Each week, Joe (@bstolemyremote) and Terry (@gaylydreadful) review an episode of Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem, alternating between our respective sites — queerhorrormovies.com and gaylydreadful.com.

Spoilers follow for episode two…

S01E02 “My Witches”: The unit travels to Salem Town for an annual witch celebration, but an unexpected disturbance throws the proceedings into chaos.

TERRY

Not that it has any relevance to the show, Joe, but I realized this week just who plays Raelle: Taylor Hickson. I don’t know why I didn’t immediately start IMDbing her last week because she looked so familiar, but it turns out that she was in Incident in a Ghostland, the infamous movie where she ended up getting her face scarred in a stunt gone wrong. I’m glad to see the event didn’t stop her from acting or sideline her, because I find her very striking and charismatic in Motherland: Fort Salem. I just wish the script would give her more to work with.

That goes for the other members of our little unit, Abigail (Ashley Nicole Williams) and Tally (Jessica Sutton), who each seem to fall back into the squabbles of the first episode. The apparent truce between Abigail and Raelle at the end of “Say the Words” has quickly melted in “My Witches,” when lovestruck Raelle misses inspection because Scylla (Amalia Holm) was wiling away with her. Scylla remains cagey about her past, which makes total sense since we learned last episode that she’s one of The Spree.

While the witches-in-training are dealing with infighting, President Kelly Wade (Sheryl Lee Ralph) shows up to confront General Adler (Lyne Renee) about The Spree’s mounting attacks. They’ve apparently moved from balloons to bottles. President Wade is not happy with the results so far and when she semi-threatens Adler, the latter witch’s posse starts chattering again. It’s one of the more interesting aspects of the show, so far. I have so many questions about these crones and their chattering. It seems so malicious that I have to wonder at this point if General Adler is not a Good Gal.

“My Witches” seems to take a step back after the more action-oriented premiere episode, as it introduces more characters and drama between the recruits. There’s Libba Swythe (Sarah Yarkin), who immediately verbally spars with Abigail. Libba says Abigail has a “face like a spider abortion.” Abigail says Libba is, “a dumb noodling nay-horse from a dumb noodling nobody family.”

That old chestnut.

Personally, I think Libba wins that little war. But it does showcase Abigail’s classism a bit more, by denigrating Libba’s apparently rural upbringing. She later re-emphasizes this when Raelle offers to heal Abigail’s throat and her immediate response is that she doesn’t want Raelle’s country funk on her.

We also get a new person for Tally, in the form of Glory (Annie Jacob), a friend from the Matrifold commune. Unlike Tally, Glory does not want to be at the school and she does not understand why Tally would volunteer when she didn’t have to. We also meet another General named Nessa Clary (Linda Ko), who simultaneously takes a liking to Tally because she reminds her of her own daughter and then loses said daughter by the end of the episode in a Spree attack.

And that’s not even all of the new characters introduced. But I’ll turn it over to you, Joe. What did you think of this exposition-heavy episode and the introduction of new cast members? Are you as instantly annoyed at the friction Abigail brings to, like, everyone she deals with? Did you immediately know that new character Helen (Camille Hollett-French) was actually Scylla? And finally, which of the powers shown so far do you wish you had?

JOE

I’ll echo your frustrations, Terry, but I’m a little more forgiving because this is a classic “sophomore” episode to me. As I tweeted last night after watching, did I need an episode that re-establishes the characters and stakes, expands the support cast, teases a bit of conflict and ends with a bit of a question? Not really. But I didn’t mind it, either, because this is what virtually every network TV show does. It’s basically the equivalent of “hey all of you new viewers who didn’t watch the premiere, here’s what you missed!”

With that said, though, we’re only two episodes in and already Abigail is driving me bonkers. Not only do we have to put up with her annoying passive-aggressive behaviour towards Raelle, but now we have to deal with her old feud with Libba, who isn’t a character so much as a moving sneer. It’s an understatement to suggest that I’m not looking forward to seeing more of this “weak insult battle” in future episodes.

Much like last week, Tally continues to be a highlight. Her conversation with her mother, May (Jillian Fargey), is basically a do-over, but it helpfully establishes why Tally is so enthused when General Clary compliments her in front of the continental breakfast. Tally has been only the receiving end of disbelief her entire stay at the school, so it’s only natural that she would crave the support and encouragement of an authority figure. I imagine that we’ll see more of Tally and Clary in the episodes to come now that Clary’s daughter died in the Zero Dark Thirty battle sequence.

