The Secret Circle 1.10 'Darkness'

Welcome back Chance Harbour! ‘Darkness’ was a typical back to business winter premiere, with things picking up right where we left off in ‘Balcoin’. As far as episodes go, this was pretty great but one thing that it didn’t do was give us much new information, or make any reference to the big revelation that we ended on last November.

Cassie finds herself struggling to keep her father’s side of her in control in ‘Darkness’ when she accidentally hurts Adam. Diana’s grandmother comes to town, and takes a sudden interest in Cassie.

‘The Secret Circle’ has never faltered in placing it’s dark, subtle tone in the forefront, and this episode took advantage of the angsty, wreck loose nature of its stories and characters. The magic and the strong connections between everyone seemed to come out in spades during ‘Darkness’, particularly with Faye and newbie Lee, whose chemistry was off the charts, even for this show.

I never realised just how much the series would focus on Cassie’s dark side. That’s not to say that I’m disappointed, quite the opposite actually, I just wish that we got to learn more about it, and hear less of the usual ominous “great power” stuff. I was seriously nervous for Britt Robertson, who didn’t seem like an actress who could pull of anything dark in a serious way, but hats off to her, because she really nailed it here. Her big escape from Granny Kate’s trap was pretty awesome.

Naturally, a television series will eventually make strides in allowing each character to shine in their own right starting with Diana, who found her own independence after she broke with Adam, and moving on to Melissa who in ‘Darkness’ finally took a stand against Faye. I’ve liked what we’ve seen of Melissa so far, but it can only be a great thing to see her strike out on her own for a while. The Nick obsessed mope needs to take a hike, so we can see the real girl underneath it all.

I don’t mean to constantly compare this to ‘The Vampire Diaries’, but given the close nature of these two shows, I think it’s near impossible not to. If the big sibling drop had happened in ‘Diaries fall finale, it’d be pretty much guaranteed that the next episode would pick up on it straight away, but ‘The Secret Circle’ has opted for a more slow burning approach. If the writers want to keep the shock of what we learned alive, something needs to happen soon to get it moving, because the fickle memories of the viewers might play against the series in a huge way.

If ‘The Secret Circle’ wants to sell itself as a major series in its own right, it needs to go full speed ahead, and keep viewers craving more, just like ‘The Vampire Diaries’ does. I have every faith in it, and while there’s a few underlying issues, every episode has been a hit and this episode was no exception that rule.

7.5/10