‘Charmed’s Nick Hargrove on Parker’s Fate and His Relationship With Maggie
Q&A
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 2, Episode 8 of Charmed, “The Rules of Engagement.”]
The Charmed midseason finale almost featured a (complete) wedding after Parker’s (Nick Hargrove) proposal. Sadly, it just wasn’t meant to be for him and Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) … yet?
Mel (Melonie Diaz), Macy (Madeleine Mantock), and Harry (Rupert Evans) set out to determine if Maggie could trust her fiancé, and they ended up getting an assist from none other than Parker’s sister, Abigael (Poppy Drayton). And by episode’s end, she’d maneuvered all the pieces into place that she needed to. She’d stabbed Parker, but Harry couldn’t heal him because he’d consumed an apple that made him immune to magic. She then had him locked away in a cell while Maggie mourned. And she took over as demon overlord.
But at least Parker’s alive. “There’s going to be a lot of isolation for him. He’s going to have some time to think about who he can trust and who he’s going to let influence him,” Hargrove told TV Insider. “Hopefully Parker won’t trust someone like Godrick again and maybe someone like Maggie will have a better chance at bringing out the good in him.”
Here, Hargrove discusses Parker and Maggie’s relationship, his sister’s power moves, and his human and demon sides.
What’s going through his mind in that cell?
Nick Hargrove: He’s definitely feeling defeated. Obviously he’s taken a physical beating. His mind is probably racing about what Maggie is thinking of him and if he’s ever going to be in contact with her again. There’s also a bit of anger towards his sister, and he’s probably wondering how he could escape and maybe get some revenge.
(Colin Bentley/The CW)
Speaking of his sister, the siblings clearly have a very contentious relationship, so was part of him thinking, “of course this happened” when she stabbed him?
It all happened so fast. He was amped up by those apples, so his mind was in a lot of places. After he gets stabbed and has time to gather himself, he’s probably realizing he should have been a little more careful of Abigael, that she was going to try something like that. I don’t think he was surprised.
How does he feel about and cope with her taking over as overlord?
He’s definitely going to have a lot of time to think about that in his cell. He’s not going to be happy about it. I don’t know that Parker loved the idea of being a demon overlord. It was a responsibility that was thrust upon him. He’s happy with someone else having that mantle, but I don’t think he would want it to be Abigael.
Would he want to take it over her having it?
Given the opportunity, he would probably do it in order to do what he thinks is best for the demon world. He thinks Abigael’s going to be the worst possible thing.
Abigael says the apples amped him up, but his demon jealousy streak was all him. How would Parker have reacted to Jordan and what he saw of Maggie with him without the apples?
I always felt Parker wanted the best for Maggie no matter what that would be. At the end of Season 1, he leaves Hilltowne and leaves Maggie behind in order to protect her, to fight his demon side and not cause any harm to her. Obviously, he wouldn’t be happy to hear she’s found or maybe fallen in love with someone else or started being interested in someone else, but he would definitely have a more stable reaction and realize that as long as this person is the best thing for her, he’d be okay with it.
(Colin Bentley/The CW)
This episode really highlighted the trust issues between Parker and Maggie. Were they naive to think things could ever work out between them?
I don’t think they were naive, but they rushed into things a little bit too quickly. It was a pretty quick engagement and from that engagement, they moved on to the potential wedding pretty quickly, too.
Speaking of that, the focus moved to what that union would mean for both their worlds and forging peace rather than their love for each other. How do you that affected their relationship?
They definitely do love each other and care about each other a lot, but the added pressure of doing something in order to maybe save the demon world and the witch world and unite them puts a pressure on their relationship that neither of them were ready for. They’re both still young, and getting married is a big step as it is.
What would take to make a relationship work at this point?
Parker has a lot of explaining to do if he ever wants to have another shot with Maggie. Like you said, trust has been an issue and that’s been violated a little bit. It remains to be seen whether or not Maggie would ever accept him back in her life.
Assuming Parker gets out of that cell, he’s going to need help to take on Abigael, and that could be where Maggie, Mel, and Macy all come into play. But could the four of them ever work together?
If they were to ever work together, Parker would have to prove to them he could be trusted to do the right thing. That’s going to take some work. Anything’s possible.
(Colin Bentley/The CW)
We’ve been watching Parker’s two sides fighting, but as Maggie says, Parker is so good, but the demon inside him is always going to be there. He also says he’ll always be a demon. Can you talk about that struggle for him? And is it possible for his good side to truly win or must there always be some demon in control, especially now?
That’s always been a struggle, figuring out what he identifies with more. At the end of Season 1, he left identifying more with his human side. A huge part of that was the influence of Maggie. She always brings out the best in him. But he also does have this darker side to him that when the right forces or influences come into his life can really bring that out.
Parker lies somewhere in the middle. I don’t know that he’s necessarily pure evil or pure good. A big part of it has to do with the factors in his life that are influencing him. At some point, he’s going to have to make a decision which one he identifies with more. I don’t know how long he can live in that in between. I don’t know that Parker knows the answer to that yet either.
Charmed, Fridays, 8/7c, The CW
