MB Proposal: Chuck Hankins (Just Add Magic)

My next few write-ups will be from an Amazon Prime original family series called Just Add Magic. Audiences love that series due to its positive themes, complex and admirable characters, and intriguing mysteries and subplots. The basic summary of the show is that it centers around three girls (Kelly Quinn, Hannah Parker-Kent and Darbie O'Brien) who had known each other since their early years and are best friends and loyal to each other. One day the girls were cooking some brownies at Kelly's house and a series of events leads the girls to Kelly's attic where they come across an old cookbook that used to belong to Kelly's grandmother. After looking through the book and testing out some of the book's recipes —which requires using a super-rare spice — the girl trio quickly find out the cookbook's recipes were magical and that the three of them were the latest in a long line of the cookbook's owners known as "protectors" that would cook supernatural recipes and solve mysteries around their town. (It's like Charmed but with cooking ... and friendship.)

I've been doing quite a bit of proposals from this series back on TVTropes, where I got no less than three different characters approved for being an MB; One of which is a series regular, and all three of them are ex-protectors. But I'm going to save that proposal for later, right now, I've got somebody else in mind, and I think you'll find him very interesting.

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This Article Contains Spoilers - WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all.

Who Is Charles Peizer?

Just Add Magic Season 2 - Chuck's Sleep Spell - Prime Video Kids

Chuck showcases why he's such a feared opponent

Charles Peizer (better known by his alias Chuck Hankins) is a mysterious boy who disappeared on a Ferris wheel in 1965 (50 years before the events of the saga), and became one of Saffron Falls' most unsolved mysteries. When he returns to the surface as a result of a magic recipe the girls used to break a curse, he somehow hasn't grown any older since his disappearance and still looks 14 years old...

Then it's later revealed that he was from a period far older than the 1960s, and he was actually an ex-protector from the 1860s. He grew up in a rich, wealthy family that co-founded the city. Charles and his little sister Rose were once the protectors of the cookbook and Charles was shown to love him dearly. But then one tragic day when Charles decided he and Rose deserved to keep the book in their possession for all time and accidently got Rose imprisoned in the book as an unexpected side effect of the spell.

In General

• Zach Callison provides a very charismatic performance to his character and really sells as character as a affable foe, but still a dangerous threat.
• When nobody's trying to interfere with his plans, or treating him as a monster, he's usually a pretty nice and civil person.
• Despite losing access to the cookbook after previously misusing its abilities (the book would burn him whenever he touched it), he never lets that setback hold him back as he'll just find alternative ways to threaten the protectors (the OCs and the main girl trio), such as getting Ida's father fired from his job.
• He's a master of improvisation and coming up with plans on the fly. Anytime one he runs into a drawback or one of his foes counters a plan of his, you can bet he'll usually have a back-up plan.

The Past

• After Charles accidentally made Rose disappear into the cookbook as an unintended side-effect of an immortally spell he was using as an attempt to make them both the permanent cookbook owners, he felt great remorse for what he had done, feeling ashamed of himself for what he did to Rose and he'd spend nearly a century studying spices and recipes and trying to find a way to reverse the effects and free Rose.
  • He also avoided outsiders getting involved with the magic, by coming up with a lie that Rose was innocently playing outside, only to suddenly disappear without explanation
• He also changed his name to Chuck Hankins at some unknown point as he didn't want to draw attention to himself by somehow managing to maintain the same appearance for decades.
• He started using a trailer at some point which he'd intentionally leave in West Peizer Park since he'd have access to a lot of magic spices he'd use for cooking magic recipes.
• He was best friends with Willy Thompson despite being a serious prankster and a free-range child.
• He was a very close friend of Gina and her girlfriend once, which would lead to her being the only member of the OCs to see the good in Chuck and that he had a hidden heart of gold.
  • He convinced her to keep playing piano when she thought about giving up, while also said she could be a concert pianist. This would lead to Gina becoming a musical prodigy in the future,
  • Shortly after Gina told Chuck about the magic cookbook, he proved to be a expert at the magic with vast knowledge of the spices and their properties. Makes since considering he had decades of practice.
• He had an A average in history class during the mid-1960s

