The Secret Circle (TV series)

Synopsis

Main cast

Circle members

• Cassie Blake is a newly discovered witch who, since the death of her mother, Amelia, has resided in the town of Chance Harbor, Washington. While Cassie initially dislikes the idea of being a witch, she later begins to accept her destiny and her family's heritage of magic. Her mother's side goes all the way back to the beginning of witchcraft, while her father, John Blackwell, comes from a long line of dark witches. She is Diana's older half-sister through John Blackwell.
• Adam Conant is a natural born witch and one of the two male members of the Circle. Adam is instantly attracted to Cassie Blake, despite his relationship with Diana Meade. It is Adam who helps Cassie unlock her powers and encourages her to join the Circle. The attraction that he and Cassie share causes a strain in his relationship with Diana.
• Faye Chamberlain is an eccentric and free-spirited witch who uses her powers recklessly and selfishly. Frequently brash and irresponsible, Faye often challenges authority. She is best friends with Melissa Glaser. She does not believe that Diana Meade deserves to be the leader of the Circle and resents the fact that Diana has found her family's Book of Shadows while she has not found hers.
• Diana Meade is a witch and the responsible, but strict leader of the Circle. Diana is good friends with Cassie Blake, despite the attraction between Cassie and Diana's long-term boyfriend, Adam Conant. Diana is the first member of the Circle to discover witchcraft and, as of the series' start, the only member to have found her family's Book of Shadows before Cassie found hers. She is also Cassie's younger half-sister through their father, John Blackwell. She also has dark magic and Balcoin blood.
• Melissa Glaser is the fourth female witch of the Circle. She is Faye Chamberlain's closest friend and the former girlfriend of Nick Armstrong. In contrast to her counterparts, Melissa is more quiet and keeps to herself, but she is responsible and loyal to the Circle.
• Nick Armstrong is the second male member of the Circle. Prior to the start of the show, he and Melissa Glaser developed a sexual relationship. He showed reluctance to make it anything more than just about sex. After being threatened by Faye Chamberlain, however, he began to act nicer to Melissa and their relationship deepened.
• Jake Armstrong is Nick's older brother. He used to work for a group of witch hunters, thinking that witchcraft was responsible for the death of his family, before finding out that his parents were dead because the witch hunters killed them. He has an interest in Cassie Blake but a sexual relationship with Faye Chamberlain throughout the show.

  Others

• Charles Meade is Diana's father, he is a member of the previous generation of the Circle. Following the fire at the Boat Yard, Charles' powers are stripped from him, along with the other surviving members of his Circle. In episode 1, he kills Cassie's mother with magic he got from the crystal.
• Jane Blake is the grandmother of Cassie Blake and mother of Amelia. While initially she acts as though she does not know about the Circle, Cassie eventually realizes that they need her help and tells her the truth.
• Dawn Chamberlain is Faye Chamberlain's mother, the principal of Chance Harbor High School, and a member of the previous generation of the Circle. While she and Charles act as a team, she is the more sadistic of the two. However, she also prefers to have Charles do the work, including murdering Amelia Blake.

