PEN15 Season 2 recap: Episode 3, ‘Vendy Wiccany’

In PEN15 season 2, episode 3, Anna and Maya think they’ve discovered secret powers within, allowing them to control rocky aspects of their lives.

The opening of PEN15 season 2, episode 3 centers on Anna and Maya watching a new episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? (an excellent choice) while Anna’s parents get into a heated argument in the background. The girls do their best to ignore it, but as the fighting becomes increasingly intense, Maya takes Anna with her as they flee from the house and take refuge in the nearby forest.

In the woods, Maya tries to make Anna believe they’ve entered into a magical place where the extraordinary can happen. She’s trying to give her best friend an escape and an outlet, and I’m sure it’s to her benefit, too.

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Maya’s tale of the little green men running around the woods and discovering a piece of paper reading Wendy Rochelle Viccany (they think it’s pronounced “Wiccany”) leads the two girls to believe she is the mother witch guiding them towards Wiccan practices. They start to make wishes to enhance their lives and fix some of their recent teenage woes.

That night, Maya’s dad returns home early after his tour finishes ahead of schedule. Thinking her newfound powers are working, she quickly calls Anna and asks her to make a wish. Anna wants her parents to get back together, but it doesn’t happen, and she’s not so sure she believes in this whole witchcraft thing. Maya assures her it will happen; her powers just aren’t strong enough yet!

PEN15 season 2, episode 3 recap: Anna & Maya kick it up a notch.

At school, Anna and Maya try to kick things up a notch by focusing on two specific wishes. Anna wants to make it, so she never loved Alex while  Maya is interested in using a love spell on Brandt. If she and Brandt are together, no one will make fun of them anymore, she thinks.

To make the spells happen, they need some weird materials like their nails, locks of hair, and certain herbs — leading them to the school greenhouse. There, other students encounter the girls doing their makeshift witchcraft and confront them, leading  Anna and  Maya to lash out and channel The Craft as they snap, hiss, and yelling gibberish.

Both of them have embraced the gothic witch vibe at this point, including all-black attire and thick rings of eyeliner. Their intensity and weird behavior force the school to take action, and their families aren’t thrilled.

Plus, their spells don’t even work! Anna realizes she still has feelings for Alex because it stings when she sees him with another girl and when Maya approaches Brandt, he snaps on her, calls her ugly, and begs her to stay away from him (and stop putting hair in his locker).

PEN15 season 2, episode 3 recap: The despair at home.

At home, Anna’s parents ask her what she was thinking about her hijinks at school. Anna admits she wants her parents to get back together, and she’s confused because her mother previously slept with her dad. She heard them the night before. Does she still love him?  It’s hard for Anna to understand what her parents are doing, and her mom realizes they’re making things worse by continuing to live together despite getting divorced.

Unfortunately, instead of being compassionate to Anna’s confusion, her mom scolds her for “spying.” It’s not a 13-year-old’s fault her parents can’t stop screaming in every room of the house. Maya is having an equally difficult time at home. During dinner, she  asks her  mom  who she would choose between herself and her brother if she had  to  make a  “Sophie’s choice.”

Her brother is convinced he’d be the chosen one since he’s older, and then he lays into  Maya later, calling her a weirdo and wishing she would go away. Both Anna and Maya run away from home to their meeting place in the woods. Anna wants to do a  spell to make them disappear and starts to pretend its happening.

Distressed by the idea of her best friend leaving her, Maya begs Anna to stop and the two collapse into one another, crying. It’s a more solemn moment from the show, but an important one highlighting the importance of friendship, especially at that age and it fits the sophomore season’s darker and more mature vibe.

All seven episodes of PEN15 season 2A are now available to stream on Hulu.