Aahana Swrup
The Owens sisters, Sally and Gillian, find themselves bound for a new adventure in ‘Practical Magic 2,’ 28 years after the events of the first film. After the death of her husband, Gary, the oldest sister realizes that the family curse continues to plague the love lives of Owens women. As a result, she decides to block herself entirely from magic and erases all memory of it from the minds of her young daughters, Kylie and Antonia. Years later, the two sisters, along with their aunts, Franny and Jet, remain a fixture in their Massachusetts town. However, their relatively regular lives are turned upside down when Kylie’s boyfriend, Gideon, gets in a car crash that leaves him on death’s door. This pushes the young witch to discover her family’s history and seek a cure for the curse that holds Gideon’s life in balance. Yet, her reckless descent into the mystic threatens to have dire consequences, compelling Sally and Gillian to undertake a preventive mission in turn. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Practical Magic 2 Plot Synopsis
After meeting Gary, Sally Owens had hoped that the family curse, condemning every woman in her lineage to lose the man she loves, had finally been lifted. Nonetheless, her husband’s tragic and untimely death confirms otherwise. Overrun by grief, she takes a drastic step in the aftermath, casting a spell that makes her daughters forget all about witchcraft. Thus, she cuts herself off entirely from magic in an attempt to lead a normal life. While Gillian, Jet, and Franny continue to indulge in the mystic art forms, they too agree to keep the truth hidden from the young Owens sisters. Years later, on her birthday, Jet seeks out the Book of Raven, a grimoire of deep, dark magic that contains the secret to undoing the ancient curse. However, the pages containing the antidote are sealed shut, requiring more magic than the older witch can dispense at the moment.
As it turns out, Jet has neared the end of her days, as signified by the deathwatch beetle sounding around her. Gillian makes the same discovery when she returns home for the birthday celebrations. Sally, who has been cut off from magic for decades now, has failed to notice the same. Despite the tragedy ahead, Jet insists on a proper celebration as Kylie and Antonia also return home from college. As the day, full of bittersweet joy and festivities, ends, the elder witch passes away. The household enters a period of mourning, holding a wake at Sally’s place. During this time, Gideon, Kylie’s boyfriend, drops by to extend his condolences and support. So far, the young Owens had been apprehensive about letting herself fall for the other, but this gesture cements her love for him.
Tragically, the morning after Kylie voices her love for Gideon, the latter ends up in a car accident that sends him into a coma. The timing of the incident isn’t lost on the young woman. For years, she has heard rumors around town about her family being witches who bear a curse that turns them into tragic lovers. As such, she finally confronts her mother, demanding the truth about everything. Although Sally wants to keep up the charade, Gillian forces her to dismantle the web of lies. In the aftermath, an aggrieved Kylie is left further heartbroken, losing all trust in her mother. Nonetheless, she refuses to accept the curse. Instead, she steals the Book of Raven from Jet’s belongings and sets off on a quest that takes her to England.
Once Sally realizes her daughter is missing, she follows her credit card trail to pin her down in England. Despite her annoyance at her sister, she agrees to let Gillian tag along. As per Franny’s advice, once in England, the duo seek out Professor Ian Wright, a seer and an academic student of magic. After finding him trapped in a hex in his apartment, the sisters save his life, and he agrees to help them out. Notably, on the second day, he helps Sally free her magic after years of suppressing it. Meanwhile, Kylie arrives at the small town of Thornfield, driven by visions and whispers of the Book of Raven. There, she meets Tom Bailey, who tells her about the town’s history. Apparently, Hannah Owens, mother of Marie Owens, was burned at the stake at the local Lockland manor. As such, he leads her to the manor, encouraging her to perform a spell that could reverse the curse. Yet, Kylie soon realizes something more sinister is afoot.
Practical Magic 2 Ending: Does the Owens Family Curse Get Broken?
Before her death, Jet sets out to free her family from the curse that has ruled over their lives for decades. Their ancestor, Maria Owens, cast a curse over her bloodline, making it so that every man loved by an Owens woman would meet a bitter end. After Gary, Sally had wanted to believe that the curse had been lifting. However, opening her heart up to the possibility of love only led to another heartbreak when the curse claimed Gary as its next victim. For the same reason, she seals herself off from magic and any future possibility of love. Yet, by building these walls around her heart, Sally had inadvertently distanced herself from all forms of love and affection, allowing fear to rule her life. Thus, Jet was willing to dabble in the dark secrets of the Book of Raven to reverse Marie’s curse if it meant freeing her family from an unloved life.
