'Secret Circle' - Prom

This review may contain spoilers

It seems that the only person in this universe with any ability to plan is John Blackwell (Joe Lando). Everyone else is too distracted by frivolity or immediate gratification needs to think past the next half hour.

John gives Cassie (Britt Robertson) a spell to track the crystal, saying that Blackwell blood has a particular affinity for crystals. When she tries it she has a vision of the past when the crystal was first hidden at the school that involves her mother (Andrea Brooks) and Diana's mother, Elizabeth (Elise Gatien). She decides that Diana (Shelley Hennig) should be there to see her mother and convinces her to to join her, but they decide to wait until the next night during prom so that they will have lots of collateral damage should something go wrong.

The vision shows that Amelia and Elizabeth were both teen mothers, still in high school. Amelia persuaded the circle to trust John, who seduced Elizabeth and Dawn (Natasha Henstridge) as well. John magically ensured that those of the circle that he did not impregnate personally, also reproduced at pretty much the same time. Thus the kids' circle is a thing he engineered. Diana blames Amelia for her mother's death and Cassie for John's presence in their lives. Way to blame the victims, Diana. Cassie is disappointed that her father never loved her mother and she has finally realized that she should never trust her father again.

Adam's grandfather, James (Chad Willett), gave his crystal to Amelia to protect herself against John. She returned it to him before she left town with Cassie, and she tried to convince Elizabeth to do the same with Diana because she sensed that the meeting at the ferry where Ethan was going to give John to the witch hunters was going to go wrong. Elizabeth was too furious with Amelia to listen and went to her doom. James hid the crystal, cloaked, in the trophy case next to the gym should Amelia ever need it.

Nick (Louis Hunter) is discovered at Briar Hill by Melissa (Jessica Parker Kennedy) just before prom looking for crystals, but John must hide them better than most of the others or keep them with him. Nick tells Melissa that he is dying and needs a crystal to survive. When Adam (Thomas Dekker) arrives, he throws Melissa into a table as he rushes out. Later, as Adam is reaching for the crystal in the trophy case, Nick body checks him through the glass and takes it. This results in not even a small cut on Adam.

At a junk yard, Nick meets with Eben (Sammi Rotibi) to trade the crystal for a demon to keep him alive, but Cassie magics it out of his hand. Eben tosses her through the air and attacks Melissa and Adam with a car that John deflects. Nick goes for the crystal encountering Jake (Chris Zylka) on the way. Melissa stabs him in the back as he is strangling Jake.

Points of Interest

1. Now that he is no longer competing with Adam for Cassie, Jake has realized he has real feelings for Faye (Phoebe Tonkin).

2. Adam and Melissa shared a romantic moment during prom.

3. When John tells Dawn that he is going to destroy Charles, she calls to warn him.

4. John recreates Amelia's death in Charles' kitchen with Charles, convincing him that Amelia is haunting him. While so distracted, he confesses to Diana that he is a murderer. Diana, who had been running home for comfort after the upsetting crystal vision, is devastated and runs out into the street to be saved by Grant (Tim Phillipps), who is swinging by for their post-prom date, short-circuiting John's plan for a crushed Diana.

5. In Jake's battle with Nick, he seems to lose his resolve halfway through, giving Nick the chance to disarm and strangle him.

6. John gets to the last crystal before anyone else does; now he has the whole set.

7. Faye is gone, kidnapped by Eben.

What Worked

Diana's consistent hostility and contrariness with respect to John is almost mindless in it's intensity, and yet she turns out to be right pretty much every time.

Charles gifting Diana with her mother's necklace and offering to drive her to school was a lovely familial character moment.

John's consistently diabolical if illogical plan is wide ranging and all encompassing.

What Didn't Work

Combining this important spell with prom was foolish.

Faye's insistence that she enjoy the prom, taking precedence over survival? What?

James knew the whole plan, and by extension, all the elders knew, right? So why was Amelia the only one doing anything about it?

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"The Secret Circle" stars Britt Robertson, Shelley Hennig, Thomas Dekker, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Phoebe Tonkin, Chris Zylka, Joe Lando, Andrea Brooks, Elise Gatien, Chad Willett, Gale Harold, Natasha Henstridge, Louis Hunter, Tim Phillipps, Sammi Rotibi. "Prom" was written by Holly Henderson and Don Whitehead, and it was directed by Alex Zakrzewski.