Despite cancellation, Charmed’s fourth season continues to deliver

Even though the cancellation of Charmed by The CW has already been announced, there’s still a little less than half of the show’s fourth, and now final, season left to air, and it keeps getting better. After last week’s episode, the show continues to go back to its roots in “Truth or Cares.”

After last week’s cliffhanger, which featured Macy and Maggie’s biological father Dexter Vaughn returning to the land of the living with Harry, this episode picks up with Maggie and Mel’s father Ray continuing to suffer due to his curse. Eventually, it’s revealed to Maggie that Dexter is alive and has been searching for his half of the bowl, which would coincidentally cure Ray of his curse.

Though, Maggie’s two dads struggle to get along, with ages-old emotions and drama bubbling to the surface.

The emotional unrest in the Vera household leads to the series’ most campy and fun episodic villain to date: Trunksy the Elephant. Maggie’s childhood stuffed animal made an appearance during episode 6, with Ray using the toy to get Maggie to open up to him about her violent streak and unresolved anger regarding Macy’s passing. Now, due to the unbalance brought about by Dexter’s return to Earth from the veil, Trunksy comes to life and turns his therapeutic tendencies into murderous ones.

Despite the cheesiness of the villain, the scenes between Maggie, Ray, and Dexter are the highlight of the episode. It’s incredible to watch Maggie open up to the man who raised her while also meeting her biological father for the first time. The depth brought to this storyline allows it to feel both healing and heartbreaking, especially when Maggie must send Dexter back to the Veil by the end of the episode.

While Maggie deals with Trunksy’s reign of terror, Mel, Kaela, and Dev find themselves in their own messy situation. They track Sunny, known Unseen operative, to a church on the outskirts of town, and Mel ends up trapped with Sunny in her magical spell, locking them both inside of a snow globe.

Kaela and Dev must undo the spell before it collapses while working on their relationship in the meantime. While I wasn’t sold initially on the romance between Kaela and Dev, the slowed pace in recent episodes has made the relationship much more believable.

Instead of jumping straight in after their confession and hook-up in episode 6, the show took the time to develop Dev as someone Kaela could count on beyond romance, making them a well-appreciated slow burn.

While Kaela and Dev tried to break the trap from the outside, Mel was stuck with Sunny inside the snow-globe, which allowed the series to humanize one of its central villains and atone for past mistakes. I’ve written previously about Charmed’s showrunner switch-up, and how the new trio has taken complaints made about previous seasons and made the plot points within the show and then corrected those mistakes.

The scene between Mel and Sunny is no different and speaks to the power of showrunners who genuinely care about a show and its fans.

While in the globe, Mel asks Sunny why she hates her so much, and Sunny relays her story of almost being kidnapped by the Faction, season 2’s central villain. She tells Mel that, even though the Charmed Ones eventually defeated the Faction, so many magical creatures had been allowed to die before that happened. She criticizes the Charmed Ones’ lack of care for any magical being that isn’t a witch, calling out their singular focus on fighting demons and protecting witches.

Intentionally, the same critique has been made within the Charmed fandom as well, with some fans complaining that seasons 2 and 3 focused too heavily on witches vs demons, and it felt like the world of Charmed narrowed to only those two factions.

It’s truly incredible to see writers take critique from fans and not only listen to it but apply the weak spots of the past to the current writing of the show. Similarly to Ruby’s recent better treatment, the writers are acknowledging how singularly focused seasons 2 and 3 were while holding their characters accountable for writing that, because of their status as new showrunners for season 4, was out of their hands.

This attention to detail and commitment to the show only makes Charmed’s cancellation so much more upsetting. It’s horrible to watch a show improve so much through genuine love radiating through the screen knowing that it’s all coming to a definitive end very soon.

Though, before the series ends, there are still questions that need answers and resolutions that need to be made. Jordan’s revelation at the end of the episode, that his breakup with Maggie should probably be permanent, was gut-wrenching, and I hope this storyline is resolved in the favor of Jordan and Maggie being together by the end of the series.

Though, despite many mysteries remaining unsolved, the connection between Kaela, Mel, and Maggie has finally come to light. Kaela, while being treated for cancer, received an experimental stem cell treatment, which contained Macy’s donated cells. So, in a way, Macy not only saved Kaela’s life but gave Mel and Maggie a new sister in the process.

Overall, Charmed continues to deliver with its fourth season, and the love and dedication being shown on screen from behind the scenes only make its cancellation a harder pill to swallow.

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