Salem Recap S01E12: Ashes, Ashes
Among the
corpses Mercy walks. The vermin eat the flesh, and Mercy has gone off the deep
end. She looks at a young child unfit for burial in the cemetary, a mother who
died in child birth, and the baby smothered to cover up the sin. She is the
mother of all the dead. Her father said that there is no purgatory, but Earth
is purgatory. Mary tells her that she is no ghost, she is more alive than any
of them, but Increase will not look for her here among the dead. Mercy asks of
her girls. Increase has four of them, but the Grand Rite will cleanse the land.
Mary assures her that her, her girls and her children will have a place in the
land. Mercy asks what is coming, and Mary shows her the apple. Death is coming.
Cotton sees
the land as rotten due to a rotten apple, the Malleum. It will bring about
death on a massive scale, but they know nothing of the ritual that will unleash
it. Cotton believes that he has finally put together enough pieces, that the
apple will open. He has seen the apple, or atleast the box that contains it in
the house of John Alden. Anne interrupts his findings, coming at a late hour. She
did not know who else to turn to. She asks if he thinks its possible to be a
witch and not know it. He thinks if one deeded their soul to Satan they would
know if, unless she points out if someone deeded it for them. Cotton tries to
assure her, but she needs more. She asks that he examine her, and he’s taken
aback by her demand. Cotton examines her, and Anne likes it. Her eyes turn red,
and her tongue forks, but he sees none of it since he closed his eyes during
the exam. He decrees that she is free of the Devil’s marks.
Increase
bangs on a bell to awaken the girls. He wonders who will be first. The girls
are covered in burns from the water, and
he tells them that whoever speaks first will not burn. Mercy peeks in on her
friends, while Increase suggests that one of them speak first of what John
Alden did to them. He leaves them to get his air. Mercy creeps in. She kisses
her girls on the forehead. They are thankful that she is here, because they are
so close to breaking. But she has not come for them, they cannot travel as she
does. She has come to remind them who they serve, the Queen of darkness, and
she has not forgotten them, anymore than she has. She tells them to give the
old goat what he wants, and speak against John Alden at the trail.
The crones
are pleased that the grand rite is nearly complete. Mary has succeeded where
all others have failed. Mary wishes to know why John Alden though. He is the
sacrifice they need. Mary offered up the little soul long ago, the hurting. He
is innocent she says. The Malleum needs innocence to open. Mary is the daughter
that they have raised, blood and tears are their weapons. To free him would be
to reveal what she is, and to do that would be to lose his love. Rather than
lose his love, they urge her to use it.
Cotton and
Increase walk together. In all of the literature, Malleum is always evil, why
would he think it would signify apple. Cotton thinks that it is a physical
object, and that object is here in Salem. Increase thinks his way of thinking
is failing. The simplest explanation is the correct one. Cotton isn’t satisfied
with that answer. He’s trying to stop the grand rite. Increase finds that
thought funny, his feeble son is arrogant. He asks if his son knows the cost of
stopping one. Increase tells him of the time he stopped the Grand Rite. When he
was a child, other witches tried to complete the Grand Rite. Many children
disappeared, and were found dead. Then many more disappeared. While others
searched for the children, he hunted the witch. The male witch took the form of
a six year old girl. Increase choked the child, and when the devil collected
the body he would not let go. His hands were burned by hellfire, his hands
still burn and are oddly green. Cotton points out that the Grand Rite was
averted. Increase tells him that there is only one way to avert the Grand Rite
to kill the witch who started it, which means John Alden must die.
John is
brought to trial. Increase speaks of John’s short comings. He ran off to war,
to gave himself over to it fully until he was captured by the heathens. And
with the heathens he became a powerful and weapon to be used against the
puritans who had betrayed him. Cotton interjects that it is all speculation, he
has no proof of what happened while John Alden was fighting, when he was held
captive. Increase gives John a chance to speak of what happened when he was
lost with the savages, but John says nothing. Increase is more than happy to tell
more tales. Mary listens to all with tears in her eyes. He was a tool of
malice, learning the dark arts, gathering familiars to do his bidding. Increase
shows the people a mark on his neck, an iron hard raised lump where he suckles
his familiars. John finds it humorous, and Increase slaps him for his impertinence.
