One. In this episode, the threat of the powerful and delusional Unseen continues to loom over the Charmed Ones as they try to sort out their own personal drama.

At the top of the episode, the Charmed Ones learn that an Unseen commentator on GemCast has doxxed their family, friends, and location of their home, effectively putting a target on the backs of anyone connected to them. To combat this, Mel pairs off with Ruby while Maggie and Kaela search for Kaela’s birth parents to protect them. Meanwhile, Harry enters into the Veil to search for answers related to Ray Vera’s curse.

Harry’s storyline is more minimal in this episode, but the show places a huge reveal right at its center: Dexter Vaughn, Macy and Maggie’s biological father, was the last owner of the cursed bowl. Harry meets with him in the Veil, ultimately ending up with Dexter saving Harry from a powerful witch he had been trapped in the afterlife. Due to Dexter’s actions, the episode ends with Harry still potentially within the Veil and Dexter, previously deceased, waking up next to him in the Charmed Ones’ attic.

I am beyond excited to see what the show does with Dexter now that he’s back in the land of the living. Even though Macy is gone, it’ll be incredible to watch Maggie finally get to meet her biological dad and unpack all her feelings surrounding Dexter and Ray.

While Harry sorted out Ray’s curse, Maggie and Kaela headed to find her birth parents to protect them from the Unseen’s doxxing. While at the house, Kaela almost chickens out, but finally breaks and tells them that she’s their daughter.

This moment has been a long time coming this season, and finally watching Kaela meet her birth parents is such a satisfying moment. Though, it was revealed that neither of her birth parents are magical, so the mystery of Kaela’s magical origins still remains.

As Maggie and Kaela focus on her biological parents, Mel enlists the help of her ex-girlfriend Ruby in protecting as many associates as she can while also protecting Ruby herself. At the beginning of the episode, the show introduced us to the very reason why Ruby was a retired witch when we first met her: Her abusive demon step-dad Earl.

The inclusion of Ruby’s backstory in this episode is a welcome surprise, especially considering the poor treatment of her character in the past. I respect the show so much for righting the wrongs in regards to both Ruby as a character and her relationship with Mel.

Throughout the episode, it’s made clear that Ruby and Mel still care about each other, but there will always be a disconnect between them. Ruby also now has Swan, and she pushes Mel to make her move with Blue Camellia owner Roxie. The sapphic love triangle in this episode was incredible, as Mel’s love life continues to get messier and messier.

Ruby and Mel’s dynamic as exes and friends, as they decide to remain at the end of the episode, is incredible and healthy, something not often portrayed for queer couples on screen. The scenes between Mel and Ruby were the highlight of the episode, encapsulating the past two years of build-up and finally giving both their relationship and Ruby as a character the respect they deserve.

This episode proved once again that Charmed’s newest showrunners respect the show to the utmost degree and want to honor the show’s past while pushing it even further into its future. The callbacks to season one with Dexter and the original Book of Shadows were fun nods to where the show has been, and the heartfelt ending with all three Charmed Ones bonding in their backyard indicated the bright future this series still has.

With more than half the season already aired, it’s clear that this fourth season of Charmed is truly one of its best.

Charmed airs Fridays at 8/7c on The CW, stream the next day free on The CW App.