There were a lot of twists and turns in "Curse" and it left the future a blank slate. John? A liar. Lee? Dead. Eva? Powers gone. Adam and Cassie? Their love vanished. Let's analyze how it went down.

What did I miss with Jane? I knew she was away, but not in a nuthouse. I was very confused. It was helpful that she was out of her mind, because her thinking Cassie was Amelia made her spill her guts about the curse with very little motivation. It was as if that's all she was thinking about and the entire reason she was in her predicament in the first place. 

Of course, at that point I didn't know John was magically moving Jane. John the liar, that is, with the magic he said he didn't have.

Was it any surprise that the curse would kill the only other male in the circle?

I noted in the Secret Circle Round Table this week that there was an overabundance of teen girls and older guys in Chance Harbor, and this might be a clue as to why! Maybe the sexes skipped a generation. Most of the current circle lost their moms and the current circle was made up of girls... I had no idea what the formula was, but it's definitely not balanced to give everyone a fighting chance at love. Once again, I didn't know as I was watching that John chose Jake specifically to feel the "curse."

The curse? Fake. There was never a curse. John made it up to keep Adam and Cassie apart. But everyone still thought there was a curse. That said, I had to give to thumbs up to Adam. When Cassie was hell bent on using her magic to help him during a fight with Jake, he screamed not to dark magic and to focus on him. Maybe he could help her through her issues with her magic and they could overcome things together. That was a pretty strong moment; when a hallucinating bigger, stronger witch was on top of him, Adam was thinking of Cassie. Impressive.

The question then became whether their love would live through the spell that John forced upon them in an effort to keep them apart. But John was a little rusty, and he screwed up. The potion he made erased Adam's love for Cassie, but she's still deeply in love with Adam. Way to go, dad! What was funny was that until this episode, I never bought that Adam and Cassie were in love. I was not on board. It seemed there were generational forces in action that made it unreal.

In the end, that is exactly what John did. The Secret Circle quotes had some heart crunchers this week, too.

I just didn't expect Cassie to end up alone. Whereas I earlier thought that maybe their love would work together to control her dark magic, I'm even more concerned about Cassie's dark magic being alone. John didn't think it through. He told Dawn his magic was weak. He better keep his act up as loving father or he may find himself fighting Cassie, who was in great pain and possessed with strong magic. Actually, I'd like to see that happen.

Additionally, I would like to withdraw my invitation for Faye to find John interesting upon her 18th birthday. She could do much better than him. I knew Faye wouldn't just let Eva get away with ripping Lee out of her hands, but the look on Faye's face when she saw the state he was in pained me.

She was hurt that he was dead and genuinely freaked that Eva was using her own magic against her, demanding she bring Lee back to life. I don't think Faye could have imagined her own powers were that strong if she hadn't seen them in action through Eva. So while we didn't lose Jake, it was confirmed that Lee was a permanent Raisinette and gone for good.

The playing board for the end of the season is wide open. I have no idea what to expect. I hope the circle grows closer, that someone in the circle figures what John is up to and that the kids get some payback for being strung along all their lives. Their parents didn't much enjoy being puppets of when they were younger, but they don't seem to have a problem dropping that same crap onto their own children.

It would be kind of awesome to see season two be the younger versus the older generations in a quest for freedom to live as they please. What do you think?

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.