The Secret Circle Episode 5 Review: Death and All His Friends…

Well I will be damned!

There are two things for certain about tonight’s episode of The Secret Circle. #1) Some serious game changers were implemented tonight and the show will never be the same again. 2) Fans of the book series might be hella pissed about tonight’s developments. Why? Because one of the Circle members is officially and irrevocably dead. And it is not the one who you expected it to be…

After last week’s cliffhanger, Melissa was possessed by the demon they thought they had just killed within Heather. The possessed Melissa then manipulated Nick into digging up the demon’s brethren, who had been buried in the forest for God knows how long. After wigging out the other coven members, the demon finally showed its true colors after retrieving a suitcase filled with the creatures. She then attacked the rest of the coven, most notably Nick, whose weakness for Melissa became the demon’s stronghold on the kids.

Cassie then did the unthinkable by revealing everything to her grandmother Jane in order to ask her to save Melissa’s life. Jane came to the rescue and kicked the demon’s ass, but the demon left Melissa’s body and possessed someone else. After pulling a trick akin to The Thing using a power crystal of her own, Jane pinned who the new demon host was. Nick.

What happened next had the east coast Twitter watchers in a frenzy. The demonic Nick found an upset Dawn (more on that later) and revealed his true name, Abaddon, to Dawn to let her know that he means business. After Dawn lead Possessed Nick to the dry docks, Charles showed up and knocked Nick/Abaddon out, but the worst hasn’t happened yet.

See, to kill a demon in The Secret Circle universe, you have to either drown it in water or burn it. You would think that there would be some sort of loophole in that rule in order to help save the demon host. If that is the case, Charles and Dawn had no clue that such a loophole existed, because they chose to drown Nick in order to kill the demon inside of him. Gobsmacked yet?

The death of Nick isn’t only shocking because he was a main Circle/cast member, but because Nick didn’t die in The Secret Circle book series. With Melissa being possessed by the demon at the end of last week’s episode, I thought her days were numbered, especially given that she is not an original character from the books. It was a great shocker and twist that no one truly saw coming and if they said they did then they’re lying. Point blank. Kudos to Andrew Miller and Kevin Williamson for having the balls to throw the fans off the scent by offing one of the main cast members so early in the game.

The departure of Nick Armstrong/Louis Hunter is a sad one indeed, especially given how much he and Melissa/Jessica Parker Kennedy’s stories were just taking off. Kennedy owned her role tonight as both Melissa and possessed Melissa and didn’t hold back on the creepy. From Nick’s realization that things weren’t kosher with Melissa to his dying plea in Charles’s death grip, Louis Hunter gave us a performance that The Secret Circle fans will not forget for a long time. We’ve only known his character for five weeks, but it was enough to have fans across the board screaming in unison as Nick Armstrong took his last breath, forever changing the game of The Secret Circle. There were a lot of stories that could have been told with the character, which could be a whole other post on its own. But as Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec said with Lexi and Vicki on The Vampire Diaries, it just wasn’t meant to be. Good-bye, Nick. You surely left us way too soon…

Despite the huge death of Circle member Nick Armstrong and Jane now knowing about the current Circle, other developments occurred that shouldn’t be ignored.

First of all, there are six crystals akin to the ones Charles and Dawn have been using and the one Jane wielded tonight to ward off Abaddon. Demons are scared of these crystals like vampires are scared of vervain. Where could these other crystals be hidden? Could they be hidden with the other Circle members’ familial Book of Shadows?

Charles and Dawn have pints of blood on their hands and are up to the split hairs on their head in deep crap. Charles’s reaction is a bit shocking given that he’s already killed Cassie’s mother in order to set off his and Dawn’s quest for dominance. I know Nick was a kid, which amps the horror of his actions, but seriously…

Speaking of which, Charles and Dawn are trying to regain their own powers through the power of the currently bound Circle, which is all kinds of wrong when you truly think about it. They are putting their kids in danger to obtain something that was so far, in my opinion, rightfully taken from them. Now that their crystal is out of juice, what can they do now? Do they need the crystals to usurp the current Circle’s power? Can the crystal they possess be recharged?

In the subject of the demons, are there more out there? Are they already in human form or can they manifest themselves into other shapes besides humans and snakes?

This show just unleashed an epic sized can of worms and all bets are off on what people think will happen next.

So is your jaw still on the floor? Or is it outside on the street with your TV? Either way, tonight’s episode of The Secret Circle will be on the mouths of fans for days to come. A classic episode so far, and I can’t wait to see how Miller and Williamson will a) solve this big problem for the show and b) introduce the new coven member, because let’s face it – a newbie is most definitely coming.

Oh and one more thing, the parting shot of the night with Cassie looking out her window into Nick’s empty room? Priceless.

Are you guys okay out there? Still feel violated? Need a hug? Spill your tears below…

(Also if I left out anything, it was due to an outage in the area that lasted four minutes…Fill me in below!)

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