Increase even blames George’s illness upon John, thinking after he undermined
the pillar of the community that he unleashed the true horror. He projected the
night hag to scare Mercy to show that no one is safe. Increase turns to Cotton,
asking of Mercy. Mercy was indeed plagued by a specter, and that John did cast
doubt on it. Increase goes further, pointing out that John also said that
prayer was worthless. John has been the one that stood up against every
instance of witches, his name was on Corey’s lips when he died, and he stood
for Bridgette. He condemns himself at every turn. He understands that women are
the entryway to evil. He asks how many women has John seduced, that he’s tried
to seduce even the highest women in the land. He asks Mary if the accused
entered her house, her boudoir. Mary asks if she would allow such a thing.
Increase points out that her manservant said he did. Mary tells him that John
came to discuss politics, to announce his attention to take his father’s seat
on the select board. Increase lets the question hang of why in the middle of
the night, and moves on. He puts Anne on the spot, asking her about the forced
kiss that John was seen delivering upon her. He asks her to deny it, and she
doesn’t. A snake in the grass, and who allowed his witches to run the brothel
of Salem. Worse, he points to the young maidens that were eager to allow him to
lead them astray. Cotton leans forward to hear what they have to say. One steps
forward. Mercy told them that it was John who came in the shadows of night,
that he licked and bite every part of her, and bewitched her. She might not
name his name, that she may blame all on the hag, but he took her at night in
spectral form and gave her to the night. Mercy lured the girls with magical
tricks and games, and soon they were dancing in the woods with him. Mary shakes
her head as the girl continues, saying that they touched each other and lay
with him. This Cotton finds interesting. He faces the girls, asking if it was
all of them. He kneels before the chatty one, Emily, asking if she is no longer
a maiden. If he were to examine her, one of the other women were to examine her
that he would not find her intact. Emily is quick to say that he has tongue,
fingers, and other invisible instruments of pleasure and that she had her eyes
closed, that she isn’t sure what he did. Cotton points out her delusions; that
all are susceptible to involuntary thoughts at times, but that Emily has been
overwhelmed by them, especially in the face of extreme torture by Increase.
Under the circumstances any girl would think herself a witch, and any man a
devil. The people murmur. Cotton submits that the level of torture was worthy
of the Inquisition. Who is the real victim, and who the villain? John Alden or
someone who uses a tool of torture. Cotton pulls out Increase’s pear and as the
murmuring gets louder from the people Increase tries to put a stop to Cotton’s
show and tell. The people are outraged, and Increase calls a suspension to the
hearing until tempers are cooled. Cotton is pleased, and John is taken away.
In his cell,
John feels like the entire town wants him hanged like he does possess some dark
magic. Cotton knows that he’s not a witch, but that he does possess dark magic
power, the Malleum. He asks where the box is that he found that lured the witch
to his house. Cotton believes that it is the key to the Grand Rite, it is the
greatest weapon of the witches, that will open when the Grand Rite is
completed. If that thing is what Cotton believes it to be, and his father knows
he has it then it is the final nail in his coffin. Cotton asks what if it’s the
only chance that they have. John tells him that Giles has it. He buried it in
Giles Corey’s grave.
Cotton
attempts to do a little grave robbing. He digs up the body, gives it a good pat
down, and finds nothing. He opens the cloth, and gets his hands dirty.
Increase
slices his own wrist and collects the blood on a linen. He hands it off to a
man, asking him if he knows what to do with it. Cotton comes to his father, not
to disrespect him more but because he is afraid. He fears while they disagree
on methods, they are both determined to stop the grand Rite. That brings
Increase some gratification. Cotton tells him that the Malleum is there, or
was. He saw it, he touched it. Increase asks where it is, but Cotton does not
know. Cotton tells him it was in John Alden’s house. They search the house,
tearing it apart, they find nothing. John helped him, Cotton explains. They trapped
a witch, carried her to the woods to question and kill her. John was merely
helping him eliminate a rival, Increase believes. If Increase can admit that
John may be innocent, he asks that his son admit that John just may be guilty, and
if he is right thousands may perish, their nation will fall.
Cotton goes
back to John, tells him that he searched Giles’ grave and that it was not
there. John cannot believe his ears, he buried the thing himself, which we know
Tituba collected shortly after. He asks who else knew, but John tells him none
other knew but Cotton himself. Cotton thinks that he isn’t being honest, but
John is. The people are mobbing, and John asks what is going on. John knows the
girls are innocent. Emily breaks free, telling him that she only regrets her
lies towards him. The selectmen grab her. John urges Cotton to do something to
help the girls. Cotton leaps, and John looks to see what Emily gave him. She
handed him the halved silver coin. Dollie watches the horror from the shadows. Emily
screams of Increase’s promise to save them. The four are fitted for nooses, and
weight to their legs. Increase is giving them mercy. They were promised that
they would not burn. Cotton makes it to the platform, to try to reason with his
father. The girls are tainted, Increase fears that they carry the devil’s seed,
and he is certain they must die. They pose a threat to Salem, as Cotton’s
weakness poses a threat. He must cut out the malignant malice before it
threatens further, Cotton tries to stop it, but the girls are hung above John’s
cell. Anne is shocked, and Mary angered. The girls are dead.
