Witches of East End 1.05 “Electric Avenue” Recap

It’s been four days since Adam’s death and Ingrid is still cooping herself up in her room out of grief. Wendy comes up and offers to go with her to Adam’s funeral that day, but Ingrid says that she doesn’t want to play the grieving widow and would rather the ceremony be for his family and colleagues. Insisting that she just wants to be alone right now, Ingrid closes the door and reveals that Adam is in her room, unbeknownst to anyone else in her family. While Freya receives a wedding dress from Penelope, which was found on the east wing of the house, and reassures Dash that she’s not going anywhere, Harrison interrupts Joanna sketching for their court date, set to begin in 10 minutes. She points out the irony in being on trial for a murder she didn’t kill days after killing a man and he says that the Joanna that he saw in Richard’s house was her best self; in his mind, she stood up for herself and owned her power.

While leaving Ingrid a brief “thinking of you” message, Freya arrives at the Bent Elbow to pick up her paycheck, though her boss isn’t there. Who is there is a mysterious blonde woman who identifies herself as Elyse, Dash’s ex-fiancée who makes a crack about how his “tastes has changed” after learning Freya is engaged to him now. At the court hearing, Maura Thatcher is being cross-examined by Harrison and can’t remember any details about the night of her husband’s murder nor anything that she recounted in her statement, citing the fact that it was dark and there was a lot of screaming. However, when she goes to pour herself a glass of water, maggots pour out of the pitcher, causing her to scream and drop the glass. Elsewhere, Adam is surprised that he’s not hungry, can’t find his phone, and experiences an electric shock every time he kisses Ingrid; she eventually tells him that the reason no one is expecting him at work is that he died four days ago from an aneurysm at the hospital. Ingrid goes on to say that he’s not exactly resurrected – he’s a conscious apparition and he’s processing his new reality. When she reveals herself to be a witch, though, he tells her to get away from him and leaves.

Freya tries on the dress that Penelope gave her, only for Wendy to rip it off her and throw it. Once belonging to Ingrid, this dress has bad karma, being the garment that she was wearing during one of her deaths. Afterward, Wendy notes how crazy Freya’s karma is right now and Freya cops to being worried that the only reason Dash and Elyse aren’t together right now is Killian and that seeing her again could reignite feelings. She gets reassured that Dash is madly in love with her (and only her), while the judge in Joanna’s trial has disallowed Maura as a witness and since there’s no other evidence against Joanna, dismisses the case altogether. However, Joanna thinks that something is off, though she can’t seem to place what it is. Ingrid finds Adam watching his funeral and informs him that he’s a conjured spirit, a ball of pure energy, which is why the shock happens every time they touch. No one else can see him and the two kiss once more. Freya arrives at the bar to see Elyse watching Killian. She goes over to Killian and brings up seeing Elyse that morning, only for Killian to look at her funny and say that Elyse is dead.

During a celebratory toast, Joanna asks Wendy if she did a spell on Maura and the latter gets frustrated before walking out. Meanwhile, Freya comes home and asks Wendy if ghosts are real, which they are. Vampire, though? Not so much. Ghosts may be rare, but she just dealt with a real live one, as Freya mentions that Elyse killed herself with an overdose of pills five years ago, the night that Dash broke up with her. He was the one who found her, one of his many secrets, and yet, no one can make Elyse want to cross over to the other side. But she couldn’t have come to this side without someone having opened the door for her, since no one directly sent for her; Wendy then goes up to Ingrid’s room and finds her in bed with Adam. Once he leaves the room, Wendy tells her that Elyse piggybacked her way out of the spirit world and that even though it wasn’t in the spell book, this is the type of thing that Joanna and her wanted to teach her about. If Adam doesn’t leave by sunrise after that night’s full moon, he’ll be stuck here forever. While Ingrid thinks that doesn’t sound so bad, Wendy points out that she’s going to grow and evolve and he’ll be stuck there without any of his loved ones being able to see him or the opportunity to do anything with himself. Ingrid, though, seems determined to keep him around and sends the two out of the room.

After having some time in bed with Harrison, Joanna gets up and dresses herself because she wants to be there for Ingrid through her rough time, quickly leaving following her encounter with the lawyer. She walks to the park that night and finds Maura Thatcher acting as if bugs were crawling all over her. Once she sees Joanna, though, she begins screaming due to seeing the bugs on her face. Elsewhere, Elyse makes it to the hospital and messes with Dash’s computer multiple times before Freya interrupts her apology to him. She tells her fiancée that she knows about Elyse; he responds by informing her that he hates talking about what happened and wants to put both that night and his relationship with Elyse to rest, citing the fact that he never really loved her. The most pain he got from her sleeping with Killian was the rift it created with his brother, since he was planning on leaving Elyse anyway. Even his worst day with Freya, he argues, is better than his best with Elyse because he loves Freya. After hearing all this, Elyse tells Freya that Dash wasn’t the one she came here for and leaves.

