Salem had a heck of a first season proving that witches could be downright terrifying on television. It left off last season with Mary completing the Grand Rite. Mercy went off the deep end to protect the innocents, proclaiming herself the Queen of the Night. John learned the truth about Mary, and loved her anyways. He wanted to run off with her, but she left him hanging. Issac foolishly fell prey to the Grand Rite. Cotton killed his own father to save Mary. And Mary was reunited with the child she thought was lost.
Season two pricks up with a child sneaking about on the docks. He goes to steal a chicken, and the night watchman gives chase. The man chases the child all the way to Knocker's Hole. He hesitates entering, but hearing banging, he heads inside. He comes to the courtyard, and hears the clucking just on the otherside of a pair of doors leading down. A little girl warns him from entering, Death lies inside. He doesn't heed her warning, but he should have. There is blood on the floors, and walls, banging. The chicken flies at him, but still he doesn't turn back. He finds the boy, and he looks terrified. The man goes to see the source of the banding, and finds what could be what's left of Ann. Her family fallen and dead due to plague. She goes after him, asking for help. He screams in horror, trying to push her rotting face away.
Mary sings to her son, but he's never had a lullaby. The witches never sang them, and Mary promises to sing to him every night. She asks where he's been held all this time, but before he can answer Tituba comes to take the boy home. Mary doesn't want to let go of her precious boy, she's tired of the arrangement and it's only been three days. When Mary doesn't let him go, Tituba does something to him, his eyes turn milky, and the child unresponsive. Mary begs her to make it stop, and she tells Mary it will when she lets him go. Mary refuses to be toyed with like this, she has proven her loyalty, and done what no other witch has been able to do. She deserves better than the way they're treating her. The witch pox continues to decimate their enemies, and those with witch blood remain untouched. She will open the gates on time. Tituba tells her that no one lacks faith in her abilities, but what she must do next she cannot do alone, she needs support. Mercy, her own creation remains unstable. Anne Hale remains a large threat. She is a cradle witch of the highest and oldest order. Tituba takes the boy as she reminds Mary that time is not on their side. Mary thinks in a month everyone will either be dead or on their side. Tituba knows that she still thinks of John Alden, hopefully with a bath and hair cut, and that is precisely the reason that they don't trust her. Mary remembers well what Ruth told her, only a broken heart can fuel true malice. Watching her son leave every night fuels her malice well, and Mary isn't going to forget Tituba's betrayal any time soon.
Mary goes to John's house, smells his clothes. She goes to Petrus, she knows that he can track the indians. She wants him to find John Alden. He smells the shirt, and remembers him well, he was there once. That she knows, but she needs to know where he is now, there have been scattered reports but nothing conclusive. He asks for Mary's hands, placing his eyes in them so she can see. She sees John's death, his burial by the Indians. She leaves in a hurry.
In and Indian camp, a woman, on from Mary's vision, burns sage. Her father commends her dream catcher for blocking the witch vision. They showed her what John wanted her to see. Her father tells her to come. John Alden is alive and well. The chief tells him the good news. John is glad to hear it, by the time he sees him coming he plans to have killed every witch in Salem. Hopefully somewhere in that plan is a bath.
Crazy Mercy states at a pretty bird as Mary comes upon her. Mary wonders if she remembers to sleep on a pillow rather than on corpses. Mary asks if she remembers what it feels like to be in clean clothes, even her father did not dress her so. Mercy admits that her father didn't care about her dressing, only her undressing. Everyone is mad at someone, but Mary tells her that she has to let the pain go. Mercy isn't ready for that, even as Mary tells her that Salem will soon be theirs. Mercy wishes good old fashioned revenge. Mary wants her to fall into line, to pay her proper respects for both their sakes. Mercy points out that it was she that beheaded the Samhain witch, but she's not greedy, she's content to rule along side Mary as her equal. That will never happen, she's too reckless. Mary tells her to submit to her elders, and there's no telling what she can become, she promises. Mercy asks if its the same as she promised John Alden, and that really gets Mary. Mary threatens her that if she defies her only horror will come her way, and that is a promise and a curse. Mary leaves Mercy, walking past her many followers. Those girls have seen better days.
In Boston, Cotton faces an inquiry about the events of Salem, including the death of his father, and how his closest associate John Alden seems to be to blame. Poor Cotton, he knows he has much to answer for, but he does not think that John is to blame. Cotton tells of the night that his father landed in Salem. He thought it better that a thousand should die to ensure that not a single witch walk free. Cotton thinks that his father's thinking was wrong. The witches completed their Grand Rite because of him, and made Salem ground zero, it is a battleground now. The man tells him that Cotton will do as his father wanted, and will be confined to Boston and forbidden from returning to Salem.
