‘Good Witch’ Series Finale Review & Recap: Goodbyes Are Bittersweet

Crown Media

The series finale of “Good Witch” has just aired on The Hallmark Channel. And while it had its ups and its down, the finale was overall a beautiful way to conclude the series.

This article has spoilers for the series finale of “Good Witch.” 

Of course, the most captivating characters are Cassie (Catherine Bell) and Sam (James Denton), as they conclude seven seasons together. But each actor brings their own beautiful conclusion to their storyline.

This is a recap and a review of the finale.


The Use of Magic Is Much Stronger This Season

As the episode begins, Cassie is recovering in the hospital after passing out at the end of last week’s episode, and Joy and Abigail are getting checked out too. Sam assures them there’s nothing wrong with them medically, but they should go home and make that amulet anyway. Cassie whips up a tea to help point Joy’s dream in the right direction so she can figure out the exact ingredients used to make the original amulets.

The tea works, and Joy dreams the exact recipe for the amulet.

It really feels like “Good Witch” is delving much deeper into magic than in any of the other recent seasons. Last week, they referred to themselves as witches for the very first time. And off and on throughout the season, we’ve seen stronger displays of magical power than we’ve seen in the series in a long time. The finale wasn’t any exception.

Meanwhile, Stephanie’s flight was canceled so she gets one more day with Adam before she leaves for six months. It’s nice to see Stephanie and Adam getting along again and not fighting their feelings for each other anymore. (I wonder if that really bad date that Stephanie had with her French teacher perhaps pushed her in Adam’s direction. Ever since the carnival episode when he made a brief appearance, we haven’t seen him on the show.)


We Get to See Joy’s Dad Again

While everyone’s gathering ingredients for the amulet, Joy meets up for lunch with Zoey and her long-lost dad. I’m really glad the show is bringing her dad back for the series finale. After his memory was wiped and he learned he had a daughter unexpectedly after 20-something years, it felt weird to have the story dropped so suddenly. I had expected him to basically move to Middleton temporarily to catch up on everything that he and Joy had missed. They both handled all that missing time a little too casually, so it was nice to see him back again for the finale.

In the next scene, Donovan is having second thoughts about eloping with Abigail. He’s worried that things might change if Abigail loses her powers, and she assures him nothing will change. (But didn’t Abigail tell Joy last week that she still hasn’t told Donovan that she’s a witch? I kind of figured it was a joke, and now this seems to confirm that, especially considering all the work they did on breaking the curse!) Well, Donovan’s relieved to hear her assurances because he actually booked a minister to marry them in Tuscany in just a couple of days. :)  (I just want to point out that, considering how the episode ended, there weren’t any strong hints hear foreshadowing problems between these two.)


A Lot Happened in Just One Day When It Comes to That Amulet

Although this episode was absolutely delightful, there were moments when I wondered about the timeframe of the episode and just how much was accomplished before it turned midnight for the red haloed moon. Much of the confusion with the timing is centered around creating the amulet itself.

As the Merriwick women are working on the formula for the amulet, their first attempt is unsuccessful because they have the wrong kind of wood. But George helps them figure out that the Orb of Intent’s pedestal is likely just what they’re looking for. When they get ready to use it, they find a message hidden inside that reads: “Shake the family tree.”

Their first attempt at making the amulet fails, when they try making it with molten gold.

Joy takes a break from this very important (and possibly life-altering) quest to have coffee with Charlotte. (This seems like an odd time to meet up with an ex-girlfriend, but I’ll give them grace since this is the finale.) Charlotte wants Joy back, and she apologizes for neglecting her while they were together five years ago. Since I’m pretty sure there’s no way Hallmark would break up #Joey in the series finale, I feel pretty confident that Joy’s going to turn her down. (And as it turns out, I was right!)

There’s a quick resolution with Cassie’s foster brother deciding he wants to buy a home near Cassie and foster a child himself. I’m pretty sure this would have played out more in-depth if the show had been renewed. Instead, we just get a hopeful note to end his storyline on.

In the next scene, we see that they try making the amulet with silver, but the amulet breaks again. Cassie uses a form of magical hypnosis to take Joy back to her dream. Joy realizes that they were missing dirt from the satchels in their amulet recipe. This time, it works and the amulet doesn’t break after they fashion it.