While out in the garden, Wendy gets a call from Freya asking about whether ghosts can physically hurt someone (they can, though it’d have to be through electric shock) and a visit from Joanna, who tells her that Maura has been taken into a psych ward for her behavior at the park. Her meltdown is Wendy’s fault and Joanna thinks that her sister ruined this woman’s life; however, all Wendy hears is Joanna being self-righteous and storms off after feeling like everything she does anymore is wrong. Freya makes it to the Bent Elbow and helps Killian finish out the rest of his shift under the guise of not wanting him to be overwhelmed on his first night of doing a solo shift. Meanwhile, Ingrid confesses to Adam that his death is her fault and he fills in the blank about how his time to cross back over winding down. He forgives Ingrid, even though he still doesn’t know where he belongs. He wants to stay and be with her, but he doesn’t want to be stuck somewhere as a burden to her.

Killian tells Freya that she needs to go home and as he goes to take the trash out, she gets shocked on a pitcher, signifying that Elyse is near. The lights start flickering and the jukebox turns on before every light bulb in the bar shatters. Freya tries to convince Elyse to cross back over, only to see Killian touch one of the light switches and get electrocuted, his body shooting back and collapsing on the floor. He gets revived by Dash once he gets to the hospital, just as Joanna and Wendy patch things up – the former agrees that she’s being awful self-righteous for someone who killed a man four days ago and the latter admits to feeling bad about what happened with Maura. The two do decide to do something to make both Thatcher and Wendy feel better, all the while Freya comforts Killian once he wakes up and finds Elyse in the hospital hallway. She tells her that she doesn’t want to wander the world holding on to the anger from Killian sleeping with her and not calling. Although Elyse says that she can’t leave him again, Freya offers to help her cross over.

Joanna goes to comfort Ingrid and assures her that she’s not mad about what happened with Adam. However, she doesn’t have any great motherly advice for a time like this; she does, though, tell her daughter that she has seen her love before and knows that, even though romance has been hard during this lifetime, she’s sure that she’ll love again. Ingrid takes Adam out to the cemetery he was buried in and creates a pentagram made of flowers, with candles at each point of the star. She tells him that this is his only trip back and he responds by saying that the two of them are always going to be connected. The two press their palms together and the spell commences, just as Freya does the same thing with Elyse in another flower pentagram at the cemetery. While Elyse tells Freya to take care of both Dash and Killian, Adam gives Ingrid one last kiss and both he and Elyse do cross over.

Wendy and Joanna visit Maura Thatcher, working in her garden on a bright and sunny day. Everything is perfect for her and Bill.

Except that none of it is real – Maura is still in the psych ward. Wendy and Joanna put good memories in her mind in order to keep her happy/content.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-I think that Witches of East End just made the leap from “promising” and “potential” to great. I hesitate to be more definitive about this, seeing as how we’re only five episodes in, but last week was a nice step forward and this episode made a lot of good choices and was far and away the best executed of the first chunk of episodes. Plus, the plotting this week was a little more twisty without being over-the-top with plot instability.
-Adam and Ingrid should have been a major groaner, since the show didn’t let an important death stick and wriggled out of having Ingrid face a lot of guilt and heartache over her role in his death. However, it reminded me of this episode of Ugly Betty, in a good way, and was a decidedly human way of looking at grief and dying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y21dFEr6NYg
-So, we’re assuming that Penelope deliberately gave Freya the dress knowing that it was Ingrid’s? Because I don’t know if I buy someone that rich and that image conscious being okay with her future daughter-in-law wearing a dress that was found during spring cleaning without there being some ulterior motive.
-I do like the idea of the show bringing in ghosts, just as long as it doesn’t turn into a weekly parade of supernatural creatures.
-I get that nobody but the witches could see Adam. What were people seeing when Ingrid and Adam kissed? Because they weren’t exactly well-hidden at the funeral.
-Joanna got laid by hunky Harrison. Maybe this will help her chill out a little.
-Couldn’t Elyse have communicated with Dash by manipulating the computer into typing out what she wanted to say? Or is that too Ghostwriter?
-Devastating final scene this episode. I kind of knew that that would be the twist, but still, I might have gasped when they panned back to show that Maura was still in the psych ward. A little surprised that they got rid of the trial/murder aspect of the show so quickly, though.
-Ingrid’s tombstone is in the same cemetery where Adam (and presumably Elyse) are buried. Just a cool final shot or foreshadowing? Could this be the Ingrid that fell from the stair case while wearing the dress that would be Freya’s?
-Next week on Witches of East End: Freya makes a startling discovery and Ingrid flashes back to one of her past lives.