Charmed’s penultimate episode changes the show forever
By Anna Govert
With the explosive ending to last week’s episode of Charmed, it seemed like the series’ final act could get any crazier. However, The CW’s Charmed reboot upped the ante once again with its penultimate episode, “Be Kind. Rewind.” This episode again proved that this series has hit its stride in its fourth season, making the cancellation sting even more with each new episode.
Last week, the Charmed Ones faced the ultimate foe: One of their own. Original Charmed One Inara consumed the magic collected from each of the nine main magical species, stripping Mel, Maggie, and Kaela of their powers to become the single Charmed One. She smashed the Unity Bowl, which allowed her to create a magical utopia, where episode 12 picks up.
This episode had everything a penultimate episode should: A crazy time jump, impossible stakes, and even a few major deaths.
Early in the episode, Kaela is broken out of her spell-induced trance by Harry, who uses the teapot to play the song Dev recorded for Kaela, forcing her grief to unlock her hidden memories. Harry reveals that it’s been nearly a year since Inara created her utopia, of which he’s spent combing through tapes of the past and potential futures trying to find a reality in which the Charmed Ones can beat her.
After breaking Maggie and Mel out of their trances, the Charmed Ones recruit Jordan to help create a key that would allow them to enter Inara’s newly-locked Command Center to drink from the Black Amber. Though, it quickly became apparent that this plan wouldn’t work, especially considering that shattering the Unity Bowl made Inara’s utopia spell irreversible.
Harry blipped them to Infinite Home Video. He told them that the only point in time capable of potentially restoring reality and preventing Inara’s reign entirely was during Dev’s memorial while Jordan was performing. Harry calls this moment a pivot point, a point in which history can be fundamentally changed.
Though, before the Charmed Ones reached that point using Mel’s time magic, they were forced to face Inara, resulting in a final act that has irreversibly changed the series. In the final five minutes of the episode, Charmed saw the deaths of Jordan, Mel, Harry, Maggie, and Kaela. Jordan met his demise at the hands of Inara’s electrical magic, along with Harry. Mel was impaled on a shard, which rendered her unsavable.
The moment between Maggie and Mel as she was dying was absolutely devastating and featured some of the best performances for Sarah Jeffery and Melonie Diaz. She urged Maggie to mimic her time powers, which would allow her to travel back in time and save everyone: “He’s not really gone, and neither am I.”
Unfortunately, Maggie is untrained in time magic, which means she could not actually transport both herself and Kaela to the past. Instead, Kaela drew a VHS tape that contained everything their past selves would need to know to save the world. Just as the tape was transported, Inara invaded Vera Manor, eradicating Maggie and Kaela just like Jordan and Harry.
In the episode’s final moments, Josefina is seen at Vera Manor, running late for Dev’s memorial but watching through her GemCast. As soon as Jordan hits the high note, just like Harry showed them, Kaela’s tape appears on the table, with “How to Save the World” written on it.
In what was truly an incredible penultimate episode, Charmed proved once again that it’s better than it’s ever been. Every single performance in this episode carried the proper emotion needed to hit as close to home as possible while still remaining the heartfelt and campy show it’s always been. The stakes have never been higher for the reboot, and the bloodbath that this episode became allowed the show to go where it’s never gone before.
Even if it wasn’t already confirmed to be the second-to-last episode of the series, it certainly felt like one. Besides, I can’t imagine a better ending for Charmed than saving the magical world once and for all. Building on the themes continually shown throughout the season, the Charmed Ones realize that saving the magical world means more than just restoring it from Inara’s spell but making it a better place for everyone.
This episode truly featured something for everyone, especially with enough call-backs and glimpses of the future to be extremely satisfying.
For fans who have been watching since the beginning, mentions of Black Amber, Macy, and Abigael felt like a fun tribute to where the show has been. For fans more interested in the show’s present, Kaela’s continued importance to the team and the inclusion of characters like Dev and Diana (who I desperately wish we’d gotten more of) felt like an homage to how far the show has come. And for fans of the original series, there might be a surprise coming in the next episode just for you, though. If you’d rather keep it a surprise, definitely don’t watch the trailer for the episode.
With just one episode left of Charmed’s final season, the fate of the magical world hangs in the balance. It’ll be tough to say goodbye to this show and these characters next week, but I have no doubt their send-off will be absolutely spellbinding.
Charmed’s series finale airs Friday, June 10th at 8/7c, only on The CW, and streams the next day free on The CW App.