We begin moments after the discovery of Witchplague on base. The coven regroup, realizing the Camarilla have infiltrated the base in the chaos, and pick their battles carefully. Tally is able to use her Sight to find the right frequency that will disable the Camarilla's Work-dampening tech, and passes it onto Petra, who is holding down the control room with Nicte. Alder, who showed up to help in any way she can, has gone with Anacostia and her biddies to try and round up as many survivors as they can, but they are pinned into a corner by the Camarilla. Alder’s biddies are infected with Witchplague, and realization of what’s about to happen comes crashing down on Alder. Without her biddies to keep her young, she ages rapidly, her skin becoming like bark as Anacostia sobs over her.
The Camarilla doctor, Alban Hearst, thanks Nicte for turning public opinion against witches and enabling the Camarilla to return and thrive. He tells Petra that the union of earth and sky must be prevented at all costs, referring to Abigail and Adil, and leaves just before Petra gets Tally’s message. While Petra and Nicte fight side by side, Nicte saying that her fight isn’t with the army anymore, Adil comes to Khalida’s rescue but gets stabbed by a member of the Camarilla. Seeing her brother’s life in danger, Khalida makes a decision, and she uses Work to melt the guy into lava.
In the Cession, Edwin rushes to tell Scylla and Quinn about the attack happening at Fort Salem. Quinn and the Dodgers begin war preparations while Scylla tries to reassure Edwin that Raelle will be okay. Raelle’s Mycelium powers can’t cure the Witchplague, at least not permanently, but the unit decide that hitting the source of the infection with the Witchbomb might help. They locate the source, shocked to see that it's Penelope, seemingly unaware of what’s happening to her. They try in vain to save her, making the difficult decision as a group to take Penelope out. Unfortunately for them, the news crew for Penelope’s interview have stuck around to keep filming.
The next morning, the base is left in chaos. 64 voices were stolen in addition to those killed by the Witchplague. Abigail is reunited with Adil and Khalida, the latter of which is finally warming up to her brother’s girlfriend. Raelle talks to her dad on the phone and reassures him that she’s fine. Edwin passes the phone to a hovering Scylla and makes himself scarce. Raelle tells Scylla that the worst part of the attack was thinking that she might never see her again. She doesn’t want to have regrets, and so she tells Scylla then and there that she loves her. Scylla, on the verge of tears, tells Raelle that she loves her, too.
Tree!person Alder, barely clinging onto life through sheer stubbornness, asks to be brought to the Mycelium. She wants Anacostia and the Bellweather unit there when she meets the Mother, and the four of them each say their goodbyes to her. Anacostia doesn’t know how to do any of this without her surrogate mother. Abigail promises they’ll be just as hard on Petra when she’s in charge. Raelle thanks her for pushing her and enabling her to learn how to use the Witchbomb. Tally tells Alder that she can put her burden down now; they’ll carry it from here. The four of them give Alder to the Mother, standing hand in hand as they say goodbye to General Sarah Alder.
VP Silver confronts Petra over what he views as the murder of his daughter. The news crew captured the footage of the unit performing “some sort of a spell” to kill her, and now Silver has a warrant for the arrest of the unit. M commends the unit for making a difficult, but correct, call the previous night. Because of what they did, they saved thousands, but Tally is still reliving Penelope’s terror. The unit are remanded into custody but Petra tells them that it will be over before they know it. Sterling finds Anacostia, who is suspicious about the three news crews he signed onto base. Sterling says that he only signed off on one crew. The other two aren’t his signature.
The Bellweather unit are in a cell with Nicte, who warns them that the civilians will want to burn them regardless of their intentions, that soon they’ll go back to the burning times. Nicte confides in Tally what Hearst said to her; she hates to agree with someone like him, but he wasn’t wrong. Tally says that Nicte, not unlike Alder, did what she thought was right. Tally is losing faith. The truth is out, and none of it matters, and now it looks like the Camarilla have won. Nicte promises her that the fight isn’t over.
In DC, Petra sits down with the President in an attempt to get the Bellweather unit’s names cleared. She asks to perform her own investigation, but Wade is determined that the girls should pay for Penelope’s death to make a point about witches being held accountable for her actions. Petra, seeing that she’s getting nowhere with the civilian government, relays a message to Anacostia. It’s time to move. Anacostia immediately gets a hold of Scylla on the phone.
Adil thanks Khalida for saving his life. Khalida tearfully explains that something broke inside her when she saw the Camarilla about to murder him with hate in their eyes, and that thing won’t go back together. She apologizes for judging Adil for his actions. Now that she’s able to put herself in his place, she understands, and she wants to fight back. Anacostia finds the two of them, telling them that Abigail is in danger, and asks for their help.
