Charmed ditches the setup, tones down the messaging and gets into the reality of the situation these three women now find themselves facing in “Let This Mother Out,” and episode that’s infinitely superior to the Pilot, and that does a lot to endear us not just to the Charmed ones as separate characters, but to the relationship they have, or can have with each other.
The episode does this, by bringing back their mother, their reason for everything – or at least, pretending to do so.
What would you do to get someone you love back is a question that a lot of shows have played with, and Charmed answers this question as realistically as possible. Because the answer, no matter what people who haven’t lost anything would have you think, is pretty much anything.
Of course, that means that you can be blinded by your emotions if you think there’s any chance to achieve that. You can be blinded by your desire to get back what you lost, just like Mel was, just like Macy let herself be.
And hey, sometimes, to find the truth, to see clearly, you apparently have to listen to your little sister.
Stranger things have happened, I guess.
Let’s go into what these women are, what they can be, and what their sisterhood looks like as we discuss “Let This Mother Out”:
MACY
If the episode starts with Macy feeling like an outsider it’s because, in many ways, she still is. That’s both hurtful to her, and in a way, a bit understandable. Good intentions are one thing, but you don’t develop a close relationship in a day, and expecting that her sisters would be able to just turn a switch and everything would be like she always imagined was naive, at best.
Of course, if you add to this the fear of abandonment Macy clearly has, one that can be traced back to the decisions Marisol Vera made, it’s easy to see why she acts the way she acts in this episode, even as she clashes with Mel and attempts to bond with Maggie, only to then do the opposite.
The thing is, Macy doesn’t have to pick sides to be able to fit in, and she doesn’t have to be anyone but herself. Her presence might have triggered this whole Charmed ones thing, but she isn’t just a check-mark, she’s a person. Some days having sisters will be infinitely easy, because they’ll be her support, and they will love her no matter what, and some days it will be infinitely hard, because they will argue with her and be a pain in the ass.
But if she gives it time, her sisters will love her anyway – through good times, and bad times.
MEL
Mel seems the more real of the sisters to me, and the one I have an easier time relating to, probably because she seems the more flawed character so far, and flaws are interesting, especially in fictional characters, especially because we see ourselves in flaws, in a way we have a hard time seeing ourselves in the good things. That’s just human nature.
The now middle Charmed sister is a control freak, she thinks she’s always right – acts accordingly, too – and she reacts very badly to being corrected or challenged. But she loves. She loves so much. In fact, that’s the thing about her, that she’s all heart and she does so much to hide this, not just from the rest of the world, but from herself.
It’s scary, to be this person. The daughter who was always there, and then also, probably, the one that feels like she didn’t do enough. The supportive girlfriend, and yet the one who can’t help but shut out because she’s afraid the real her isn’t what Niko ones. And yet, this episode, Mel takes one tiny step forward into becoming the person she can be.
She trusts herself. She trusts her sister. She trusts Harry. And more importantly, she doesn’t blame herself for all that went wrong. Now she just has to learn to make that the rule, not the exception.
MAGGIE
Being the little sister is hard, and being the little sister when you find out you have another big sister, is even harder. Maggie is naturally sociable, she likes people, and she wants people to like her, so of course, she wants to believe Mel, she wants to support her sister, the one who’s always been there for her, and had her back, but she also wants to bond with Macy, and, of course, she wants to speak for herself. She wants her own voice to be heard.
She wants to be Maggie, not just Mel and Macy’s sister.
In this episode, she finds a way to do both, and not just that, she finds a way to be the one to guide her sisters, to point them in the right direction. But this journey Maggie is on, the journey of finding your own voice and learning how to use it, despite or maybe because of what life throws at you, doesn’t end here. Not even close. This journey is ongoing.
And it already looks like, no matter how this episode seems to leave everything with them neatly tied up, it’ll be up to her to play referee more often than not.
WHAT CHARMED COULD HAVE DONE RIGHT FOR LATINX REPRESENTATION IN “LET THIS MOTHER OUT”
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- While Macy was going through Marisol’s things, they could have found something that spoke to their ethnicity, their heritage. A brujeria book, some mention to a long-lost bruja they were related to.
- Literally any word in Spanish. A nickname. Anything.
- Even latinx who aren’t fluent in Spanish typically know a Spanish word or two. Hell, the word mom is a common one. They could be calling her mamá or mami.
- It would also have been cool if their whitelighter wasn’t a cis white dude hailing from England.
Things I think I think:
- Look, when all else fails, TRUST NO ONE.
- Though I kind of agree that powers that manifest physically seem way cooler, I always thought Phoebe had the most power of all the sisters in the original Charmed.
- It’s just that Maggie hasn’t figured out how powerful she truly is, and though by the end of the episode, she has a better idea, she still has a way to go.
- This episode actually gives some weight to the Macy/Mel interactions, and it seems to me they’re going to be the most interesting going forward.
- Macy and Maggie are going to bond way faster than Macy and Mel will, is also my point.
- It’s funnier to think that this show keeps trying to make fun of Trump when I don’t remember they only cast one latinx actress, so they aren’t as woke as they’re pretending to be.
- Look, Meghan Markle is a good and fun decoy name, what can I say?
- Don’t. Like. Maggie’s. Friend. With. Benefits.
- Harry is acting too suspicious for someone ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING WRONG.
- The no exclamation point worry, in this case, is probably right on point.
- Not that I appreciate how stereotypical the sorority sisters are, so far.
- I really, really like Niko.
- Harry, communication is a skill.
- MULTIVERSE MENTION.
- Killing demons is nasty, nasty business.
- I do appreciate how banged up and tired, emotionally and physically everyone was.
- There’s still a lot to like about this show. I wish I could have liked it without that asterisk, without the but, without the voice in my head saying they don’t care about me. I just can’t.
Agree? Disagree? Share with us in the comments below!
Charmed airs Sundays at 9/8c on the CW.
