Salem had a heck of a first season
proving that witches could be downright terrifying on television. It
left off last season with Mary completing the Grand Rite. Mercy went
off the deep end to protect the innocents, proclaiming herself the
Queen of the Night. John learned the truth about Mary, and loved her
anyways. He wanted to run off with her, but she left him hanging.
Issac foolishly fell prey to the Grand Rite. Cotton killed his own
father to save Mary. And Mary was reunited with the child she thought
was lost.
Season two pricks up with a child
sneaking about on the docks. He goes to steal a chicken, and the
night watchman gives chase. The man chases the child all the way to
Knocker's Hole. He hesitates entering, but hearing banging, he heads
inside. He comes to the courtyard, and hears the clucking just on the
otherside of a pair of doors leading down. A little girl warns him
from entering, Death lies inside. He doesn't heed her warning, but he
should have. There is blood on the floors, and walls, banging. The
chicken flies at him, but still he doesn't turn back. He finds the
boy, and he looks terrified. The man goes to see the source of the
banding, and finds what could be what's left of Ann. Her family
fallen and dead due to plague. She goes after him, asking for help.
He screams in horror, trying to push her rotting face away.
Mary sings to her son, but he's never
had a lullaby. The witches never sang them, and Mary promises to
sing to him every night. She asks where he's been held all this time,
but before he can answer Tituba comes to take the boy home. Mary
doesn't want to let go of her precious boy, she's tired of the
arrangement and it's only been three days. When Mary doesn't let him
go, Tituba does something to him, his eyes turn milky, and the child
unresponsive. Mary begs her to make it stop, and she tells Mary it
will when she lets him go. Mary refuses to be toyed with like this,
she has proven her loyalty, and done what no other witch has been
able to do. She deserves better than the way they're treating her.
The witch pox continues to decimate their enemies, and those with
witch blood remain untouched. She will open the gates on time. Tituba
tells her that no one lacks faith in her abilities, but what she must
do next she cannot do alone, she needs support. Mercy, her own
creation remains unstable. Anne Hale remains a large threat. She is a
cradle witch of the highest and oldest order. Tituba takes the boy as
she reminds Mary that time is not on their side. Mary thinks in a
month everyone will either be dead or on their side. Tituba knows
that she still thinks of John Alden, hopefully with a bath and hair
cut, and that is precisely the reason that they don't trust her. Mary
remembers well what Ruth told her, only a broken heart can fuel true
malice. Watching her son leave every night fuels her malice well, and
Mary isn't going to forget Tituba's betrayal any time soon.
Mary goes to John's house, smells his
clothes. She goes to Petrus, she knows that he can track the indians.
She wants him to find John Alden. He smells the shirt, and remembers
him well, he was there once. That she knows, but she needs to know
where he is now, there have been scattered reports but nothing
conclusive. He asks for Mary's hands, placing his eyes in them so she
can see. She sees John's death, his burial by the Indians. She
leaves in a hurry.
In and Indian camp, a woman, on from
Mary's vision, burns sage. Her father commends her dream catcher for
blocking the witch vision. They showed her what John wanted her to
see. Her father tells her to come. John Alden is alive and well. The
chief tells him the good news. John is glad to hear it, by the time
he sees him coming he plans to have killed every witch in Salem.
Hopefully somewhere in that plan is a bath.
Crazy Mercy states at a pretty bird as
Mary comes upon her. Mary wonders if she remembers to sleep on a
pillow rather than on corpses. Mary asks if she remembers what it
feels like to be in clean clothes, even her father did not dress her
so. Mercy admits that her father didn't care about her dressing, only
her undressing. Everyone is mad at someone, but Mary tells her that
she has to let the pain go. Mercy isn't ready for that, even as Mary
tells her that Salem will soon be theirs. Mercy wishes good old
fashioned revenge. Mary wants her to fall into line, to pay her
proper respects for both their sakes. Mercy points out that it was
she that beheaded the Samhain witch, but she's not greedy, she's
content to rule along side Mary as her equal. That will never happen,
she's too reckless. Mary tells her to submit to her elders, and
there's no telling what she can become, she promises. Mercy asks if
its the same as she promised John Alden, and that really gets Mary.
Mary threatens her that if she defies her only horror will come her
way, and that is a promise and a curse. Mary leaves Mercy, walking
past her many followers. Those girls have seen better days.
In Boston, Cotton faces an inquiry
about the events of Salem, including the death of his father, and how
his closest associate John Alden seems to be to blame. Poor Cotton,
he knows he has much to answer for, but he does not think that John
is to blame. Cotton tells of the night that his father landed in
Salem. He thought it better that a thousand should die to ensure
that not a single witch walk free. Cotton thinks that his father's
thinking was wrong. The witches completed their Grand Rite because of
him, and made Salem ground zero, it is a battleground now. The man
tells him that Cotton will do as his father wanted, and will be
confined to Boston and forbidden from returning to Salem.
