Witches of East End - The Old Man and the Key - Review

In Sunday's exciting new installment of Witches of East End, we flashed back to the Beauchamps' centuries-ago departure from Asgard, while in the present day, all of the characters struggled with their ongoing problems.  Frederick continued to confound Wendy and Joanna's investigations into his goodness or villainy, Freya and Killian's reunion was far from happy, and Dash got a little (much-needed!) help and advice from Ingrid.

Joanna noticed her father's symbol etched upon Frederick's chest, and when Wendy saw the very same symbol on poor Dr. Foster's dead body (he did not make a good zombie informant, b.t.w.), the suspicious nature of Frederick's attitude and behavior took on an even more unfortunate appearance.  However, after magically tracking Frederick into the woods and seeing him cast a really creepy spell (poor little birdie), Wendy and Joanna still couldn't agree about his motives.  That's because Frederick gave a rather compelling backstory explanation, telling his mother and aunt that the spell was to remove his grandfather's mark from his chest.  Frederick claimed that he spent years in torment in an Asgard that is falling apart while his grandfather rules as an uncontested god-like figure.  While Joanna was heartbroken by the tale of Frederick's ordeal, Wendy stuck to her worries about her nephew potentially being a murderous baddie, and was irritated by what she saw as Joanna's gullible weakness to her son. 

We also learned that Joanna blames herself for letting go of Frederick's hand that night when they were parted between Asgard and Earth, even though Frederick obviously wanted to go with the King.  So it's clear that Joanna has a habit of making excuses for her often wayward son.  It does seem as if Frederick is wedged somewhere between good and evil, and I can't wait to learn more about what he's really after.  I also loved Wendy's explanation to her sister of how she immediately got rid of the earring spelled by Frederick.  Unlike so many characters on shows of this genre, Wendy did not just fall off the turnip truck and is too clever to be taken in by such a thinly veiled act of potential malice.  The perfect aspect to the Frederick debate is that the viewer can really agree with both Joanna and Wendy's perspectives on him...at least until he shows his cards.

As Joanna pondered the night her father cursed the rest of the family (except Frederick) and condemned them all to years of suffering, we learned a few key facts about life back in Asgard.  Obviously, for example, all men were required to have terrible facial hair, unless they were the King.  It was very beautiful and hauntingly blue and woodsy in this scene, and the royal women wore gorgeous white gowns.  The mysterious, almost blurry look to this sequence was fabulously done to create a feeling of suspense and eeriness.  Plus, Grandfather had the stately, monologuing evilness of a Shakespeare villain, and his brutal treatment made Joanna mad enough to hack his arm off, thereby also retrieving the key to seal the door between Asgard and Earth.

Freya found Killian having the time of his life in his tropical hideaway, having now married (!!) that manipulative, annoying Eva.  Killian's behavior seems a bit flaky to me, making me further question if he's under some kind of a spell making him so devoted to Eva.  His reaction to hearing about his mother's death was almost comically nonchalant.  And even though he never knew that Freya cancelled the wedding to Dash because she loved him, Killian was way too dismissive of his feelings for her in a way that seemed just as self-deceptive as it was possibly prideful.  Thank goodness for that flash of unhappiness in Killian's face when Freya said her breakup with Dash had nothing to do with Killian (definitely pride on her part).  Finally, a little glimmering hint of "Frillian" to carry us through.  By the end of the episode, Killian headed back to East End to startle Dash by a) not being a delusion and b) hugging him (at least his mother's death made some kind of a dent in Killian's emotional haze).  It should be extremely interesting to see what will happen now that the brothers are reunited, with powers, and Killian is back home where Eva's hold on him might not be as firm (one hopes).

Speaking of Dash, he did some ace detective and revenge work tracking down his blackmailer (some random guy!  Huh, I was totally surprised that it wasn't a previously established character) and giving his enemy's car the old Thor special.  However, once Dash was confronted by the gun-wielding blackmailer back home, and Ingrid was seemingly threatened, his lightening bolt powers took a turn for the deadly.  I really liked the unexpected semi-bond that seemed to develop between Ingrid and Dash as she explained to him why he has powers and that he needs to learn to control them.  If anyone understands having a bit of a dark side and needing to control an incredible burden of power, it is Ingrid.  Plus, the conversation where Dash wasn't sure what "powers" Ingrid was referring to, and she said it was, you know, the electricity coming out of his hands, was pricelessly hilarious.  Also, if this turns into a relationship, I think it might be one of the hardest ones to put a shipper name to.  Um, Dingrid?  Inash?  

By the time Freya came home miserable and despairing over Killian, she finally thought hard enough about her sister's previous words regarding Dash to suggest that maybe Ingrid should help him.  Since Ingrid wasn't exactly forthcoming about everything that had already happened in this regard, this may perhaps turn into a secret.  Speaking of secrets, what's up with that door that Freya and Ingrid found in the Beauchamp house?  Joanna sure wasn't telling.  That woman has an impressive number of hidden tricks up her sleeve.

At the end of the episode, Joanna was starting to worry about what might have happened to Victor, who was supposed to be returning to the family in East End but hadn't been in touch. Well, that's probably because he's all tied up right now...very uncomfortably, courtesy of an unseen assailant!  This left us on quite a neat little cliffhanger to wonder about until next week.  

What did you think of this episode?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana

Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries, Hart of Dixie, Nashville, Beauty and the Beast, Witches of East End, Covert Affairs, and Continuum for Spoiler TV. She enjoys obsessing over films and pop music - in addition to tv shows, of course! You can find her blog, SugarRushed, at http://virginiamaeblog.blogspot.com/ and her Twitter handle is @SugarRushedBlog

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