The Secret Circle

A series on the CW based on a book trilogy by L.J. Smith, who also created The Vampire Diaries.

Cassie Blake thought she was just a normal girl, until her mother is murdered by a witch who makes it look like a gas explosion. She moves in with her grandmother, and soon comes to the attention of five of her new classmates. They're all children of witches, and explain to Cassie that her mother was a witch too. And with Cassie in town, they now have a full "circle" of six members, meaning their powers have increased dramatically. Cassie must decide for herself whether to accept what it appears destiny has in store for her. Meanwhile, her mother's killer is also a resident, and the father of one of the Circle...


Tropes used in The Secret Circle include:
  • Actor Allusion: Grey Damon plays a character who gets killed by a girl with supernatural powers.
  • Adaptation Dye Job: Cassie is a brunette in the books, while Diana is a blonde.
  • Amusement Park of Doom: Described by Faye as the "creepiest place on earth, with Evil Clown statues and murals, dark and dirty rooms, and not improved by the addition of real corpses.
  • Anyone Can Die: As you'd expect from the team behind The Vampire Diaries. Significantly speaking, it starts with Nick and continues on through Jane, much to the Circle's grief.
  • Back from the Dead/Came Back Wrong/Face Heel Turn: Nick, though Melissa finishes him off to save Jake.
  • Badass Grandma: Jane.
  • Bad Powers, Good People: Cassie at first, though Diana fits this more now.
  • Because Destiny Says So: A major theme of the series, with just about everything happening because of it. As well, Adam's father claims that he and Cassie's mother were destined to be together, and things went wrong because that didn't happen.
  • Batman Gambit: Apparently the binding of the new circle's powers is exactly what Dawn Chamberlain and Charles Meade wanted in the first place.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: So far, there's at least both Charles and Dawn -- who often seem on the verge of stabbing each other in the back -- and the witch hunters (especially Eben), neither of whom really seem to know about each other. There's also the threat of demons, along with anything else that may come up.
  • Break the Cutie: In the past few episodes, Diana found out the man who raised her wasn't her father, her mother cheated on him, and, worst of all, he murdered Cassie's mother. Cassie has suffered just as much, though, what with being manipulated into making Adam forget his love for her and then losing her grandmother, her only blood family aside from her half-sister and their father.
  • But Now I Must Go: Jake does this after saving Cassie, though he soon returns.
    • Diana does the same in "Family", since she's lost her father and can't handle having dark magic.
  • The Chessmaster: Blackwell to the extreme. Not only does he seem to have a plan for everything, "Prom" reveals that he planned the entire existence of the Circle by casting a fertility spell.
  • Dawson Casting: Played straight, naturally. The youngest cast member of the main cast, Britt Robertson, is 21 and the oldest, Jessica Parker Kennedy is 27.
  • Demonic Possession: Heather had been possessed by the demon Abaddon, which is why Cassie's mother put a binding spell on her. Heather eventually dies after being run over by a car and the demon then proceeds to possess Melissa at the end of episode 4, before eventually being killed while possessing Nick.
  • Demoted to Extra: Nick was Cassie's love interest in the books. In the series he is quickly killed off and replaced by his older brother Jake (who wasn't in the books).
    • Jane was also prominent in the first nine episodes. Since then, she's only appeared a couple of times before getting killed off like Nick.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Cassie certainly is this.

Jake: A storm is coming. *a storm in the sky*
Cassie: You think? What gave it away, the clouds or the thunder?