When Jet fails to access the curse reversal pages, she leaves the grimoire to her sister. However, it’s Kylie who ends up discovering it. Unlike the other women of the family, Sally’s daughters have been shielded from magic and their own potential for it their entire lives. Therefore, her eldest daughter has much to lose by jumping straight into dark witchcraft. Her broken heart and shattered trust make her vulnerable to outside influence and manipulation. This is exactly what Tom takes advantage of once the Book of Raven brings Kylie to Thornfield. As it turns out, there was a second illegitimate lineage of the Owens family. After Hannah Owens was abducted by Lord Lockland, she gave birth to her kidnapper’s child before facing the stake.
The Lockland line of the family, born out of violence and force, doesn’t bear the same mystic powers as the Owens. Nevertheless, this doesn’t stop Tom from seeking out the same power. As a result, he becomes a practitioner of dark magic. Still, he has to get by on scraps of magical power. That is until Kylie shows up and presents a coveted opportunity. He uses her desperation to undo the curse against her and tricks her into partaking in a ritual with a different outcome. The spell serves the purpose of stealing Kylie’s magic and transferring it to Tom. By the time the Owens realizes something is wrong, it’s already too late. Yet, despite her decision to go on this mission alone, she has never truly been on her own.
Before the spell can be completed, Sally and Gillian find her, and three Owens women take on Tom together. The aunt binds her niece to the same blood magic that ties the two sisters, empowering their magic. As such, in the end, they’re able to defeat Tom. Better yet, in the aftermath of this magical showdown, the Book of Raven feeds on enough magic to reveal the pages holding the curse’s cure. Unfortunately, since a life had sealed the spell onto the family, it is only a life that can undo it. This means that one of the Owens women will have to intentionally sacrifice themselves in order to free the others of the curse. Initially, the trio deems this an impossible outcome and return home. Still, once Franny finds the book again, she decides to make the sacrifice with her own life. Ultimately, the eldest Owens witch dies, trading her life for the others’ happiness.
Does Gideon Survive? Does Kylie End Up With Him?
Gideon becomes an unwitting victim in a curse that has been circling the Owens family for decades. Since Sally intentionally hides the family’s history from her daughters, they never learn the truth about the curse either. Kylie and Antonia overhear rumors about it and know that the other women in their family are weird about their love lives. Even so, they have no reason to believe that they will ever put someone else in tangible danger by falling in love with them. Therefore, when Gideon gets in the accident that puts his life on the line, Kylie can’t help but blame herself on some level. Moreover, she blames her mother for keeping such a monumental secret from her. This compels her to recklessly search for a cure.
Even though she fails to reverse the curse herself, her quest reveals the secrets of the Book of Raven to Franny, who makes the ultimate sacrifice. Shortly after Jet’s death, the other aunt had also started to hear the deathmarch beetle, signifying that her demise was near. Perhaps this helps make the choice that much easier. Franny decides that if her death is imminent, she’s going to ensure that it means something. Once she finalizes the ritual, trading the curse for her life, Gideon wakes from his coma at the hospital. Kylie is finally reunited with the love of her life. A year later, the duo decides to finally tie the knot. The ceremony is held in the backyard of Sally’s house, where the whole town comes together for the celebration.
Do Sally and Ian End Up Together?
Much like Kylie, Sally is also bound for a tumultuous love story. After losing two lovers to the curse, the witch no longer has it in her to hope for a third chance. Even so, she can’t deny the spark she feels on her first meeting with Ian Wright. Similarly, even though the latter is well-versed in the Owens family curse, he finds himself pulled into the older sister’s orbit. At first, Sally remains combative and apprehensive of this attraction. For the same reason, she’s quick to jump to conclusions about the seer once some dubious evidence comes to light. At Tom’s shed, Sally and Gillian discover photographs of him with Ian. The seer insists that this is because the young man used to be his student. Nonetheless, the sisters remain suspicious of him and decide to magically knock him out.
Even so, during the showdown with Tom, the Owens realize that they were wrong about Ian. As it turns out, the student had indeed turned his back on his master after realizing his ambitions of dark magic won’t be supported. In fact, he was the one who put the hex on the seer in order to steal his Rauðskinna for the magic-stealing spell. Yet, once this misunderstanding clears, something still stands between Sally and Ian: the Owens family curse. After two heartbreaks, the witch is reluctant to invite a third. Therefore, she leaves both England and the seer behind. Nevertheless, after Franny’s sacrifice, Sally decides to stop loving from love. Thus, a year later, she is revealed to be dating Tom, who flies out to Boston for Kylie’s wedding.
Read More: Where Was Practical Magic 2 Filmed? All Shooting Locations
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