  Recurring cast

• Sally Matthews is a sweet girl who befriends Cassie. She often butts heads with Faye, who accidentally kills her when her power was out of control. Dawn manages to revive her with a crystal, leaving her with a broken arm. Sally then becomes suspicious of Cassie, Adam, Diana, Nick, Melissa and Faye, especially after they left the hallway a mess from using their powers, but still tries to be friends with Cassie. She does not appear after "Loner".
• Luke is a boy who is friends with Adam and is attracted to Cassie when she first arrives in Chance Harbor. Through Adam, he asks her to the school dance in "Loner" but amicably leaves her after she ditches him. In "Masked" he is asked to attend a party at Cassie's house on Halloween organized by Faye, and is revealed to be a witch hunter.
• Ethan Conant is Adam's father. He is an alcoholic, and owns the Boathouse Bar and Grill where Adam works. Like Charles and Dawn, he was stripped of his powers sixteen years prior to the series' beginning. He continually complains about how he never was with Amelia Blake, despite the fact that they were "written in the stars" and misses her more than Adam's mother. He eventually tells Diana that Adam is destined to be with Cassie, resulting in their breakup. Later he recovers from his alcoholism, realizing he needs to be a better father. He has a rivalry with Charles Meade, mentioning multiple times that he has always been a bully. He also hates John Blackwell, at one point trying to kill him. He does not appear after "Lucky".
• Amelia Blake is Cassie's mother. At the beginning of the series she is killed by Charles Meade to bring Cassie back to Chance Harbor, but is mentioned many times throughout the series. She was John Blackwell's girlfriend, and let him into the Circle, but left him after realizing who he was. She stopped the demons Blackwell summoned at the boatyard fire, and was stripped of her powers along with Charles, Dawn and Ethan. In a flashback, it is revealed she also knew Blackwell was the father of Diana.
• Isaac is a high-ranking member of the witch hunters. He is the one who Jake reports to regularly, and even after leaving the witch hunters, Jake still seems to have some respect for him. He arrives in Chance Harbor in "Wake" and leaves in "Balcoin", but later returns to get Balcoin's medallion from Jake, showing that he also respects Jake as a person. His faction of the witch hunters is called the "True Believers".
• Ian is a witch hunter. He first appears in "Masked" trying to kill the Circle. He later appears in "Traitor" having returned to Chance Harbor in Isaac's place to warn the Circle about a witch who gave power to the witch hunters.
• Eben is the leader of the witch hunters who will do anything to kill them, especially John Blackwell. Sixteen years prior he used Ethan Conant's power to try to kill Blackwell, but it failed. He also killed Jake and Nick's parents personally on that day. After Blackwell returns, Eben summons demons into himself to protect him and aid him in killing witches, which causes a rift with Isaac and other witch hunters.
• Lucy Gibbons was John Blackwell's psychic sixteen years prior, who was at the boatyard the night of the "accident". After seeing Cassie in the memory, she goes to meet her to warn her about the witch hunters, but is later revealed to be working for the witch hunters, as she was sixteen years ago.
• Henry Chamberlain is Dawn's father-in-law, Faye's grandfather, and an elder. He comes to Chance Harbor after being called by Ethan Conant, to determine whether or not the next generation is practicing. Dawn kills him after he says he will alert the elders. Charles hides his body twice at his house, but it is eventually found.
• Kate Meade is Charles' mother, Diana's grandmother, and an elder. She is suspicious when Diana tells her Charles and Dawn are dating, and confronts Dawn. Dawn later puts on a facade, where she may have attempted to poison her, causing a rift with Charles. She tries to kill Cassie to destroy her dark magic but fails, and informs Charles that she knows what he has done. She returns in "Family", where she gives Charles and Dawn her power to save the children.
• Calvin Wilson is the owner of Chance Harbor's antique store. He is a witch from another Circle. He realizes Cassie has dark magic and tries to warn her, but is stopped by Jake. He later appears as a hallucination to Jake when he is sick.
• John Blackwell is Cassie's father, and a witch with dark magic. He returns to Chance Harbor after Cassie contacts him with his medallion. He is later revealed to be Diana's biological father due to an affair when Charles and his wife were separated. It is unclear what his intentions are until the final episodes, where it is revealed he fathered Cassie and Diana and caused all other female members of the Circle to get pregnant by their boyfriends, and then go to the boatyard, which he knew was a trap, to make their children orphans he could easily manipulate to form his own circle of dark magic. His plans are ultimately stopped by Cassie and Diana. He also had an affair with Dawn, but it did not work because when it started Dawn was already pregnant with Faye.
• Lee LaBeque is a practitioner of voodoo magic. Faye tracks him down in an attempt to get her solo magic back. He does a few things, but they all have consequences Faye dislikes, and she believes he is using her. He is using her magic to revive his girlfriend who is in a coma, but he and Faye also develop feelings for each other.
• Eva is Lee's girlfriend, who is in a coma. She later awakens and gains some of Faye's power due to voodoo.
• Callum is one of Lee's friends. He is also a drug dealer who sells Devil's Spirit. He later realizes that Faye and Melissa are witches after a party and an argument with Lee. In "Crystal" he attempts to steal one of the crystals, but the Circle stops him and "marks" him, ordering him to never return to Chance Harbor.
• Grant is an Australian boy who came to Chance Harbor on a boat. He and Diana develop an instant attraction to each other, but problems arise because he lied to her about owning the boat, and she is a witch. He later offers her to leave Chance Harbor with him.

