CONTENT WARNING: This article contains discussion of sexual assault.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers for season one of the new Charmed television series.
I recently wrote an article encouraging people to return to the TV series Charmed as a silly, stress-free social distancing activity. Charmed is wildly campy and difficult to take seriously – a theoretically perfect series for this terrible time. Right after I tweeted out my article, I unfortunately saw that Alyssa Milano was trending. A longtime Joe Biden supporter, Milano had been silent about the sexual assault accusations against him, and chose that day to double down on her support. (On Monday, Milano did finally speak out, reiterating to Andy Cohen that she’s known Biden for 15 years and that “we have to find this balance in the ‘believe women movement’ and also giving men their due process.”)
When the CW announced its Charmed reboot back in 2018, they branded the new series as “fierce, funny, and feminist.” That last “f” word stirred up immediate controversy as both steadfast fans and the original Charmed actresses themselves took offense to the idea that their show was not feminist. I will, briefly, summarize my own opinion on this: it’s not! The original show is far, far too white and too racist to be at least intersectionally feminist, but that’s a topic I touched on in my piece outlining the drinking game.
Controversy aside, the Charmed reboot held to its intention to be genuinely progressive by addressing a myriad of issues, including sexual violence. While the reboot returned to the topic repeatedly throughout the first season, it’s Milano’s decision to continue supporting an alleged harasser that immediately made me think of the reboot’s episode 15, “Switches & Stones,” which addresses the Medusa myth, focusing on how she is framed solely as a villain, but never as a survivor. The following analysis of that episode contains spoilers for season one, so if you haven’t seen it yet, head’s up!
The decisions the Charmed Ones make in “Switches & Stones” require a bit of context. In the season’s very first episode, Mel is organizing people to protest the reinstatement of Professor Thaine, a faculty member from the sciences who had been accused of sexual assault. Angela Wu, the student who had come forward about Thaine’s behavior, had been mysteriously attacked and fallen into a coma before she could testify. In true Charmed fashion, Thaine turned out to be not just a rapist but also a demon, and the sisters vanquish him in their first act as Charmed Ones.
Charmed never strives to be subtle. Thaine’s crimes are clear, and his transformation into a horrible ice demon solidifies his status as villain. The story also takes care to return to Angela. While still in a coma, an evil force called the Harbinger inhabits her body. The Council of Elder Witches – a group of women who are older than the Charmed Ones and quickly come to represent an often-misguided “old guard” with overly simplified concepts of good and evil – claim that the only answer is to kill Angela. Instead, the sisters find a way to remove the Harbinger from Angela’s body so that she can finally restart her life.
Again, the message here is quite obvious – with creative thinking and a concern for bodily autonomy at the forefront of their decisions, the Charmed Ones are able to help a survivor heal and move on. In some ways, Angela’s story is simple. She was in a coma or possessed during pretty much her entire story line, and while her body was used to commit evil acts, Angela herself caused no harm. Furthermore, the sisters don’t quite find a solution themselves. While looking for a creative solution, they discover a spell their mother left for them in the Book of Shadows. The spell lets Maggie reach out to Angela herself, and give her the power to expel the Harbinger from her body. It would have been simple to end the conversation here, but Charmed does not. In “Switches & Stones,” the show instead digs deeper into the ways society mishandles sexual assault.
This episode leans into a Charmed classic – body swapping! Mel and Maggie get into a fight because Mel is running around with Jada, a very hot member of the Sarcana (witches who don’t agree with the Council of Elders and prefer to do things their own way). Mel magically transports out of the country with Jada and goes AWOL for a day, which understandably upsets Maggie. When Mel lashes out and criticizes Maggie for rushing a sorority, the younger sister fights back, and calls her out on her selfish perspective. The next day they wake up in each other’s bodies, and are forced to literally walk in each other’s shoes. In the goofiest, Charmed-iest of ways, the show introduces the topic of the episode: empathy!
Meanwhile, Macy, who recently learned she has demon blood, starts having terrifying dreams in which she turns people to stone. Initially she worries that she’s sleep-attacking people, but she quickly figures out that the culprit is Medusa, the monster of legend. Macy digs into Medusa’s story and learns that she was originally one of three sorceress sisters. Poseidon raped her, but Medusa was the one punished for the act, and thus became a gorgon.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge the profundity of a mainstream television show placing this reading of Medusa’s myth at the forefront of the story. While I was in undergrad, I briefly flirted with the idea of a Classics major, and took a class all about classical mythology. I still have my big, beefy copy of Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sources that, at least according to the editors, provide what they hope to be the “most useful” and affordable introduction of classical myth to undergraduates. For fun, I searched every Medusa reference in the text for a mention of her rape, and I didn’t find it. There were, as is typical, several descriptions of her beheading at the hands of Perseus, and one mention of her father being Poseidon. I learned about the Ovid text that describes Poseidon’s crime only when I found a Vice article digging into the complexity of Medusa’s story.
That Macy both has access to Medusa’s full story and thus feels great empathy for her is rare. However, actress Madeleine Mantock imbues Macy with a ferocious empathy that is easy for the viewer to understand. In a poignant moment, Macy relays pieces of Medusa’s myth to Maggie and Mel, describing her as having “two sisters, and unruly hair” – a description that fits Macy herself. Unsurprisingly, the Elders once again believe that the only solution to the problem is to kill Medusa, just as Perseus did in the myth. However, in a parallel piece of the plot, the elders are investigating Macy’s new abilities, which are derived from her demon blood. They believe that these abilities may eventually corrupt her, with the worst-case scenario landing Macy in the same position as Medusa – destined to die.
While they contemplate their next steps, the sisters return to Angela Wu’s experiences. Angela survived because they refused to punish her for the Harbinger’s crimes. Medusa, however, has already suffered that exact fate, and as a survivor of violence she has found herself caught in its cycle. During a fraternity-run toga party, Mel-in-Maggie’s body discovers that a member of the fraternity has been slut-shaming a freshman girl named Daphne, and spreading pictures of her without her consent. In a moment of incredible despair, Daphne accidentally summoned Medusa, who is now wreaking vengeance on the students who share the photos by turning them into stone. The Council of 2nd Wave Feminists – err, excuse me, Elder Witches – are completely uninterested in attempting to free Medusa from this cycle of violence. Only Macy sees Medusa as a whole, flawed, and powerful person, who is also deserving of empathy.
Of course, it’s Macy who saves Daphne, and Medusa, and everyone – by looking into Medusa’s eyes, acknowledging the crimes committed against her, and vowing to do everything in her power to get justice against the fraternity.
When I decided to check out the Charmed reboot, I never expected there to be such powerful, complex commentary about sexual assault, rape culture and the complicated nature of justice. While all the quirky elements of the season hearken back to the original series, this focus on assault and rape culture is entirely new. Looking back, it’s also the reboot’s greatest triumph. The show strives to leave no woman behind, whether it’s Macy, Angela Wu, or even the demon Medusa. Each character gets to be complex, and to respond to trauma in different ways. They also strive to understand and support each other, even when forces like the University or the Council try to pit them against each other.
In the context of the show, Alyssa Milano now seems to fit in better with the Council of Elders than the Charmed Ones. While that’s unfortunate, we can derive an important lesson from this wildly timed incident, and from Charmed: leave no woman behind. Take sexual assault allegations seriously, and don’t let the media sweep them under the rug. If Charmed can be better, so can everyone else.