Cotton is up to his old tricks, spouting bible passages as he screws a whore, but its not the same. He remembers Gloriana, and her being sent away. He can't follow through, and he sends the girl away with her full payment. He drinks heavily, knowing the truth. It wasn't John who ran him through, but Cotton himself. He wonders if he should tell the council how insane his father became, how close to murder he was, and what Cotton did to save his father's soul. He damn's his father's icy stare that haunts him from the grave, and a painting. He takes out his anger on the painting, slashing it and ripping it from the wall.
Late night. A drunken man mistakens one of Mercy's girls for a whore. He asks how much, and she smiles. She tells him she wants him, and he foolishly follows her. He starts to protest as she leads him into the woods, but a kiss quiets and distracts him. The other girls surround him, and she tells him that its just her sisters. So intent on the girl in black, he doesn't realize the danger until its too late, and the girls have him tied to the tree. He panics when he sees Mercy. He even threatens to tell people that she's there, but she laughs, no one would believe him. They would believe that he took a girl to the woods to steal her maidenhead, but not that some crazy stole his manhood. Mercy drops to her knees before him, and slices his penis off, placing a crow there instead. She tells him that one day she will call him and he will come and do as he's told. The girls release him, and he heads back to Salem.
More are stricken down by the pox, their bodies taken away.
Anne Hale pours herself a hot bath, getting in. She grabs a straight razor and slits her wrist. Her blood fill the tub, and she brings herself under the water. Her blood goes back into her body, and she rises from the tub with a gasp. Mary is there. She tells her that her blood is her life force, and deep down she knows she wants to live. Mary knows that Anne killed her parents, and its time to face what she really is. Anne refuses to admit what she is. Mary admits that she came into her powers in the wake of great loss, of how she felt it come into her body and she could do things with word and gesture. Mary knows the fear, and the joy of that power. Mary pushes her, asking if she remembers the doll she gave her the one that only killed her. Anne remembers with hatred in her heart, and the razor flies towards Mary, scaring Anne. Mary can help her gain control of her powers and together they can build a new world. Anne doesn't see how they can build a nation on the bones of innocents. All nations are built on bone and blood. Mary just wants freedom. They may have different methods, but its what Anne wants too. Anne doesn't think that they can be on the same side, she sold her soul to the devil. Mary tells her that the devil they see is not the devil she knows. Mary warns that as a single woman with no parents to guard her, she is vulnerable. She offers her the protection she can from Mr. Sibley, and tells her that she should find a man of her own for name and standing. Anne doesn't understand why she would help. They have both experienced loss, and ultimately they are family. Anne wonders what they will say about her parents. Mary tells her to just get cleaned up and show up at the meeting house.
Mary makes one of her pretty speeches in the meeting house, she tells the people that the pox are spreading to good people. It has even taken Magistrate Hale and his family. She thinks that they should take some strict measures to insure their survival. Mr. Hawthorne thinks that they have fallen out of God's favor, and that they must find a way back into his good graces. He thinks that it is because the world has been turned upside down, with a woman on top. They have turned their backs on the way things are suppose to be, lead by men of property, men of substance, men of godly good will, above all by men. Mary tries to speak, but Hawthorne stops her. Until George can speak for himself as a man, they will assume it is her that is leading the Selectmen of Salem. He submits that it is high time that the Selectmen of Salem elect a new leader or admit that they chose to be lead by her in the name of her incapacitated husband. The crowd is in an uproar. A man breaks the tension. If they think that the pox cares that they're lead by a woman or man, than they will all die. The pox doesn't care about sex. It may take the weakest first, and he just came from Knocker's Hole hoping to give the poor a voice, but finds them all squabbling over politics. He plans to return to see what he can do for those people. Mary finds his words well said. Whether they pray at meetings or not, the least among them are their responsibility too. Mary leaves to accompany him, proving that a woman does not fear to walk among the people, and asks Hawthorne if he will join.
The man tells Mary that whether a town survives the plague depends on how they handle it. Mary asks who he is that he knows so much about pox. He's a doctor who survived the plague as a child, and thinks that he can save the town not by fasting, or purging powerful women, but by science. He tells one of his men to mark the door of a sick man. Mary tells him that his arrival is fortuitous to Salem. He kisses her hand. She finds the gesture old world. He sometimes thinks that they're less evolved. They once flourished under the rule of a Queen, and yet men like Hawthorne seem to have forgotten that. He thinks Mary is like the Queen Elizabeth of Salem. She wonders if he is as good a doctor as he is a flatterer. He thinks he is. He will start by finding the origin of the Pox.
