Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem just shocked us with another incredible episode! Nicte lives up to her reputation of being incredibly powerful, Raelle and Scylla remain in touch, Tally steps in, and Alder loses her position as leader of the Army. ‘Mother of All, Mother of None,’ was written by Bryan Q. Miller and directed by David Frazee.
Interrogation | The episode begins with the President (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Vice President (Victor Webster) arriving at Fort Salem to watch the interrogation of Nicte Batan (Arlen Aguayo-Stewart). Nicte quickly kills the first person that tries to get her to spill Spree secrets, then demands they bring Tally (Jessica Sutton) in. She’ll talk to Tally. Petra (Catherine Lough Haggquist) gets Tally and brings her to the interrogation.
Adil (Henry Giroux) meets his sister for the first time since he went against their peoples customs. Khalida (Kylee Brown) is extremely upset, she would rather their people die than resort to violence.
Tally steps into the room to interrogate Nicte, and she finally gets the answers she’s been looking for. First, Nicte reveals that the Spree kill one civilian for every witch that dies in combat. Then, Nicte reveals what Alder (Lyne Renée) has fought so hard to keep secret, she forced those witches to martyr themselves with magic Nicte had created. Everyone hears this, and the President asks to speak with Alder and Gen. Bellweather about the future.
The President chews Alder out for everything she’s done, then demands her resignation. The public won’t know the truth, they’ll think she’s retiring after capturing Nicte Batan.
New Orders | Raelle (Taylor Hickson) is showing Abigail (Ashley Nicole Williams) the mycelium when Izadora (Emilie Leclerc) comes in and gives Raelle new orders. She’s being taken off active duty and being forced to go on a PR tour to try to convince the public that the testing centers are good.
Tally is furious when she finds out that the truth about Alder won’t be getting out. She decides to go see Nicte again, but doesn’t get what she wants out of the conversation.
Alder explains to Petra how and why she dealt with things the way she did. We get more insight into Alder’s past and the conflicts she’s been involved in. Petra tells her the Biddie program will be ending, which means Alder won’t be immortal anymore.
Abigail has a tough conversation with her mother; she’s going to the front lines to fight against the Camarilla. Petra isn’t happy that her daughter is ditching the rest of War College, but accepts what her daughter has to do.
Raelle wants to speak with Izadora about her new orders when the Mycelium beckons to her. Raelle goes to it and takes its outstretched hand. She sees her mother’s face and is immediately face to face with her mom. Willa (Diana Pavlovska) is still dead, but her love for Raelle lives on inside the mycelium. The mycelium called to Raelle because it wants to show her how it came to be.
It was born from Alder’s pain and anguish after losing her fellow witches who were burned at the stake. It is made up of dead witches, which is how Willa is able to speak with Raelle. When Raelle exits the mycelium she’s made up her mind about the PR tour, she’s not doing it. She has all dead witches inside the mycelium in her, and she’s not going to be told what to do with that.
The Raven | Raelle and Scylla (Amalia Holm) are catch up over the phone, and we see that Scylla has caught the eye of a raven. Scylla later takes Tiffany (Ava Marchfelder) to meet Quinn (Sandra Ferens) so the dodgers can find her a home. Edwin (Hrothgar Mathews) makes it clear to Scylla that she is welcome to stay with him as long as she likes, she’s special to Raelle so now she’s special to him, too.
Scylla takes Quinn outside for a show and tell where she shows Quinn how she’s learned how to control people using her raven friend. They know they can use this to fight against the Camarilla.
Rite of Proxy | It’s time for Nicte’s execution, and everything goes as planned until Tally steps in to declare Rite of Proxy. Tally and Alder begin to fight, and it doesn’t take long before Raelle, Abigail, and several others step up to declare Rite of Proxy as well. Tally tells everyone what Alder has been hiding. They all want Alder to pay for her crimes, but not by being executed, they need all the witches they can get in the fight against the Camarilla.
Alder gives a heartfelt and emotional speech before stepping down from her position as General. Now it’s time for everyone to focus on taking down the Camarilla.
Anacostia (Demetria McKinney) is having a romantic evening with an old friend when she gets a garbled up message through Far-Speech, the base has been infiltrated.
Outside, a girl has been infected with Witch Plague. They all need to run. Now!
Motherland: Fort Salem airs Tuesdays at 10pm on Freeform.
Christina is a SoCal native who enjoys spending her spare time catching up on all of her favorite television shows, especially those with badass female leads. Favorite shows include: Wynonna Earp, The 100, Quantico, The Shannara Chronicles, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, and countless others.
