Disney’s Coven Academy mixes supernatural danger with teenage rage in the best possible ways. It's a perfect mix of the discovery of witches and warlocks in Harry Potter and the family lore in Vampire Diaries. With New Orleans' mysterious, haunted backdrop, danger lurks around every corner and hides in the shadows. After more witches are attacked, Coven Academy, known in New Orleans as Crescent Veil, is on high alert.
The series debut wasted no time throwing the characters into danger and anxiety. Because where there is magic and supernatural beings, chaos will be. Briar quickly learns that Teagan, Sasha, and Miss Graves aren’t lying about people hunting her now that her powers are active. Despite her disbelief, Briar dives headfirst into her magical roots.
At the end of episode 1, Briar says yes to a date with Ollie. He poses as a newcomer to New Orleans, but he’s really a newly turned vampire. Their date unravels the war brewing in New Orleans that could hurt not only the witches but the vampires and werewolves, too. In episodes 2 through 5, Briar learns how to handle herself, meets new fixtures of the city, and discovers her mom’s magical lore.
Briar’s powers unravel
Miss Graves’ class is sectioned into witches of threes. While everyone is excelling, Sasha tries to get Briar to pay attention. Teagan reminds them that they've got this even without Briar's participation. Instead, the globe crashes to the ground as Miss Graves walks over to get Briar's attention. As expected, Briar is determined to rebel against Miss Graves’ warning to hone her powers and lets her anger show her growing powers at the end of class.
Sasha’s distrust continued to rear its ugly head as she accused Briar of daydreaming about boys and getting a tone with Miss Graves. Briar immediately sets her straight that she was looking up articles about her very much unalive mother. Sasha's response doesn't come as McKenna (head witch) interrupts with insult upon insult.
This only heightens Briar's powers, shattering everything in the hallway as she stands up to McKenna. Due to her standing up for them, Sasha thanks Briar as they run out of the hallway and towards the scream for help.
Jake side-eyes McKenna as he runs after Briar. After she finds out everyone is okay, except for a few potions, Jake grabs her attention. My mouth fell open when he revealed that McKenna is his stepsister as he's apologizing for her actions and words against Briar and her friends.
Despite not wanting to hear his backstory, she does ask him if the warlocks have ever solved a murder, and he says there's a first time for everything. What a way to end the first conversation with each other.
Although Briar wants to help with cleaning up, Teagan tells her to go since she has a date. Briar, for once, is concerned with the dark outside, but Teagan wants her to have fun just like her mom probably would want. She arms her with a small crystal that will glow if she is in danger and sends her on her way.
Jake’s second conversation with Briar doesn't go any better when he catches her sneaking out. She's dressed to the nines, and he's curious. He wonders if it has to do with the murder question and if it's linked to the girls missing. She immediately tells him that the murder was her mom, which happened in Brooklyn, and she doesn't need any help with what she's sneaking out for.
Stunned into silence, he watches her run out the way he suggested. But to himself, he realizes Briar does know about him (I think he means Ollie). Then, as she's sneaking out, Miss Graves is looking on from the porch but not stopping her.
Miss Graves confronts Teagan and Sasha about Briar's whereabouts. They can't get away with lying since she said her exit the gate. Risking suspension, Sasha uses her powers to have a different conversation with Miss Graves. Instead of scowling, she's thanking them for cleaning up the vault and agrees to go back to her office, then leaves them to go take a long nap.
Sasha warns Teagan that she can't erase memories, so it only buys her some time for covering for Briar. What Sasha can't figure out is why Briar didn't get expelled for having anyone with Miss Graves in class, whereas anyone else would have. Sasha worries that Miss Graves and Briar are hiding things from them about Briar, who seems to have a darkness surrounding her that doesn't just stem from her mom being gone.
Ghost Tour date gone wrong
Briar dashes across the street right into the ghost tour. As the tour guide (Keegan Connor) is asking her if she's going alone, Ollie surprises her. He eases the jump scare with a rose.
