By: Suepafly
John Alden just had his world rocked after a kiss from Magic Mary that transported him out of his prison cell and deep into the forest. Now he knows her secret, she’s a witch, and even after her little show her Anneouncement is hard to swallow. She loves him enough to be happy to know he lives somewhere, even if its not with her. But a proclamation like that isn’t one John is going to easily let go of. John kisses her, but this isn’t goodbye. She still has her half of the coin, and his half came back to him. This is their second chance all they have to do is walk away, but she can’t go. John thinks she has a choice. Whatever she has to do, he wonders if it will make her happy, and she isn’t sure anymore. John knows there will be no peace in her heart if she stays, but thinks that they can find it together. Mary agrees to come with him, but she has to do something first. If she doesn’t fix something, terrible things will happen. She vows to meet him before the moon rises, but he warns that when the moon goes, he goes with or without her. In his hand he finds his silver piece now whole.
Mary walks through the forest, and body pieces rain down upon her, courtesy of Mercy, a tribute for her Queen. Of all the lost souls of Salem she pities hers the most. Mercy feels betrayed, which was never Mary’s intentions. In Mercy, Mary saw herself, and she gave her everything. Mercy lost her friends because of Mary’s broken promises. Everything from Mary’s lips is a lie in Mercy’s eyes. Mercy disappears and she warns Mary not to look for her, that she will find her when she least expects it.
All of the contents of Cotton’s room are purged. On his father’s orders his collection of knowledge are being discarded so he can return to the flock. Only his bible remains. Cotton asks Isaac what he wants from him. Isaac has come to speak on behalf of Captain Alden. Even though they have never said that they are friends, they are, and he asks if he has said his goodbyes. Cotton isn’t sure he can say goodbye after their last conversation. Isaac sees the wisdom in Cotton even if he does not.
Annee spins her wheel, and Hale returns from gathering supplies. He hands his daughter a live chicken. She coos at it, and he rips the head from it, exposing a door. Hale passes through it, but Annee is reluctant to follow. Her mother shoves her through.
Mary tells the elders that no more will die, it began with her, and she will end it. They hiss at her. She warns that she will do to them as she did with Rose. She plans to leave Salem, and wishes for none of them to follow her. She is the chosen one though, but she no longer wishes to be. She tells them to put Magistrate Hale in charge, but she is the one they made. She was not, she’s had enough blood and death and wishes for freedom. They plan to go to Tituba, it is time.
Cotton has decided to see Alden, but finds his cell empty. He accuses his father of taking John out and killing him, but Increase did no such thing. He knew John was innocent of witchcraft, and he also knew that John had ample honor and reason for killing the men that he did. Cotton thinks his father is mocking him. He is not. He knows that Alden is a traitor, a murderer and guilty of sinful pride, but definitely not a witch however he is in love with a witch and a witch is in love with him. Cotton finds the idea of the most important woman in Salem, Mary Sibley, being a witch hard to swallow. His father has no proof yet, but he plans to get it once they find her with Alden, the man she freed with magic from his locked cell. The Selectmen are gathered, and they plan to use the hounds to run them down. Cotton pleads for them to come back for a fair trial, but Increase will end it all tonight. The witch will die.
Anne looks in awe at the oddities that her father has had hidden. It is their sanctuary that he built with the house. He plans to hunker down with his family and wait out the disaster that is to take Salem. Hale tells Anne that there will be a pox on all who do not have witch blood or who have been touched by them. Anne fears she will be affected as Cotton looked for signs on her, and did not find any. Hale shows her otherwise, her artistic ability comes from her witchy genes. He took away some of her memories to protect her from herself. She looks at a carving, she remembers it dancing, and he tells her that she made it dance, and tells her how to do it again.
Mary prepares to leave. She tells George goodbye, telling him that it is the luckiest night of his life. They all came so close to destruction, and now they have a second chance. Tituba, the traitor, arrives. She endured the worse Increase could inflict upon her, and she did not tell on her, she is not traitor Mary is. She’s turning her back on them. Mary is not betraying, but finally being true to herself. Mary tries to take her bag, but Tituba stops her. Tituba reminds her that years ago the two of them walked into the woods, and Mary gave up the precious life she held within her. Tituba asks if she wonders what happened to that life, nothing is created or destroyed, but transformed. She hands her a box. It’s a lock of hair, she smells it, it’s her sons. He was not killed that night, but taken and coddled and has wanted for nothing but his mother. Mary warns that she will complete the Grand Rite, but then she is done, and Tituba will get what is coming to her. Everyone must bear their crosses, something which Mary is familiar with.
The moon lights up the sky. Mary sits at home writing on something. Isaac comes to her, tells her that Alden is gone, and asks if she did it. Mary tells him that she told him that John would not be hung. He thanks her and asks what it is that she’s working on, it’s beautiful. She tells him it’s death. It’s an apple. It needs to go to a bad place. She gives Isaac a large pouch of money, far less than he deserves. She wishes to send him off, after he does one last task. And once delivered that he keeps going far away, Boston, Virginia, New York. On his way out of town, she asks him to do one more thing, to deliver her letter to Cotton. Isaac knows he will never see Mary again, and that saddens him. She and John are the closest things to friends that he’s ever had, except for a horse he once had, that died. Mary knows that he will buy a new horse, a whole team of them, and make new friends. This is the land of second chances, even for her and John. Mary sheds a tear.
