by Ryan J. Downey
The closing scene of the season one finale of "The Secret Circle" really drove the episode's title home.
After the most action packed episode of the series run thus far—which saw the final revelation about Blackwell and the boat fire 16 years ago, the death of Eben at the hands of Jake, the restoration of witchy power to Charles and Dawn, the unbinding of the Circle, Charles becoming full of demons, all of the crew nearly burning alive, Cassie and Adam playing with darkness (did we mention it was action packed?)—season one drew to a close with a shot of three guys and a girl standing on a cliff overlooking Chance Harbor. Who were those four mysterious figures clad in the show's signature skinny black jeans? FOUR MORE BALCOIN KIDS!
John Blackwell's master plan was revealed to be nothing less than the absolute destruction of all other witches (with the annihilation of witch hunters an afterthought), so nothing would remain but a "pure race" of Balcoin-blooded dark-magic wielders led by him. While fathering children across various circles, Blackwell used the witch hunters as an excuse to send the Circle of Parents (as we like to call them) to that boat where they met their end. Cassie's mom and Adam's dad were on to his plan and tried to eliminate him, but they (obviously) failed. Blackwell wanted this current Circle to be full of orphans so they'd be more vulnerable and susceptible to his influence. He didn't want the crystal skull to stop Eben. He wanted it to burn up every non-Balcoin witch from the inside.
The episode opened with a tender and quiet moment between Grant and Diana, who had fallen asleep in Grant's car. They talked seriously about running away together, but the persistent texts from half-sister Cassie reminded Diana that Faye was still being held captive by Eben and the witch hunters. Eben called Cassie using Faye's phone and told her he would exchange Faye for one of the crystals. Why one? He just wanted to make sure they couldn't finish the crystal skull.
Even with the revelations about Blackwell from last week's episode, everyone in the Circle but Diana agreed that they must use Blackwell and the skull to save Faye. After some arguing at the Secret Circle Clubhouse, the one-time Secret Sibling reluctantly went along with Cassie to meet their father by some picturesque water and trees. Blackwell revealed that assembling the skull would cause their Circle to become unbound. This gave Diana even more reason to distrust him but Cassie convinced her it would be the only way to guarantee Faye's survival.
Meanwhile, Adam, Melissa and Jake were staking out the ferry where the witch hunters were holding Faye, which happened to be the boat where the fire took place 16 years ago. A remorseful and distraught Charles finally came full circle (sorry about that pun) and together with Dawn, implored his mother to restore their power so they could help save the kids. She said their power couldn't be restored but she offered to give them her own power instead, which they readily accepted.
The Balcoins assembled the skull together, using a spell, fire and water. Just touching it, they were all clearly enraptured by its power. Blackwell finally revealed his true nature to the girls when they insisted on holding onto the skull themselves. He knocked them unconscious and took them away.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Circle felt like their hearts skipped a beat as they became unbound. Adam was able to stop Jake from foolheartedly rushing into the boat by himself by using his solo magic. He decided to race off to find Diana and Cassie (they were all assuming that they became unbound because someone had been killed, perhaps) leaving Melissa and Jake at the boat, where they decided to rush in themselves. Faye was able to free herself (and briefly call her mom, with the pair acknowledging in a goosebumps-inducing moment that they were aware of each other's witchy-ness) and kick some witch hunter butt ("who's the little girl now?" was a particularly great line) but her, Jake and Melissa all ended up tied to a pole and nearly burned alive by Eben in a very Salem Witch Trials-looking scene.
Dawn rescued them from the flames as Charles took on Eben, chanting a spell that caused the worm-like demons to jump from Eben and climb into Charles instead. Just as Eben declared, "This isn't over,", Jake appeared with a knife and countered, "It is for you" as he stabbed his former witch hunter boss to death.
Consumed by the demons, Charles looked at Dawn and the kids on the boat and said, "Tell Diana I love her" and then jumped in the water. It was yet another story point that hit on the episode's title, as Charles (and his mother) drew strength from the idea that Diana is their family regardless of Blackwell's bloodline.
Over at the Secret Circle Clubhouse, Cassie and Diana awoke to find themselves trapped in a ring of fire worthy of Johnny Cash while their father worked on some sketchy spell with the skull. That's when he revealed his plan. To be fair, Cassie had finally pieced most of it together herself and her father just sort of admitted to the various points as she spelled them out. But the juiciest revelation from Blackwell's mouth was that he had fathered four more kids in four other Circles and they were all heading to Chance Harbor to be a "Family," hence the episode's super-awesome title.
As he went on and on about his master plan as most super villains do, Adam arrived and was almost able to knock the skull over. But Blackwell started tossing him around like a rag doll as the rest of the witches began to burn from the inside. In an awesome scene, Cassie decided to attack her sister in order to force her to use her own dark magic, as she realized the pair of them would have a chance of defeating Blackwell that none of them could have alone.
The girls were able to break from their little prison and together neutralize Blackwell (Dead? Comatose? It wasn't clear) and wrest the skull from him at the same time. The skull, by the way, had turned black during Blackwell's spell. Back at Cassie's house, she apologized to the entire Circle for ever trusting Blackwell.
The "Family" title took on another meaning as well, as by episode's end, the crew realized they didn't need to be "bound" by blood or magic to be a family together. However, Diana still insisted on leaving town with Grant. Faye, meanwhile, was in a celebratory mood (after all, she's wanted her solo magic back for a long time!), boozing it up with Melissa and insisting they hit the town, regardless of the fact that Chance Harbor is pretty boring on a Sunday night. Adam was elected to go and deal with the skull (Jake said something funny about all of his moral merit badges, in one of two scenes where the one-time rivals begrudgingly acknowledged a new fondness for each other), but we have to say he looked like he was enjoying being with the skull a little too much. Speaking of which, Cassie noticed her hand now has the same mark as her father and she seemed to be enjoying that a bit much, as well. Jake found a note from his grandfather (along with a mysterious object) saying the struggle has really only just begun. Diana saw she had the same mark on her hand, but didn't have a devilish smile about it like her half-sister.
But most important was that closing shot of the four Balcoin kids, backs turned to the camera, about to make their descent into town. And into season two!
What did you think of last night's "Secret Circle" season finale? Sound off in the comments and on Twitter!