Ollie sticks with the story that he's crashing with family while he does school online. As of right now, she doesn't know what he truly is. He's just a cute boy with a swoon-worthy accent. A layer falls away when he tries to be cheeky but ends up finding out Briar's mom isn't alive. His tone shifts to sadness when they realize they both have lost things, and he didn't realize they'd have that in common.
The moment suddenly changes as she's alone in a room with Ollie and the door slams shut. The group has disappeared, and her crystal is glowing. Despite being tasked with hunting her, he tells her to jump out the window and run. She only believes him when he gets deadly serious, and someone bangs on the door.
She escapes and runs into the ghost tour guide. The woman is anything but pleasant now. It's revealed that she shouldn't have sent a boy to do a woman's job. Her fangs come out as Briar is too stunned to speak. Miss Graves comes out of nowhere, casts a spell, and sends the tour guide vampire lady crawling into the bushes.
Powerless witches
Miss Graves' punishment is to clean the vault, with a twist. She casts a spell from the original grimoire and takes away all three of their powers for the week. Then leaves to have a date with the devil (mysterious!).
As the girls are cleaning the vault, Teagan tries to apologize to Sasha, but she's not hearing it. Just as she's saying Briar may not be as good for them as Teagan hopes, Briar wants up with something on the tip of her tongue about what she's holding. Sasha interrupts and boldly tells her that if they're ever going to become a sisterhood or even friends, she needs to be able to trust Briar. In other words, Sasha wants the truth and she wants it now.
1998 Crescent Veil yearbook leaves Briar shaking and upset. But that's not the biggest question: why are Briar's mom, Miss Graves, and the tour guide vampire lady in the yearbook in a photo together?
As Briar is wishing she had five more minutes with her mom to find out why she's at the academy, the archivist, Agnes, walks in and tells her she can. Although the headmistress took their powers away, she didn't take Agnes, who can perform the séance, so Briar can talk to her mom. It turns out Briar's mom was Agnes' favorite student, which also ages Agnes now that her favorite student's daughter is the same age and attending the academy.
To perform a séance, they must offer up a sacrifice. Tegan thinks it's a small animal sacrifice, but Agnes corrects her and says that the person mourning the loved one they are trying to summon needs to submit something to summon them.
After Agnes tells her that she needs to offer up something she's never said before. Sasha says this is her moment to prove she's not mysterious. Briar's first attempt is a failure due to it already being known to those around her so they push her to try again.
Briar reveals the last moment she had with her mom before she died, and it's soul-crushing. Her fight with her mom about dating a guy that didn't seem good for her and going out when she shouldn't have is relatable. But because she disagreed with her mom, she wished she would disappear and then slammed the door in her face, missed curfew, and sent her mom's urgent calls to voicemail.
She blames herself for her mom being out that night and running into trouble because, had she listened to her, neither one of them would have been outside the house. She finally admits that the only way to forgive herself is to find who did it, but sadly she doesn't believe she can do it on her own.
Now she has a sisterhood coven and a teacher who's willing to help her summon her mom. But unfortunately, the summoning doesn't work until the term witches join hands, and Agnes realizes that'll do it. Briar’s mom speaks to her.
Miss Graves confronts Tamora
In her office, Miss Graves takes a dark liquid potion and turns into a swarm of bees to leave the school grounds. She lands back in witch-human form in front of Alexander, whom she snaps at for not realizing she knows she needs an invitation to enter a vampire's home. She comes face to face with the tour guide lady, Tamora, who is now the best of both worlds.
This explains why they went to the academy together as teens. Tamora was a witch who let a vampire bite her and turn her. Miss Graves (Emma to Tamora) begs Tamora to leave her and Briar out of whatever is happening. Tamora reveals this situation is about Briar.
Tamora wants to build the most powerful sisterhood coven with Emma by turning Briar to make her even more powerful. Everyone out there is still after Briar's mother. But this only causes Emma to question Tamora about whether she killed Mary (Briar's mom), who she resented for leaving the coven.
