#Good Witch Season 6 Episode 7 Review: The Tableau

For the 225th anniversary of Grey House, there wasn’t a lot of Grey House on Good Witch Season 6 Episode 7.

I suppose it could be argued that celebrating the people who have lived within the house is just as important as the house itself.

And judging by Sam’s admirable effort to do he and his wife and the house justice with a work of art, that goal was achieved.

It seems like it’s been a while since a Grey House has had a guest that became so quickly integrated into the Middleton festivities, but Hayley wasn’t just any guest.

A social media influencer with her face buried in the phone was the perfect person to document the historical celebration, but she didn’t really get the chance.

I can’t say that her focus on pastries and caffeine would have done the celebration justice anyway, but I always appreciate the opportunity to relay to people how much they’re missing by never looking away from their phones.

That’s become a prevalent message across entertainment, which, at the same time, glorifies all influencers by showering them with kudos. So it’s a double-edged sword, isn’t it? Enjoy life, but we won’t praise or commend you for doing that without your social media posts.

It’s a shame that our need for validation has allowed us to miss so much and nice that even if only on television, we can see the rewards for curtailing the behavior.

Hayley’s presence also allowed Joy to recognize her interest in Carter because they ignored their feelings for each other under the guise of a contest of who could fix up the other with a better date.

Stephanie: You’re really not catching on to this whole thing, are you?

Joy: You think he wants to go out with me?

Stephanie: Joy, he described you to a T!

Joy: Huh. Usually, I’m more intuitive about these things.

Ridiculously, that’s too true to life. It’s so easy to push aside your feelings for someone with the hope you’ll win their favor by being so awesome as to fix them up with someone else, mostly because you’re afraid that if you make a move, you’ll be rejected.

So the idea is that you do your best to fix them up, and if it fails, maybe you were wrong about them not wanting to be with you and should have followed your instincts in the first place.

Exhausting!

Joy and Carter have so much in common. He perfectly described her when waxing on about his perfect date and the person with whom he’d like to share his time.

Joy was questioning her gift because of the pain she thought she caused to Abigail and Donovan, so Cassie taught her a lesson about how much she appreciates her gift.

Joy: I was trying to help them not hurt them.

Cassie: I know.

Joy: Sometimes I wish I didn’t know what I know.

It’s hard to know things that you don’t fully understand, but maybe Cassie’s influence can help Joy to navigate her intuition in the same way Cassie uses hers.

Without that Merriwick spark, many in Middleton wouldn’t grow and become better people.

Cassie uses what might be seen as negative energy and guides her friends to act positively in reaction to it. It’s a pretty special way to use what she’s been gifted.

The timing of her lesson for Joy also allowed time to stretch out any interaction between Carter and Joy.

After all, a slow burn is a lot more fun than rushing into a situation. They’ll get to know each other much better that way.

Still, you could almost feel the relief shown on Joy’s face when the necklace was removed. And Joy learned that she likes being herself a lot more than she acknowledges.

Another Cassie-ism was at work between Martha and Stephanie as the two tore at each other rather than find a compromise that worked.

If you read my interview with Catherine Disher, you know that she’s well aware of Martha’s habit of thinking about herself first and emptying every thought from her head the moment she had it.

Martha was hypocritical by sticking to rules when Stephanie wanted to paint her house outside of the approved range of colors for Middleton when she then wanted to be given special privileges in the greenhouse.

Oof. One exception here, another one there. I mean, pretty soon, you’ve got chaos. Is that what you want?
Stephanie

Stephanie had even added a bit of the approved color, Canary, to her preferred mustard to help get the motion passed, but it was no-go with Martha.

Sharing makes all the sense in the world, especially since so much of what Martha wants to plant are ingredients for Stephanie to make her the sandwiches she loves. Win/win!

Cassie: But you can’t find any heather.

Martha: But I can’t find any… honestly. Heather is out of season.

Cassie: Well, nothing’s ever out of season in a greenhouse.

Martha: Normally, you’re spot on, but our greenhouse is only two days old.

Cassie: You’d be amazed at what can spring up in two days.