Zoey, meanwhile, is trying to figure out how to woo Joy back to her side after Charlotte declared her intention to get her back. So Sam agrees to give Zoey some quick salsa dance lessons so she can take Joy out dancing.

In the next scene, Stephanie and Adam are getting ready to say goodbye again as her plane ride approaches. He’s going to pick her up at 2 a.m. to take her to the airport.


The Last Amulet Scene Was Spell-Binding

The last amulet scene in the series was “spell-binding.” (See what I did there?) Back at Grey House where they’re making the amulet, it’s just 10 minutes until midnight. Sam and George are there to help, as Cassie puts on the amulet. The timing of this scene feels a little off to me. We just saw Sam teaching Zoey how to salsa dance, but now he’s at Grey House at 10 minutes to midnight. And a few scenes earlier, Cassie, Joy, and Abigail were in the exact same room making the amulet. I’m going to guess that quite a few hours have passed since they first made the amulet (giving it time to cool). But it was still a little jarring to hear George talk about how late it was in Middleton, based on the previous scenes.

But either way, it’s almost midnight and the Merriwick women don’t have much time left to figure out if this amulet is going to help them or not. We finally get to the scene from the trailer, where they’re walking outside under the light of the red haloed moon.

Cassie hears Grace call out to her and sees a silhouette, but it’s all an illusion. She barely misses a tree falling that would have hit her if she had moved toward Grace’s call. But instead, they find pieces of Fortune’s amulet buried where the tree had fallen. So they take the amulet and put it in the original setting, and now it works.

In a scene that reminded me a bit of old-school “Charmed,” the three Merriwick women hold hands and the amulet glows around Cassie’s neck. And just like that, the moon goes away. Cassie immediately has a premonition of Abigail’s elopement, and they realize they all have their powers back again.


The Last Few Scenes Were a Bit Jarring, But Also Sweet

With the red haloed moon issue behind them, we have about 20 minutes left to wrap everything up. And surprise! It’s Stephanie getting married, not Abigail. That one threw me for a loop, as I’m sure it did many viewers. I kind of wish they explained what happened before the wedding, so I wasn’t so distracted. But it did provide for momentary confusion that ropes the viewers back into the episode.

They explain after the wedding that Stephanie missed her flight again when their car broke down. They realized they didn’t want to be separated again without being married. So that’s sweet! And Adam decided to be with Stephanie for six months while she’s in Paris, so they’re not apart.

The scene after their wedding is also endearing. We get to see how all the couples are happy together now. Samantha and George, Martha and Tom, and Sam and Cassie.

Zoey shows up for the wedding, and it looks like she and Joy are going to be OK too.

But Donovan’s troubled. He’s impressed that Adam’s spending six months with Stephanie, and it’s made Donovan realize that they’re never going to put their marriage ahead of their career dreams. And he’s right. Neither wants to compromise for the other’s dream.

After the wedding, Sam gets on one knee and asks Cassie for permission to take her around the world. He admits that she was right; he’s been a workaholic and he doesn’t want to look back on their life together with any regrets. They really are the sweetest couple.

The next day, Abigail announces that she’s moving to Tuscany now that she’s not honeymooning there. I feel like this move is a little odd. She didn’t want to move to a nearby town, leaving her flower business, in order to support Donovan if he ran for governor. This was even after we learned that her real dream was running an ad agency again rather than her flower business. And Donovan was all in for supporting Abigail’s new ad agency. But now she’s willing to leave her flower business to go to Tuscany, but she wouldn’t move her flower business to the next town for Donovan. Is the bottom line that Abigail just wasn’t really in love with Donovan in the first place? I’m thinking that she was in love with the idea of breaking the curse, but not really in love with Donovan. It’s an interesting realization to have as the series ends.

Stephanie, meanwhile, is thrilled with the idea that Adam will one day be preaching to a full church, and she and their kids will be watching him every Sunday. And Tom’s surgery went great, so his and Martha’s story is set with a hopeful ending.

In the last scene, Cassie and Sam are getting ready to leave on a well-deserved months-long vacation that includes visiting Grace. And as it should, the series ends with Cassie and Sam driving away into the proverbial sunset together, a future of love and happiness waiting ahead of them.

Overall, this was a beautiful series finale. While the ending with Abigail and Donovan was a bit surprising (although in some ways, we could see it coming), I can appreciate that they didn’t want to end every couple’s storyline in the same way. It looks like things are going to happy and peaceful in Middleton from now on, just as they should be.

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