  Guest cast

• Zachary Larson is a former friend of Amelia Blake who knew about the Circle. After the fire at the boat yard, he blamed Amelia and the Circle for what happened to his girlfriend, Heather. He later became a fisherman who returned to Chance Harbor occasionally. After he discovers Cassie has returned to town, he attempts to stop the Circle by killing one of its members. The Circle defeat him, and Charles and Dawn mark him and force him to stay away from the children.
• Heather Barnes is a former friend of Amelia Blake and Zachary Larson's ex-girlfriend. Following the fire at the boatyard, she was paralyzed by Amelia, to prevent a demon possessing her from causing harm. When the Circle finds out about her, Cassie and Faye try to help her.
• Wade Barnes is Heather's brother. He takes care of her while she is paralyzed.
• Kyle is the captain of the hockey team at Chance Harbor High School. He flirts with Faye and Melissa, but has a girlfriend.
• Richard Armstrong is Jake and Nick's father. He died sixteen years prior to the series' beginning, but appears in a flashback of the boatyard fire.
• Sara Armstrong is Jake and Nick's mother, and Richard's wife. She died sixteen years prior to the series' beginning, but appears in a flashback of the boatyard fire.
• Royce Armstrong is Richard's father, Jake and Nick's grandfather, and an elder. He is a conspiracy theorist who lives alone and is considered crazy. When Cassie, Faye and Jake try to find his crystal, he tells them where it is, and reveals a theory that Blackwell actually wanted children from the Circle, and caused all their births, backed up by the fact that the members were born one month apart. He later sends Jake a bottle with beads in it and a message that the Circles are coming together and his fight is not over, though it is unknown why, or what it means. Despite his lack of sociability, his theories turn out to be true, and he appears to be a very powerful witch, to the point of being able to spell places against dark magic.
• James Conant is Ethan's father, Adam's grandfather, and an elder. He died prior to the events of the series, but appears in a flashback of the night of the boatyard fire, where it is shown that he gave Amelia his family's crystal to protect herself. She told him the truth about John, gave the crystal back to him and asked him to tell Ethan that she didn't love him anymore, though both knew she was lying. He had an affinity for cloaking spells, which Adam inherited.
• Elizabeth Meade is Charles' wife, and Diana's mother. She died sixteen years prior to the series' beginning, but appears in a flashback of the night of the boatyard fire. Though she was married to Charles, she and John had an affair while she and her husband were separated, and she knew John was Diana's biological father. After seeing John for what he was, she returned to Charles, but never told him the truth about Diana. When Amelia tried to persuade her not to go to the boatyard, she refused, blaming Amelia for bringing John into the Circle.
• Holden is Melissa's cousin, and possibly a witch. Diana once had a crush on him.
• Simone is a witch hunter who comes to Chance Harbor along with Jake and Isaac to destroy the Circle. She attempts to kill Cassie immediately.
• Samuel is a witch hunter who knows Jake. He arrives in Chance Harbor to assist the Circle after being betrayed by Eben.

  Episodes

Development

Broadcast

Streaming

Reception

Critical reception

Cancellation and fan campaign

Awards and nominations