The unit and Nicte are onboard a prison transport bus en route to DC when the ground in front of them suddenly caves in and the bus screeches to a halt. Abigail smiles, knowing exactly what caused the fissure, and then Raelle looks down at her palm to see a familiar ‘S’ mark appear as a murder of crows circle the bus. Because she knows Scylla, she immediately yells for everyone to duck, right before the windows shatter. The guards free them, under the influence of Morrigan’s Whisper, and leave the scene.
The girls leap off the bus into the waiting arms of their loved ones; Abigail and Adil, Raelle and Scylla, and even Tally gets a hug from Quinn. Nicte, with nobody to hug, grabs a lighter on her way out. Raelle marvels at Scylla’s innovation when it comes to creating and using her Work, thanking her for saving her life again, and tells Scylla that she doesn’t want to be apart from her anymore. Scylla agrees wholeheartedly, and the two of them share a fierce kiss, implying a Relationship Upgrade.
Anacostia and Petra drop in under cover of a storm that shields them from the approaching authorities. Abigail and her mother have a moment together, as do Scylla and Anacostia. Petra and Anacostia are going back to base to try and change things from there, while the others – now fugitives – need to disappear for a while. Their plan is to head west and get lost in the Cession. They take Nicte along, who promises to try and look after them, despite a brief protest. With that, Anacostia creates a gap in the storm, Nicte disguises the prison bus as a senior citizens’ casino party bus, and the magnificent eight drive off into what’s sure to be a very interesting group dynamic.
But wait, it’s not over. VP Silver, looking glumly at the television on his private jet, replays the footage of Penelope getting pricked by the sound guy just before her interview. A sound guy who turns out to not be a sound guy at all, but Alban Hearst in disguise. Hearst joins Silver and thanks him for the sacrifice, promising that Penelope’s life in exchange for power and the Presidency will be worth it.
But wait! It’s still not over! Beneath the ground of Fort Salem, we journey to the center of the Mycelium, where we find a regenerated and young-looking Alder held in what may be a form of healing stasis. Her eyes snap open.
Tropes Used:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Camarilla uses an unwitting Penelope to unleash the Witchplague upon Fort Salem, which they use to infiltrate the base.
- Big Damn Heroes: Adil, Khalida, Scylla and her crow army, Quinn, Anacostia, and Petra team up to break the unit and Nicte out of custody.
- Earlier in the episode, although it's a horrible choice they had to make, the Bellweather unit save the base by destroying the source of the Witchplague.
- Call-Back: Scylla’s ‘S’ mark shows up on Raelle’s palm for the first time since 1x06.
- Scylla says “yes, ma’am” to Anacostia, as she did in 1x05, with a completely different tone that reflects the growth of their friendship.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In a case of Chekhov's Sound Guy, we find out that it was Hearst who pricked Penelope while attaching her mic at the end of the previous episode, and in doing so, infected her with the Witchplague.
- Enemy Mine: Petra and Nicte team up to fight off the Camarilla, a climactic leadership version of the groundwork laid earlier in the season by Anacostia and Scylla.
- Funny Background Event: Everyone’s faces during and especially after Raelle and Scylla make out in front of them. Abigail’s face, in particular, is a gem.
- Good Is Not Soft: Khalida turns a guy into lava when he’s about to kill Adil.
- Immediate Sequel: The episode picks up almost immediately after the end of the previous one.
- Love Confession: Raelle and Scylla confess their love for each other over the phone the morning after the attack on Fort Salem.
- Magic Harms Technology: Tally's Sight allows her to "see" the frequency of the devices used by the Camarilla to block their Work. She and the others are able to sing a tone that disables the tech.
- Not Quite Dead: Alder, maybe, as of the final shot of the episode.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Alder is dead (kind of), the Camarilla are making big moves towards power, and the unit are on the run in a senior citizens' casino bus with two Spree members, two former pacifists, and Raelle's old babysitter. Bring on season three.
- Official Kiss: Raelle and Scylla get one near the end of the episode which implies their Relationship Upgrade.
- Offing the Offspring: VP Silver sacrifices his daughter Penelope for the Camarilla.
- Rapid Aging: Alder essentially turns into Baby Groot when she loses all of her biddies.
- The Reveal: VP Silver is working with the Camarilla and sacrificed his own daughter to get in with them.
- Sacrificial Lion: Poor Penelope ends up being this.
- Sadistic Choice: The Bellweather unit are faced with one; they kill Penelope to stop the attack, or they let her live and condemn many more to die. They choose to kill Penelope.
- Season Finale: And no less eventful an episode than the season one finale.
- Throne Room Throwdown: More of a tactical headquarters than a throne room, but this is where Petra and Nicte make their stand.
- Two-Part Episode: The season two finale marks part one of “Revolution”.
- Wham Episode: Alder dies (mostly), Penelope is sacrificed by her father who’s revealed to be in league with the Camarilla, and the unit end up as fugitives on the run.