What did I take away from the greenhouse experience?

That when you live in a town where magic prevails, you’ll barely have to attend to your plants because they’ll emerge overnight to astounding heights!

And I thought that Stephanie wanted to use the greenhouse for fresh ingredients for the cafe, so it was a little surprising that she chose to plant an entire palate of heather. Can you even use heather in cooking?

That’s called a very convenient plot development, which is suitable since the whole disagreement erupted over a greenhouse plot!

Stephanie was also urging Adam not to give up on physical therapy.

Again, Adam’s behavior doesn’t match the advice he gives to those he counsels at all.

His faith should have lent a hand in the process, but maybe part of his issue was that if God wanted him to be OK, he wouldn’t have needed the therapy.

God endows everyone with special gifts so that they can help their fellow man, and one of those gifts comes by the way of physical therapy. You have to do the work to earn the reward.

It took a while for Adam to admit that, and he needed encouragement from both Stephanie and Sam, but he managed to push through and saw the difference a little work made.

Seeing Stephanie and Adam flirt at the tableau was adorable, and their entire conversation was brimming with adoration for one another.

Stephanie: Excuse me. I don’t mean to bother you, but aren’t you that man from the tableau?

Adam: Unidentified man in the corner? Yeah, that’s me.

Stephanie: I love what you did with the character.

Adam: Oh, come on. It wasn’t easy to capture his nuance.

Stephanie: Mmm. Well, ya nailed it.

Adam: Would you like an autograph?

Stephanie: I was actually too nervous to ask.

Adam: Then, uh, who should I make it out to?

Stephanie: To the woman who will support you no matter what.

Adam: So I’ll sign it, ‘from the man who appreciates the tough love’? You were right about sticking with physical therapy.

Stephanie: I know.

Adam: Hm. I’m just glad you’re not the type to gloat. And here, this is for you.

You know things are going well with the couple when they broke a cardinal rule within Middleton by breaking for a scandalous, public kiss!

The tableau was a success, and Martha managed to pull off yet another event in under 48 hours.

But the best part of the tableau was that Abigail and Donovan got the wind under their sails again.

Abigail is always so cheerful that it’s difficult to see her so down after the breakup.

She’s really taking it to heart and allowing the curse to get the better of her.

Dottie’s 180 about Donovan’s girlfriend was welcome.

She was such a thorn in her son’s side when he started dating Abigail that it’s a relief she’s grown to love Abigail as we all do.

She even admitted that it’s not only because Abigail is dating Donovan but because the two women have a lot more in common than they realized.

I fought hard to keep you apart. But now I’m going to fight harder to keep you two together.
Dottie

It was her intervention that helped Abigail and Donovan find the party responsible for the curse, and then Martha’s tableau that offered evidence to embolden their efforts to conquer it.

The curse seems to get more confusing all the time, but at least they haven’t reached a dead end.

But it doesn’t seem they can take the rollercoaster of emotions they’re experiencing for much longer. We can see it in their faces.

One minute, Donovan was on top of the world because Dottie gave him a lead on the Connelly family of travelers, and in the next breath, he learned there were no more Connellys left to help destroy the curse.

Donovan: I found out more about the Connelly family.

Abigail: And?

Donovan: And there are none left.

But the deed proves that their search is far from over. It also suggests we’ll get to see another fun location as Donovan and Abigail follow the clues to the land that dastardly Donovan left for Priscilla. They will conquer the curse!

With so much hope for love in the air, we might get a wedding or two during Good Witch Season 7!

And in between all of this action and a relatively full Grey House with the anniversary celebration, Sam still found time to finish his masterpiece.

Cassie was super proud of his effort and confident that years from now when their ancestors are searching for clues about their time in Grey House, the painting will be appreciated and adored.

All of that, and we even got updates on Grace, who’s in Spain, and Nick, who tried to make it to the tableau but got stuck on the tarmac at the airport, instead.

If you want to relive any of Good Witch Season 6, you can watch Good Witch online. Before doing that, drop a line in the comments to share what you enjoyed about this episode and your hopes for the season as it winds down.

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.