Alder approaches the President to open testing centers in order to find more witches. The President and VP are hesitant as they know that if Wade signs the orders, there will be public outcry. People don’t want to give up their daughters to conscription. All of a sudden, Wade seems to be reconsidering… Under Alder’s magical influence, the order is signed. Petra is definitely onto her but doesn’t explicitly call her out on it.
At Fort Salem, our unit are soaking wet. Abigail’s Weatherwork is evidently getting more powerful. Asked about witchbomb training, Raelle says that Izadora is trying to get her to sing seeds that trigger her powers without needing to die, which hasn’t yielded any results so far. She can’t even speak a full sentence of Mothertongue, so what chance does she have of unlocking the Mycelium’s power?
The Imperatrix – the woman in charge of ensuring the continuation of witch bloodlines – has arrived at Fort Salem for the start of the matrimonial season, and after dishing out some insults, she has some hard to hear news for Abigail. Given the profile of her line, her handfasting will be extremely important, and will need to take place soon. As in, at the end of the year. The Imperatrix has chosen Gregorio to help further Abigail’s line, which infuriates her.
Raelle is trying fruitlessly to get the Mycelium to react to her seeds, but after She (not it) reminds Raelle of the Death Cap particles that Scylla showed her in the forest, she replicates the seed Scylla sung. Tendrils of the Mycelium reach out to Raelle, before suddenly jumping down her throat, panicking her. Izadora gets the Mycelium to back off; Raelle is a little shell-shocked, but she’s gotten Her attention.
Tally is helping Penelope with her seeds. Penelope isn’t confident that she’ll be ready for the test center opening, but Tally gives her encouragement. The two bond over their parents’ disapproval; Penelope’s father over her being a witch, Tally’s mother over her joining the army despite having a dispensation. Tally tells Penelope to believe in herself; she can’t do this if she hates herself, after all.
Anacostia and Scylla are at Bonnie and Shane’s house, where they’re subjected to their hateful views on witches. Bonnie lets it slip that their daughter’s friend Tiffany was found out to be a witch; apparently there’s some kind of test. This is news to Anacostia and Scylla. The man from the bar, Jack Orsatti, turns up and starts conducting serious business with Shane. Bonnie says that Orsatti helps organize the vigils and pays people to attend and stir things up. Back in the car on their stakeout, Scylla and Anacostia disagree on the other’s espionage methods while following Orsatti to wherever he’s going.
The Imperatrix talks to both Tally and Raelle about the potential of their lines, even though neither of them have the purity she wants. Raelle tells her in no uncertain terms that she’s not interested in handfasting. Or men. When the Imperatrix insults her mother’s choices and calls Raelle an insolent child, Raelle responds in perfect Mothertongue, calling her a mothballed old sea hag, and stalks off. Tally asks where the language ability came from; Raelle has no idea.
The Mycelium has colonized Raelle’s larynx, giving her the ability to speak Mothertongue effortlessly, as well as making complex and layered seed sounds all by herself. She tries singing to Her once more, her eyes flash a paler blue, and she blows a hole in the wall. Alder is astounded at the potential Raelle now holds as a weapon. She orders a weapons test, which at least means she gets to skip the matrimonial season ball that Abigail and Tally must go to.
Anacostia and Scylla have followed Orsatti to four different schools. Since he’s seen both of their faces, Scylla changes hers to investigate. She finds that the Camarilla are sonic testing kids at the schools to find out if they’re witches. The sound reverts Scylla’s disguised face back to her own, but she remains unseen. Later that day, however, her disguise is burned away again as she’s ambushed by Orsatti. Anacostia comes to her rescue, knocking him out, and tells a grateful Scylla that they’re in this together.
Abigail and Adil get into a fight. Abigail is sick of being defined by her family, and when Adil says that there’s nothing wrong with tradition, she blows up at him and says that tradition didn’t work out so well for the pacifist Tarim, who “lay down and died” rather than fight the Camarilla. Adil coldly reminds Abigail that his people were ambushed and murdered. Abigail protests that the way to fight the Camarilla is to take the fight to them; if her ancestor Jem made a Working that could stop a battle, then maybe it’s time for someone to make one that could stop a war. Adil, unimpressed, walks away.
At the weapons test, Raelle’s powers are observed by General Sharma, who will be reporting to another member of the Hague, and VP Silver, who is appearing in place of an under the weather President. Raelle demonstrates the Witchbomb by blasting apart solid rock and, in its wake, glowing mushrooms sprout from the ground. Raelle is left in awe of what she just did.
Tally has been hallucinating bloody weapons in her hands and at the reception, abandoned by an Abigail on a mission, she relives more of Alder’s memories. The mystery woman, who Alder calls Sergeant Nicte Batan, angrily and tearfully tells Sarah that she stole her work and that “they” had already surrendered, as she stands in front of a building in the middle of the jungle, the site of a mass Psychic-Assisted Suicide. Alder says she did what she had to do. Back in the present, Tally sinks to the floor, crying over the death she’s just seen.
Abigail didn’t come home overnight. Adil is the one who finds her, singing up a storm so violent that it lifts her off the ground and makes blood drip from her mouth before she collapses to the ground, completely spent.
Tropes Used:
- Chekhov's Skill: Subverted – Raelle bemoans how difficult she finds Mothertongue, only to be completely fluent later in the episode once the Mycelium colonizes her larynx, the first indicator as to what’s happened and how much more powerful she just got.
- Flashback Cut: The Death Cap scene from 1x02 gets a call-back when the particles the Mycelium sends to Raelle reminds her of the seed Scylla sung.
- Foreshadowing: We see, in terms of the timeline, the first Psychic-Assisted Suicide Work courtesy of Nicte Batan when Alder steals it and uses it. This becomes the first hint to the origin of the Spree.
- Glowing Eyes: Using the Witchbomb makes Raelle’s eyes glow, brighter and darker than Salva, but still distinct from her normal eye color.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: The tone that the Camarilla play to try and root out young witches causes Scylla’s disguised face to revert back to her normal one.
- Mind Manipulation: What Alder does to Wade to get her to sign the order to open witch testing centers. Petra definitely noticed.
- Moment of Weakness: Abigail’s harsh words to Adil, borne of frustration at the lack of control over her life, comes off as this.
- Muggle–Mage Romance: The Imperatrix shows disdain for Raelle because her parents are this.
- Noodle Incident: When we first see the unit, they’re all soaked from head to toe. It’s explained that Abigail’s Weatherwork did this to them, but other than learning that she threw a waterspout at Raelle on purpose, we don’t learn a lot about the specifics.
- The Resenter: Abigail is understandably jealous and resentful that Raelle has become a top-secret military experiment and Tally is reliving Alder’s greatest battles, when she doesn’t even get to decide who the father of her children is apparently going to be.
- Stealth Insult: Petra has this to say when Alder comments on the arrogance of the Imperatrix.Petra: That’s the danger of having no-one but yourself to answer to.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Anacostia and Scylla’s working relationship hits a few bumps, but smooths out a lot by the end of the episode.
