‘A Discovery of Witches’ Recap: ‘Episode 6’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

If there’s one thing I’ve always loved about stories in general, it’s the sheer fact that they often take the time to reward their audience for sticking with them through thick and thin. Those rewards of course come about in unique fashion since some stories provide the reader or viewer with a satisfying ending after a tough ride, or sometimes it’s something as simple as an annoying character getting their just desserts. But one way or another, they often give the fans what they want and that’s on my mind today because it just so happens that A Discovery of Witches took the time to reward the audience by allowing for us to finally see what Diana is capable of as a witch. But unfortunately, she had to go through complete and utter hell to truly understand her powers.
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Which made ‘Episode 6’ the darkest this series has offered up to date because wow, I’m not kidding when I say she went through hell. For this tale wasted no time in wrapping up last week’s stunning cliffhanger since we quickly learned that Satu was indeed the witch who kidnapped Diana in the closing moments of ‘Episode 5’, and that she was working with Gerbert after all to learn more about Diana’s power and her knowledge of the Book of Life and they weren’t asking nicely. In fact, Satu straight up tortured Diana in order to get the answers she wanted and that made this sequence brutal to watch as she threw Diana around like a rag doll without giving it a second thought. But, despite the physical and emotional beating that she underwent in this sequence, her resolve was never stronger and she never once broke or gave Satu an ounce of satisfaction and that is what the led the audience to its reward.

Because the constant assault on Diana, more or less caused Satu’s powers to discharge, and well, that, combined with Diana’s refusal to break, straight up infuriated her, to the point where she dragged Diana to a pit and tossed her in rather than deal with such resolve, which meant our heroine had quite the choice to deal with. Because at this point, it was either look inward and listen to what the echoes of her parents had to say, or face certain doom and thankfully she chose the former and carefully listened to the story that her parents told her ages ago and came to realize, that despite the fact that Matthew and his brother had arrived at this decrepit castle, the only person that was going save Diana, was herself. And in a moment of great personal strength, she summoned her power from deep within and freakin’ flew herself out of the pit of despair and well, that changes everything for her.

For now, she has a sense of how strong she is and she’s free of whatever spell bound her from using her powers, and that’s bad news for everyone that crossed her in this tale because Gerbert and Satu are likely going to pay dearly for their shady machinations and she’s going to have plenty of help in her quest for a little payback. For Matthew is ready to do whatever it takes to support her, even going so far as to invoke an ancient oath from the Knights of Lazarus to rally forces for the fight ahead and well, Diana discovering her power was just a true delight when all is said and done. Because it was empowering in every sense of the word since there wasn’t some cliché crisis that forced her to uncover them, or her love of Matthew. This came about because she simply needed to be stronger, and because she needed to handle matters herself and that’s a supremely satisfying way for our heroine to become more.

Yet her discovery was not without its own questions. Because we do need to know exactly who spellbound her and why, and Satu’s comments about how strange it is that no one knows her exact strength is equally as poignant because it smells of conspiracy, the kind that Peter Knox would be involved in and well, we will just have to wait and see where we go from here. Either way, this episode really was a treat through and through and I enjoyed every last second of it. And I cannot wait to see where we are headed next as the series pushes toward the season finale because there’s a grand battle coming and the world of magic may never be the same now that Diana is unleashed and ready to face her past and every secret surrounding her, head on. Until next time.    

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