‘A Discovery of Witches’ Recap: ‘Episode 7’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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If there’s one thing I truly enjoy when a television series begins to unravel the story’s secrets or provide answers to our burning questions, it’s the sheer fact that the proverbial floodgates are now opened, which will only bring forth more answers and more grand reveals, and that’s precisely where we are at when it comes to A Discovery of Witches. Because learning about Diana’s powers, and the binding curse that was put upon them last week served as the setup for more wonderful reveals since ‘Episode 7’ took the time to explore a great deal more about Diana’s past, and who exactly spellbound her in the first place, in the most organic way imaginable.
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Because, the only way to figure out one’s past is to outright confront it, and that mantra led to Diana and Matthew to the United States and her hometown of Madison to see what her aunties knew about the binding curse that depleted her magic and thankfully, the show did not waste any time in revealing who spellbound our favorite witch and it turns out, that it was her parents all along. Because mom and dad were severely concerned about their daughter’s raw power, and how Peter Knox would look to exploit it, so the only safe thing to do was to hide it, with the caveat that it could return the instant she needed it and well, clearly she needs that power now more than ever, and the reality of that put a sense of urgency into the story as well.

Because Diana knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before Knox took over in this matter personally, and that he would eventually come for her and that meant, she had to learn how to tap into this newfound power and master it for the fight ahead, and that, led to a surprisingly delightful montage sequence wherein she worked to master the strength within. In fact, this part of the story added levity to the danger surrounding Diana since there was some humor to be found in her spells not quite going according to plan and it also allowed for her and Matthew’s budding relationship to grow since we began to see just how much they trust and care for one another and thankfully, Diana eventually came to learn that the best way to handle her power is to embrace fear, since that brings out the best in her.

But, while it was cool to learn more about Diana’s past, and see her witchcraft come to life, there was still plenty of trouble brewing behind the scenes. For Satu’s little power play left the Congregation stunned and reeling, and that’s where the trouble in question comes into play. For Domenico saw a grand opportunity to sow a little disdain in the vampire world and he paid a little visit to Juliette, wherein he planted seeds of doubt and resentment, all in the hopes of getting her to turn her back on Gerbert and seek out Matthew and well…his smarmy little plan worked. For she embarrassed Gerbert in front of Baldwin and she paid her own visit to the Bishop household in Madison and that’s where we leave Diana in this tale, with her standing face to face with quite the mortal enemy…

When all is said and done however, wow, what a great episode. Everything just worked in this one and what really impressed me about this particular tale, was how the characters handled the big reveal about Diana’s parents. Because learning something as earth-shattering as what Diana did can outright divide a family. But everyone here was bigger about the matter and did their best to realize that everything happened for a reason and it was nice to see forgiveness and unity take the center stage so that Diana could quickly focus on getting stronger when it comes to her power and well, this episode also served as a wonderful setup for next week’s season finale. Because it seems as though several showdowns are about to go down, since Juliette needs to be dealt with, as does Knox and you know darn well, I’ll be counting down the minutes to next Sunday to see how everything in this sweeping story comes together. Until next time.  

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