WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Charmed Season 3, Episode 9, "No Hablo Brujeria," which aired Sunday on The CW.
Charmed's latest episode shows Mel and Maggie confronting their mother's past mistakes -- and learning how it splintered their family. After arriving home, Mel and Maggie realize that someone has been going through their books. But before they can guess who broke into their house, the hooded intruder emerges as none other than The Charmed One's estranged second cousin, Joséfina, who magically attacks them on a quest to steal back The Book of Shadows. After Maggie disarms Joséfina, the sisters decide to hear their cousin's side of the story to learn why she needs the magical book so badly and more about the magic she was using.
Joséfina tells the sisters that they're welcome to "treat her like a first cousin," explaining who her mother is -- "the daughter of Abuela Fabiola, who's sister to your Abuela Julie." At first, Maggie is unsure if this is true and asks her why the sisters never knew of her. Joséfina then deftly replies that the sisters probably only knew her deadname -- which, to the show's credit, is never once mentioned throughout the episode. She explains further that she felt the need to break in as she was wary about the family history between them, specifically due to The Charmed Ones' mother leaving Puerto Rico with a stolen book and never returning.
Soon, Mel and Maggie learn that their cousin's desire to have the book is rooted in a hope that it will manifest her witch powers. While she informs her cousins that her family welcomed her coming out as trans, they refused to see her as a witch -- believing that only "biological women" can be witches -- which led her to break away from her family.
While the sisters ultimately decide to bring her to see The Book of Elders in their Command Center, the search for Joséfina's spell has to wait as she accidentally trapped Jordan and Macy in an unstable spell that threatens to kill them both. As the trio work together to try to find a way to free Jordan and Macy, Joséfina recommends using a "poultice" of herbs, ground feet from a bird and intestines. When Mel hears these ingredients, she calls the spell black magic.
Their cousin informs the pair that this is a flawed perception of the magic that their family has practiced for centuries, pointing the blame on colonization. Prior to the Spanish colonization of both the Aztecs and the Taínos people, Brujeria wasn't stigmatized as being dark or evil, and it's the basis for Western magic, including what's found in The Book of Elders.
To stabilize the spell that's keeping Jordan and Macy trapped in a memory, Maggie decides to use Brujeria with Joséfina. At first, Joséfina is afraid that she'll mess up the spell again, but Maggie encourages her to show them how it works and promises that she is a witch. Their magic combined with Brujeria gives Jordan and Macy just enough time to find a way out.
After Jordan and Macy return safely -- through Jordan conquering his past doubts and fears -- The Charmed Ones welcome Joséfina to live with them so that they can get to know their cousin better, help her manifest her witch powers and learn about their Brujeria.
Charmed stars Sarah Jeffery, Madeleine Mantock, Melonie Diaz, Rupert Evans, Jordan Donica, Poppy Drayton, Mareya Salazar and JJ Hawkins. New episodes air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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