Someone’s finally doing something about poor Mercy (the
girl who does horrible things like bite off her own finger and cough up nails),
her dad decides to exorcise her. With what appears to be a Catholic exorcism no
less, which may make him even less popular than the witches with the puritans. Part
of this involves cutting her stomach – and a snake slithers out.
Again, I have to think any sensible person in Salem at
this time has to be thinking “hey, Canada isn’t that cold, I’m going north.”
A stranger arrives in town to pick up a parcel from a
boat – which has been quarantined because of a flu outbreak that has killed 5 –
a quarantine ordered by George (meaning Mary, of course). Mary’s busy taunting
her dear husband on the balcony about how she’s going to have Mercy declare the
blacksmith a witch. This is before electricity you have to get your fun somehow
Anne and John have a little meeting in the graveyard (it’s
a vehicle for John to be angsty. And someone get that man a cough sweet, the
hoarse-throaty-I-wanna-be-wolverine voice needs to end) where discusses how her
father is a wonderful man and totally not a witch who removed a cursed doll
from her room, no, not at all! All of this quite possibly heard by Hale.
And John who is so outraged by the vicar deciding to kill
people on the basis of superstition… decides to tell Cotton that Anne has been
bespelled – and further implicates Hale. Cotton is sceptical, which is all
kinds of wrongly amusing, and in between declaring how everyone has secrets and
shame, he storms up and gets quite angry that Glorianna is getting up close and
personal with the new man in town and is outraged at the idea the man may hire
her for sex! (Only Cotton may do that). This could escalate but the man sees
John (who looks stunned) and hurriedly and politely leaves. John denies knowing
him. John is a dirty rotten liar.
Mercy’s dad takes her out for a little walk when they run
into Mary who quickly puts some bad woo-woo on her. Despite all Mary tries,
Mercy has a terrible fit but doesn’t accuse the Blacksmith (even when prompted
by a passer by) – Mary tells Tituba that they’ve lost control of her.
The witches meet, Hale, as ever, ready to put the knife
in Mary over losing Mercy, Tituba ready to defend Mary and snarl at Hale and
Rose taking Mary’s reassurance that all is well to be a guaratee. Hale also
warns them that if someone doesn’t deal with John’s suspicion he will himself –
but Rose won’t back that, telling Hale to earn John’s trust but at the same
time telling Mary she’s telling the other witches her plans will go ahead soon.
Which sounds less like a vote of confidence and more like “they had BETTER go
ahead soon!”
Mary goes to Cotton and plays on all his daddy issues to
try and fire him up into a witch hunting frenzy. She succeeds in driving him to
drink. Hale goes about his business more gently – with a party invitation for
John, but John is more interested in tracking down Lieutenant Hook, the new man
in town. John doesn’t like him much (they apparently fought together) and wants
him gone – and Hook wants an introduction to Mary. Hook has some secrets from
John’s past and is willing to force his will via blackmail – overheard by
Tituba.
Mary sets off to the party while George, left behind,
stabs himself in the leg again – and uses the blood to keep writing the word “witch”
on a piece of paper. On her way Mary is stopped by Hook who wants to get his
cargo off the ship – she refuses. It’s a quarantine. Quarantine means no going
on board.
Cotton goes to see Mercy and her nervous father – and finds
both a herb used in exorcism and the cut on her stomach (he is shocked and
appalled because Cotton is setting new hypocrisy records this episode)
Time for the party – Mary is not pleased that Hale has
given his daughter Anne a necklace with Valerian Root (anti-witch nastiness) to
protect her – and burn Mary’s fingers. Cotton rushes to Mary to tell her the
goodness that Mercy is free from witch possession thanks to Catholic ritual! As
I expected, a Catholic in Salem is rather less welcome than a witch and Mary
holds this as further proof of how terribad awful Cotton is.
Hale invites John to make a big grand speech on how he can help against the witches – which backfires since John raises the possibility of the rulers of Salem being witches, not the commoners. After the party Hale tries to reach John again – saying his daughter was spelled but he didn’t say anything out of worry for her. He’s just a concerned father – and John doesn’t buy it and says as much to Hale.
Glorianna is waiting for Cotton at the church and not
having him playing the “oh I pity you, you sinful whore” game and seduces him,
ripping apart his sanctimony as hypocritical, exposing his chasing off of Hook
not as “pity” but as envy – even sentiment. Then he grabs her by the throat –
she protests and he forces her to the stairs and rapes her, throwing coins down
around her afterwards.
Hook sneaks into the Sibley house to see George, assuming
he can and will overrule his wife – and the mute and hardly mobile George gives
him the piece of paper with “witch” scrawled on it. Hook is clearly disturbed
and leaves silently, with the letter. He goes to see Mary and uses the note to
blackmail her into letting him on the ship. She agrees, that night… oh he’s not
wise to trust that.
Tituba is shocked but Mary is focused far more on Mercy –
they need to put a familiar back in her. Tituba doesn’t see how it can be done,
but Mary plans to prey on the same wish that lead her to witchcraft – that for
a better life. In theory anyway because she just seems to say “open wide, here
snakey snakey” and Mercy is possessed again.
Tituba heads out to deal with Hook. As an extra twist –
the parcel Hook is retrieving is a mystery to him as well – he’s retrieving it
for Rose, the elderly witch. Tituba goes to John and sells a good lie – Hook is
their enemy, he intends to rob Mary and forced her to let him on her ship by
threatening to spread the rumour that Mary and John are having an affair.
Hale decides to give his daughter a command to not see
John again (as her father, her “lord and master”.)
Hook gets his parcel – and runs into John. There’s more
hints of a huge number of men John killed, sparing only Hook if he promised to
keep away. Bad Hook! Not keeping your promises is naughty and gets you
strangled and added to the pile of quarantined bodies (does he expect people to
lose count?). Inside the chest Hook had is a delicately carved box.
John and Mary have a regret filled “we can make this
sexual tension last for a whole season despite the complete lack of anything
resembling chemistry between us” moment. And Mary goes back inside to find
Mercy holding the blood stained snake familiar in one hand – cackling “I know
what you are.” She then disappears.
Well that backfired.
Salem continues to cross lines. There is zero story or
character reason to include Glorianna’s rape – his hypocrisy has already been
shown repeatedly, even his contempt for a prostitute can be shown without
resorting to this. It’s unnecessary, it’s vile and it’s thrown in just because
this show likes to cross lines often for no other reason than to do so.
There’s one stinking hot mess, Tituba’s another – being both
the evil corrupting Black woman leading the White lady astray AND said White
lady’s slave at the same time (because even though Tituba is advising Mary, it’s
becoming clear that Mary is still the one in charge).
Does Salem display the misogyny of the time in blatant
terms that we’re supposed to be shocked and appalled by? Certainly – but then
by throwing in gratuitous rape and the evil corrupt woman (even Hale seems more
moral than Mary) who powers their demonic pacts through abortion it perpetuates
another form of misogyny as pervasive and more than the “I am father Lord and
master!”
In plot terms – please move along any day now. And no,
Alden-with-the-wolverine/batman-voice does not need a dark back story.