Dollie goes
to find Mercy, screaming and crying in the woods. Mercy finds her, and Dollie
tells her of Emily and the others at Increase’s hand. Mercy swore they would be
safe, but they were killed, her master was to protect them, but she did
nothing. Mercy sends Dollie back to Salem telling her to gather the young, the
poor, the suffering. They will be their army, and it will be a new day. The new
day demands a new Queen of the Night.
Increase
faces the people again. He knows its hard to believe that one of their own sons
is capable of witchcraft. Still he wishes that John be convicted and sentenced
for what he truly is, a traitor and a murderer. Increase says that when John
was with the Indians he took up arms and slaughtered men in his company,
something he swears to be true. Those kind of accusations are apparently good
Salem arguments in a trial. He dares John Alden to deny it, to deny that he
painted his face, that he smashed his skulls of his fellow soldiers. Cotton
demands to know where he got such information. The information came from Tituba.
Increase asks again that he speak, that he dispute the charges. Cotton asks the
same. John announces that every sane man knows that he’s not a witch, but when
Increase asks if he is a traitor, a murderer, John says nothing. Silence
confesses for him. Increase knows that he is a witch, but even still he thinks
that John should hang for his other crimes. Out of the frying pan into the
fire, Mary lets her tears fall.
Back in his
cell, Cotton asks that John tell him that his father is wrong, that he is not
the man he says he is. John wonders if he really wants the truth, if he really
knows good from evil. The puritans think the world is black and white, but John
wonders if the truth is that the world is nothing but shades of gray.
Flashback
time. After the battle John was left for dead, but he was found by the Mohawk. They
were not the Indians that they fought, but the enemy of them. They took him,
and John doesn’t think that he’ll understand why they saved him, but they did.
They pulled the bullet from his neck, which is the scar that Increase pointed
out. They treated him with kindness and respect. Their holy man took an
interest in him, and that too he does not know why. He worked with them, hunted
with them, and after one of those hunts they returned to find everyone in the
village slaughtered. They were killed by the militia, their militia. They
couldn’t even be bothered to tell one Indian tribe from another. A red fog
descended upon him, and did not life until he killed them all, all but one,
which he corrected the night he found the box. And the malleum? He knew nothing
about it, only what Cotton told him. When they lost the witch in the woods he
thought it would be best to hide it, so he buried it with Giles. Cotton thinks
that someone must have unburied it. John tells him that if his father is to be
believed then all they must do is hang him, and then all their problems will go
away. But Cotton still can’t figure out, after all they’ve been through if John
needed a friend or pawn. Poor Cotton.
Mary weeps
over John. Isaac tells her that weeping doesn’t help, that he’s done his fair
share. She sees he’s still bleeding, but he tells her that around here, who isn’t.
Mary falls her to his knees in tears. Isaac tells her that it is his fault.
John was headed out of town, and if not for him stopping him, John would be
long gone. He tells Mary that she can save John, that she’s Mary. They call her
Mary Sibley, but he calls her magic Mary in his heart. Even when they were
children she could do anything, she just has to want it bad enough.
John sleeps.
Mary kisses his forehead, and he’s startled to find her. She tells him that
they will hang him tomorrow. He points out she is one of they. She doesn’t know
who she is anymore. John finds it funny that Salem is finally going to hang
someone for something that he’s actually done. He tells Mary to go back home to
her life, as Mrs. Sibley. Mary confesses that she is his life. He tells her its
too late for that. She will not let him hang. John knows that the good people
of Salem, the ones that he’s been trying to save, want him dead, they think he’s
the devil. He’s no devil, but he is guilty of treason and he’s ready to hang
for it. He’s tired of living without her. There’s no way for them to be
together she says. It’s over, like everyone else in the town. Mary tries to promise, but John doesn’t want
anymore vows from her. He doesn’t think she’s making any sense. The walls are
stone, the windows and door are steel, and that all the love in the world
cannot change facts. Mary tells him that love is stronger, and there is still a
place for them. She asks him to go to his dreams one last time, to dream with
her. She kisses him.
And the kiss
brings him some place else, far outside his cell in the woods. He looks at her
in horror. Mary just let the cat out of the bag.
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