Witches of East End - Boogie Knights - Review

There was no shortage of crazy, witchy drama in Sunday's ultra-juicy new episode of Witches of East End.  From disco dancing and enchanted cocaine (what the what?), to a glimpse into Joanna's romantic past and new confirmation of the age-old Dash/Freya/Killian triangle-of-doom, soapy shenanigans ran deliciously rampant.  Meanwhile, Dash's impetuous spell-work led to more problems and Ingrid's issues with the Mandragora came to a head even as Joanna strived to stop the frightening Asgardian monster from wreaking more havoc.  

While bidding a sad goodbye to Victor in a quiet ceremony, Joanna noticed a familiar-looking scale and realized that a Mandragora was loose in the area.  She turned to her apparent frenemy from the past, Alex, to go after the beast.  Of course, courtesy of Freya's coincidental trip down memory lane to when Joanna and Alex were in a relationship and Alex's non-too-subtle kiss and remark about passion that came nearer the end of the episode, we found out that Alex is actually Joanna's ex.  And while the old flame may still be present between the two witches, there wasn't much time to discuss that once the women realized that Ingrid is the Mandragora's source of sexy food.  Wendy didn't have too much going on in this episode, but she did fabulously quip about the appeal of feeding through having sex - ha!  Anyway, now that Ingrid has been identified as the Mandragora's romping buddy (via a parasitic bond wherein to kill one is to kill the other), Joanna will be determined to figure out a new way to take down their foe without hurting poor Ingrid.

Understandably melancholy, between her father's death and Killian's new marriage, Freya decided to escape into memories of the past by brewing up a potion version of Ingrid's flashback-dream-invoking spell from last season.  While the traipse into cheesy-tastic Boogie Nights/Saturday Night Fever-land that we were treated to was nothing short of delightfully entertaining, Freya seems a little too addicted to the potion.  It allows her to evade the pain of the present, which as Ingrid indicated is not the best strategy for coping.  Also, Freya and Killian's star-crossed romance and fantastic disco moves were sensational, but 70's Dash was too hammily ridiculous for me to take him seriously as a villain.  At any rate, as Alex warned way back then, Freya and Killian's love never seems to work out in any timeline.  Can the present day lifetime finally be the exception to this cursed outcome stalking Frillian over the years?  Here's hoping.  Dash seems quite intrigued by Ingrid of late and isn't exactly gunning for Freya or Killian, so that might help to open up new possibilities for not repeating the same pattern of past lives.

Although Killian kept harping on Freya's past dishonesty about her witchy identity and Killian's own warlock powers, I'm a little over that whole attitude on this part.  Freya's desire to broach the matter in the right way at the right time was understandable, and exactly how much is Eva lying to Killian right now (like putting a sketchy potion in Killian's drink!)?  I don't think Mr. Honesty is going to be too thrilled once his new bride's true agenda is known.  Speaking of Mrs. Moment-Destroyer, did Eva really have to come into the Bent Elbow and drape herself all over Killian just as Freya was about to confess her love?  Le. Sigh.

Dash doesn't seem to have learned his lesson about casting spells on the fly, but at least I can sympathize with his choice to do whatever he could to save the child he was treating at the hospital. But as we learned early in Season 1, bringing someone back from the dead always comes with a price.  And the young boy's death transferred right over to Dash, whose hands started to turn black with the impending follow-through of this exchange.  Eek! While Ingrid advised that it was the kid's time to die and not Dash's, the sometimes-good (sometimes not!) doctor couldn't bring himself to undo what he had done.  This was definitely interesting, as we have often seen the darker side of Dash (even in his mustachioed, disco fever past self in this very episode).  Yet, through his gentler connection with Ingrid and decisions like putting a child's life before his own, we're also starting to see the potential for a redeemable side to Dash's personality.

Unfortunately, Dash's moral elasticity reared its head again as he opted to transfer the death to another hospital patient who was shot while perpetrating a robbery...and he lied to Ingrid about it afterwards.  One step forward, ten steps back, Dash. During their chat, Ingrid sustained a sudden arm injury from Joanna and Alex's attack on the Mandragora.  Soon after, Ingrid went into her trance right before the tentacled creature himself showed up and attacked Dash.  Uh-oh, those tentacles are deadly!  I know Dash had a little karma coming at him for his earlier actions in the episode, but I don't want to see him go because he's too fascinating.  Joanna and Alex are on the scene, but we'll have to wait to see what happens in this whole mess, as Ingrid was snatched away by the mandragora rather inconveniently for our heroes' purposes.

So earlier in the episode, Frederick's brand started to have some sort of reaction, causing him to have a seizure, which a concerned Wendy witnessed.  But Frederick did not want to make a big deal out of the incident.  This might have something to do with his grandfather sending the Mandragora, possibly after Frederick himself?  Or perhaps there is another explanation.  Can't wait to see how all of this plays out in next week's episode, which also has the bragging rights of being the best episode title of the series yet, "When a Mandragora Loves a Woman"!

What did you think of this episode?  Any theories on some of WOEE's ongoing mysteries?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana

Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries, 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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