Didn’t you always know that the Bellweather Unit was special?
How special wasn’t revealed until really late on Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 Episode 10.
Developments shook out predictably in this final battle with the Camarilla.
After all, the witches have been using their powers for centuries. The Camarilla were employing stolen powers and jury-rigged equipment. Experience was gonna prevail.
If only The Mother hadn’t allowed the witches to dig themselves such a deep hole. If she’s all-seeing, why didn’t she warn them earlier that the Camarilla were conspiring against them?
I guess they had to learn the hard way that humans fear those that are different. You would have thought that history had taught them that already.
The political and military leaders eased up on the Camarilla far too soon. They only had one of the leadership triumvirate in custody (Silver), and they lost him.
Meanwhile, the crazy leader (Hearst) had all the soldiers and the toys. So it was little wonder that he was able to make Kara disappear at a crucial moment in the Camarilla’s history. Here I thought she was the wily one but I guess not.
Prospects had looked gloomy for the witches at the end of Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 Episode 9 with the Camarilla overrunning Fort Salem. Fortunately, conditions improved for a couple of characters by the time the series finale began.
Most importantly, Izadora, who appeared to have had her throat slashed, wasn’t dead after all. She must have had a potion for that.
So she ended up being the only officer with any authority (that viewers have heard of) behind enemy lines.
Even though she was thoroughly drugged, Izadora still managed to get into Hearst’s head (indeed, not a pleasant place to visit), essentially telling him that The Mother was going to kick the Camarilla’s ass. It turns out she was quite right, but it took some doing.
Reconstituted Penelope had to play some role in the battle’s climax because otherwise, why bring her back?
So Hearst deciding to send a canister full of Penelope back to headquarters to use as a party favor for Silver was bound to be a turning point.
Petra’s small raiding party intercepted the red shirt (nice touch) carrying that canister and sent it back to Izadora to use as she saw fit.
Izadora’s coffee had to be awful if she could add Penelope’s ashes to it, and nobody noticed.
Penelope had already shown how much rage she had for those she held responsible for her early death. So it was refreshing to watch her use the witch plague which killed her to off Hearst and her pathetic father.
Unfortunately, since Izadora lived, someone from the main cast had to be sacrificed. That somebody ended up having to be Anacostia. (Alder doesn’t count because she lived on borrowed time anyway.)
Anacostia giving a heartwarming pep talk to the Bellweather Unit and Scylla should have been seen as a sign of her personal apocalypse.
Anacostia was always on the outside looking in for most storylines, especially this season. So that truck crushing her really shouldn’t have been a surprise. Still, it definitely had shock value.
Also, Nicte showed up at exactly the right time with her bats to keep the neverending stream of faceless Camarilla occupied.
No, as expected, the battle came down to Alder and the Bellweather Unit, along with their significant others (Adil, Scylla, and Gerit).
Poor Alder, visiting an unfriendly Ghana seeking that last piece of the First Song. And all that time, the answer was so much closer than she realized.
Her research in ancient volumes proved what had been hinted at all along: There was more to Abigail than her impressive weather powers. Part of that lost Bellweather family history was that essential piece of the First Song. It was in her blood.
But reaching the climax wouldn’t have been possible without Raelle, who seemed to be barely hanging on for much of the finale.
Hearst’s scheme to poison the mycelium with those injectors placed around Fort Salem hit both Alder and Raelle hard, and Raelle spasmed and infected Scylla and Adil, knocking out half of the small squad.
Fortunately, Raelle rallied and used her status as The Mother’s chosen one to create an escape tunnel through the mycelium for everyone but Nicte and Gerit, who, face it, was expendable as Tally’s beau, even though he did survive.
At the moment of utter despair, when Raelle couldn’t heal Scylla and Adil, Tally had her epiphany, realizing, “Hey. It’s all about us.” No duh.
Tally also discovered that her scrying required some interpretation. Her vision had shown Raelle helping to save the world, not destroy it. Whoops!
Alder and Khalida showed up just in time with a quick explanation, and it was time to sing, sing a song. And as The Mother cleansed the globe, Tally got her sight back, giving her a front-row seat to what was happening.
Thanks to Eliot Laurence for having Alder as The Mother’s mouthpiece give a recap of what had happened since the dawn of witch hood. All that had occurred in this too-short series made much more sense afterward.
And the unit becoming goddesses? That won’t give Abigail even more of a swelled head, will it?
Now let’s bring Motherhood: Fort Salem back in some form: TV, film, book, graphic novel. These characters are too good just to have go away.
To re-enjoy the series from the beginning, watch Motherland: Fort Salem online.
How much did you enjoy the finale?
Where you sorry to see Anacostia go?
Did you understand more after the finale?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.