Television

Motherland: Fort Salem Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Brianna’s Favorite Pencil

Several secrets drew closer to being revealed thanks to voices from the past.

It was time for another holiday to be celebrated on Motherland: Fort Salem Season 2 Episode 5.

Since Fort Salem is populated with witches, the human holiday of Halloween wasn’t enough by itself. Instead, the cadets there had Samhain.

In this holiday based on a legend, they were assigned to keep a single fire burning despite an attack by the Lost Regiment, a company of witches killed because they chose to light a fire to keep warm while in enemy territory.

If the company managed to do that until midnight, the members would commune with the dead witch of their choosing.

The siege by the Lost Regiment was a bit of a letdown.

Gregorio, turning out to be the redshirt of this coven, got hit with an arrow but was quickly healed by Raelle (remember when she was just a healer?).

Then she laid a witch bomb on the regiment, which appeared to impact the dead as well. That got the coven safely to midnight.

Tally and Gregorio had another cute moment at the end of the siege. Might that be another sign that those two are going to end up together? (I’d forgotten he and Libba were a thing.)

But the key moments for the Bellweather Unit came afterward during their individual communing with the dead because they all sought a little guidance.

Most in need was Abigail, who has been having a rough first semester at War College.

Let’s see: She discovered that the mystery power she shared with Raelle was all Raelle. She attempted a splashy weather spell which left the campus shrouded in clouds. She drove Adil away. She almost had her voice taken in a trap by the Camarilla.

Now she appeared to be suffering from PTS during hand-to-hand combat, which used to be her favorite class.

Abigail has certainly got the arrogance knocked out of her.

Fortunately, she chose to commune with her late cousin Charvel, for whose death Abigail blamed herself.

Hopefully, Charvel’s message will get Abigail back on track. It was basically, “Get your head out of your ass and go get vengeance on those who have wronged the Bellweather line.”

In other words, if the Bellweathers are going down, they’re going down swinging.

Tally went a different direction, seeking answers about Alder’s actions during the Liberian conflict.

She had used up what little goodwill she had with Alder by barging into her office to pepper her with questions about the forgotten Nicda.

She did get Alder to admit that she had doctored history to minimize her involvement. But beyond that, Tally just got a prescription for witchy Xanax from Izadora, which wasn’t what she was seeking.

So Tally opted to commune with the leader of the renegade witches who were thought to have martyred themselves. Only, from the flashback she shared with Tally, they had been forced to do so by a spell thrown into their hideout.

Now, what can Tally do with this information that isn’t going to get her in more trouble with Alder?

Raelle’s evening ended in disappointment, as it was impossible for her to commune with Willa, who isn’t dead yet.

Thanks to the photo of herself that she found after the riot on Motherland: Fort Salem Season 2 Episode 4, Raelle knows that Scylla is not only alive but still in the area.

She got Anacostia to admit to more than she wanted to about Scylla’s status, if not enough to get her and Scylla back together.

Raelle couldn’t commune with her “dead” mother. She found a photo of herself, dropped by Scylla, from before Raelle arrived at Fort Salem.

So how long before she puts two and two together and realizes that not only is her mother alive but that she’s a Spree who is working with Scylla? That’s just the kind of information that you want a witch bomb to have.

Didn’t Anacostia and Scylla make quite a dent in the local Camarilla chapter thanks to that masquerade ball? The Camarilla making a spectacle out of gruesomely executing a young witch didn’t cast them in a good light, did it?

It wasn’t clear in what state Anacostia left Orsatti. But the brave Scylla, taking on a roomful of Camarilla, showed Tooms the redemptive quality of fire after she’d taken him down.

For those Spree who thought that Scylla had gone soft, she proved otherwise in that final scene, when she stabbed Shane with his daughter’s favorite pencil. I’d have to say that her and Anacostia’s undercover identities have run their course after that.

For a time, it appeared that Khalida and Adil had been taken off the board by the Camarilla. Fortunately, it was just that smarmy General Sharma and her Indian forces killed on that train.

It sounded as if Abigail, and even Adil, are ready to start hunting the Camarilla rather than having to keep reacting.

That must have been what Charvel meant when she told Abigail to be a warrior, not a soldier.

To follow the rise of the Camarilla, watch Motherland: Fort Salem online.

Can Abigail return to being the badass she once was?

What can Tally do with the information she has gathered?

Are you sorry that Anacostia and Scylla’s partnership seems to be done?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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