History Series / Salem

** In the season 2 finale, [Cotton Mather is now the prison for Anne's familiar, the same way George Sibley was that of Mary's. Also, after the Countess' current body is killed by "Satan", Sebastian closes the lid on his mother's body instead of giving her a new one.

* TheAntichrist: John, the child of [[spoiler:John Alden and Mary Sibley]] becomes the vessel of Satan.

** The season 2 finale has Tituba getting her eyes being pecked out by crows.

** Mary has Salem's men do this to [[spoiler:Mercy and her "coven". Only Mercy survives, though she doesn't go unscathed]].

** In "Night's Black Agents", when Cotton has run away from Salem, Tituba tells him that if he doesn't go back, [[spoiler: his child will die. Of course, Tituba never specified that it was his child with ''Anne...'']]
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:After the Countess threatens Cotton's life, Anne decides to help her]].

** [[spoiler: It's later revealed her child is still alive... raised by the coven]].

* InterrogatingTheDead: Tituba calls up William Hooke's soul by necromancy to find out John Alden's secret, channeling it through his [[{{Squick}} dead face]]. Later, Mary Sibley raises up [[spoiler:Increase Mather]] with this in mind.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Thanks to her new Seer powers, Tituba gets a glimpse of the future now that the Devil is on Earth - namely to the end of the world. Horrified at what she and the Essex withces have caused, she immediately tries to avert this disaster.]]

** In the season 2 finale, [[spoiler:Cotton Mather is now the prison for Anne's familiar, the same way George Sibley was that of Mary's]]. Also, [[spoiler:after the Countess' current body is killed by "Satan", Sebastian closes the lid on his mother's body instead of giving her a new one]].

** [[spoiler: Season two ends with the Grand Rite completed, Little John baptized and the Devil raised from Hell by the Countess von Marburg not to mention the slew of dead or near dead main characters]]

* BloodFromTheMouth: The poison used to take [[spoiler: Mab]] out has this effect.

** 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''. In season 2, Mary Sibley outright summons [[spoiler:Increase Mather]] from hell.
** In the season 2 premiere, [[spoiler:Mercy makes slaves out of several men. As to how she does it? Let's just say that their peckers are a tad too literal now]].
** The season 2 finale has [[spoiler:Tituba killed by a murder of crows. There's even a shot of her eyes being pecked by the birds]].

* ChekhovsArmy: In the season 2 finale, [[spoiler:Mercy's slaves from back in the season premiere return to drive Isaac away from her victim]].

** At the beginning of season 2, [[spoiler:John Alden]] makes something like this in his desire to kill all the witches.

* {{Foreshadowing}} : [[spoiler: When Tituba talks about the threat to Cotton Mather's unborn child in an attempt to make him go back to Salem, she says "I can see its little heart beating!" This immediately tips the viewers that something is off, since Cotton and Anne have barely been having sex long enough for Anne to even ''conceive,'' let alone be far along enough that the baby would have a heartbeat. Sure enough, it turns out in "Wednesday's Child" that [[MetaphoricallyTrue Tituba was being economical with the truth,]] and ''Gloriana,'' Cotton's old lover, is the one that's several months pregnant with his baby.]]

* I'maHumanitarian: [[spoiler: Mercy intended to eat Isaac bit by bit so she could control his soul in one of her schemes to revenge herself on Mary Sibley]]
** [[spoiler: This is also how George Sibley's body is disposed of by Sebastian. He ends up in the bellies of Salem's elite]]

* LoveTriangle: Mary Sibley and Anne Hale both have feelings for John Alden. It gets downplayed later in the season as [[spoiler:Anne has her own witch powers to come to terms with]].

* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: Anne Hale is the long lost daughter of Countess von Marburg and the last of the true witches]]

** In the season 2 finale, [[spoiler:Anne becomes the new Mary Sibley, imposing her power over her husband Cotton and shoving her familiar down his throat. The only difference is that Anne professes to still love Cotton]].

