Footsteps appear in the desert. A man carrying an unconscious young girl magically comes into view, staggering towards a US military outpost that we learn is near the last known location of the Tarim. As the man collapses by the barrier, a witch runs to meet them, yelling that, “they’re here!”
Abigail, still beaten and bloody from the fight which almost killed her, is describing the attack to a woman interviewing her. Her memories of the event come out jumbled as she tries to make sense of everything through her trauma and frustration. Nevertheless, she insists that she can do this. She’s a Bellweather, after all. Petra is also reliving the incident, stating that the specific sound that disabled her vocal Work isn’t anything she’s come up against before.
Outside the room Abigail is in, Raelle paces nervously, theorizing to a conflicted Tally what might have happened to Scylla. Tally, knowing Scylla is Spree, snaps at Raelle that she doesn’t know what happened to her. Abigail comes out of the room and brushes off Tally and Raelle’s attempts to talk.
The man and the girl, still unconscious, have made it to the Fort Salem infirmary, where Alder welcomes them. We learn that they’re siblings named Adil and Khalida, and that Khalida is sick with an unknown illness that presents as black webbing on her skin.
Izadora is performing autopsies on the civilians also killed at the wedding, only to find out that the civilians were actually witches. Not only that, as Petra sees their faded witch marks, they were Bellweathers. Charvel was not the sole target of the wedding attack. Alder wants to know how they didn’t know they were witches, and Izadora theorizes that the lines may have been lost due to draft dodging or marriages to civilians. Alder notes that this attack was particularly disturbing, as the Spree don’t typically kill other witches. They decide to keep this on the down-low.
The cadets, meanwhile, are learning to fly. Salva, last seen misused by Raelle and Scylla in the first episode, is what witches use to drop into combat situations. In fact, Raelle is volunteered to go first, as she’s the only one with experience. But mastering Salva flying is tricky; Raelle gets distracted when she’s flying, thinking back to when she did this with Scylla, and plummets to the ground when she loses focus.
Raelle confronts Anacostia about the lack of information on what happened to Scylla. She loses her temper, yelling that she’s being treated as if she’s crazy. Scylla was right there, Anacostia saw her, and then she was gone. Anacostia sharply tells her that the investigation is above her pay grade and that Scylla has not been found, despite Raelle’s accusations that her investigation is biased due to her dislike of Scylla.
Since the Bellweather family were specifically targeted, a bodyguard named Bridey is assigned to protect Abigail. Abigail is outraged at her perceived weakness, arguing with Tally when she tries to get Abigail to open up and process her feelings. Abigail insists to Bridey that she’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
Raelle visits the Necro facility in an attempt to get find anything that could lead to Scylla. It’s here that she comes face to face with the Mycelium, a mysterious entity that resides beneath the ground and is apparently part of a mushroom. It reaches out to Raelle, who reaches back, and then Izadora rushes in demanding to know if Raelle touched it. Raelle says she didn’t, but the audience is shown that she did. Raelle introduces herself to Izadora, who breaks the news to her that Scylla is dead.
Abigail spars with Bridey, her frustration at not landing a hit growing until she breaks down, crying as she confesses that she let her guard down at the wedding. Bridey tells Abigail of a time when letting her guard down resulted in the death of a member of her unit. She explains that she never got her eye Fixed because she felt like she didn’t deserve two eyes after her lack of foresight.
Elsewhere, Tally wants to tell Raelle about what she discovered about Scylla, but Anacostia forbids her. Tally rationalizes to herself that she should focus on what she can to rather than what she can’t do; that she should just trust the process and everything will work itself out. On the opposite end of the trust spectrum, Adil is clearly distrustful of Alder’s intentions, especially when it comes to the songs that only the Tarim know. Adil and Abigail lock eyes when she briefly visits the infirmary.
Raelle is nearly catatonic after learning of Scylla’s death. She tells Abigail and Tally, tearfully explaining that they were meant to go to Scylla’s lighthouse at the beach. Surely that’s where Scylla would be; she can’t be dead, right? Later that night, Abigail has a nightmare but refuses to accept it, claiming it was a leg cramp. As Raelle gets back into bed, an ‘S’ mark appears on her palm. Scylla’s reaching out, and it sparks hope in Raelle that she really is alive.