Season 2A

• As Chuck began to regain his memories, he'd go to the Quinn residence, and introduce himself to Mr. Quinn as a friend of Kelly's. Then he'd win the family's trust over by saving Buddy's life, pushing him out of the way when he was skateboarding and a speeding car nearly ran him over.
  • In addition to that, upon Mr. Quinn finding out Chuck was a fan of vintage rock like he was, the two of them are quickly able to hit it off and get along very well. Talking about their personal favorite music and checking out vintage records. And especially after Chuck explained that his family was no longer with him (and the passing of his mother). It's possible -- though not confirmed -- that Chuck was trying to get Mr. Quinn fired from his job like he did with Mr. Perez.
  • Also, when Mr. Quinn sees through Chuck's deceptions and states that the job was filled, he stays perfectly calm, even as he's walking away from him and leaving the restaurant he was in.
• Upon Kelly confronting Chuck after he officially regained all of his memories, he would commend Kelly for being so smart, and wasn't intimidated by her threats in the least, as he just walked away telling Kelly to enjoy the cookbook while she still had it.
• Before leaving the Quinn residence, he managed to smuggle a photograph of Kelly, Hannah and Darbie in his pocket. Then he'd go to an abandoned forest, where he had a trailer that he had made invisible, grab two pieces of tree bark, and some string. Then once he was in the trailer, he used the bark, string and the photograph to create his own cookbook that would steal recipes from the original cookbook as they were used. That way, he could use the recipes from the book, without getting burnt.
• He's shown attending Mama P's grand re-opening, and gives some money to Ms. Silvers after hearing her beautiful piano performance, even saying she was as good as he remembered. This showcases that Chuck still has a hidden heart of a gold underneath his rough exterior, and was still Gina's friend.
• He broke into Gina's earth spice cabinet and stole very specific magic earth spices. (Nakaian, Tengu and Culangut)
• In the unlikely event that someone would find the forest he was hiding in and potentially come across his trailer, he used an invisibility spell on the trailer so nobody on the outside would suspect anything. Even Kelly and the girls were only able to find the trailer's location due to the cookbook having a step-counter written within its pages, that counted down when the holder got closer to the trailer, and reached zero when they were officially at the trailer. And even then, Kelly had to use a spell from the cookbook to be able to see the trailer.
  • He'd also used a protection spell for his cookbook so anyone who tried to take it would be unable to lift it, and if someone managed to get the book unstuck, Chuck had a backup plan so the door would automatically lock the person in, so they couldn't escape with the book. Kelly's allies had to cook a spell to get her out.
• He'd confront Mama P in her restaurant ask her for some spices, and when she refuses to give him anything, Chuck reveals he still has her morbium seed as an attempt to have her to give in.
• Upon finding out his cookbook and morbium seed where gone -- despite his extra precautions -- he confronts the OCs and the main girl trio at Mama P's ordering them to give them back. And when they all refuse, he places a spelling spell on the gang that made them all tired, and would have them sleep for a full year that moment they fall asleep. This also traps the heroes in a Morton's Fork: If they handed over the cookbook and morbium, Chuck will be able to continue his plan, keep causing mischief and he'd be pretty much unstoppable, but they refused to hand them over, they'd all be too tired to fight back, and eventually scum to the year-long slumber and Chuck will just take them back anyway. He also promised to give everyone a counter-spell for the curse if they gave him what he wanted.
• He took away the OCs' Merwaldian Spring Berries so they couldn't cook a certain spell that would counter the sleep spell's effects.
• When the gang eventually caves in and gives him the cookbook and morbium seed back in exchange for the counter-spell, Chuck actually keeps his promise, claiming he had the counter recipe ready for all six of them and he gives them the Wide-Awake Beef Wellington (which the gang tried and failed to do earlier) and undoes his curse, but it was too late as Chuck had what he wanted, and there was very little that could be done to stop him.
• While Chuck does end up having a breakdown upon his cookbook getting set on (a magic) fire and burning to a crisp, it was mostly because he had just saw his little sister Rose as a drawing within one of the pages, and he had witnessed the book burn down with Rose still in it. So his frustration was less due to his plan failing and more "big brother instinct" and fear of thinking his sister was gone forever. It was a rather appropriate reaction to a situation like that. Plus he'd calm down anyway.
