In Review: Motherland: For Salem (S2 – EP1) Of The Blood

Synopsis: In ‘Of The Blood’. Despite the threat of the Camarilla, the discovery of new witches gives Alder hope. Tally struggles with her role as a Biddy, and Raelle and Abigail return to Fort Salem with their mysterious new abilities.

The Story

Picking the story up from where the last series left off. Abigail and Raelle have been assumed dead. Alder’s hopes are raised when a new witch is discovered. However, it is somewhat complicated given that the new Witch happens to be the daughter of the Vice President. She is of the blood.

Elsewhere, Scylla has rejoined The Spree and learned that her leader happens to be Raelle’s mother. Furthermore, she is shown an attack by the Camarilla that wiped out most of the Spree’s leadership. It would seem the Camarilla is out to use its new plague weapon to wipe out all witches.

Having been assumed dead, Abigail and Raelle return to Fort Salem, and Tally is given her youth back, but it comes with some side effects. With the three young witches back at the Fort. They are promoted to full soldiers and begin training on how to use a new magical weapon, which could turn the tide in their fight with the Camarilla.

The Acting

Jessica Sutton puts in a pretty solid performance as Tally, who starts out this episode as one of the biddy’s but winds up getting her youth back. We learn that the Biddy’s have a symbiotic relationship with Alder. And when that link between Tally and Alder is severed it begins to cause problems. Which include nightmares that appear all to real.

Diana Pavlovská is fairly intense as Raelle’s mother and her scenes with Amalia Holm’s Scylla are some of the strongest in the episode. Particularly the scene in which Scylla is shown what happened to the Spree’s leadership.

Overall

This opening episode of the season does a fairly good job of tying up loose ends from last year and plants a few more seeds to keep us guessing at what is ahead. The show continues to present interesting mythology and I enjoyed learning a bit about the Biddy’s. Especially when it comes to how their consciousness seems to be shared out with Alder. Additionally ‘Of The Blood’ continues to explore the tense relationship that Fort Salem has with the American Population. Especially when it comes to their duty to protect the people.

Overall. This is a solid start for the season and it was good to see Raelle, Abigail and Tally reunited and somewhat changed from their experiences.