Before Emma holds a knife to Tamora’s throat, she wonders if Tamora plans to take out her sister, but she throws it back and wonders if Emma killed her. Tamora takes the knife from Emma and vampires out a bit. After she calms down, she hands the knife back to Emma and says sisters don't kill sisters, and this will be the last time she asks for Briar nicely.
Ollie heard most of the conversation between Tamora and Emma. As it ends, he rushes out of the house, passes Alexander, and hops on the motorcycle. Ollie comes face-to-face with Tamora in an alleyway on his way to warn Briar. She's furious with him for not only falling for Briar but also wanting to warn her that something is hunting her. His suffering is long from others as she reminds him she's the hybrid witch-vampire that turned him and granted him day-walking powers.
To stop him from getting any further, she takes his day-walking abilities from him, and the sun burns his face before he can hide in the shadows. His motorcycle and helmet remain in the daylight as Tamora storms away.
Somehow he makes it back inside and sits at the bar with Alexander. He reminds Ollie that Tamora would do a lot worse to him if he wasn't her nephew. She was the one who gave all of them daylight walking abilities. Ollie shrugs Alexander’s reminders off and says he'll just go to the hospital. Since he's a vampire, his only option is blood, but at least it's not human blood. Although the alligator blood will heal his wounds, it'll never satisfy his hunger like human blood will.
Later on, Tamora interrupts Alexander and another buddy feeding in the shadows. She wants him to bring her Briar so she can turn her into a hybrid for the battle that is yet to come. With a ward protecting the school, vampires and hybrids aren't welcome in. But Tamora is hell-bent on turning Briar to save the vampires, werewolves, and potentially the world from the danger coming their way that can only be stopped by the most powerful coven. If they don't stop it, they risk extinction.
Briar goes to Jake for help
Briar’s talk is cut short with her mom, but she does reveal that her murderer is closer than she knows. Briar immediately brings the 1998 Crescent Veil yearbook to Miss Graves and points out Tamora. What Briar learns breaks her heart. Because the story is long, Miss Graves doesn't explain it all. She simply tells Briar that her mom left the coven when she got pregnant and moved to New York, but her murder isn't as simple as accusing the third sister in their coven.
Miss Graves has students to teach and keep safe (which includes a powerful spell in the dead of night), so she tells Briar and her friends to go to their rooms, study, and stay safe.
Sasha and Teagan help Briar uncover what Tamora really is. Somewhere along the way, Tamora was bitten and turned into a witch-vampire hybrid, becoming more powerful than she ever was. She can do unspeakable things to someone, but that's not stopping Briar from going after her. Realizing that Ollie knew the woman, she sends him a text to ask for his help (but she doesn't know the true nature of his connection to her).
Jake comes into the vault as the girls’ finish their conversation. He overheard that they wanted their powers back. Briar isn't buying it and neither does Sasha. Yet, Jake pushes forward that he can get all three of their powers back. As they are deciding what to do, Sasha reveals both her parents (witch and warlock) went to the academy, while Teagan's mom (witch mom and a normy dad) went to the San Diego campus.
Briar realizes a lot more is at stake if she wants to break the rules. They agree on the hope that Jake doesn't make everything worse, even though he can't make any promises. When Briar calls out Jake for potentially spying on her and her friends, he confirms he's on his own mission. He was in the vault to probably find something to save the missing witches.
Jake and Briar break into Miss Graves' offices to find the grimoire that she used to take away the girls’ powers. Jake reveals that if his late dad wasn't a terrible person, he'd want answers just as badly as Briar wants them for her late mom. Then, Tegan checks on them as she keeps lookout outside the office. It takes a few seconds, but Jake's spell sends the grimoire into his hand. Getting their powers back may not be the only thing Jake plans to do.
Powers reunited
Jake's promise holds up as the room shakes as he casts the spell. The girls’ powers rush back into them like a powerful wind. Jake closes the grimoire back in its hiding place while Briar tries out her powers. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell since she doesn't know how to control her powers which frustrates Jake.
Ollie finally replies, asking Briar to meet him at 3589 Basin Street. When Jake teases her about her blonde British boyfriend, who she says isn't her boyfriend, her powers tip over a knickknack, and Jake holds up his promise.
