'The Secret Circle' Recap: Cassie Unleashes Her Dark Powers — But Is She Evil?

Crazy powers, hot grandmas, and — oh yes — Chris Zylka. What more could we ask for from the ‘Secret Circle’ midseason premiere?

2012 is going to be a dark year for Ms. Cassie Blake (Britt Robertson). Not only did she learn about her Balcoin heritage on the Jan. 5 episode of The Secret Circle, but she also summoned some serious dark magic for her most epic spell yet — and I’m not talking about the choking spell that almost killed Adam (Thomas Dekker.) That one was a no-no.

Cassie’s history lesson came courtesy of Diana’s (Shelley Hennig) super-hot grandma Kate (Stepfanie Kramer) who made a surprise trip to Chance Harbor this week. Right from the start, she was all kinds of suspicious of Dawn’s (Natasha Henstridge) motives for dating Charles (Gale Harold) — and for good reason!

(Sidenote: Let’s forget Cassie’s lineage for a minute and focus on Diana’s. Between Gale Harold as her dad and Stepfanie Kramer as her grandma… Hot damn, that’s a good-looking family tree.)

But Cassie remained Kate’s bigger fish to fry, so she lured the poor girl out into the woods with promises of exorcising the evil powers inside of her. Her real plan was to take Cassie through a whole bunch of nonsense — which for some reason involved a giant twig — then knock her out and bury her alive. (What a bitch, right?) The only way for Cassie to escape was to summon some serious dark magic and expel herself from the ground. Which she did, and it was incredible.

Faye (Phoebe Tonkin) was also up to no good as always, but this time, she dragged Melissa (Jessica Parker Kennedy) into her shenanigans. Desperate to use magic outside of the circle, she tracked down a young voodoo apprentice — played by Friday Night Lights‘ Grey Damon, who has somehow gotten even better looking — for a little power boost. But she got more than she bargained for when he started drawing symbols on her boob.

Despite all the boob-touching, Faye’s little voodoo hottie didn’t actually get her any power — but I’m thinking this isn’t the last we’ll see of him. She gave him a pretty sexy look as she walked away, and we all know that Faye’s eyes are the real stars around here.

Personally, I can’t wait to see just how dark Cassie gets by the end of the season. It’s fun watching someone as tiny and adorable as Britt Robertson go to a place you wouldn’t expect. And based on Cassie’s reaction to using her dark magic, I’m thinking we’ll be seeing a lot more of it. Very soon.

“I liked it,” she said. “The feeling of power. I know that it isn’t right … but it felt really good.”

And I can’t think of a better way to end this recap than by discussing the return of everyone’s favorite v-necker Jake (Chris Zylka)! He may have disappeared on a boat in December, but he’s still very much in Chance Harbor. He made two glorious appearances this week, first in Cassie’s dream — where she killed him (awkward) — and then lurking outside Cassie’s window, which was also kind of awkward. But still totally hot.

So what did you think of the episode? Are you looking forward to Cassie getting even darker? And just for fun, who do you think Cassie belongs with — Jake or Adam? Drop your every thought in the comments section below.