** The season 2 finale has a decent body count as well, including [[spoiler:Tituba and the Countess (well, her current body, at least). At the beginning of the episode, John is confirmed dead, but Mary brings him back, possibly at the cost of her own life. The episode ends with John waking to find Mary's body beside him]].

** [[spoiler:Anne Hale, after learning of her heritage as a witch, fully embraces her powers, believing that she can use them for good. She still holds to that belief despite betraying Mary and imposing her powers over her own husband Cotton]].

* ExactWords: In "Ashes, Ashes", Increase promises Mercy's girls that if they testify against Alden they'll be spared the fires. After they do, he has them all hanged and tells them they have been spared "the flames of this world and the next."

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: After Mary is [[spoiler: stripped of her powers by the Devil in Season 3, she hallucinates Rebecca Nurse, a woman whose death she brought about by a false accusation of witchcraft, who confronts her with this crime. Mary tries to protest, saying she had no choice, but Rebecca retorts that she ''always'' had a choice.]]

* WomanInBlack: Mary.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Thanks to her new Seer powers, Tituba gets a glimpse of the future now that the Devil to Earth - namely, the end of the world. Horrifed at what she and the Essex withces have caused, she immediately tries to avert this disaster.]]

* ShoutOut: [[spoiler: Anne Hale]] names her rat-familiar [[Creator/HPLovecraft Brown Jenkin.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler: Anne's a witch too]].

* 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]].

* WoundedGazelleGambit: [[spoiler: Mary]] pulls an impressive one on [[spoiler: Cotton, prompting him to mortally wound his father]].

* DevotedtoYou: John Alden and Sebastian von Marburg (And arguably Dr. Wainwright) to Mary.

* ShoutOut: [[spoiler: Anne Hale]] names her rat-familiar [[HPLovecraft Brown Jenkin.]]

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: According to series director Adam Simon, the show is enormously popular in Brazil, even though it isn't broadcast there.

* 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 source of 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.

''Salem'' is a supernatural horror series, and the first original series to be produced by the Chicago-based channel WGN America. It premiered on April 20th, 2014.

* AntiHero: John Alden, a self-professed murderer. Cotton Mather also counts, holding the distinction of being the ''least'' hypocritical Puritan in the series.
* AntiVillain: Mary Sibley, a witch with ConflictingLoyalty.

* HeroesWantRedHeads: Cotton Mather to Gloriana.

** Cotton's father Increase is even worse. Though he has a better intuition than his son, he's also much more ruthless. His attitude seems to be "Kill everyone accused of witchcraft, and God will judge who's guilty or innocent."

* AntiHero: John Alden, a self-professed murderer.

* ArrangedMarriage: Anne's parents plan to marry her off to Cotton Mather.

* BloodMagic: This appears to be the basis of the "grand rite" the witches are planning, requiring the deaths of innocents condemned as witches.

** 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''.

* CorruptTheCutie: It would appear losing her innocence is the only way Anne can learn to control her innate powers. Mary has her drown a kitten in a well to complete her first spell.

* {{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' is a snake put in her stomach.
** Tituba's is a spider.

* InterrogatingTheDead: Tituba calls up William Hooke's soul by necromancy to find out John Alden's secret, channeling it through his [[{{Squick}} dead face]].

* MsFanservice: Mary. Also Tituba, who is supposed to be posing as Mary's slave-a slave that wears a corset.
** Gloriana-it certainly helps that she's a prostitute.

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler: Anne's a witch too.]]

** Taken UpToEleven in the season finale. Casualties include [[spoiler:Anne's parents, Increase Mather, Isaac (the mallum's first victim), and possibly John Alden]].

* HotWitch: Mary and Tituba.

* 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 to face their accusers.

* CostumePorn: just look at Mary's wardrobe.

* TomatoInTheMirror: Anne's a witch too.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: [[spoiler: Mary]] pulls an impressive one on [[spoiler: Cotton, prompting him to mortally wound his father]]

* BloodFromTheMouth: the poison used to take [[spoiler: Mab]] out has this effect.