'Charmed' Season 2: Mel's attempts at potion-making could be the learning curve the show needed
When the 'Charmed' reboot's first season completed earlier this year, one of the biggest complaints fans had was that the three sisters, Mel, Maggie, and Macy got used to their witchy powers too quickly and got advanced at them even quicker. Another complaint that was prominent was that the show ran through the plotlines just as quickly. This year, with new showrunners Craig Shapiro and Liz Kruger, the reboot had a hard reset of sorts in the first episode.
When the Book of Shadows is destroyed by a mysterious demon assassin (who looks like Harry), the sisters are sent through an emergency portal to the Elders' headquarters. They also find that they have been relocated to Seattle, along with their mantle, and their powers stripped so that they cannot be tracked by those who wish them harm. Of the three sisters, only Macy has some powers thanks to her demon side.
Maggie and Mel are now back to where they started -- with no powers at all -- and Mel is not happy about it at all. In the second episode of the new season, when Harry says he will go with Macy to rescue the witch in Oregon because she's the only one with powers, Mel is upset. She does not think she is part of the "B-team" and wants to rectify the situation immediately. She begins thinking of ways to bring back the Book of Shadows and find other ways to do magic.
So Mel tries her hand at potion-making, and succeeds at making a "cloaking serum", or in simpler words, a potion for invisibility. Potion-making formed a vital part of the original 'Charmed' on The WB, with Piper's skills as a chef making her the best at brewing potions among the sisters. In the show, potions were could be consumed or thrown at the target and were of different kinds like vanquishing, power binding, blinding, sleeping, teleportation, and so forth.
Mel's potion-making experiments are one way for the reboot to rectify one of its mistakes from the first season: have the three sisters learn at a reasonable speed on how to make potions and control them. The reboot needs to show the sisters being unsuccessful and failing before they become the great witches they are touted to be. This could also be a way for the Charmed Ones to build allies as we have already seen one who owns a Wiccan shop in the shared workspace the Elders' headquarters is in.
With a whole season to go and no clear way to get their powers back, Maggie, Macy, and Mel could be learning a whole new form of witchcraft -- one that would please fans as well.
'Charmed' airs on The CW on Friday nights.