A shocking death shakes up Charmed’s fourth season

Charmed returned this week with the 10th episode of their fourth season, titled “Hashing It Out,” leaving only four episodes left before the series comes to a close. This action-packed episode changes almost everything, shaking the season up and delivering both emotion and action.

After last week’s episode, which featured the reveal that Macy’s stem cells actually saved Kaela through experimental cancer treatment, Charmed turns its focus towards romance in this episode.

Roxie and Mel are shown waking up together, though it ultimately leads to a walk-of-shame for “kiss-and-tell Mel.” Kaela and Dev are also seen getting extra cozy after agreeing to build their relationship slowly in the previous episode. Maggie and Jordan also have their moment at the top of this episode, hooking up after exchanging boxes of each others’ stuff post-breakup.

The pause to explore the love lives of each Charmed One allows the show to step away from the troubles of the magical world to shift its focus to its greatest strength: The Charmed Ones and their relationships. The series has always been incredible at creating well-rounded and interesting relationships for their three mains, whether they be romantic or platonic, but this season has wholly delivered in the romance department, with each character and her love life getting the time and attention they deserve.

The central plot of the episode follows The Unseen as they break into the Charmed Ones’ Command Center in search of the Unity Bowl, which they need to release The Lost One. While the Unseen goonies can sometimes feel a bit one-note, the emotional revelation about Sunny from episode 9 informs this entire episode, allowing the audience to simultaneously understand where their anger comes from while also understanding that their methods are entirely wrong.

In particular, the fantasy equivalent of Joe Rogan, as seen in previous episodes slandering the Charmed Ones via the magical equivalent of the internet, reveals that he found The Unseen through the grief over the loss of his brother. In his mind, the Charmed Ones were responsible for his death with their negligence. The show allows the audience to see how different people can each become radicalized, through the Hobgoblin’s story from episode 4 and Sunny’s story from episode 9 along with others.

Though, some of the emotional hits of the episode come from Roxie’s story, which follows Harry as he tries to track down Roxie’s departed wife Camellia (the bar’s namesake), so Roxie can say goodbye before she has to sleep for seven years. It’s revealed that Camellia never actually died, but instead ran away from Roxie, believing that loving her was too much to bear when she was gone so often.

This storyline, which finds Roxie confronting her own worth, allows Mel’s decision to show up for her at the very end of the episode to hold incredible weight. Not only is Mel deciding to potentially love Roxie despite her caveats, but Mel herself is also deciding that she’s worthy of more than just a one-night stand. This storyline will be extremely interesting as it plays out, especially since Roxie only has a few more days on her clock before she’s banished back to her homeworld for seven years.

The true heartbreaker in this episode, though, was Dev’s death.

Dev died trying to help the Charmed Ones keep the bowl away from The Unseen, slaughtered by Sunny. This loss is devastating, especially since he was truly growing on me as a character and a love interest for Kaela. She’s hit the hardest by his death and finds little solace in killing Sunny by stripping away the last of her nine lives. At the end of the episode, Kaela finds a teapot that contains a magical serenade from Dev once the water starts to boil, causing Kaela to break in her sisters’ arms completely.

After Dev’s death, it’ll be interesting to see how Kaela moves on and how, if at all, her approach to The Unseen and how to handle the changes. As we saw with Maggie earlier in the season, it’s easy to let grief warp into anger and violence, and I hope Maggie will be there for Kaela as she navigates her way through the darkness.

Finally, we got our first introduction to Natasha Henstridge’s newest Whitelighter, who approached Harry in the veil. She heard that Harry could bring someone out of the veil, and she needed his help to get her out of the magical video store she was trapped within. By the end of the episode, Harry agrees to help, but not without getting knocked out cold by the Whitelighter, ending the episode on a cliffhanger for poor Harry.

With the addition of this new Whitelighter, it’ll be interesting to see where the show takes this character, especially in her helpfulness if she does actually mean Harry and the Charmed Ones no harm. I’m eager to learn more about her in the coming episodes, especially how she connects to the previous Whitelighters and why she didn’t die when all the others did.

Overall, the fourth season of Charmed continues to deliver, and as we inch closer to the finale, it becomes sadder and sadder that this wonderful show was canceled. With only four episodes left, the Charmed Ones don’t have much time before they vanish from our screens for good.

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