Alder attempts to interrogate an uncooperative Scylla on the wedding attack. Scylla accuses Alder of binding witches to people who hate them. Alder plays mind games with Scylla, calls her a murderer and trying to convince her to tell them what she knows before it’s too late. Anacostia tries to force her way into Scylla’s mind, catching a glimpse, but Scylla forces her out. Scylla insists that the Spree won’t stop until there’s complete liberation of witches.
The Bellweather unit has become the subject of gossip on-base after Raelle’s flight and Abigail and Tally’s rescue, but Abigail is sticking by her unit defensively. She helps Adil get some breakfast and offers him a tour of the base. Tally approves. Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Khalida’s plague-like infection seems to have wrapped around her vocal chords, causing chaos in the room.
Izadora demonstrates some unorthodox teaching methods in Fixing class, slashing a student's throat and giving a speech about the importance of a Fixer before finally healing the poor girl through Linking with her. This especially disturbs Abigail, who almost had her throat cut only two episodes ago. Tally quickly dodges being paired with Raelle in the exercise, worried Raelle will find out what she knows about Scylla, so Raelle gets stuck with Beth, who argues with her about the "Christo-Pagan nonsense" she uses while healing and brings up her failure to save Porter. Raelle just keeps saying it louder, culminating in everyone except herself and Izadora falling briefly unconscious. Izadora warns her against going outside of canon and urges her to master her emotions. Abigail defends Raelle against Beth, congratulating Raelle for taking her down.
The boys are back in town! Tally comes face to face with Gerit for the first time since the wedding, and is civil when he apologizes, but brushes him off. Byron and Raelle trade some friendly insults before Byron notices that Raelle's finger looks infected after she touched the Mycelium. Abigail kindly separates herself from Clive and Augustín before finding Adil outside collecting flowers for his sister. They walk together but end up arguing about their conflicting views on the military and the cost of war. Adil gets startled by a helicopter, and when Abigail looks back, he's gone.
While Raelle gets her finger looked at, Abigail catches up with Adil, who confides in her about the atrocities he’s lived through and the people he’s lost. The Fixers attempt to heal Khalida, but one false note in the seed results in disaster as the infection spreads further. Meanwhile, Scylla is undergoing psychological torture from Anacostia, but is still flatly refusing to talk or let her into her head.
When Adil tells Abigail that the attempt to save Khalida didn’t work, Abigail asks Raelle for help. Tally is able to see something approaching them in the woods, which turns out to be an invisible Adil and Khalida. Adil tells Tally she’s gifted with Sight. Raelle uses her off-canon Work to rid Khalida of the black webbing, but she’s convinced that something’s gone wrong because, unlike every other time, she doesn’t take on any of Khalida’s illness when she heals her. In the crypt, black webbing spreads across the Mycelium wall. So that’s where it went…
Gerit knocks on Tally’s door. She tries to let him down but gives in to her feelings and kisses him. Adil shows Abigail his invisibility Work, and the two of them share a kiss, but then Abigail ruins the moment by wondering aloud what the military could accomplish with the power of invisibility. Adil knows all too well what they could do with it, and leaves.
That night, Raelle is kept unconscious through magical means and carried off to the dungeon where Scylla is being held. When she wakes up, her relief at seeing Scylla alive is overtaken by her worry and confusion as to why she’s being held prisoner. Scylla tells Raelle that she loves her, and would never do anything to hurt her, and Raelle tells Scylla she loves her, too. Scylla begs Raelle to not believe all of the horrible things she's going to hear about her. Scylla screams for Raelle as the latter is dragged away kicking and screaming, and Anacostia uses her lowered defenses to finally break into her mind.
In the flashback, we see the lead up to Scylla carrying out the Spree attack at the mall that kicked off the series, although Anacostia senses some remorse on Scylla’s part. Even before the attack, she wavered. Having gotten what she needed, the location of an armory encased in a factory surrounded by civilians, Anacostia leaves a sobbing Scylla alone in the dungeon.
Raelle wakes up again in her bed, staggering and sweating as she tells her unit that Scylla is alive, brushing off their insistences that it was just a dream. It's then that Anacostia enters the room, telling the girls that Citydrop, the crucible of basic training, is happening now. Alder gets magically overpowered by Khalida, who tells her in no uncertain terms that the Tarim’s songs will never be safe with her.
The cadets run to the helicopters, flying to the drop zone before applying their Salva and leaping from the copter. Tune in next week to see if they make it to the ground in one piece!
Tropes Used:
- Blatant Lies: Alder doesn’t believe for a second that Khalida simply woke up cured.
- The Bus Came Back: A literal example for the male witches.
- Character Development: Abigail continues to warm up to Raelle, telling a cadet to back off because Raelle is one of hers. She also doesn't rise to Libba’s taunting at the end, choosing calming reassurance over a grand speech to her unit.
- Creepy Child: Khalida has shades of this, knowing Raelle’s full name without being told.
- Eye Scream: The poor Fixer wearing glasses when an infected Khalida causes things to shatter…
- Glowing Eyes: Salva gives whoever is using it pale blue eyes. This was less noticeable before with Raelle and Scylla – both of whom have blue eyes anyway – but is quite jarring with the brown-eyed Abigail and Tally.
- Immediate Sequel: The beginning of this episode picks up very soon after the ending of episode 6.
- Love Confession: Raelle confesses her love to Scylla.Raelle: (crying) I love you. I love you. I’m so sorry I didn’t say it sooner.
- Mind Screw: Alder messes with Scylla’s mind as part of the interrogation, offering her illusory food which turns into broken glass before vanishing entirely.
- Reunion Kiss: One of the first things Raelle does upon waking up and seeing Scylla is kiss her.
- Moment Killer: Abigail really steps in it after she and Adil kiss.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Raelle finds out that Scylla is alive and, to begin with, is in complete disbelief that it’s real.
- Shipper on Deck: Tally is already supportive of Abigail and Adil after seeing them speak a few sentences to each other.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Adil’s invisibility powers make him capable of this.
- Stress Vomit: Raelle throws up when she wakes up again in her room after being taken to Scylla and then taken away again. We earlier learn that waking up too fast from magically-induced sleep makes you sick, offering a hint to the characters that Raelle's experience was real.
- Tap on the Head: Raelle gets a magical version of this, twice, as well as delivering one herself to her entire class by accident.
- Torture Is Ineffective: Scylla isn’t cracking… at least, not until Anacostia brings Raelle in and lets Scylla watch as she gets dragged away kicking and screaming.
- Use Your Head: Scylla headbutts Anacostia when she tries to force her way into her head.
- Villainous Breakdown: Scylla completely breaks down after Raelle is taken away from her and Anacostia is able to access her memories from the day of the mall attack; she’s left sobbing as Anacostia walks away.
- Waking Up Elsewhere: Happens twice to Raelle when she’s magically knocked unconscious to get her in and out of where Scylla’s being held.
