In a previous story, I shared what Charmed showrunners Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin had to say about their work on the show and the recent news of their full season order. Now that Charmed episode 5, “Other Women,” has aired, we can dive a little deeper into specifics and what you can expect going forward.
(Contains spoilers for Charmed “Other Women”)
What happens when you pull on the threads of fate?
According to Amy Rardin, the reverberations from Mel’s spell on Niko are probably going to be felt for the rest of the season. After all, The Charmed Ones asked fate to undo a thread that we now know was connected to other threads — like Mel’s teaching job.
Or the fact that Mel remembers a whole relationship with a woman who doesn’t even know she exists anymore.
But it’s possible that doesn’t preclude them meeting again in the future. According to IMDB, Ellen Tamaki is in, at least, 13 episodes. That’s not to say she can’t be part of other storylines, but O’Toole did say, “There’s the whole question of can you really erase someone like that? Does true love always find a way? Can you really mess with time?”
We’ve seen characters try to control fate in the past and history shows that fate keeps trying to find a way to make certain events happen. That spell may have pulled a thread, but you never know what the overall picture is.
And there’s the question of all of the other repercussions the spell may cause. After all, Niko not being there to wake Mel up means she doesn’t have her teaching job. What other things did Niko do because she met and loved Mel? Both for Mel and in the world in general?
O’Toole seems to be enjoying the question. “I think when you mess with time, everything’s on the table. It’s like, it’s kind of a mind bender when you think about it.”
Misty, watercolor memories
Both women also hint that memories are going to be a theme going forward when it comes to Harry. We learned that Harry gave up his memories of his old life when he became a Whitelighter. Harry’s accepted the rules of being a Whitelighter but if there’s anything we’ve learned about the Charmed Ones, they’re not really sticklers for all the rules — especially if those rules seem to cause pain to someone.
Both Rardin and O’Toole hint that we’ll be learning more about Harry and his past.
“We have 22 episodes. More to learn about Harry the better. It’s just so fun to see and fun for him to play. So yes, we’re definitely going to get into that and find out what his life was…” O’Toole shared with Rardin adding that we’ll see those memories come up in plot points later.
What about their powers?
We didn’t get a long answer to this question, but we have a little bit of info for you.
Both women confirmed that we will see the sisters’ powers grow and expand over time but they’ll still relate to their original powers. So keep an eye out for that as the season continues.
Knowing when to be serious and when to lighten things up
One of the things I find most interesting about Charmed is its ability to juggle the serious moments with the humorous ones, especially when it comes to certain characters.
A show that can kill a rampant incel because he’s actually a virgin and then turn around and dive into truly heartbreaking moments is walking an interesting tightrope. Both women enjoy the dichotomy but are always cognizant of how far it’s okay to push.
“You feel it out, I think,” Jessica explained. “In some ways you want it to be reflective of how we deal with the stuff in real life. There are horrible things going on but then you have to go about your day and you want to take those things seriously but you also have to manage to take care of your kids so you have to find humor in things. So I think it’s that. There are times when we’ll start talking about something and be like, that doesn’t seem like something we should be making light of.”
Rardin continued, “We actually had this discussion yesterday in the room. We went down a path and were like, ‘Wait a minute, is this gonna come across that we’re making fun of this and we don’t want it to come across that way?’. So we changed the storyline.”
Lucy’s character may be a prime example here. On one hand, she’s a sorority girl “type”, but her character lost any of the affect when she found out about Maggie kissing Parker.
In the end, what both women seem to agree on is the need for real characters, real emotions, and real relationships, which makes sense in a world filled with magic, demons, and all things supernatural. Especially the power of sisterhood and the love The Charmed Ones share.
Which I’m sure sounds great to any Charmed fan.