Witches of East End - Episode 1.09 - A Parching Imbued - Review

The penultimate episode of Witches of East End, season 1, did not disappoint!  This show, as I continue to marvel, is not shy about constantly pushing the suspense and tension levels to ever new heights.  All of the action is destined to come full circle with Freya's doomed-seeming wedding to Dash, which is now right around the corner!

Speaking of Freya, she went through the kind of emotional ringer this week that had previously been reserved for Ingrid.  First of all, she lost her powers and felt like a part of herself was painfully missing.  Then she met her biological father, stirring mixed emotions.  And then she got a seriously hot and intense declaration of love from Killian!

I was surprised that we were introduced to Victor, Joanna's ex and the father of Ingrid and Freya, with so little fanfare.  Wendy rapidly and even casually found him and brought him home.  It's this very sudden-ness that irked Ingrid and made her feel that Victor has no right to appear in the girls' lives again, an understandable emotion.

The scene between Killian and Freya when he professed his love was perfection.  I've always shipped for this couple, but this really showed the depth of Killian's feelings in a new light that was wonderfully portrayed by Daniel Di Tomasso.  Jenna Dewan-Tatum was also excellent in showing the conflicted emotions that flooded Freya's heart at this juncture.

Joanna had to deal with seeing Victor again after all of this time, and surprisingly rather than just arguing, the two sparked up their chemistry once more...and then some!  So far, I find Victor a more viable love interest for Joanna than Harrison was/is.  I can't wait for the inevitable flashback episode explaining how the family came to leave Asgard without Frederick, and how the couple fell out, leading to Victor not seeing his wife and daughter for centuries.

As for Frederick, I'm increasingly hopeful that Mike is not going to turn out to be the long-lost Beauchamp son.  His scenes with Ingrid have that level of seemingly-romantic attraction that it would seem awfully creepy if they turned out to be siblings.  The episode caught me off-guard by quickly revealing that Mike knows Ingrid is a witch.  So many shows would have used that as an episode-ending cliffhanger for a much slower-paced hour.   Despite the fact that Mike gets up to some sketchy and even sort of threatening shenanigans, I get the feeling he's not a villain.  I wonder how Ingrid came to be the key to Asgard, and what will happen now that Mike knows it. 

I'm glad that Ingrid and Freya got to bond a little bit in this episode in the bar scene.  Even though it was short, at least they were in the same scene together in a tete a tete format.  I still think we need to see more development of Freya and Ingrid's relationship, as it is an important emotional underpinning to the show and nicely complements the bond between Wendy and Joanna.

Penelope is an absolutely fantastic villainess, and I'm not-so-secretly smirking at how she's always one step ahead of the Beauchamps.  It's easy to love-to-hate Penelope thanks to Virginia Madsen's arch and conniving performance that's right at a nice level of hammy.  Sure, I might have thought about Passions a few times while Penelope was creeping around casting spells and giving soliloquies, but only with the fondest of sentiments.

What did you think of this week's episode?  Any theories as to what is coming our way in two weeks with the season finale?  Share your ideas in the comments!