There are a lot of different forces at work in ‘The Secret Circle’, most of which are against our core group of teens. In ‘Beneath’ they all came out to play, and while there are a few inconsistencies presented in this week’s outing it’s still quite obvious that the series is headed in an ambitious direction.
Worried about her Grandmother, Cassie travels up to Henry Chamberlain’s lake house to find her in ‘Beneath’. After a storm hits, Cassie, Adam, Diana, Faye and Jake are forced to stay overnight but when Faye encounters a mysterious part of her past they make a shocking discovery. Charles and Dawn search for Diana’s book of shadows.
One of ‘The Secret Circle’s strengths is in its ability to use its role as a teen soap as a tool for driving the mysterious otherworldly stories forward. Like before the circle was bound, and the uncontrollable sexual chemistry was causing random bursts of magic, their powers are always caused by the teenagers’ emotions and feelings for one another. This episode had some serious tension between Cassie and Jake, and it played up on that with it becoming a major catalyst in allowing him teaching her the in’s and out’s of her individual power. I think that clever way of marrying the two aspects is what separates it from the crowd. I love ‘The Vampire Diaries’, but you’d almost forget how young the characters in that actually are sometimes, this series never does and that makes it, in a way, slightly more consistent than its sister series.
This episode was seriously fun. The delicious game of truth or dare had just the right amount of sass and drama to fulfil my high school shenanigan appetite and it also got all the characters who’s tangled love lives have been encroaching on one another’s to face up to what’s happening between them. I still really love Diana, who is such a far cry from the character I’d initially thought her to be back when the series started. She’s got independence, class and she’s far more perceptive than I’d ever believed she could be. It’s funny; she’s almost the Bonnie of this show, except she’s actually got the confidence to back up her claims of self-fulfilment.
There are so many different groups at work here it’s hard to keep track! Other than the circle, there seem to be two separate entities out there who are seemingly working against them. The witch hunter plot shows the signs of a plot that could drag a little if drawn out too long, so I’m hoping that Jake’s big unveiling happens in the fall finale, since it will have gone on long enough for it to have an impact at that stage. If this were 'The Vampire Diaries' he'd have been found out the episode after his arrival!
Charles and Dawn, though I still love them and the unusual moral stance they’ve adopted in this whole thing, are two of the sloppiest villains I’ve ever seen on television. I mean, they’re leaving a trail of clues all over the place, yet we’re supposed to take them seriously as credible threats? If it weren’t for Charles’s careless attitude towards hiding Henry Chamberlain’s body, Faye may never have found it. The cool ghost hunt was the best part of this episode though, even if Faye turned into a random nutcase. All the little hauntings were a lot of fun, and I loved the little added twist of it all being a result of Henry’s death. I hope that more time is dedicated to the origins of Cassie’s dark magic. One of the best parts about 'Diaries is how skilfully it unfolds its many secrets, and ‘The Secret Circle’ could stand to start doing the same since there is still a lot of ground to cover.
8.5/10
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