History Series / Salem

** In order to find out John Alden's secret through necromancy, William Hooke's face is pulled off his dead body and stretched over a frame. Then it *talks*.

** Also, the fact that she keeps the familiar down her [[{{Squick}} husband's throat]]...

** Mercy Lewis vomits gallons of blood when she sees the accused midwife, followed by several nails.
** We later see how the witches are controlling her-there's a snake in her stomach.
** In order to find out John Alden's secret through necromancy, William Hooke's face is pulled off his dead body.
** George Sibley cuts open his stomach with a broken-off piece of wood to get Mary's familiar out and escape.

* CreepyDoll: The voodoo doll Mary puts in Anne's room.

* VoodooDoll: Mary makes one and plants it in Anne's room. She later uses it to threaten Anne's life to gain leverage over the magistrate and make him follow her order.

* BlackSpeech: What the Elders of the witches speak, although they seem to speak English

* PowerPerversionPotential: Tituba suspects Mary's decision to invade John Alden's dreams to be this, since she repeatedly she repeatedly used them to have dream-sex with him. Although she loses control at one point and gets briefly trapped in a nightmare, she succeeds not only at extracting the information she needed from John, but as a side effect, it makes him lust after every woman he passes by.

* BaitTheDog: Increase Mather declares that Gloriana is not a witch and so she will not be tried; but since she is a prostitute she's hereby banished.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Rose claims that she has seen and manipulated everything that has happened, including Mary killing Mercy. Turns out Mary turned Mercy into a witch, and Mercy then swiftly beheads Rose.
* TheDogBitesBack: George Sibley had Issac whipped and branded him as a fornicator. Years later he begs Issac to help him. This trope is {{lampshaded}} by both of them, and encouraged by John Alden. [[spoiler:While torn over it, Issac ultimately tells Increase Mather when he suspects that something happened, and Sibley is rescued.]]

** [[spoiler: It's later revealed her child is still alive... as a minion of Satan.]]

* LoveTriangle: Mary Sibley and Anne Hale both have feelings for John Alden.

* SpannerInTheWorks: John Alden's mere presence in Salem is screwing up the witches' preparations for their Grand Rite.

* VisualPun: George Sibley literally has a frog in his throat

* WitchHunt: Obviously. Though Mary claims she's manipulating it to kill the actual Puritans, [[spoiler: in order to make the sacrifices necessary for the Grand Rite.]]

* {{Familiar}}: {{Discussed}} by John and Cotton Mather-later shown to be the case with Mary, who stores her toad familiar [[{{Squick}} down her husband's throat]], preventing him from speaking. Mercy Lewis's is a snake put in her stomach.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Most of the main cast. Cotton Mather, a very influential Puritan minister who is shown taking a direct role in hunting witches by the show (whereas in RealLife he did not attend any of the trials although witnessing two hangings, while his writings have been alleged to be the groundwork behind the witch panic). His father Increase Mather also gets portrayed as a directly involved witch hunter, while in actuality he merely attended one of the trials. Tituba, a slave woman who was among those accused of witchcraft, gets portrayed as a [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade ''real'' witch]]. In reality there's speculation that she may have inadvertently helped instigate the affair by dabbling in occult rituals at the insistence of her master's daughter, who panicked along with her friends when they were caught, accusing people left and right. John Alden and Giles Corey were also real people that have been fictionalized in the show. The real Alden did none of the things he's portrayed as doing, and he was [[AgeLift in his sixties by then]]. In fact, Alden was among those accused, but fled town, returning when the witch trials had ended, at which point he was cleared by acclamation.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Most of the main cast. Cotton Mather, a very influential Puritan minister who really was involved with the witch trials is shown taking a far more direct role in the show, and Tituba, a slave woman who was among those accused of witchcraft, gets portrayed as a [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade ''real'' witch]]. In reality there's speculation that she may have inadvertently helped instigate the affair by dabbling in occult rituals at the insistence of her master's daughter, who panicked along with her friends when they were caught, accusing people left and right. John Alden and Giles Corey were also real people that have been fictionalized in the show.

* ShamingTheMob: Cotton Mather successfully gets a mob to refrain from killing a family suspected of witchcraft. He's a zealous witch hunter, but he ''does' believe suspects have the right to a fair trial and face their accusers.

** Gloriana, it certainly helps that she's a prostitute.

* MaritalRapeLicense: Mary claims that George Sibley did this to her. The flashbacks we see ''do'' confirm it, as long as you believe her anyway.

* MsFanservice: Mary. Also Tituba, who is supposed to be posing as Mary's slave -- a slave that wears a corset.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Anne is the apple of her father's eye, his cold-blooded, murderous, eye. He even gives her an amulet that has anti-witch magic to protect her from members of his coven, though she just thinks it's a pretty necklace.

* TheDogBitesBack: George Sibley had Issac whipped, and branded him a fornicator. Years later he begs Issac to help him. This trope is lampshaded by by both of them, and encouraged by John Alden. [[spoiler:While torn over it, Issac ultimately decides to help him. The witches get there first.]]

* CallingTheOldManOut: Anne expresses outrage at her father's duties involving the witch hunt, particularly killing people only presumed guilty. John Alden lives for this trope, though he doesn't do it to his father.

* BaitTheDog: [[spoiler: Increase Mather declares that Gloriana is not a witch and so she will not be tried; but since she is a prostitute she's hereby banished.]]

* BodyHorror: Tons of it. Mary has an extra nipple on her leg, which she uses to feed her familiar (this was based on [[TruthInTelevision real beliefs]] that witches did this).

* WitchHunt: Obviously. Though Mary claims she's manipulating it to kill the actual Puritans, until only the witches are left.

* BaitTheDog: , [[spoiler: Increase Mather declares that Gloriana is not a witch and so she will not be tried; but since she is a prostitute she's hereby banished.]]

* DidntSeeThatOneComing: Rose claims that she has seen and manipulated everything that has happened, including Mary killing Mercy. Turns out Mary turned Mercy into a witch, and Mercy then swiftly beheads Rose.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Mary says this exactly to Mercy after recounting how she came to be George Sibley's wife.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Anne expresses outrage at her father's duties involving the witch hunt, particularly killing people only presumed guilty. John Alden lives for this trope.

* PowerPerversionPotential: Tituba suspects Mary's decision to invade John Alden's dreams as this, since she repeatedly enters his dreams as a seductress. Although she loses control at one point and gets briefly trapped in a nightmare, she succeeds not only at extracting the information she needed from John, but as a side effect, it makes him lust after every woman he passes by.