Cotton is up to his old tricks,
spouting bible passages as he screws a whore, but its not the same.
He remembers Gloriana, and her being sent away. He can't follow
through, and he sends the girl away with her full payment. He drinks
heavily, knowing the truth. It wasn't John who ran him through, but
Cotton himself. He wonders if he should tell the council how insane
his father became, how close to murder he was, and what Cotton did to
save his father's soul. He damn's his father's icy stare that haunts
him from the grave, and a painting. He takes out his anger on the
painting, slashing it and ripping it from the wall.
Late night. A drunken man mistakens one
of Mercy's girls for a whore. He asks how much, and she smiles. She
tells him she wants him, and he foolishly follows her. He starts to
protest as she leads him into the woods, but a kiss quiets and
distracts him. The other girls surround him, and she tells him that
its just her sisters. So intent on the girl in black, he doesn't
realize the danger until its too late, and the girls have him tied to
the tree. He panics when he sees Mercy. He even threatens to tell
people that she's there, but she laughs, no one would believe him.
They would believe that he took a girl to the woods to steal her
maidenhead, but not that some crazy stole his manhood. Mercy drops to
her knees before him, and slices his penis off, placing a crow there
instead. She tells him that one day she will call him and he will
come and do as he's told. The girls release him, and he heads back to
Salem.
More are stricken down by the pox,
their bodies taken away.
Anne Hale pours herself a hot bath,
getting in. She grabs a straight razor and slits her wrist. Her blood
fill the tub, and she brings herself under the water. Her blood goes
back into her body, and she rises from the tub with a gasp. Mary is
there. She tells her that her blood is her life force, and deep down
she knows she wants to live. Mary knows that Anne killed her parents,
and its time to face what she really is. Anne refuses to admit what
she is. Mary admits that she came into her powers in the wake of
great loss, of how she felt it come into her body and she could do
things with word and gesture. Mary knows the fear, and the joy of
that power. Mary pushes her, asking if she remembers the doll she
gave her the one that only killed her. Anne remembers with hatred in
her heart, and the razor flies towards Mary, scaring Anne. Mary can
help her gain control of her powers and together they can build a new
world. Anne doesn't see how they can build a nation on the bones of
innocents. All nations are built on bone and blood. Mary just wants
freedom. They may have different methods, but its what Anne wants
too. Anne doesn't think that they can be on the same side, she sold
her soul to the devil. Mary tells her that the devil they see is not
the devil she knows. Mary warns that as a single woman with no
parents to guard her, she is vulnerable. She offers her the
protection she can from Mr. Sibley, and tells her that she should
find a man of her own for name and standing. Anne doesn't understand
why she would help. They have both experienced loss, and ultimately
they are family. Anne wonders what they will say about her parents.
Mary tells her to just get cleaned up and show up at the meeting
house.
Mary makes one of her pretty speeches
in the meeting house, she tells the people that the pox are spreading
to good people. It has even taken Magistrate Hale and his family. She
thinks that they should take some strict measures to insure their
survival. Mr. Hawthorne thinks that they have fallen out of God's
favor, and that they must find a way back into his good graces. He
thinks that it is because the world has been turned upside down, with
a woman on top. They have turned their backs on the way things are
suppose to be, lead by men of property, men of substance, men of
godly good will, above all by men. Mary tries to speak, but Hawthorne
stops her. Until George can speak for himself as a man, they will
assume it is her that is leading the Selectmen of Salem. He submits
that it is high time that the Selectmen of Salem elect a new leader
or admit that they chose to be lead by her in the name of her
incapacitated husband. The crowd is in an uproar. A man breaks the
tension. If they think that the pox cares that they're lead by a
woman or man, than they will all die. The pox doesn't care about sex.
It may take the weakest first, and he just came from Knocker's Hole
hoping to give the poor a voice, but finds them all squabbling over
politics. He plans to return to see what he can do for those people.
Mary finds his words well said. Whether they pray at meetings or not,
the least among them are their responsibility too. Mary leaves to
accompany him, proving that a woman does not fear to walk among the
people, and asks Hawthorne if he will join.
The man tells Mary that whether a town
survives the plague depends on how they handle it. Mary asks who he
is that he knows so much about pox. He's a doctor who survived the
plague as a child, and thinks that he can save the town not by
fasting, or purging powerful women, but by science. He tells one of
his men to mark the door of a sick man. Mary tells him that his
arrival is fortuitous to Salem. He kisses her hand. She finds the
gesture old world. He sometimes thinks that they're less evolved.
They once flourished under the rule of a Queen, and yet men like
Hawthorne seem to have forgotten that. He thinks Mary is like the
Queen Elizabeth of Salem. She wonders if he is as good a doctor as he
is a flatterer. He thinks he is. He will start by finding the origin
of the Pox.