• Not even the OCs magically imprisoning Chuck in Lavender Heights and out of Saffron Falls is enough to hold Chuck back. Chuck just set up a fake order for a man in Lavender Heights to trick Jake into coming to town, and anticipated Jake's presence, so he could use a mysterious recipe towards him that would allow him to possess Jake and use HIS body to leave Saffron Falls. Keep in mind that even Mama P took 50 years with the help of three protectors to break that curse, meanwhile Chuck was able to get past the curse in one day... by himself! Even P herself admits she wished she had thought of that.
  • And as a bonus, his possession spell involved using Ida's morbium seed the OCs had left Chuck with, thinking he'd be helpless with the spell and unable to use it to escape. Whoops!
• When Chuck (in Jake's body) arrives at Mama P's, and Ida discusses how glad she was about Chuck seemingly being trapped in Lavender Heights, saying he deserved it for everything he had done, he would tell her not to take joy in someone else's misery, no matter how bad she thought he was (serving as subtle foreshadowing of Chuck having good intentions).
  • And then when Mama P states Chuck was a horrible person, Chuck (as Jake) reminds P that it wasn't too long ago that everyone thought SHE was horrible. This would actually leave her conflicted. The real Jake wouldn't have cared about Mama P being public enemy #1.
  • When Mama P explained the main reason she hated Chuck -- not because he stole her morbium, but because he got her father fired from his job and tore her family apart -- Chuck (as Jake) would state he didn't know about her family and apologize, and that he understood how important family was, while still managing to not blow his cover. It makes since why Chuck would feel pity for Ida's family being broken, especially sense he knows what it's like to have a broken family.
• He's able to quickly adjust to being in Jake's body and convincingly pull off being him for nearly 4 days, even taking over Jake's job at Mama P's and proving to be a great chef thanks to his cooking time as a protector. It also allowed him access to the girls, the cookbook, and the spice pantry. Even when there were signs that he was off, he's usually able to make a quick recovery, so he could keep up the act. The only reason the girls and the OCs found out Chuck took over Jake's body was because Chuck accidentally let his guard down when he was writing his entries for Mama P on the menu and used his own cursive handwriting, instead of using different handwriting or trying to learn Jake's style of writing.
• While still in posing as Jake, Chuck was shown to be very friendly and affable towards the main three girls, but also semi-manipulative:
  • For Hannah, she told "Chake" she was worried about her new school, and "Chake" states that he knew Hannah for a long time, and consoles Hannah by telling her he didn't think he'd make friends on his first day of grammar school, but he did and that she'd be fine. Hannah would even admit that "Chake" was a good listener.
  • For Kelly, she told "Chake" about Hannah and Darbie taking the book away from her, and despite Kelly saying he was sure they meant well, "Chake" stated he'd be very mad as she'd done a lot of good with the book, even asking where they hid it as an possible attempt to get it back.
  • For Darbie, "Chake" would give Darbie some free Jake-ritos.
• When Kelly and the gang tries to get "Chake" to take a whiff of the her (magic) soup (a magic recipe meant to remove Chuck from Jake's body) the second time around, "Chake" stops Kelly from taking the lid off midway, reveals he knew the girls were trying to taking to separate him from Jake's body (using Kick-Em Out Chicken Soup) and overall that the gang was plotting against him as that knew who he really was. He refused to smell the soup and brags about how they couldn't stop him from his end-goal now that he had access to the book.
  • Even when the girls then use Gina's morbium to free Jake from Chuck, Chuck would then reveal that while he was giving the girls free food as "Chake", he tricked Hannah into eating a charmed Jake-rito that would have Hannah become part of his latest plan.
  • He also knew that for his recipe to work, he'd need mulberries, which had to used immediately or they'd lose their effect. So part of his spell on Hannah had her crave mulberries and tempted go to the West Peizer Park forest where mulberry trees were, and Chuck would be there anticipating her arrival, we he'd complete his recipe for the spell and save the mulberries for last.
  • He had a barrier spell set up and ready in case the heroes tried to interfere with Chuck's spell and/or take him down physically. What he lacks in physical strength, he makes up for in smarts.
• Upon being forced to revisit various carefree, happy moments with his sister Rose, prior to the latter being imprisoned, Chuck/Charles stops his spell and starts crying to himself, as he had been reminded that Rose's imprisonment was his fault, accidental or not. Thankfully, the magic's somehow able to reverse itself and Hannah and Rose are both freed from the cookbook.
• When Rose is FINALLY freed from the cookbook, Charles would instantly hug her, and thank the gang for helping him and seeing the good in him, right before he and Rose return to 1868 as their immortality spell wears off. Once back in their time, the two of them would start up a new timeline where Chuck never cooks the immortality pie, and Rose never gets imprisoned and gets to properly live her life. Rose would even become a beloved model citizen who lived to be 82 and had a park named after her in her honor.

