by Ryan J. Downey
Witch hunters, boozy revelations, a huge breakup, a girl stabbed in the throat and a short novel's worth of new layers of "Secret Circle" mythology? If we didn't know better, we'd have thought "Wake" was the season finale. But we're still only six episodes in!
"I broke up with Adam," Diana tearfully tells Cassie, late in the episode.
"What happened?" Cassie asks.
"You."
Talk about a shakeup in the central love triangle. And that wasn't all. The last two episodes of "The Secret Circle" have accelerated to a freight train pace as the mysteriously interlocking web of Chance Harbor's past, present and future continued to be revealed.
"Wake" begins with the group still reeling from Nick's death. The Circle has learned the hard way that the magic coursing through their veins comes with real consequences. Even Diana's evil daddy Charles seems distraught and filled with remorse over it all.
"We bound that circle with no clue what we were doing," Cassie tells her grandmother. "And look what's happened. I think it's for the best it's broken now." But au contraire! It turns out the mysterious blonde dude Cassie saw hanging out at Nick's house next door is the late Circle member's brother, Jake. And thanks to his familial relation, he could actually take Nick's place in the Secret Circle.
"The ceremony binds you to each others' bloodlines," grandma Jane explains. It turns out Cassie's lineage goes back to the very beginning of witchcraft and is more powerful than any of the others, too. "You were born with the responsibility to lead and protect your circle."
Jake lets the rest of the crew know he's back in town (following a two-year absence) by dropping by the Boathouse Grill, where preparations are being made for his little brother's wake. It's clear right off the bat that Adam hates him (something about Jake stealing money from the Grill back in the day, he says, but it certainly looks like it's more about the way he's making eyes at Cassie), and Faye can't stand him either (something about a messy relationship, which Melissa says almost sent Faye "to the psych ward" two years ago).
Grandma pays a visit to Faye's mom to tell her that Nick's death was the result of demonic possession, unaware of course that the poor lad was drowned by Charles under orders from Dawn. Dawn plays dumb naturally. "Are you going to talk to the elders? Have them strip the children of their powers?" Grandma seems shocked by the mere suggestion. "No! They need it to protect themselves." Evil is afoot, after all. It's just too bad that Grandma Jane doesn't realize she's talking to evil right then and there. Eventually, she'll figure it out, right?
Dawn later tells Charles that she's tricked Jane into thinking she's on her side. She points out that Jane probably has a family power crystal lying around somewhere. If they can get close enough to her, they can probably steal it and use it to restore their own witchy mojo.
Jane does have a crystal, as we know from last week and later in the episode, she gives it to Cassie. "Think of it as a lens that magnifies your power," she explains. Circle magic is complicated. "A crystal is simpler." Jane cautions Cassie to keep her possession of it a secret.
Over at the Secret Circle Clubhouse, Cassie takes her first steps toward becoming more of that leader she's destined to be by trying to convince everyone that Jake should be invited into their little club. As they're talking, somebody sets a fire in the shape of a crescent moon outside. Turns out it's an ancient warning used to "mark" a witch's land. Yet another layer to the show's mythology!
Later, Cassie is attacked by a gothy looking girl brandishing a crescent moon emblazoned knife. Poor Cassie just can't seem to shake these home invasions from psychopaths on this show, huh? Dubiously motivated possible hero/villain Jake arrives and uses a spell to drive the girl away. It turns out he's well aware of the whole "witch" thing. He found his family's Book of Shadows years ago. But he's got no interest in joining up with the Chance Harbor bunch. "You're just a bunch of kids in way over your heads," he says.
The next day, Adam spots Jake hanging around Cassie and does an even worse job than before of concealing his contempt. This isn't lost on Diana, who notes: "You're acting like a jealous boyfriend. And not mine."
Adam isn't the only one who is upset about Jake's apparent interest in Cassie. "Just to warn you: He'll sleep with you then dump you and leave you in a million twisted little pieces," Faye tells Cassie with a jealous bile of her own. "But maybe that's what you're into."
The drama with Adam and Faye stirred up by Jake's arrival, the attack on Cassie, the power plays and subterfuge going on with the town's adults—all of it starts to overshadow the group's recent loss. That is, for everyone except Melissa, who is in pretty deep mourning.
Remember that goth-y looking, knife-wielding attacker? Her name is Simone and well, Jake knows her. He tracks her down to a seedy motel and retrieves the little vial of blood she collected from Cassie's arm for purposes unknown. Jake refers to her as one of the "True Believers" (and not in a nice way) before ordering her to stay out of his way. She tells him he just made "a big mistake."
At the wake, Adam's dad is pounding down booze and getting loose-lipped about Chance Harbor's tragic past. "This town just can't stop burying teenagers," he says, before slipping up and mentioning something about somebody named "Blackwell" to Adam. Perhaps Adam could've gotten some more intel had he not been distracted by Jake talking to Cassie, which results in a short little fistfight.
Adam's father isn't finished spilling. He confides the stark truth about "destiny" to Diana. "I wish you were the one [for Adam] Diana. You deserve to be happy." However, "it's Adam's destiny to be with Cassie Blake." It's in the stars. The whole family bloodline thing.
"Trust me," he says, advising her to get out of the way of an Adam/Cassie romance. "Bad things happen when you mess with fate." Diana breaks it off with Adam, who only sort of barely resists. Later in the episode she shows up at Cassie's house and tearfully delivers the news.
But before that went down, Cassie had a nice little chat with somebody else. Her and Jake had a moment together outside the wake. She seems to think he's probably a great guy deep down underneath the whole everybody-in-town-hates-him thing. Evil knife girl (watching from the shadows) seems to think Jake reciprocates those warm feelings. And she's not too happy about it when she emerges.
"You were closer to kissing her than killing her!" she scolds. "You're never going to be able to complete the mission."
Whatever their mission was (killing Cassie, it seems! Uh-oh!), Jakes seems to have changed his mind about it, perhaps, because he and Simone start fighting. Cassie comes to his aid, covertly using her crystal to disarm Simone. Jake stabs his former partner-in-Cassie-hunting in the throat with her own knife. Cassie is freaked out by this but not enough to avoid extending a more or less formal invitation to Jake to join their Circle. Cassie remains unaware of Jake's connection to the gothy girl who now lies dead on the ground.
Has he had a change of black-heart? Well, it doesn't seem like it during his meeting with shady thugs that closes the episode. "You killed a fellow witch hunter," some guy who seems to be in charge says. "Why?" Wait a second, Jake is a witch hunter? And a witch, too? Yep. Turns out this group of "True Believer" witch hunters are using Jake as part of an apparently new "use a witch to kill a witch" strategy.
"I've come here to avenge the death of my family, to rid Chance Harbor of witches," Jake assures his boss. "And I will not fail."
Will Jake stay on the dark side? Will he turn against the Witch Hunters and join his own kind in the Circle? The cauldron of plot thickens! Share your theories in the comments and on Twitter!
** Hollywood Crush Twitter