'The Secret Circle' - Valentine

This review may contain spoilers

It's Valentine's Day, but the only one who really cares is Adam (Thomas Dekker). He twice tries to ask Cassie (Britt Robertson) out for a romantic dinner, but circumstances prevent this each time. The episode does end with them kissing, though.

Cassie has sussed out that the conjunction of medallion and symbol in the basement brings her more power and a connection to her father. When she goes to try after school, the hooded figure that she didn't see earlier in the day appears to frighten her. It is the ghost of a witch Daddy killed, along with the rest of the Nodaris coven in a church nearby.

Cassie is lured there where they possess Adam and demand the medallion, or Adam will slash his own wrists. Cassie crushes the medallion in her bare hand and the ghosts disappear.

Jake (Chris Zylka) gets visited several times by Isaac (JR Bourne), who claims that John Blackwell somehow deceived his own coven causing their deaths by witch hunters, which for some reason he doesn't think share any blame. Isaac claims that the impending witch hunter attack is about the medallion and if Jake gets it for him, the attack will be called off.

Additionally, the medallion contains the power drained from thousands of witches and, now that it is activated, will draw those drained, living or dead, to it. The only way to save Cassie is to give Isaac the medallion. Most of this is transparent lies, which is proved when Isaac is given proof of the medallion's destruction, and he clearly has no intention of advocating a cessation of hostilities.

Faye (Phoebe Tonkin) and Jake compete to show each other the most indifference and insensitivity with respect to their night of carnal passion before a pre-school encore. The girls are all invited to Faye's for a anti-Valentine's slumber party.

Lee (Grey Damon) arrives with a power totem that he says will bring her power and invites her out for dinner. Luckily she does not blow off her guests for a boy. She will be using the totem, though. Unfortunately, we find out later that the totem is actually meant to drain her energies and give them to Lee's comatose girlfriend, the Devil's Spirit addict.

Points Of Interest

1. Lee's power totem is a stick, bone and hair assemblage wrapped in yarn with fake eyes that might look creepy if it didn't look like it was put together by a 3-year-old. Both sending and receiving totems look identical.

2. The Nodaris coven is a group that arrived in Chance Harbor directly from Europe, unlike most who went to Salem first. John killed them all and absorbed their powers with the medallion.

3. In addition to appearing and disappearing, the witch ghosts had power over the medallion. They were able to move it in a very limited way.

4. There is residual power where a witch is killed.

5. Diana (Shelley Hennig) partakes in the Devil's Spirit and acts drunkenly most of the evening, including snogging with the pizza delivery boy. Diana is a snide and sarcastic, if not actively mean, drunk. Also, usually she displays more wisdom.

6. Diana, Melissa (Jessica Parker Kennedy) and Faye begin to cast a spell during the party as if they expected it to work. As if their powers had not been absorbed by the medallion last episode.

7. Diana and Melissa used to be best friends in junior high school before Diana started ignoring everyone in favour of Adam. Diana resolves not to fail her friend again.

8. Despite evidence to the contrary, Cassie was hoping that John was really a good guy because it might mean that she would not turn evil. Now that she knows he's a mass murderer, she doesn't want to meet him anymore.

9. The episode ends with a dark figure with a branded right palm standing on a dock, strongly implied to be John Blackwell, probably nearby.

What Worked

Faye's love of Melissa and concern for Melissa's well-being over and above her own, usually masked by her sybaritic pursuit of power, continues to redeem the character's overall foolishness and poor judgement.

Jake's futile, we hope, pursuit of Cassie is at least sincere on his part. When he's trying to convince Cassie to sacrifice Adam to save herself, it has nothing to do with attempting to get rid of a rival. In that moment he would do anything to save his love. That said, he's still an unrepentant and gullible serial killer and does not deserve redemption.

What Didn't Work

Melissa overdoses on Devil's Spirit, giving herself convulsions and extended nausea. Her friends dust her off, instead of calling 911, and say, I paraphrase here, "Don't do that anymore." Bad decision making all the way around.

Isaac's arguments don't hold up to even cursory analysis and points to either poor writing or a long experience with Jake's credulousness.

Where are the parents? Where are Nick and Jake's guardians? We have never seen them but Nick was of an age where they should have been living in the house with him. Where is Dawn? The party takes place at her house. Where is Ethan? OK, he's probably working at the restaurant, but he also lives on the boat with Adam.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"The Secret Circle" stars Britt Robertson, Thomas Dekker, Chris Zylka, Phoebe Tonkin, Shelley Hennig, Jessica Parker Kennedy, JR Bourne, Grey Damon. "Valentine" was written by Roger Grant, and it was directed by Dave Barrett.

"The Secret Circle" airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.