New Timeline

“	I thought that description of the strange girls sounded familiar.	„
	~ A reformed Charles upon reencountering the girl trio in 1875.

• In the new timeline, Charles recognized he had a lot he wasn't proud of and wanted a second chance to make up for it. And it clearly shows, as he became a ranger to help people would needed it and prevent bad guys from harming innocents.
  • He'd also put his vast magic knowledge to good use, and informed the girl trio about magic spices have patterns on their leaves, which was how one could tell magic spices from normal spices.
• He frees the girl trio when they get wounded up in 1875 and get locked up for being unfamiliar outsiders, using lockpicks (claiming Ida taught him how to use them back in the 1960s) as a way to repay them for helping him with Rose.
• He had a hidden cellar underneath the family's mansion where he hid his spices. Plus, even if various people manage to find it, he had a hidden compartment within the bunker for the spices, cleverly hiding the room by using an optical illusion of a brick wall, for a secret passageway hidden in plain sight. Even Darbie admits it was very clever.
  • Plus has spice cabinet was very expensive, containing more spices than even Mama P's cabinet in the present.
• He'd work alongside Ian Maddox to protect a powerful spell from getting into the wrong hands of his rogue partners the Wessons. With him personality taking the hands off Ian's pocket and putting a spell on the hands claiming whoever held the hands, held the secret. He's also gave Ian the idea to hide the box somewhere into the future, where the Wessons couldn't access it, and he overall played an indirect, posthumous role in Zoe Chua and her partners becoming the new protectors and being able to save the city from the Hamilton family, descendants of the Wessons.

What Makes Him a Baddie?

• He was known for being a serious prankster who was always messing around, and getting away with most of it due to lack of parental figures looking out for him. He super-glued Willy's glasses to his face once, for instance.
  • He was also a heart-breaker who gets into a lot of drama with some girls, with Gina Silvers being one of the most noteworthy examples, as Chuck cheated on her with Rebecca "Becky" Patterson
• Even though Chuck was a well-intentioned extremist who just wanted to get his litter sister back from the cookbook, that still doesn't change the fact that he used a number of unethical methods during his attempts to get the cookbook:
  • Prior to the series, he stole money from the store where Ida's father worked using magic, which would subsequently get Ida's father fired from his job, and indirectly destroy the Perez family. He didn't even know Ida's father and it was meant to a threat to Ida and the OCs to scare them into giving him the book. Ida had a grunge on Chuck and what he had for a very long time.
  • He cursed the main girl trio and the OCs with a sleep spell that would make them sleepy and have them sleep for a year the moment they fell asleep, just so they'd give them his cookbook back. (He gave them a cure before the curse could officially kick in, but still)
  • When he gets trapped in Lavender Heights and out of Saffron Falls, he tricks Jake into coming to town, and uses a recipe on him so he could possess Jake and use his body to leave Saffron Falls.
  • At some point when "Chake" was giving the girls free food, he tricked Hannah into eating a charmed Jake-rito that would make Hannah feel ill and slowly have her drawn into the cookbook as an attempt to replace Rose with her.

Further Notes

Chuck's a pretty interesting example of a potential MB as despite an reasonable foe for the main three girls and the OCs, he's definitely not your standard villain. For one thing, he's the textbook definition of Affably Evil: a total gentleman towards most people (including the heroes sometimes) with good intentions and a reasonable amount of redeeming qualities, but still having a shady side and may bring harm to you if you try to interfere.

