Motherland: Fort Salem season 1 episode 2 review: My witches? Not yet.

During the most recent episode of Motherland: Fort Salem, Tally decided that the cadets in her class are her witches — but it may be some time before they become our witches.

A blessing on your houses, witches. We here at Culturess are hoping you’re keeping yourselves safe and practicing social distancing. If only the witches of Motherland: Fort Salem were able to keep themselves safe and at a distance, but a war is brewing in their world and this week’s episode, “My Witches,” pushed them closer to the front lines.

When we last left the Bellweather unit, Abigail and Raelle had called a truce and decided to work together to succeed. So far, that’s not going that well. Raelle is trying to respect that she needs to be places on time, but she’s distracted by Scylla and ends up missing inspection. Her punishment is patrolling the grounds until dawn.

Scylla, still being a sneaky terrorist mole, disguises herself as a war college sophomore named Helen Graves, to plant a backstory for herself. Helen is a necro like Scylla, and she goes on to explain that necros, by virtue of their gifts, are slower to let people in and are weird. Not to mention Scylla’s parents were killed for being draft dodgers, so she is an orphan.

Time will tell if there’s some truth in the story that Scylla planted about her family, but considering she is an operative of The Spree, her parents being murdered for dodging The Call would give her a reason for joining the group that could make her sympathetic to Raelle.

Remember, Raelle lost her mother to the war, and she holds with The Spree’s position that conscription is slavery by another name. And she’s not wrong in that sentiment considering witches follow the condition of the mother. If their mother is a witch then they are bound to serve in the witches army. That’s the same condition that Slave Codes in America were based on.

The normalization of that stipulation in this series is unsettling considering a number of the witches are Black and the President of the United States in this show is a Black woman by the name of President Kelly Wade. Her introduction to us is set in the middle of a delicate balance of power that she is surely losing.

As president, Wade is entitled to information on the witches and the movement of their forces, but General Alder’s method of filling her in consists of giving her the bare minimum of information. Alder’s excuse is that as a non-witch, the president wouldn’t be able to follow the intricacies of the army’s work. All she believes the president needs to know is that the witches are handling the situation, and they’ve managed to work out a way to track The Spree’s movements.

Wade feeling slighted and disrespected threatens to not only use conventional forces (presumably a non-witch army) to help in the effort against The Spree, but also to exert her authority over Alder. She reminds the general that she is bound to protect the United States, and if she oversteps, she will be dealt with by the same power that’s binds her to this nation. It’s a clear threat, and one Alder doesn’t take kindly to.

Wade’s condescension toward Alder is a contrast to the adoration we’d seen from non-witches in the premiere. And it’s a thread that is occurs twice more in this episode from non-witch characters. When the girls visit Salem town, there are those who are excited by their presence and those who are wary. The pageant they watch — which depicts the persecution of witches and why Alder signed the Salem Accord s– shows the insidious prejudice witches have experienced in the past.

It’s highlighted further by the aggressive behavior of a man whose fear over a potential attack by The Spree during the pageant translates into him assaulting Tally, who retaliates by using a wind strike against him. Tally is the lone member of the Bellweather unit who joined the army because she wanted to help people. She will most likely struggle the hardest with the hatred her people experience considering it’s their lives that are on the line in the war.

I can see the allusion to the experiences of soldiers of color after returning to America from war, only to still be facing the same discriminatory and hateful behavior they’d left behind from here. And I’m not sure how I feel about that to be honest. I really need to see how race works within this world and how it affects the way the witches see themselves and history. We’re only two episodes in, so there’s definitely time to get to that; it’s just a point I need explored in a meaningful way.

“My Witches” was an okay episode. The show is still working to find its footing, and there’s a lot of world building to be done — not to mention getting used to the way magic works in this series. I’m more sold on the potential of Motherland: Fort Salem than I am the actual characters and plot, but the series is so different that I’m still eager to see where it goes.

What else happened?

• Scylla met the rest of the Bellweather unit, and Raelle’s awkwardness over it was cute. The girls’ date in the woods, during which Scylla explained that death is more complicated than people think, is certainly going to be brought up later in the season.
• An operation went south, and General Clary lost her daughter. There’s a point of tension there between Alder and her about it. Clary wants to use extreme methods to go after The Spree, but Alder is hesitant to do so.
• The attack at the pageant ended up being a false alarm. Teenagers released the balloon not witches.
• Scylla being pushy with her handler from The Spree is liable to get her hurt.
• The Bellweather unit once again showed significant strength together. They have Alder’s attention.
• We met Tally’s friend Glory. The two girls were very sweet together.

Have you checked out Motherland: Fort Salem After the Storm? Check out the first episode for the after show series on Youtube.