The Secret Circle/YMMV

• Complete Monster: Eben, leader of the witch hunters. He's bad enough when we first see him in a flashback that reveals he and his men murdered the members of the old Circle by pretending to want peace and tried to kill John Blackwell, but he gets even worse when he turns out to have survived the fire, only with nasty scarring, and proves hell-bent on killing every witch alive, even those who have never heard of him, for absolutely no good reason. He doesn't bat an eye at using magic provided by a resurrected and psychotic Nick to brainwash Cassie into trying to kill her father and to escape an attack by the Circle that should've killed him outright. Later, he summons and absorbs multiple demons for their power, no doubt driving him even Ax Crazier — and that's after sacrificing one of his own men to a demon and using him to lure Blackwell and the Circle into a death trap that just barely fails. Oh, and according to another witch hunter, he's even killed off Isaac, who was downright sane compared to him — and then he kidnaps Faye, fully intending to murder her and her covenmates. Fortunately, Jake gives him a swift, satisfying Karmic Death in "Family" after Charles has taken the demons out of him.
  • Ironically, Eben looks tame compared to the true monster — John Blackwell. The season finale, "Family", reveals his master plan to use the Crystal Skull to kill all witches without Balcoin blood and create a truly dark Circle. He even tries to kill Adam, who's already dying from the spell in front of a helpless Cassie and Diana. Luckily, Cassie manages to unleash Diana's dark magic so they can break free and reverse the Skull's power, killing Blackwell instead.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Cassie and Jake or Faye seem to be more popular than Adam where the show seems to be leading us. Also Faye and Diana have one based on their Foe Yay.
  • Faye and Diana to a ridiculous extent. Wetpaint recently ran a "who should Faye be with" poll. Only Lee and Jake were mentioned in the title and the article itself, but the poll also included Diana. Diana won with over 87% of the vote.
    • And when the official Secret Circle website ran a "Couples March Madness" competition, not only did Faye and Diana win, but they absolutely destroyed every single couple they went up against, including beating the aforementioned Jake/Cassie in the final with 92% of the vote.
• Fan Yay: Has quite a lesbian fanbase due to the Les Yay listed below.
• Foe Yay: Faye has this with both Cassie and Diana.
  • Adam and Jake have some as well.
• Jerkass Woobie: Arguably, Nick. He lost both his parents and now lives with "Jesus Freaks", his aunt and uncle. Not the most desirable thing for a teenage boy, especially one with magic powers. Then he gets possessed by a demon, drowned to kill it, and resurrected to help Eben against the Circle — only to wind up dying again when Melissa stabs him before he can kill Jake, his own brother. Just...ouch.
• Les Yay: Faye and every girl. Let's break it down:
  • Faye and Cassie. Faye's first scene in the series involved her walking up to Cassie and saying:

"You really are very pretty, aren't you?"

• • She also likes to get very close to Cassie when she's talking to her.
  • Watch this clip. Not only do they walk with arms linked for most of the scene, but watch the last few seconds and tell me Faye isn't checking Cassie out as she walks away.

"You're a little firecracker, aren't you, Cassie?"

• • Faye and Diana. Like with Cassie, Faye likes to get very close to Diana when talking to here, engaging in rather more eye contact and physical interaction than is strictly necessary.
    • Lets not forget the game of truth or dare they played. Faye's took the first opportunity she got to dare Diana to take off her top.
    • And for Faye's truth, she is asked how many people she has slept with. Faye replies "two people". Many fans have caught onto the fact that she used the word "people" and not "guys".
  • Faye and Melissa.
  • Cassie and Diana have their share of moments as well. Diana seems pretty keen on getting Cassie to join and really pushes the idea of being friends. Episode 10 even has the two of them sharing Diana's bed while Jane is away. This is now pretty much shot down, since Diana has been revealed as Cassie's half-sister.
  • And now "Fire and Ice" gives us Diana and Melissa. In "Medallion" Faye gives them a Portmanteau Couple Name: Delissa.
• Magnificent Bastard: John Blackwell. He created a fake curse to break Cassie and Adam up because they thought Jake was dying and was completely awesome about it. He also found out about Jane's plan to kill him and switched his ring out for one of her items, thus ruining Charles' revenge against him. Oh, and he used a fertility spell on the old Circle — and slept with Amelia Blake and Diana's mother Elizabeth — to guarantee the current Circle's existence so he could use them against the witch hunters. And that's not even touching the big reveal in "Family" that his true plan all along was to kill every witch without Balcoin blood and build a Circle of pure dark magic under his control, thereby making him a Complete Monster without ruining this status. Need we say more?
• Ms. Fanservice: Each of the girls gets a turn at winding up in her undies or just a Modesty Bedsheet, particularly Melissa in the first few episodes.
• Nightmare Fuel: Cassie's mother Amelia's death at the hands of Charles Meade. First he drops a bottle of water on the ground, causing a the sink to start spraying water everywhere. Then he strikes a match, causing a fire on the stove. Amelia manages to get the burner turned off... just as Charles strikes another match and starts the fire again. He then causes the flames to spread, then as Amelia turns to run, she slips in the water, falling and cracking her head against the ground. She looks like she's a goner, then wakes up with a gasp of "Cassie!" and fights to get out of the flames. Charles then proceeds to burn her alive, listening to her scream in pain/horror as she realizes she's trapped. He then turns and walks away without emotion.
• Ship Mates: Jake/Cassie Adam/Diana and Faye/Melissa makes it so all of the members of the circle can be paired without any outsiders.
• Ship Sinking: "Lucky" does this for Adam and Cassie when we find out that bad things happen when they have sex. It turns out that John Blackwell made up the curse, but the ship still seems to be sunk.
  • Even though the ship wasn't going to happen anyway, "Crystal" does this for Cassie and Diana by revealing they're related.
• The Woobie: It's hard not to feel bad for Cassie. She has this destiny forced upon her that she doesn't want, she has dark magic inside her that could hurt a lot of people if she doesn't figure out how to control it, and her soulmate may be Adam, boyfriend of her best friend Diana, a fact that led to their breakup — and as if that's not enough, Diana turns out to be her half-sister, whose adopted father killed Cassie's mother. On top of it all, her father is a manipulative liar and her grandmother has been murdered, leaving her practically alone...and now Diana is turning against her, blaming her for bringing their father into their lives and allowing him to manipulate the entire Circle. Dear God, someone give this girl a hug.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Jake wants to rid Chance Harbor of witches because he thinks magic killed his parents and brother. After learning the truth, he makes a Heel Face Turn.