The next day, Abigail tells her unit that she’s never felt less powerful over not being able to protect herself. She and Raelle exchange condolences over their losses, but then Raelle abandons her unit with an excuse that she’s left her medal in their room. After training, Tally finds her Salva tin misplaced and empty. Abigail’s is empty too, and Raelle is nowhere to be found.
Raelle pockets Scylla’s corsage and dumps a fistful of Salva onto her neck as she sets off for the beach, driven by grief and desperation, but her flying is erratic and dangerous as she’s unable to gain control of her movements. Abigail and Tally persuade Bridey to take them to the beach and bring Raelle home, finding her unconscious at the edge of the water. Raelle comes to, desperately telling them that Scylla contacted her. She resists Tally and Abigail’s attempts to take her away, breaking down as she screams that Scylla’s alive.
Scylla is, in fact, alive. But she’s not at the beach. She’s chained to a chair in a dungeon, in the middle of being interrogated by Anacostia and Izadora. Scylla is refusing to talk, only attempting to reach out to Raelle via their palm link then she’s alone, but then the door opens. Standing before her, cold as ice, is General Sarah Alder.
Tropes Used:
- Anguished Outburst: Abigail bottles her feelings of helplessness over Charvel’s death until she has one of these to Bridey, and then later to Raelle and Tally. Raelle has a couple of these over losing Scylla – one where she accuses Anacostia of not looking for her and another on the beach when she screams at her unit that Scylla’s alive.
- Bearer of Bad News: It’s a complete lie, but Izadora takes on this role when she tells Raelle that Scylla is dead.
- Blatant Lies: Abigail tries to pass off her writhing during a nightmare as a leg cramp. Nobody buys it, but they don’t call her out on the lie.
- Cannot Spit It Out: According to Raelle’s actress, Taylor Hickson, Raelle’s desperation and rash decisions this episode is due in part to her guilt over being too scared to tell Scylla she loves her.
- Chekhov's Gun: Scylla’s ‘S’ mark that was introduced last episode returns here, giving Raelle hope that she’s alive after all.
- Creepy Basement: Scylla is revealed to be chained up in one of these at the end of the episode.
- Did Not Think This Through: Raelle’s impossible mission to get to the beach was a choice made only with desperation and lacks any rational thought.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Abigail is trying her hardest to hold it together, and that includes rejecting any suggestion that she might not be fine in the wake of the attack. She even lashes out at Tally.
- Eyepatch of Power: Bridey has one of these, which is unusual for witches as she could’ve simply gotten her eye Fixed. She later explains to a curious Abigail why she didn’t.
- Foreshadowing: Alder finds it disturbing that the Spree would kill witches, as it’s not something they’ve ever done, which is the first hint that it’s actually the Camarilla and not the Spree who carried out the attack.
- Friendship Moment: Abigail and Tally rushing to Raelle’s aid at the beach and comforting her over Scylla’s apparent death.
- Held Gaze: Abigail and Adil see each other for the first time and indulge in a bit of this.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Tally isn’t at all happy about having to keep Raelle in the dark about Scylla.
- Oh, Crap!: Tally and Abigail’s reaction when they realize that Raelle has taken their Salva.
- Repression Never Ends Well: Abigail’s attempts to suppress her grief lead to her breaking down on Bridey.
- Sanity Slippage: Raelle suffers from shades of this throughout the episode after Scylla’s disappearance, news of her death, and then the ‘S’ mark, which culminates in her desperate and futile attempt to track Scylla down at the beach. She tells her unit that Scylla contacted her, holding up her hand, but the mark is long gone by then.
- Scenery Porn: The sequence where Raelle flies over grassy fields and open water as she heads for the beach.
- Second Episode Introduction: Well, sixth, but this is the episode we are introduced to both Adil and Khalida of the Tarim.
- Suicide Mission: Raelle’s attempt to fly to the beach with the lighthouse that Scylla mentioned as being a place she felt safe, convinced that she’s alive and hiding out there. Needless to say, she takes a handful of Salva all at once and crash-lands, knocking herself unconscious in her attempt.
- Tragic Keepsake: Raelle keeps the bird skull corsage she gave Scylla in the previous episode, putting it in her bag before attempting to fly to the beach.
- What Could Have Been: In-Universe. As Raelle will go on to find out, her life would have been a whole lot different if Izadora had come in even a second earlier and stopped her from touching the Mycelium.