Alas what this episode could have done with is a bit more of that action. I spent nearly the entire back half of “My Witches” on the edge of my seat, anticipating some kind of large scale attack at the pageant in Gallows Hill, but it never really arrives. Oh sure, there’s something delicious in the ominous threat, especially when we start to see figures bolting in the background of otherwise innocuous scenes, but the fact that it literally turns out to be nothing more than a teenage with a balloon (so we’re told; we never actually see anything) is something of a disappointment. Sure we get to see Tally stand up for the cause and use her power inappropriately, which will undoubtedly come back to haunt her down the line, but that’s not quite enough for me, especially after the premiere.

As for the interpersonal intrigue, yes, I definitely knew that Helen was actually Scylla, if only because we’ve never seen Scylla interact with anyone and I’ve doubted whether she’s even attending classes. Maybe that’s a dumb assumption considering she does have her own room on campus, as we see in the CGI heavy final scene, but I’ve always figured she just wanders around waiting to engage Raelle in whatever nefarious plans The Spree are cooking up. Lol.

If there is one area I’m enjoying, it is the training sequences. This week we see the girls developing their wind shear and wind strike powers, as well as something I think Anacostia (Demetria McKinney) calls “the song of discord”, which is a punishment that nearly causes Abigail to collapse and then later spit up blood. They’re all interesting, but the reality is that we still don’t really know much about how or when they can (and will) be used. Thus far Motherland is clearly holding its larger narrative close to the vest, offering only brief glimpses into how the school operates, what the rules are and what else is happening in the world (we’ve heard tangentially about attacks in Kiev and Ukraine).

Terry, how are you feeling about the way the world is laid out on the show (the mannies! That black mirror!)? Are you intrigued by the description of the Necros as the “bastard stepsisters” of the corps? And did you, like me, chuckle when both Raelle and Abigail order Tally to shut up at the same time in the dining hall?

TERRY

I absolutely want to learn more about how this world is laid out, Joe. It feels very insular right now, which makes sense with its boarding school setup, but the glimpses of what life is in this alternate world is fascinating. I want to know more because, I’ll be honest, the characters aren’t really giving me much to work with. Outside of our mutual love of Tally (who, unlike the other two leads, actually has conflict), the characters are too bland for me. The fact that Abigail’s beef (excuse me, “Declaration of war”) with Libba boils down to “She stole my night” was...underwhelming at best. If she represents the best and brightest of this academy, then...well, I worry for the people protecting the citizens.

I’m also incredibly intrigued with the Necros specialization and, honestly, I wish we were following the story from their perspective. There’s something innately dark about working with the dead that transcends magic. Culturally, we’re both intensely curious and intensely dismissive of people who work with the dead (here’s where I must recommend the book Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty) and I find that push/pull absolutely fascinating. Maybe it’s partially because I love horror but (nerd alert) in my teen years, my D&D character was a necromancer. So I’m instantly curious of how that subset of witchery works here.

Like you, the thing I’m enjoying the most is the training and how it fits into the typical military structure. I’m so glad that Helen-cum-Scylla broke it down for us by saying Blasters blast, Fixers fix, Knowers see around corners. And that Necros are great for gathering intel. I love and am horrified at the thought of these witches listening in to a conversation or gathering information with corpses.

But what about you, Joe? Am I alone in my desire to know about Necros? Are you happy with the way the show is handling world-building or do you want more? And where are we sitting on General Adler and the immense history surrounding her character? Is there more to the Salem Accord than we’re being led to believe?

JOE

Honestly I just feel like I don’t know enough about anything except some of the petty squabbles between the girls. It’s a hard complaint to make stick, because I imagine we would have the opposite reaction if it was all world building without any of the character work, but these actresses can only do so much with some fairly paper thin characterizations.

So yes, give me intel on the fixers AND the blasters AND the knowers AND the necros. The scene when Scylla takes Raelle into the cemetery in the woods and grows a gross-looking flower out of a corpse was tense and exciting and off-putting and I think Motherland succeeds best when it leans into its weird side. I’ve seen plenty of YA dramas, so I know what girl conflict looks like (even witch girl conflict!), but I’ve never seen a world where witches are literally conscripted to fight wars and get into tense spats with the female President of the US!

That last piece is definitely intriguing, in part because it confirms that the witches aren’t all-powerful beings with carte-blanche. They’re being held accountable and their methods are being criticized, which is why scenes with Adler being challenged by Clary after the latter’s daughter is killed will likely play a big role in the drama to come. There’s conflict from outside the school (The Spree and President Wade) and inside (Clary vs Adler; Libba vs Abigail; and even within our own girl unit). If Motherland can find a compelling way to capitalize on all of that, there’s hope that the show will transcend its own narrow vision.

It’s not there yet...but maybe next week? We’ll see when we hop back over to QueerHorrorMovies.