Cassie's powers were first activated through her contact with the Canari. I suspect the full extent of her powers has yet to reveal itself, but at the moment she has some form of telekenisis. At first she can't control it. Like Pru in Charmed, her powers only manifest in hightened emotional states, but she quickly learns how to use it, making a sculpture burst into flames so it falls on Leon, and twisting an electrical cable around his legs to make him fall over...she's definatly learning. She also uses her powers for good, for example electrifying one of the Nephalim using a handy power cable box thingie and a metal fence he's climbing...
Cassie is connected to the McBain family through her estranged father, James McBain. Rachel McBain was the first mistress of the estate at Medenham. Owning a large number of African slaves, she apparantly became facinated with their voodoo religion, and when a girl went missing, it was rumoured she had been sacrificed by Rachel. Cassie also gets visions, sometimes triggerred when she touches the Canari, but other times with no apparant trigger. She sees Rachel McBain, and the girl she sacrificed...hopefully we will learn more about the McBain's and Cassie's link to them. Rachel McBain was also having some sort of relationship with Azazeal, but we don't know much about that yet.
Esther McBain is presumably the daughter of Rachel. A quick look at their gravestones will tell you that Rachel died the year Esther was born, in 1746...I expect that is significant but we don't know yet. Esther McBain is also a bit of a mystery currently...what we do know is that she was locked in a room for some time, drawing childish images of Azazeal all over the walls, images which Cassie later draws on her notes...read the Episode Two guide for theories on history repeating itself here. Esther died in 1762, in quite a brutal fashion...we've seen her with bleeding fingernails, and then hanging dead from a tree in the grounds. Its worth mentioning that when she's hanging, she has manky eyes.
According to David Tyrel in Episode Three, Esther McBain was killed by a mob from the village, who beleived she 'had the devil in her' after she killed her boyfriend. If history really is repeating itself, is Cassie about to kill Troy? Seems not, the McBain thread seems to be dropped throughout the first series, which is a shame, hopefully they will be further explored in the second series.
Presumably the McBains had similar powers to Cassie. The first confirmation within the show that they are actually witches comes from Cassie's mother in the third episode... we really don't know much about them yet, I'll add more as we discover it! |