John watches the moon, as he turns the silver coin over in his hand. He can’t sit still. He looks around the woods, and hears the dogs bay. He knows what it means and takes off.
Increase sits in his room, when he gets a visitor. Mary has come to pay him a visit. He has seen with his own eyes how her light burns brighter than all the others, and declares her a witch.
Isaac delivers Mary’s letter to Cotton.
Increase thought love would be her undoing, that he could kill Mary and end her Grand Rite without a trial. Mary plans to share with him a secret he has longed for. 13 innocent lives had to be lost, and then the red death could be released. Not once in hundreds of years had the rite come to completion, until Mary realized that they didn’t need to spill the blood themselves, not when they had fearful Puritan radicals who were eager to do it for them. He swings at Mary, but misses. The Puritans gave them all of the victims they needed, innocent blood by the buckets. 12 innocents dead, all they need is one more to die on this hunter’s moon. All will be for naught if he kills her. He takes his best shot, unleashing a pair of knives. Mary catches one, the other scratches her cheek. She flings his blade back at him, wounding his arm, promising him that it’ll end in his room tonight.
The Selectmen and their dogs hunt for John in the woods. They catch him and surround him, guns raised. John has no place to run.
Isaac tries to convince himself he’s doing the right thing as he does his final task for Mary. He places the apple into the tree, he knows he isn’t doing the right thing and cannot. Mary said the apple was death, and he plans to put it where death belongs.
Mary tells Increase that he is no better than the things that he hunts, he’s worse. Witches are like wolves, they don’t play with their prey like priests and inquisitors do. Whatever happens here today only proves what he believes to be true. The pair exchange a few slaps when Cotton rushes in. Mary feigns relief that he’s come, crying that his father has gone mad. Mary is chained to the chair, and Cotton thinks his father has gone mad. His plan has proven false, and now he tortures an innocent woman for a confession. He tells his son that she is not even there, as he slaps her. Mary’s crying continues, and when Increase raises a knife to kill Mary, Cotton intervenes, running his father through with a sword. Mary looks shocked, as Increase dies, telling his son to kill the witch. Cotton asks Mary how she came to be there, she tells him that Increase dragged her from her rooms to torture and kill her. Cotton tries to get help for his father, but Mary stops him. She tells him that if he were to alert the authorities now he would sully his family name. Instead he should leave to Boston, she will tell no one what he or his father did, and when the body is found the people will think that he died at the hands of Alden supporters or the witches. Dang she’s good. Cotton scurries away and her 13 deaths are made.
Isaac digs a hole to bury the apple, when it shakes. So it begins. Mary is left with Increase. She hopes that he’s alive enough to know the honor he’s been granted. Mary teleports Increase out to the forest so she can twist the blade in him a little more. The apple opens, and Isaac finds a vial inside. The sky lights up red. Isaac holds the item in his hand, and it explodes in his eyes. Mary warned him. The Rite begins, the dark lord is about to be reborn. Isaac falls to the earth.
The night passes, and the morning rises. The apple in the Hale house rots. Anne is upset to find out the Mary is a witch, that she is behind it all. Hale admits that it was Mary’s idea to have the puritans sacrifices each other to save themselves. Anne asks what is happening outside. Hale tells her that it is death. She wants to know why they are hiding while their friends die outside. Anne tries to get the door to open, but it will not. Hale warned her that only blood will open the door. Anne prepares to use her blood to open the door, and Hale tries to stop her. He strikes her, and Anne tells him that she is not like him, not a witch, but her little Carrie demonstration shows otherwise. She tells him that she is not like him, and she pulls apart the house, her mother’s head explodes, he father is thrown against the wall, and a piece of debris brains him. No, she is not like her father, she is worse.
John is fitted for a noose. The Selectmen string him up and start to hang him. An arrow cuts John down. The Indians rain arrows upon the Selectmen. John picks up a hammer and brains one of the Selectmen as he tries to run away, and is shot. John falls to the ground, wounded.
Mary speaks to Increase’s soul. She knows that most of the time the soul lingers close to the body. She’s glad about that, so he can see the destruction that comes. He’s trained the dogs to find his blood, which will guarantee him the burial he desired. The dogs will eat their fill of them, and shit him out. Tituba is surprised that she did it, no thanks to her Mary tells her. Tituba beckons her to follow her.
Mercy has her gathered arm. She walks among the children in the body dump. She tells them that only by killing the rose will the queen of the night become the Queen of the night. She plans to turn all of Mary’s plans upside down. She declares that it was her that beheaded the rose, and though Mary does not know it yet, mercy is the real Queen of the Night, and she will make Mary pay.
Mary walks with Tituba. The dogs eat Increase. Cotton rides away. Anne is covered in blood. Night falls, and Mary finds that Tituba has brought her to the Elders. John is carried away by the Indians. Isaac chokes on his own vomit. Mary’s son is revealed and she falls upon her knees before him, embracing him.
If you missed any of the craziness of this season of Salem, next Sunday WGN America will be running a marathon. Until next season Heathens, its been fun.
Discuss this review with fellow SJF fans on Facebook and make sure to follow us at @SandwichJFilms on Twitter, and follow the author Sue Lukenbaugh on Twitter at @suepafly.
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