The devil is already touchy when he’s in a relatively good mood. You don’t watch to risk his wrath by striking him and missing your target. Yet that’s exactly what Mary did at the end of last week’s episode of Salem. She overcalculated her advantage and will have to pay the price for her betrayal. Luckily she’s got luck and a few friends discreetly fighting the same war. As Mary struggles to maintain her sanity during her penants, the rest of Salem gets a firmer handle on what they’re fighting for and against. That’s not to say things don’t get overly explicit on the way there if you know what I’m saying.
After Mary fails to kill the devil, she is at the mercy of his right-hand, who we now know is the Sentinel. Now for those who aren’t aware of this demon’s place in mythology, let’s summarize. The Sentinel was another of God’s angels who was banished to hell along with the Devil. Consider him the bug guy, the creature who crawls on and in people. We saw him unleash this disgusting trick on Mary, except now he is also in human form, capable of being hurt by his former friend just like anyone else. The devil in little boy’s clothing has very sick plans for his mother. Let’s just say I have a feeling those passages in the Old Testament regarding incest were inspired by the devil himself. Therefore he won’t allow the Sentinel to strike Mary out. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have to pay for her crimes.
Mercy is now the baddest witch in town. She has Magistrate Hathorne completely at her mercy, and when we say completely, we mean completely. The only reason she restores him to his healthy form is so she can put his body to her use. So when Isaac tells Hathorne that Mercy is killing people, his pleas for help fall on deaf ears. Too many questions about Mercy land Isaac on the wrong end of several punches. The only comfort Isaac finds is in the little girl who’s been following him around like a puppy. She changes his F for Fornicator into Fearless, which has got to be the sweetest gesture to come out of Salem in the longest time. He can’t even count on the good Reverend Mather for help; he has problems of his own.
While Anne is on Cloud 9 after the consummation of her marriage, her husband is working on a way to kill their connection. If he can figure out his wife’s herb system, Cotton can create a potion to kill the familiar which controls him. In desperation Cotton finds the herbs in town, and chokes them down during a particularly rousing town meeting. If you thought watching the rat go into Cotton was disturbing, watching it struggle out is ten times worse. What Cotton doesn’t realize is that a familiar can’t be killed by anyone but the one who created it in the first place, and that is not a mere human or even a witch.
The earth always knows when trouble is coming before humans. Red skies combined with the first snowfall surely aren’t good omens, but good luck getting a town full of Puritans to worry about anything other than themselves. They’d rather gripe about French and Indian War refugees “invading” their town. John can’t make the townspeople listen, so he’ll have to investigate on his own. Though he does have some help from the brave kid posing as a boy. Helps turns to rescue when the kid jumps in the back of Sebastian’s wagon after he gives the red mercury to the French and Indians.
It would be much too easy to have Mary suffer excruciating physical pain. She’s already done that ten times over and come back from the dead. She may not be immune to physical pain, but pain doesn’t affect her the way it affects other people. Not to mention the devil wouldn’t be very pleased if his favorite obsession had so much as a scratch on her cheek. The Sentinel takes much greater pleasure in trapping Mary in her own mind. When Sebastian gets wind of this he nearly loses his mind. Rather than torture him, the Sentinel gives Sebastian the aforementioned red mercury for the next phase in their plans and warns him to hide his feelings. He can’t help Mary, no one can. The devil won’t kill her, but he’s going to teach her her place. What the devil giveth the devil can take away, which is exactly what he does with Mary’s powers. She is stripped of her status as a witch, left in her original mortal form. Well that sucks.
Does Mary have any hope of defeating the Devil if she no longer has any mystical powers to do so?
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