Oh, you, tricky Witches — in a turn even ballsier than a Game of Thrones episode, Witches of East End just killed two major characters (spoilers ahead). In "Smells Like King Spirit," both Ingrid and Freya died (!!!), as they were shown hung to death at the hands of Tarkoff. But I cannot in good faith believe that the sisters are truly dead. The episode had a huge death toll with Mason Tarkoff (by way of killer scorpion) and Tommy (by way of becoming the vessel for the king) also possibly dying. The promo for the episode had warned that "no one is safe" and that someone would die, but that emphasized "one" as in "one death." It did not say there would be two huge deaths, three more minor deaths, and one death that I was kind of hoping would come (I'm looking at you, Spike). But luckily for us, Witches of East End is not based in reality, so there is no way that the beautiful Beauchamp sisters are gone for good.
First off, Ingrid and Freya actually never permanently die — they are cursed to die at a young age, and then Joanna gets pregnant with them again. But when they are reborn, they have no memory of their past selves. However, besides doing a 25-year time jump, there would be no way the show could handle it in that way. I mean, they also can't get rid of Jenna Dewan-Tatum on the show — although it's not like her character, Freya, hasn't already experienced a few gruesome deaths in the past.
Plus, fans are too invested in this incarnation of the women's lives and the progress that they've made so far with their loves (Ingrid with Dash, Freya with Killian). And speaking of said progress, "Smells Like King Spirit" tied up so many loose ends that were stressing me out, including a not-pregnant Eva and her grandmother/daughter dying! (Please excuse the exclamation point in regards to their deaths, but I was just excited for that storyline to end.) Eva came clean with Killian before dying, Dash discovered Ingrid's past, and Frederick finally chose to do the right thing by his mom.
After all the truth-telling and unraveling of drama, the show apparently decided that things were too neat and clean, and hit us in the face with the deaths of Freya and Ingrid. But I'm seriously not too concerned about these witches staying dead. The promo for the next episode, "The Fall of the House of Beauchamp," shows that some people that appeared to die look very much alive.
Looks like Tarkoff is going to be back (he does make a good villain) and Tommy has returned, but as the king of Asgard — King Nikolaus. Then there's some intense flashing to an older man — is that actor Steven Berkoff? He portrayed King Nikolaus in a flashback in the episode "The Old Man and the Key." If it is Berkoff (which I'm pretty sure it is), then the king, who also happens to be Joanna and Wendy's father, will have successfully returned to his own body.
But what about the girls? Wendy offers her last life to save them in the promo clip, but I don't think she'll be going anywhere. Joanna claims it's "too late," but she's a super powerful witch and now the king (and the girls' grandfather) is around. Could their powers combined bring them back? If the bald man is in fact the king, this promo photo from episode "The Fall of the House of Beauchamp," looks like that may be what's going to happen.
Why on Asgard would the king help his daughter and granddaughters after hundreds of years of war? That remains to be seen. But we know the girls survive. Now I just hope Killian and Dash don't go off the deep-end when they discover their loved ones "died" and do something drastic. They should both be there for the women when they wake up.
Of course, I shouldn't ever expect an episode of The Witches of East End to not be drama-filled (especially with the dead body of Dash's blackmailer surfacing and the promo featuring a person being strangled in a tub of blood — eee), so I'm probably hoping for too much from the sparring warlock brothers. At least the witches get to live — whether or not it's happily ever after is another story.
Images: James Dittiger/Lifetime (2); whiskeywithrayna (3), thewitchesofeastend (3)/Tumblr
