THE SECRET CIRCLE: A “Loner” Comes for the Circle

The circle is bound. Faye is frustrated at not being able to use her powers at random. Diana explains to Faye that she hasn’t lost her power, she just is not strong until another member of the circle is with her. The more that are with her the more powerful she will be. The Circle is strongest and more controlled when working as one unit.

It’s clear that Melissa has got it bad for Nick but he only sees her as a good time beneath the sheets. Melissa doesn’t give up on him though, and asks Nick to the school dance. He refuses, of course, and Melissa is hurt, but she decides she’s going to go no matter what. She tries to get Faye to go with her, but Fay is obsessed with finding a way to get her powers back without the group, and has no time for a silly dance.

Sally asks Cassie’s help in decortating for the school dance. In a conversation with her, she tells Cassie that she keeps having flashes of memory about what happened the night of her ‘accident’, and it involves Faye. I’m thinking it won’t be long before Sally figures something out, but will she keep quiet about it for Cassie’s sake?

Charlie meets with Dawn and he tells her he has hidden Henry’s body. Dawn is still uncomfortable. This is going to somehow come back and bite the two of them, I’m sure.

There’s a new boy at the school named Luke and Adam introduces him to Cassie. Interested, Luke asks Cassie to the dance but she declines until she sees Adam with Diana. Then she changes her mind and tells Luke she’ll go with him.

Later, at the Boathouse Grill, Sally catches Cassie looks being exchanged between Cassie and Adam and figures out that they are attracted to each other. She encourages Cassie to go after him in spite of Diana, saying that maybe it’s time for Adam and Diana to split up. Sounds nice but Cassie’s not that kind of girl.

A stranger has come to Chance Harbor and when he sees Cassie, he introduces himself to her as Zachary Larson, and tells her he was a good friend of her mother’s. He asks if he could see Amelia but Cassie tells him that she died, which surprises him. He had not heard the news. He asks if Cassie is leaving town soon and she tells him that she is now living with her grandmother. Zachary seems upset by this news and tells Cassie, “You shouldn’t have come here. I’m not going to let this happen again.” Then he grabs her, but Diana is passing by and sees the commotion. As she walks up to Cassie, their powers connect, throwing Zachary against a nearby car.

This is the first time we see a demonstration of what the kids can do when they are together and Diana continues in her efforts to pull the Circle together. But she is met with resistance from Cassie, Faye, Melissa and Nick. Faye and Nick prefer working on their own, Melissa is just following Faye, and Cassie doesn’t want to be BFFs with the Circle, still going after some form of normalcy.

Charlie hears about the scuffle with Cassie, Zachary and Diana and he checks in with Diana to see if she’s alright. She asks him if he knows Zachary Larson and Charlie tells her they used to go to school together. Curious over seeing her father coming out of Dawn Chamberlain’s office, Diana asks him what is going on between them. Charlie tells her they are seeing each other and Diana seems happy about it. Now Charlie and Dawn can meet openly without any suspicions about what they are up to. Clever on Charlie’s part.Cassie finds a box in her closet with her mother’s name on it and starts to look through it. She finds a high school yearbook which contains a photo of Amelia, Zachary and another girl named Heather Barnes. She brings the yearbook to Diana and she tells Cassie that she thinks the fire was caused by magic gone wrong but was covered up.

At the abandoned house, Faye and Melissa practice working magic together and it works, but Faye is still frustrated at being back at beginner level. Melissa tells Faye she’s going to the dance. When Faye is puzzled by this Melissa tells her that she wants to do normal things that teenagers do. I like Melissa beginning to stand up for herself. I hope we soo more development with her.

Zachary and Dawn meet and talk about the night of the fire. When Dawn tells Charlie about it later, she tells him that he needs to have a talk with Zachary and try to get him to back off. Charlie wants to use the crystal but Dawn is concerned that too many bodies will garner suspicion. Hmm, do ya’ think?

Meanwhile, back at the old house, Faye is still trying to find ways to work magic on her own. Zachary comes in and finds her trying to light a candle with magic he and becomes threatening. He asks her if the Circle is bound and without her powers, Faye becomes frightened and runs away.

Faye finds Melissa and Nick at teh school dance and tells them about Zachary, and that he knows that the Circle is bound.  Word spread among the Circle that Zachary is after them but they don’t know why. Faye suggests that they break into her mother’s computer files to look up any information on him. They discover the newspaper stories about the night of the fire and find that Zachary and Heather, his girlfriend, were there and Heather died in the fire.

Charles catches up with Zachary near the boathouse. Zachary tells Charlie that he and Heather were once Amelia’s closest friends until she got deeper into the Circle. Then she began to withdraw from them and Heather was concerned. He tells Charlie that he won’t let the same mistakes happen and when Charlie tries to stop him, he beats Charlie up. As he’s leaving, he says, “All I have to do is kill one of them.” So breaking the Circle involves killing one of them?

As the Circle figures out that Zachary is after them and blames them for what happened to Heather, they realize that they must stick together for their own safety.

As Cassie wanders the halls alone, Zachary finds her and starts to chase her. He catches up with her and throws her to the ground. Cassie tells him that Heather’s death wasn’t their fault, but Zachary tells her that Heather is not dead. Amelia left her in much worse condition than death.

Charlie tells Dawn that Zachary is out to get the kids and they go looking for the Circle. The kids come upon Zachary and Cassie and immediately their powers come together and throw Zachary to the ceiling and then he smashes to the floor, rendering him unconscious. Dawn walks in and the kids tells her that they caught him trying to break into the lockers and that he slipped on all the papers in the hall and fell knocking himself out.  Dawn tells them to leave and she will handle things. She calls Charlie and tells him that she found Zachary.

In the closing scenes, Charlie and Dawn have Zachary bound and gagged in the trunk of the car. Dawn draws blood from her hand and lays it on Zachary’s forehead and begins an incantation. She tells him that he is now marked so that no matter where he goes, she will always be able to find him. She tells him that if he goes near the kids again, she will make his  life a hell worse than Heather’s ever was. SHE KNOWS! Did Dawn harm Heather and lay the blame on Amelia?

“Loner” is a good title for this episode, but it doesn’t label one character. Zachary is the obvious Loner, but Cassie admits to being one to Luke, Faye would rather practice magic on her own, and Nick is a self-loathing, sad boy who doesn’t want to attach himself to anyone.

It was a great episode and now Cassie is on a mission to find Heather and see if she can correct the wrong her mother has done. She’s clearly upset over the things she is finding out about her parents since coming to Chance Harbor. I can’t figure out who is really bad and who is really good, for sure.

What did you all think about “Loner”? Give us your speculations in the comments below. We’ll chat with you!