    • Faye is equally snarky.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Charles is horrified when Dawn suggests that they kill his mother and the other witch hunters are genuinely afraid of Eben.
  • Evil All Along: John Blackwell, though this was fairly obvious to some people.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: A side effect of Demonic Possession, natch.
  • Fake American: Phoebe Tonkin, the actress who plays Faye, is actually from Australia.
    • Louis Hunter and Jessica Parker Kennedy are from Australia and Canada, respectively.
    • Natasha Henstridge is Canadian as well.
  • Fantastic Drug: The concoction Nick and Faye were taking in Episode 2. Magic itself could also count.
    • "Medallion" introduces us to a magical "enhancer" called Devil's Spirit.
  • Five-Man Band
  • Hair of Gold: Cassie in the TV show. Diana in the books.
  • Heel Face Turn: Jake.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Eben seems to have become this from fighting John Blackwell
  • Hot Witch: All four female members of the Circle. Also Dawn and Charles' mother, Kate.
  • Hugh Mann: Abaddon doesn't do an especially good job pretending to be Melissa, and ends up holding Nick at scissor-point to make the others obey when they catch on.
  • Hypocrite: Eben, leader of the witch hunters, employs a witch -- thought to be a former member of the old Circle, but it's actually Nick -- and kills witches with magic even when they're defenseless.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Cassie.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Faye.
  • Jerkass: Nick, at first; also Callum.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Faye, most definitely so far...at least where Melissa is concerned.
  • Killed Off for Real: See Anyone Can Die above.
  • Kill It with Fire: Luke, the witchhunter; also the demon snakes.
  • Kill It with Water: The demon Abaddon is killed when Diana's father drowns his host body, Nick, at the marina.
  • Love Triangle: Type 10. Adam is in a relationship with Diana, but has UST with Cassie. Diana breaks up with him in "Wake" because of it.
  • Morality Pet: Melissa for Faye.
    • Interestingly Diana for Cassie.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Cassie seem to think this in the latest episodes but before killing someone a Morality Pet stops her.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Cassie and Faye free Heather from her mother's binding spell, unaware that it was stopping the demon possessing her from A: hurting her and B: hurting other people.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: One moment possessed Melissa is tied up and lying on the couch, then the camera and the characters look away for a second. When they look back, she's untied and standing next to them. It's not clear if this is done by magic or demonic speed, but it's a fairly creepy moment.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Phoebe Tonkin pulls off a pretty convincing American accent, but you can detect the barest hint of her Australian accent on certain words. It's especially evident if you're familiar with her voice from her other major role.
    • Nick's Aussie comes out when Charles is drowning him to kill Abaddon.
  • Parental Abandonment: Several of the main characters have a parent that is dead or that has not been mentioned. Cassie, Jake and Nick have lost both of their parents.
  • Playing Against Type: Chris Zylka usually plays Brainless Beauty types. Not so much here.
  • Playing Gertrude: Occurs naturally with Dawson Casting. The most egregious examples are Cassie and her mother and Charles Meade and his mother, both only thirteen years apart.
    • To be fair, Cassie's mother did have her in high school so this isn't that bad.
  • Playing with Fire: Cassie uses dark magic to set Luke on fire.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Charles in the season finale, though he may still be alive -- we see him in a catatonic state at the end of the episode, with his mother doing something to his body.
    • this is likely to be the same binding spell that Cassie's mother had placed on the demon host in the show previously. So he's still alive, just catatonic.
  • Refusal of the Call: Cassie, at first.
  • Screwed by the Network: Despite decent ratings, the show was cancelled by The CW after one season. Apparently, it's not even going to get a DVD release.
  • Six-Student Clique
  • Shipper on Deck: Ethan is a hardcore Cassie and Adam shipper, believing that they're destined to be together. He even convinces Diana to break up with Adam.
  • Shirtless Scene: Nick. Lampshaded by Cassie when she wonders if he even owns a shirt.
  • Single Line of Descent: The coven are all descendants of six witch families (twelve in the books). How six families managed to intermarry for 300 years without inbreeding is a hefty bit of Fridge Logic. It's later explained that there are other witches and circles within Chance Harbor, allowing for new blood to enter the coven, and while the Circle is made of six witch families, the previous Circle contained twelve witches (a member from each of the families and their spouse).
  • The Reveal: In "Balcoin", Isaac tells us that not only is Cassie the child of John Blackwell, but someone else in the Circle is as well. This is just one of many during the series, though...
    • "Crystal" reveals the child to be Diana.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Faye.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Faye is a subversion: she has all the surface traits, but doesn't want to hurt anyone and is scared of losing control of her powers. Jake, on the other hand...
  • Troubled but Cute: Nick, Jake.
  • True Companions: The members of the Circle, but some more reluctantly than others. (Faye in particular wasn't much of a team player at first.) Of course, in their case they don't really have a choice, since their powers only work when two or more of them are together.
  • Wham! Episode: "Witness", which ups the HSQ with its revelations that the members of the old Circle were killed by witch hunters, not their unrestrained power, and the fire itself was started to kill Cassie's father, John Blackwell -- but he turned it back on the hunters and escaped, and is still alive. Oh, and Adam's dad, Ethan, was present at the old boat and has his own dark side, demonstrated when he used the crystal to nearly drown Charles.
    • "Crystal" kills off Jane and reveals that Diana is Cassie's half-sister.
    • "Traitor" reveals that Nick is alive and has killed a number of the witch hunters.
    • "Prom" kills Nick off for good and reveals that Blackwell arranged for the entire Circle to be born -- oh, and Diana discovers to her horror that Charles murdered Amelia.
    • "Family" outdoes them all, fitting for a season finale -- the Circle gets unbound by the creation of the Crystal Skull, Jake kills Eben and Charles drowns himself to get rid of the demons, Blackwell turns out to be the true Complete Monster with his plan to kill all witches without Balcoin blood and build a Circle of pure darkness, and Cassie and Diana manage to turn the tables on him after the latter's own dark magic is unleashed...oh, and Diana leaves with Grant at the end, unable to handle everything that's happened, though not before making some kind of peace with Cassie. However, it seems that the other four Balcoin witches have arrived in Chance Harbor and are already connected to Cassie and Diana... It's a shame the show's been canceled.
  • Wham! Line: Specifically, the moment in "Crystal" when Diana reveals she didn't help Adam and Melissa because she couldn't enter the mine -- she's Blackwell's other child and thus has dark magic.
  • Witch Species
  • You Killed My Parents: Jake gets his revenge on Eben in "Family" -- and it was a long time coming.
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