This review may contain spoilers

Older Lucy Gibbons (Lauren Stamile), who saw Cassie (Britt Robertson) in the memory of the ferry last episode, is a psychic. She has second sight, but no active powers. Cassie traipsing through Jake's (Chris Zylka) memories of the event have also affected Lucy's memories and sent her to Cassie.

At great risk to herself, she comes to warn Cassie of an impending witch hunter attack. Conveniently, she is there to provide the spell that will make the medallion safe to use. Note: This is all a lie.

Lucy saw Cassie find the medallion in her vision and tipped off the witch hunters, who sent her to neutralize the circle and recover the medallion. She tricks the kids into binding all their powers to the medallion, rendering them helpless to witch hunter attack.

As an added bonus, she kills the interfering and unloved Dawn (Natasha Henstridge). Lucy was supposed to just take the medallion at that point, but unexpectedly Cassie remembers the incantations to allow medallion use. \Lucy is sent back to the witch hunters, a failure. Eben (Sammi Rotibi) kills her and resolves to visit Cassie personally.

Is Adam's (Thomas Dekker) anti-dark magic agenda more to do with contrasting his attitude with Jake or something more rational? In any case, there are a variety of lectures from Adam about circle magic being enough to protect them, no need for dark magic.

Then there's Jake, sounding not unlike Emperor Palpatine, advocating rage guided power use. Also, Adam breaks into Cassie's house and her secret magic compartment to take the Balcoin medallion to protect Cassie, and everybody else, from her bad decisions.

Ethan throws Adam a birthday party with Diana's assistance. The request puts a crimp in her distancing plans, but she cannot gracefully decline. Adam twice thanks his father in a heart felt way for the party. At the party, Charles drugs Ethan and steals back the crystal.

Alone in the Briar Hill basement, Cassie seems to be exhibiting power over wind. An expression of dark satisfaction is replaced by one of surprise or wonder, it's hard to tell, as she says "Daddy?"; although, the camera POV seems to indicate that he's not physically there.

Points Of Interest

1. Cassie's grandmother, Jane, still has not returned (or been declared dead).

2. Melissa confirms the idea that John's grave contained dog bones.

3. While trying to use the medallion, Cassie walks under the symbol carved into the roof of the basement at which point she can no longer move and the earth begins to shake. It stops when Jake tackles her out of position. Did he notice the conjunction or was it lucky happenstance that he did the right thing to break the effect?

4. Lucy was John's psychic; Dawn thinks Lucy was supposed to be watching out for and protecting him. Where do I get my psychic?

5. Dawn's high handed attempt to get Lucy to find family crystals for her is what lead to her unfortunately temporary death.

6. Devil's spirit seems to heighten things for Melissa ever so slightly (she feels "shiny," Firefly reference?) and apparently does nothing for Faye. By the end of the night, Melissa has called Callum for a third bag of the white powder. Seems like a pusher should start charging at this point, no?

7. Callum tells Jake that Faye has a voodoo boyfriend.

8. Called upon to give a toast to the birthday boy, unprepared, Diana fumbles her way through a speech during which she ends up calling Adam her moral compass and guiding light.

9. Dawn had marked Lucy way back when. Upon Lucy's return to Chance Harbor, the scar begins to bleed indicating proximity. Dawn's palm is covered in similar scars. She must have marked many people.

10. Lucy is the one to start this series of events by telling the witch hunters of Cassie's new knowledge, including that she had discovered the medallion. Was Lucy working for them all along? Was that why she was free to walk out of the ferry? Why else inform the witch hunters unless she was simply fearful of black magic practitioners running around unchecked. If she was a faithful minion all this time, why kill her now?

11. After the party, Adam is cleaning up and finds a cupboard filled with cookies, as Diana filled his locker with cookies for last year's birthday. He is touched.

12. Lucy has sensed John's continued existence all along and shared that with the witch hunters, although none know where he is.

13. Eben's face is fire scarred.

What Worked

Lucy's trembling mouse act was completely effective. Played with no winks or nudges, her transformation into a gleeful cold blooded killer and puppet-master was well acted and a joy to behold.

While the tug of war over Cassie's affections has been highly irritating, good values and sensible judgement criteria (murderers are bad) win out. Hopefully that's all over now.

Adam and Diana's not entirely successful romance to friendship conversion is much more textured and nuanced. Some excellent performances with genuine emotional resonance were exhibited by many this episode.

What Didn't Work

The medallion activation spell was nicely poetic, but most of the circle/dark/black magic/powers dialog with pseudorandom rules and restrictions is just so clunky.

The kids have further bound their powers from circle restrictions to medallion, now. Even more so than before, Cassie is the only one with power. Faye is not wrong to be bitter about the whole circle business.

Charles threatens Dawn's life, then later in the episode wastes limited power resurrecting her. Why bother when someone else has so conveniently killed her for you already?

Faye, who has talked tough about humiliating Jake or showing the world what a jerk he is, goes running at his slightest indication of interest and, without a word, allows herself to be the receptacle for his casual lust. Faye, grow a spine.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"The Secret Circle" stars Britt Robertson, Thomas Dekker, Chris Zylka, Shelley Hennig, Adam Harrington, Natasha Henstridge, Gale Harold, Phoebe Tonkin, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Lauren Stamile, Michael Graziadei, Sammi Rotibi. "Medallion" was written by Andrew Miller and Andrea Newman, and it was directed by Liz Friedlander.

"The Secret Circle" airs Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.