Mary and Wainwright are enjoying themselves immensely and
can’t wait to get all cosy with the dark powers. Except first he has to burn
all his work since it leads to Mary. He’s not a lover of that but he agrees
since it does actually implicate her and she would be horribly murdered for it
He burns his work – and the Malum. I’m sure that’s going
to back fire. Do not put evil artefacts in the fire! That’s worse than
fireworks
Mary begins the day by being vile to Tituba and going to
her kid – and finding evil kiddy John is missing, instead there’s a smug
countess Marburg. Hey there’s an upside, every morning should begin with Lucy
Lawless.
She points out that evil child is evil and intended to be
an epic sacrifice to the dark lord and how wonderfully honoured Mary should be
to kill her kid for the greater bad. Marburg totally wanted to kill Sebastien
but, alas, it wasn’t to be. She gives the tearful Mary a choice – sacrifice her
kid (tomorrow on sacrifice day) or Marburg will kill him, bathe in his blood
and wait for the next time round
Marburg is not impressed by Mary’s reluctance towards
this honour
Cotton is drunk (how very shocking) and gets a visit from
the endlessly annoying and amazingly not dead Hawthorn who, having heard that
the powers that be have banished Cotton from Salem, has Cotton kicked out. He
quickly talks about the witches and hell and having proof – and insists that
Hawthorne speak to Wainwright and be told they need Cotton to stop hellish
witches killing them all. Because Hawthorne respects Wainwright’s opinion now?
Of course Wainwright has been nobbled and hangs Cotton
out to dry. Cotton is not a happy preacher. Cotton does manage to demand they
all go to the Crags to see the hell tar and Hawthorne agrees. Of course while
the dead birds are still there, the crags are just a pit full of bodies, not a
hell portal. They witches have been covering up – Cotton now doubts his own
senses and looks a lot like a drunken fool. Even Wainwright is a little surprised.
Hawthorne is not impressed and Wainwright is nicely condescending in trying to
defend him. Cotton rages at Wainwright and is dragged away
Sebastien goes to Mary with lots of creepy talk of how he
wants her – Mary clearly sees this as a deal, she sleeps with him and he
returns her son. When Wainwright arrives, Sebastian presents himself as Mary’s
utterly trusted confidante and telepathically tells Mary to play along – for the
sake of her son. He also presents himself as Wainwright’s mentor (Wainwright is
utterly awed by the glamour that hid the hellgate) since Mary can hardly be
seen spending lots of time alone with Wainwright. Mary goes along with it –
seeing it as a trade, Wainwright for her son.
Wainwright is super eager to learn everything even as Sebastian tells him not to discount all superstition as is his wont – he also has an interesting take on the Adam and Eve myth, with Lucifer always seeking to give humankind knowledge. He then pushes Wainwright into the hellgate – which I think is largely due to him being jealous over Mary
Mary confronts Tituba since she knew all along she had a
son and he was a sacrifice – she demands to know the reasons behind the lies
and Tituba points out that Mary would never have agreed if she knew. Mary is
aghast that a friend would do that and Tituba finally skewers this whole idea
they were friends – she is a slave. She was owned by Mary’s father, she was
property. And yes she sold Mary’s son to the devil – just as she was sold
repeatedly as a slave. She points out Mary can still have the world – but she
says she wants love. They fight and Mary ends up with a knife at Tituba’s
throat. Tituba bargains – sparing her will bring back someone she loved: John.
The adult not her son
Melodramatic reunion time! And John wants to know why
Mary became a witch – basically to build a better world and bring down the
cruel hypocritical oppressors they both railed against. He doesn’t believe her,
but she brings up their son and the need to save him (and, coincidentally, stop
all her naughty bad evil). Despite Tituba’s objection, Mary releases John
(wait, didn’t Tituba release him last episode?)
Of course he spares her in the name of her demon son –
and Mary explains why she never told John (he wouldn’t have gone to war if he
had known she were pregnant and then George Sibley would have killed him) and
how Tituba gave her the only chance to escape – give up her son – after she thought
John was dead: of course and Mary never realised the kid was alive (because
evil lying Tituba). Now she wants John’s help to save their son. They make
their plans – as the comet ominously appears scaring everyone.
Hawthorn has Cotton taken out of town and grossly tells
him how he plans to “comfort” Anne – and tells one of his minions to kill
Cotton once they’re out of town.
Over to Anne who reads her dad’s book – and words
addressed to her, assuming she could only read it if a) he was dead and b) she
had learned something of being a witch. It’s
a classic Urban Fantasy Parent letter. She reads through his words and
practices magic, learning lots of shiny tricks – but is also warned that a
curse come with her gift. She turns the next page and is transported to the
forest and with a skinned, bloody devil (I assume) – the curse.
She runs as he catches her and begins ripping off her clothes. She screams for Cotton who just happens to be passing – but he continues on (not that he has much choice).
Anne is later teleported back to the book which she slams angrily closed.
Tituba has finally finally finally confronted the whole
terrible idea that she and Mary are friends and that she somehow owes Mary
something. This could have been powerful and important. But Mary doesn’t hear a
damn word she says, and I don’t think we’re supposed to either. Her words are
just a stepping stone to the big John and Mary reunion – which is followed by
Mary still playing the “my only friend betrayed me!” Mary you just listened to
Tituba tell you she is not your friend, she’s a slave – enough with your pity
me refrain. The show simply cannot make this work – they cannot paint Mary as
the desperate martyr and Tituba as her cruel tormentor when Mary literally OWNS
Tituba and it’s gross and ridiculous to keep trying.
I also am tired of the whole theme of Mary Sibley – she embraced
her dark magic for power and safety – but for two entire seasons she has spent
her time pining away tragically over John and John Junior. There’s a subtext
here – power, freedom and agency vs love and being a wife/mother. The two
cannot coincide – and the latter is definitely the choice a MORAL Mary is
expected to take. It’s a gross message
On the gross messages – Anne Hale. Have we really thrown
in a random demon rape here? What possible reason was there for this? To show
magic has a price – there are a thousand ways to show that without this vile cliché.
To show magic is evil? Haven’t we seen that far more excellently with Anne
embracing power even she knows is wrong when pushed to it?
And can we look at that theme – magic is evil and has a price. But Anne has never been shown any real means NOT to be magical. She was born with magic, she used magic even when trying not to – and the whole demon “curse” hit when she was using pretty innocuous magic. The message here is that she was born a witch, therefore born evil, therefore born with this “curse” being inevitable.
I get that Wainwright is curious and loving this whole
new source of knowledge – but he cannot possibly escape what the witches are
doing? They’re curious and they know a lot and they’re being meanly persecuted –
hey let’s manufacture a plague!!! There’s not even a second of him
contemplating this.
