It only took 28 years to get the iconic Owens sisters back on the big screen, but now that they’ve made their return, they took no time to get back to witchy business in Practical Magic 2. As many fans know by now, sequels try to put a modern appeal to their originals, but most of the time, the new can never quite replace the old. That wasn’t the case for Practical Magic 2, though, where the story was just as enticing as the original, with plenty of Easter eggs to keep original fans entranced.
After watching Practical Magic 2 in theaters, the essence of the original was there, as so many scenes alluded to moments of the Owens sisters’ past. And it didn’t just stop with the aunts, Sally, and Gillian, because now Kylie and Antonia Owens are grown up and exploring their hidden powers. But in order to even know that they had powers of their own, they had to reveal their mom’s suppressed witchcraft. The curse of the broken heart wasn’t the only thing that carried itself over from the 1998 classic — here are some more enchanting nods to the original that are serious blasts from the past.
- The Rose Bush
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One of most well-remembered scenes from the first Practical Magic was when Gillian’s lover, Jimmy Angelov, turned out to be an evil serial killer. After holding Sally and Gillian hostage, the sisters accidentally murdered him and covered it up by burying Jimmy in their rose garden. In Practical Magic 2, Sally sarcastically calls back to this memory when talking to Gillian and Ian. This genuinely made me laugh because it was one of those things where it was not funny in the moment, but ended up being a funny memory. It was almost as if I was a part of an Owens sisters inside joke!
- Midnight Margaritas
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The midnight margaritas are an iconic piece of the original movie. So, naturally, the sequel mentioned them not once, but twice! As soon as Stevie Nicks and Harry Nilsson’s intro to “Coconut” started playing faintly in the background, I knew that a wave of nostalgia would come over me. The same song, same dancing, and same blender magic spell took me right back to the original midnight kitchen cackles. And even though Sally tried to replace the classic blender by gifting Aunt Jet a Ninja Slushi (great product placement, by the way), she came back to her witchy senses by the end to give the fans a true midnight margarita experience.
- A Tragic Death
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The whole premise of the Practical Magic movies is that the women of the Owens family were hexed by their ancestor who had a terrible heartbreak. So as a result of that pain, she cast a spell that would never let an Owens woman fall in love again. As we saw in the original, any time one of the girls confessed their love, a beetle would appear to warn them of their partner’s death, and soon after, tragedy would strike. In the original, Sally’s husband died as he was crossing the street and got run over by a car. Practical Magic 2 basically paralleled this by making Kylie’s boyfriend Gideon’s tragic accident also car-related. Except this time around, Gideon was on his bike getting flowers for Kylie when it all happened.
- A Mary Poppins Moment
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At the very end of Practical Magic 2, Sally reminded the girls of a little trick they did when they were little. As they lined up at the edge of their balcony holding umbrellas, they elegantly floated down to the floor, Mary Poppins-style. This direct mimic of the ending in the original was such a full-circle moment. Who knew that a few witches floating around would pull at the heart strings?
- Stirring The Tea
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Among the wild spells that were casted in the movies, the classic self-stirring tea cup was one of the moments that showed how sprinkles of harmless magic were a part of Sally and Gillian’s lives. In the original, as Sally sat at her desk and wrote Gillian a letter about her emptiness, the tea cup was being continuously stirred without disruption. In the new version, Sally quickly stops the spoon from stirring in an effort to hide her magic from Kylie and Antonia. This perfectly played into the grander theme of Sally having to re-discover her powers instead of suppressing them.
- An Iconic Ending Quote
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Just like the original, the Owens girls still hold their same message: “There are some things I know for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can.” The ending quote really tied together the themes of silly little superstitions and more serious emotional aspects.