That move may cost them when the night patrol walks into the office. Teagan bends time to stop McKenna from finding Jake and Briar in Miss Graves' office. Teagan and Sasha play it off like they've been looking for McKenna all night. They successfully distract her as we learn McKenna was the original third member of their trio. Jake and Briar sneak out of the office.
Once Teagan and Sasha are away from McKenna, Sasha reminds Teagan that although she would do anything if her mom was in danger, they need to keep Briar from going after a hybrid. Just as they promise to protect her, they find her room empty.
Jake's guilt continued from episode 1
Mr. Cole and Jake go head-to-head in class about whether Jake could handle his powers in the real world. Although he made me ready for more advanced spells, his grades were otherwise poor, along with his inability to stay awake in class.
As they are fighting about his abilities, Mr. Cole reveals that the vampires aren't a rumor, which is why adults are handling the fight instead of high school warlocks. Jake and his buddies want to help, but Mr. Cole is right that they have no idea what's waiting for them outside the academy.
Jake scatters the missing witches' posters around him in his dorm room. Despite Mr. Cole's scolding, he's determined to cast his locator spell. As the papers swirl around him, I have faith in him that he can accomplish this advanced spell to fix his mistake.
Much later, we get our first glimpse of the missing witches since they were attacked. They're huddled in a room as Tamora opens the door. They beg her not to hurt them, but she simply says, “If only that was possible,” before hybriding out.
Miss Graves’ unsettling worries
Miss Graves has students to teach and keep safe, which includes a powerful spell in the dead of night. Hidden by a cloak, she sets off a spell across the ground, but she's not done yet. Mr. Cole sets out onto the school's porch as Miss Graves is finishing up another protection spell.
Mr. Cole tells her he worries he's not doing enough. As if their powers aren't enough to fight what's out there and save their girls. She reminds him that he can find them and he's doing enough by looking for them. Still, the danger coming could end them all and that's why they have to protect not only their campus but the academy campus around the world.
Miss Graves runs into Agnes staring longingly out the window. Agnes reveals she's saying more of a prayer than a spell. She's deeply unsettled by the hybrid running around the city.
When Agnes guesses it's Tamora, Miss Graves assures her the girls aren't being held at her house. Agnes knows Miss Graves isn't thinking straight when it comes to Tamora. Although she wants to know what to do if it is Tamora, Agnes leaves her with two things: “Don't ask questions you already know the answer to, and you can't negotiate with a hybrid.”
Meeting up with Ollie
As Jake and Briar try to sneak out, he can't get the gate open. Briar squishes it open with a flick of her powers. So either she was still ticked off a bit at his British boyfriend comment, or Briar is leaning into controlling her powers. Either way, they're out into the night, and she's heading towards Ollie. She lets Ollie know she's on her way as Jake tells her to be safe out there as he heads out on his own mission.
After parting ways with Briar, Jake heads to a dark alleyway with his wooden stake in his bag. He steps into the vampire hangout and goes directly to Alexander, who wonders why he's back so soon. Jake doesn't waste any time getting down to business when he knows Alexander knows everything that happens around here, and he may know about the missing witches.
Jake offers him enough money to leave NOLA and start a new life, and Alexander reveals he can tell him where they are, but Jake won't like who answers the door.
As Alexander writes down the details, Jake spots Ollie on the old-timey wall phone. This doesn't make sense since Briar was going to see him. From his phone call, we learn that both his parents are alive along with his brother, Ethan. Plus, he sounds worried about things when he says he just wanted to hear his mom's voice. Although Jake doesn't hear this conversation, he's on high alert about what could be going on.
Sadly, Briar will soon find out Tamora has Ollie's phone and has lured her to a meeting. In a turn of events, Tamora opens her front door to an unexpected guest. A little later, Briar knocks on the door and finds it open. She calls out for Ollie but instead finds Tamora draped on the couch with strangulation marks on her neck. Jake walks in as someone else stomps from somewhere in the house.
Coven Academy season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.
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