The Chief thinks that John's plan is
too dangerous, he cannot allow it. His daughter paints symbols on
John's chest. He is not afraid to die. The Chief tells him that the
ceremony will change him, and it is time that they leave. Everything
is connected, and the witches seek to awaken something, and it will
destroy them. They're going to turn the place into Hell. John tells
him that he will cleanse Salem of the witches, and asks for his
protection. The Chief walks away.
Mary surprises the doctor as he pours
over a map, looking like he's intent on finding treasure. If he finds
what he's looking for it may be a great treasure indeed. He's mapped
out every known case, and signs point to the North woods. Mary is
concerned over the deep woods, warning that even locals fear to tread
there. Fierce landscapes do not scare him, and Mary doesn't try to
stop him.
The Elders are not happy that Mercy has
summoned them. They do the summoning. She wants to show them what she
has done. She has claimed six men to do her bidding. Six men are
nothing to them, they want the world. Mercy thinks that it is she
that should be running the hive, not Mary. The Elders remind her that
Mary does not control them, but they her. They have no need of Mercy.
They tell her to go back to her grove of corpses. Mercy tries to
appeal to them, and they spit in her face. That was too far. Mercy
brings in her girls.
The Doctor, Samuel, goes searching into
the woods. He eventually stumbles upon the Malleum. As he looks over
the slimy thing he heads a mumbling moan, it's Issac, and he's seen
better days. He wonders if he's in heaven or hell. He's in neither
Samuel tells him, but Salem.
The rain pours down and Cotton's
studies are disturbed. His inquisitor has more questions that he
thought would be best for private. He asks when Cotton last saw his
father. He saw him the day he left. His father and his men thought
that they would find John Alden, and his flock in Boston had suffered
without a shepherd for too long. So he sent his son back until he
returned, but he would never return. The inquisitor wonders what that
says about his father's confidence in him. He sent him away right
before the witch was apprehended. Cotton thinks that point could be
argued, and they did in the past. The Inquisitor tells him that he
would have never argued with his father, even raising his voice would
have felt like striking him. Cotton assures him that if it came to
that, it would have been his father dealing out the blows not him.
He asks if his father ever struck him. Cotton thinks no more than
necessary than his proper upbringing required. The Inquisitor reminds
him that he's confined to Boston, should they need to question him
further before leaving and heading to a ship.
On the ship, a woman baths in the tub.
He tells her that Cotton Mather knows nothing. She wants to know if
Increase is truly dead. He is. That is something to celebrate, she
has burns on her shoulder and back in the shape of his hand. If his
grip weren't so fierce she would not bear his mark. He tells her that
Mather knows enough that a Grand Rite was completed, but not who did
it or even who killed his father, though he seems certain that it was
not John Alden. She wants to know who did the Grand Rite though. For
that, he thinks that they need to go to Salem. She apologizes that he
will not be accompanying her and her son to Salem. His work for her
is done. She stands nude before him, and tells him that he can stop
averting his gaze, and stare directly at her. He does, and as the tub
begins to drain, it pours out of his mouth. He drowns on the floor
before its finished.
Mary heads to Samuel. Given her concern
for the city, he wanted her to be the first to know. He pulls back
the curtain on Isaac, who Samuel thinks could be the savior of the
city. Isaac is covered in pox. Samuel thinks that he was at the
epicenter of the outbreak, and that if he survives his blood may be
able to help others. If he recovers he may even be able to tell them
how he became ill. Mary is fearful of that, but still says that she
hopes he survives.
John is awoken. The Spirit Guides have
spoken. He will be well armed with weapons from this world and
beyond, but he has to know two things. First, he will never be the
same once he's been marked, and two he will never walk out of Salem
alive. John was born there, and sees no reason for him not to die
there. They begin the ceremony. John drinks from the cup, and it
begins. He's tattooed, and his hair cut. His neck is cut, and some
sort of bug is inserted. The chief's daughter is brought before him.
She licks the blood from his face, and in her hand is an eye. She
places it her palm eye on his forehead. The ceremonial dancing
continues.
Mary sits with her son who listens to a
jewelry box. It was her mother's but she never knew her. She shows
him a comb, it was her mother's too, made from a bone. She doesn't
know much about her mother or father, both lost her her at a young
age. The boy asks about his father. She tells him that he was the
very best of men, and she loved him more than anything, but he is
dead, and she reserves all of her love for her son now. Her son has
no name, the witches won't let him until he is baptized, but if he
could have a name he would like to be John too. Mary tells him that
he shall be then. Mercy''s girls kill the Elders. John feels their
deaths. Mary has no clue what is happening to her son, and Tituba
rushes in in a panic. Mercy Lewis killed their witches, the true
elders. Outside in the courtyard a fire burns. Hanging about the fire
are the two dead witches, and burning outside Mary's window is the
word Liar. Oh Mercy, what have you done now?
