‘Motherland: Fort Salem’ Recap – ‘A Tiffany’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 203 of ‘Motherland: Fort Salem’.
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Thus far, our journey through the Freeform series, Motherland: Fort Salem, has provided us with a fascinating representation of what life like might look in America if witches ruled the world with magic and what’s made it so fascinating… is the sheer fact that life doesn’t seem all that different under witch rule after all. Because technological advances still occurred, people are still going about their lives and a democracy still exists. The only real visible difference is that the United States Armed Forces are run through and through by powerful witches that use magic to win wars and keep the world in balance and that is really is quite the unexpected twist for certain. Because one would think that a world where magic is real, would have changed the course of modern man in ways we never thought possible.

But it would seem that creating a parallel course for humanity with magic in the mix was all part of a grand plan in the writers’ room. One that would help us to understand that magic wouldn’t put mankind on a more noble course, and that it could instead… enhance some of our darker traits. For as the old saying goes, ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’, and that was never more apparent than during last night’s episode of the show. For ‘A Tiffany’ took the time to explore how magic could in fact… take the American desire to perpetrate war to a whole new level. A feat that this story accomplished by showing us just how far General Alder is willing to go to preserve the sanctity of the Witch Army and that made for some terrifying moments for certain.

Because as it turns out, Alder will stop at nothing to get what she wants if it means the Camarilla threat will come to an end, as evidenced by the fact that she was quick to once again take control of the President of the United States to get what she wants for testing centers and by how she treated Raelle in this story. For she pushed Cadet Collar to new heights in this tale, and not to make Raelle feel welcomed to the army or to make her feel special. No instead, she pushed hard because she knew Raelle and her connection to the Mycelia gave the United States Witch Army an edge at last, one where great devastation could take place and well… that push to weaponize Raelle’s ability, alongside Tally’s realization that bad things happened with the missing soldier back in the day… hammered home the point of this episode.

For Alder is quickly becoming unhinged and eager to win and knowing that she has four hundred years of combat experience and magic to keep her going for four hundred more… has her drunk with power and motivated to wage endless war. Which is a twist that is undoubtedly a touch of commentary on the current state of the American war machine and what’s wild is that the brilliance of this episode didn’t end with a grand examination on how power corrupts. For Scylla and Anacostia came to learn that the threat the Camarilla pose is far greater than expected, since they are running their own tests behind the scenes and finding witches before they can be recruited into the army and that’s scary to say the least. Since it means they are making strides in silence and that speaks volumes to the fact that Alder has made quite the miscalculation.

For her desire to prepare the war machine with an endless supply of soldiers and super weapons, has taken her focus off of the real threat brewing underneath her nose and it will be interesting to see if her arrogance and desire to focus on bigger concepts instead of the root cause will come back to haunt her. But while we wait to see where this revelation takes us, we can bask in the wonder of one quality tale, one that had a lot of say about the problem with absolute power and even offered up a little commentary on women’s reproductive rights, thanks to the plot line involving the Matriarch and her push to get young cadets to breed new witches quickly and well, all of this is simply a turning point for this series. One that signals the fact that this show is evolving and moving past the world building into something quite thoughtful and that definitely leaves one eager to continue to the journey… to see what wonders await us as season two rolls along. Until next time.

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