‘Motherland: Fort Salem’ Recap – ‘Mother of All, Mother of None’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 209 of ‘Motherland: Fort Salem’.
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One thing that each and every one of us can agree upon, is that karma is quite the frustrating concept. Because it simply takes its time in dishing out its unique brand of universal justice and well, we are often left wondering exactly why it takes so long to bring negative acts around full circle to their instigator, since that allows for them to operate with impunity. But while karma is indeed about as fast as a sloth, there is a rhyme and a reason for its molasses-like machinations, in that… it is simply biding its time. For it knows that the right moment is everything in this life and it will indeed bring everything home when the stars align and the lesson in question will provide the perfect teachable moment and well, this is a time-tested pattern that applies to General Sarah Alder’s journey.
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Because for centuries now, she’s made sour and questionable and consequential calls with impunity, leaving the witches she serves with to wonder when and if karma will ever come her way. But after two years of her toughest stretch as supreme commander of the Witch Army on Motherland: Fort Salem, and centuries of morally ambiguous calls, karma finally caught up with her during last night’s episode. For ‘Mother of All, Mother of None’ saw Nicte Batan and Sarah Alder come face to face after decades of death and attrition and it did not go well for Sarah in the slightest. For the President of the United States swung by to oversee an interrogation that outright revealed the truth about Sarah’s sorted past with Nicte and how the general’s actions led to the creation of the Spree and well… that brought about a day of incredible reckoning for the long-standing commander.

One where the president ordered Alder to take the win here and step away from the Army shortly after Batan was dealt with via Witch Law and well, this was quite the satisfying moment. Since it finally allowed for Alder to pay the piper for her actions and her desire to keep war going and what was quite amazing about this move, is that it changed a great deal for the future of the army. For Petra Bellweather would take Alder’s place and that allowed for some big changes to happen behind the scenes. Such as promoting Abigail to an officer so she could lead the good fight against the Camarilla because of her experience in dropping one of their cells and really, it was just quite nice to see the war effort begin to turn its efforts on the real enemy instead of other witches and that particular concern was expanded upon further in this tale by both Tally and Raelle.

For Tally made a point to stop the infighting at Nicte’s execution by saving her life and forcing the truth to come to out since the army needed to be a unit, one laser focused on honesty and fighting a real enemy and Raelle backed up her actions. Mainly because she finally had the chance to learn about how the Mycelium that flowed through her veins, was in fact… powerful witch energy. One that had been building since the day that Fort Salem was founded as part of a collective, afterlife effort from the fallen. All so that the right solider could use their combined power to teach the Camarilla the lesson they so deserve and that too… required this army to come together as one and focus upon the bad surrounding them and well, it’s a good thing that this unity has arrived at last. Because in the closing seconds of this tale, the Camarilla brought the fight to Fort Salem in a horrifying and stunning manner and well… it will be quite interesting to see how this particular battle goes since no one has ever dared to attack the army on its home base.

But while we wait to see how this long-awaited battle between two old foes plays out during next week’s season two finale, we can revel in the majesty of one satisfying tale. Because at long last, Sarah Alder reaped what she sowed, and she was finally taught a lesson about grounding oneself in their humanity above all else and to top it off… the underlying commentary in this tale was impressive as well. Since discussions of infighting and harming one another instead of fighting the real enemy has some serious relevance in America right now… since we ourselves are doing just that. But all of that aside, the time has indeed come for the showdown to end all showdowns and it will be fascinating to see who will live and who will die when the Army goes on the offensive come next week. Until then.

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