As previously stated, Chuck's a master of improvisation and coming up with plans on the fly. The heroes may be capable of knocking him down a peg, when they counter part of his plan, but keeping him down is a whole other story. He's also one of the very few characters who's ever gotten the best of Mama P... twice! (she'll be getting a write-up soon)

Although despite all of Chuck's gracefulness, he's far from invincible. Leaving out the fact that he had decades of non-success with freeing his sister, and disappeared on a Ferris during a Pluot festival in 1965 after eating a magic caramel apple, not returning until 2015, Chuck can't psychically touch the cookbook due to misusing it in the past. Anytime he tries, the book would burn his hand, which would force him to use alternative methods, including some that don't involve magic, such as threats towards the protectors. Plus, he was given an opportunity by The Traveler to back out from his plans, but he refused, which forced The Traveler to give him temporary amnesia (he regains his memories within two episodes). Also, during his time of possessing Jake and posing as him, he has a slip-up that allows the girls to find out who he was: when he was writing Jake's entries for Mama P on the menu he used his own cursive handwriting, instead of using different handwriting or trying to learn Jake's style of writing. Whoops.

And as for his overall endgame, the majority of his storyline within 2A makes Chuck appear as this enigmatic powerful old rival and force who wanted to the cookbook for some unknown reason, his actual plan with the book and what he'd do with it were left a mystery until near the very end of his arc (with some sprinkles of foreshadowing, here and there). When you actually get down to it, his overall endgame was the ultimately well-intentioned goal to trying to find a way to recuse his younger sister from the magic cookbook. Chuck would more than likely be a good guy if the audience actually got more context about his past and relationship with her. And like I said before, he doesn't actually have too many sinful actions in his account. In fact, the only reason he's considered a "villain" at all is because some of his attempts to rescue Rose involved using unethical methods and only towards those involved with magic; no ordinary civilians. They're listed in "What Makes Him a Baddie?" It's telling he's allowed to have a redemption and return as a ally to the girls and other protectors using his vast magic knowledge for good. That being said, I'm still going to provide some constructive criticism towards Charles' arc.

Additional Commentary

Now that I've actually come back from rewatching Charles' storyline to write this proposal, I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed by the end result, as the ending felt a bit rushed for me. I mean, I get that Charles has good intentions for trying to rescue his sister, but I just wished the writers had revealed his intentions at an earlier point in the narrative, instead of near the very end. By that point, there's not too much time for the audience to care about his intentions. Also, if the audience knew about Chuck trying to free his sister earlier, we'd have more time to connect with and sympathize with him, plus we also know that Charles and Rose were protectors once, and yet we never get any intel on what kinds of mysteries they had to solve using the book's magic. Rose just feels like an afterthought. We learn about Chuck's "greatest failure" with Rose, and then his storyline's over five minutes later, after Rose is somehow freed from the book with no proper explanation as to how.

Speaking of which, when you stop to think about Chuck's overall goal/endgame that's left a mystery for nearly his entire story arc and isn't revealed until near the very end his story, Chuck's plan to rescue his long-lost sister from the cookbook would probably make him the hero/anti-hero of his own storyline. The main reason he ends up playing an antagonistic role against the girls and the OCs, is because everyone sees him as this dangerous, powerful foe... and that's because he never tries to explain his intentions to the protectors. Anytime he encounters the protectors, he always speaks in vague, ominous terms, such as "You haven't figured that out yet?"; "This all started long before you"; "What I want is far bigger than any of you. You're simply in my way" and "You're never gonna stop me from getting what I want". He never tries to explain to the protectors just what he wants, he just stole spices from the protectors, manipulates them and curses them. All Chuck had to do was gain everyone's trust, explain his dilemma with his lost sister and ask the other protectors if they could help save her. I mean there had to have been a way to help her that doesn't involve sacrificing another protector to take her place. If Chuck did that, his storyline would have been a lot shorter.

Anyway, those are just my opinions for how the storyline could have been better. It's easy to overlook a lot of these flaws when you're in the show's target audience, but when you return to this series as a late teenager/early adult, the problem with the work start to become more and more glaring and difficult to ignore. But even with all that aside, I'd still say that Charles is a more than worthy candidate.