The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 3 recap “No Magic at the Dinner Table”

In The Santa Clauses season 2 episode 3, Magnus Atas struggles to regain his magic, while Sandra trains with La Befana, causing an unintentional rift with her mother. Although Cal tries and fails to overcome his fear of heights, a greater fear may be right around the corner.

The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 3 recap – Jealousy

Ever since Sandra learned she could be a witch she’s been training with La Befana. Feeling left out, Mrs. Claus worries that she’ll lose her bond with her daughter.

Her worries seem to overlap with her duties with the E.L.F.S, which leads to a solution: invite La Befana over for dinner. Naturally the night of the dinner, Santa is nowhere to be seen.

As Sandra, La Befana and even Cal show off what they can do, Mrs. Claus becomes upset as she has no magical abilities at all. Her sudden outburst at dinner causes both children to leave the table, allowing Mrs. Claus to connect with La Befana.

La Befana reassures Mrs. Claus that she will never replace her. She is only the teacher and a day will come when she is no longer needed.

However, a mother will always be needed. Although Sandra is showing great progress with her magic, La Befana refuses to teach her the transformation spell, which is considered to be a very advanced spell.

The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 3 recap – Heartbreak

In the meantime, Santa is focusing all his efforts on training Cal, who still cannot overcome his fear of heights. Not even in the very bad simulation.

Cal becomes frustrated, worried that he won’t be able to take the helm and thus upset and disappoint his father. He vents his frustrations to Sandra, who points out that as much as Cal seems happy to be the next Santa, he’s really doing this for everyone else.

Cal can’t help but stress on not only his current failures but his relationship with Riley, whom he wants to write a love letter or poem to for her birthday. After the dinner debacle, Cal retreats to where letters to Santa arrive, where Santa receives a confusingly threatening letter that was sent from Mad Santa.

After Cal and his father have a wonderful heart to heart over some root beer floats, Cal brags to Sandra about their conversation. Cal believes Sandra to be jealous of his role, but she isn’t.

The two have a petty argument over whether the word ‘hare’ or ‘heir’ is correct, when the Easter Bunny arrives free from his brief captivity with Mad Santa (we’ll cover that momentarily). He needs to talk to Santa Claus about Mad Santa, when Sandra’s powers cause her to turn the Easter Bunny into a little live bunny.

She has successfully performed the transformation spell without using the spell book. Worried, La Befana believes they need to slow down, which angers Sandra.

The two have a brief argument before La Befana leaves with the Easter Bunny, in the hopes to change him back. This couldn’t happen at a worse time with Easter right around the corner.

After Cal and Sandra reconcile, she suggests that they borrow Santa’s sleigh so he can visit Riley for her birthday. Sandra flies while Cal uses his gift to see where they are and where they need to go.

Cal does surprise Riley, but her birthday was two days ago. He had completely forgotten due to his training.

Riley opens up about how their relationship is terrible as she never gets to see him and breaks up with him.

The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 3 recap – Mad Santa is back!

Magnus Atas can’t seem to regain his powers, thus halting his plans of revenge. After a brief moment with a hot cocoa stand attendee, he realizes he’ll need North Pole magic to bring his magic back.

Considering Easter is fast approaching, Olga kidnaps the Easter Bunny. The dastardly duo orders the Easter Bunny to take them to the North Pole.

Even though the Easter Bunny was once Magnus Atas’ friend, he refuses to betray the current Santa. As punishment, they force feed him yellow Peeps, which let’s be honest…it’s a marshmallow covered in sugar, they are delicious.

Why all this hate for Peeps?! What Magnus Atas and Olga didn’t expect was that upon eating the dozens and dozens of Peeps made the Easter Bunny poop a weaponized egg, that releases a gas so he can escape.

His escape leads to his arrival at the North Pole, where he is transformed into a real bunny. But luck may still be on Mad Santa’s side when he and Olga smell reindeer and follow the scent.

This is where Cal and Sandra land at Riley’s house. Feeling devastated over the breakup, Cal blames his father and angrily removes the Santa in Training vest.

The vest flies off the sleigh when they leave, landing right where Magnus Atas and Olga are waiting. Upon wearing the vest, Mad Santa is now able to use his magic once more.

The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 3 review

It looks like the Claus family is going to fall apart at the seams. While it was heartwarming to see Sandra and her mother reconnect, I’m dreading Cal and Santa’s first reunion after the breakup.

What both Cal and Santa are missing, aside from proper communication, is the fact that both of their priorities work well together. For instance, Cal is still afraid of heights but was able to ride in the sleigh without fainting to visit Riley because she means the world to him.

That is a huge accomplishment for him that is completely overlooked because of the breakup. If Cal wasn’t learning how to be Santa, he’d never find a means to visit Riley in the first place.

As all of this is taking place around Easter, its fairly obvious that Magnus Atas will be attacking around Christmas, as this is when all dramatic moments happen in The Santa Clause franchise. This also means the Claus family and the North Pole itself will be completely unprepared.

All around, this is a worst-case scenario. One thing that I had to mention in this review that I really love, is the way Santa is written.

He is 100% a believable Santa, husband and father. He makes sure that both his kids feel seen and loved and actually knows how to connect with them.

He has his funny ‘husband and wife’-style banter with his wife but their marriage remains just as strong as when they first got married. His devotion to being Santa is impeccable.

How he manages to juggle all of this so well is admirable, especially when things don’t work out as expected or flat out fall apart. Even then he’ll make sure everything gets fixed, refusing to let even one aspect remain broken.

What did you think of The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 3? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 4 will air on Disney Plus on November 22.