The Chief thinks that John's plan is too dangerous, he cannot allow it. His daughter paints symbols on John's chest. He is not afraid to die. The Chief tells him that the ceremony will change him, and it is time that they leave. Everything is connected, and the witches seek to awaken something, and it will destroy them. They're going to turn the place into Hell. John tells him that he will cleanse Salem of the witches, and asks for his protection. The Chief walks away.
Mary surprises the doctor as he pours over a map, looking like he's intent on finding treasure. If he finds what he's looking for it may be a great treasure indeed. He's mapped out every known case, and signs point to the North woods. Mary is concerned over the deep woods, warning that even locals fear to tread there. Fierce landscapes do not scare him, and Mary doesn't try to stop him.
The Elders are not happy that Mercy has summoned them. They do the summoning. She wants to show them what she has done. She has claimed six men to do her bidding. Six men are nothing to them, they want the world. Mercy thinks that it is she that should be running the hive, not Mary. The Elders remind her that Mary does not control them, but they her. They have no need of Mercy. They tell her to go back to her grove of corpses. Mercy tries to appeal to them, and they spit in her face. That was too far. Mercy brings in her girls.
The Doctor, Samuel, goes searching into the woods. He eventually stumbles upon the Malleum. As he looks over the slimy thing he heads a mumbling moan, it's Issac, and he's seen better days. He wonders if he's in heaven or hell. He's in neither Samuel tells him, but Salem.
The rain pours down and Cotton's studies are disturbed. His inquisitor has more questions that he thought would be best for private. He asks when Cotton last saw his father. He saw him the day he left. His father and his men thought that they would find John Alden, and his flock in Boston had suffered without a shepherd for too long. So he sent his son back until he returned, but he would never return. The inquisitor wonders what that says about his father's confidence in him. He sent him away right before the witch was apprehended. Cotton thinks that point could be argued, and they did in the past. The Inquisitor tells him that he would have never argued with his father, even raising his voice would have felt like striking him. Cotton assures him that if it came to that, it would have been his father dealing out the blows not him. He asks if his father ever struck him. Cotton thinks no more than necessary than his proper upbringing required. The Inquisitor reminds him that he's confined to Boston, should they need to question him further before leaving and heading to a ship.
On the ship, a woman baths in the tub. He tells her that Cotton Mather knows nothing. She wants to know if Increase is truly dead. He is. That is something to celebrate, she has burns on her shoulder and back in the shape of his hand. If his grip weren't so fierce she would not bear his mark. He tells her that Mather knows enough that a Grand Rite was completed, but not who did it or even who killed his father, though he seems certain that it was not John Alden. She wants to know who did the Grand Rite though. For that, he thinks that they need to go to Salem. She apologizes that he will not be accompanying her and her son to Salem. His work for her is done. She stands nude before him, and tells him that he can stop averting his gaze, and stare directly at her. He does, and as the tub begins to drain, it pours out of his mouth. He drowns on the floor before its finished.
Mary heads to Samuel. Given her concern for the city, he wanted her to be the first to know. He pulls back the curtain on Isaac, who Samuel thinks could be the savior of the city. Isaac is covered in pox. Samuel thinks that he was at the epicenter of the outbreak, and that if he survives his blood may be able to help others. If he recovers he may even be able to tell them how he became ill. Mary is fearful of that, but still says that she hopes he survives.
John is awoken. The Spirit Guides have spoken. He will be well armed with weapons from this world and beyond, but he has to know two things. First, he will never be the same once he's been marked, and two he will never walk out of Salem alive. John was born there, and sees no reason for him not to die there. They begin the ceremony. John drinks from the cup, and it begins. He's tattooed, and his hair cut. His neck is cut, and some sort of bug is inserted. The chief's daughter is brought before him. She licks the blood from his face, and in her hand is an eye. She places it her palm eye on his forehead. The ceremonial dancing continues.
Mary sits with her son who listens to a jewelry box. It was her mother's but she never knew her. She shows him a comb, it was her mother's too, made from a bone. She doesn't know much about her mother or father, both lost her her at a young age. The boy asks about his father. She tells him that he was the very best of men, and she loved him more than anything, but he is dead, and she reserves all of her love for her son now. Her son has no name, the witches won't let him until he is baptized, but if he could have a name he would like to be John too. Mary tells him that he shall be then. Mercy''s girls kill the Elders. John feels their deaths. Mary has no clue what is happening to her son, and Tituba rushes in in a panic. Mercy Lewis killed their witches, the true elders. Outside in the courtyard a fire burns. Hanging about the fire are the two dead witches, and burning outside Mary's window is the word Liar. Oh Mercy, what have you done now?
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