The episode begins with Petra noticing the disturbed ground by Charvel’s grave. She’s told by one of Abigail’s fathers that Raelle has been kidnapped, Tally having called to inform them, and she springs into action immediately. Word of Raelle’s kidnapping has also reached Fort Salem as Anacostia relays the news to a still very injured but able to speak Alder.
Raelle comes to, still under the influence of a paralytic, strapped to a metal table. The man last seen attempting to cut out Abigail’s voice hovers over her, telling his subordinates to be careful with her; there’s only one throat like that in the world. Back at the Collar house, Edwin receives a call from War College Administration, who is actually Scylla calling to see if Raelle is there. When Edwin tells her he doesn’t know where she is, Scylla and Willa’s fears are confirmed. They’re too late; the Camarilla have Raelle.
Adil performs more Work and shows Abigail a blood compass, which only a few witches know how to make. They use it to track the one piece of Charvel that’s not in the grove – her voice box. At a diner on their way to the location, Abigail and Adil get into a scuffle with some civilians who are trashing witches, and Petra in particular. Adil is punched by a civilian man, and punches him right back, harder. It’s the first time he’s broken from his pacifist ways. Ten thousand years of tradition gone with his actions; Abigail asks how many thousands of years of tradition the Camarilla have already taken from the Tarim. Today, there’s no real choice but to fight.
While attempting to cut out Raelle’s voice, the surgeon makes a fatal mistake, and Raelle flatlines from blood loss. As she dies, the Mycelium’s power takes over to protect her, lashing out and killing everyone in the room. The Doctor, watching from an observation window, is impressed. Raelle opens her eyes, standing in a strange dreamlike land which is revealed to be where the dead dream. A moment later, Raelle comes to for real, still on the table with a healed throat covered in dried blood. The Doctor muses that they know what triggers her powers now, and they’re going to try something new.
Before she’s taken back to base, Tally implores Quinn to spread the word that the Camarilla are back, and tells her that they have learned to steal witches’ voices. It’s there that she meets a group of Dodgers that Quinn is helping. Quinn promises to take care of Edwin.
Scylla disguises herself as the Exarch to pull over the real Exarch, using Work to mind control him into taking her and Willa to the rest of the young witches, and giving him a bloody nose for good measure. In the back of the van, Scylla asks Willa if she ever regrets the decisions she’s made, to which Willa says she does. Scylla laments that if she’d just brought Raelle when ordered, then none of this would be happening, but Willa thanks Scylla for protecting her. She thinks there’s a strong possibility that Raelle will hate both of them once all is said and done, but Scylla doesn’t expect Raelle to forgive her. She loves Raelle and all she wants is for her to be safe.
In a particularly sick move, the Doctor uses a large stone to crush Raelle to death, and brings in four of the young kidnapped witches in a bid to see if Raelle can control the deadly power that comes from her when she dies. Raelle tearfully apologizes to the children as her chest is crushed by the stone. She once again finds herself in the Mycelium world, where she’s told by a voice that she will turn the tide in the war to come. When Raelle wakes, the young witches are physically unharmed.
Abigail and Adil find the abandoned building where Charvel’s voice is; the same building the Exarch has taken Scylla and Willa to in their search for the kidnapped girls. While team Adigail take out Camarilla soldiers and recover Charvel’s voice, as well as the kidnapped young witches they find, team In-Laws search for a sign of Raelle in the control room and take out the Exarch when he comes to his senses. Meanwhile, the Doctor tips some Witchplague onto Raelle’s hand and it spreads rapidly through her body. Seemingly, this is something that even the Mycelium can’t heal. Team Adigail catch wind of one more witch onsite, Raelle, and Abigail rushes off to find her. Team In-Laws finally see where Raelle is, but not before she’s been infected, and they also race to save her.
Team In-Laws get to Raelle’s location first. Scylla heads for the door, but Willa pulls her back, telling her the Witchplague will kill her. In that moment, Willa accepts her fate, tells Scylla to pass on to Raelle that she loves her more than anything, and steps in to save her daughter. She draws the Witchplague off Raelle and into herself, appearing in the Mycelium world for long enough to apologize and to say goodbye. She hopes one day Raelle will forgive her for what she’s done. Raelle tearfully begs her to stay, but to no avail, and Willa dies for real. A plague-free Raelle wakes up and reaches out for her mother’s body, but she’s stopped by Abigail, who has shown up in time to help Scylla carry Raelle out of the room before the Witchplague can spread again. The three of them meet with Adil, who is helping the kids into the van, and Scylla escapes with them, refusing to leave Raelle.
On their way out, Abigail tells Adil that the Camarilla are never going to stop coming after them, and Adil makes a decision of his own. He plants his hands into the ground, and uses Work to collapse the building on the rest of the Camarilla that were inside. The gravity of his choice isn’t lost on a grateful Abigail.
Alder is being protected in the Warding Circle while she recovers. Tally, who is back on base, is told that Raelle is safe. She bristles when Alder refers to Raelle as an asset, but before Alder can tell her off, she’s lifted into the air by an invisible force and screams in pain as her limbs are stretched in different directions. Tally, who can see sound, manages to locate the reason this attack is happening even within the Warding Circle; one of the biddies is a traitor. She Windstrikes the biddy, ending the effect on Alder, and through her eyes, sees Nicte.
Back at the Spree safehouse, Raelle is asleep in a bed with Scylla sitting off to the side in a chair, keeping vigil. Raelle begins to stir, and a million different emotions pass over Scylla’s face, before she reaches out and promises Raelle that she’s safe now. Raelle’s eyes widen as she sees her, looking as if she’s having a hard time believing that Scylla is actually there, and the episode ends before she can say anything.
Tropes Used:
- Act of True Love: Showing how selfless she’s become when it comes to Raelle, Scylla explains to Willa that she doesn’t expect Raelle’s forgiveness even after the danger is over, all she wants is for her to be safe.Willa: You really love her.Scylla: I do.
- Are These Wires Important?: Scylla and Willa pull the wires to the facility’s communication because, according to Scylla, they’re professionals.
- Battle Couple: Abigail and Adil embody this pretty well, especially given it’s Adil’s first foray into fighting.
- Bleed 'Em and Weep: Adil kills for the first time and the emotional weight of what he’s done is not lost on him.
- Cast from Hit Points: The most devastating example so far. Willa heals Raelle of the Witchplague, drawing it into herself, and sacrificing her life as a result.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The second way Raelle dies is by being crushed under a huge stone. The Doctor explains that it’s old-fashioned, but is his favorite way of killing witches.
- Death Is Cheap: Raelle should have died three times in this episode alone. It never seems to stick.
- Evil Feels Good: The Camarilla takes sick pleasure in killing Raelle through varying means.
- Flaying Alive: Abigail’s Work is so powerful and sustained that it peels the skin off a man’s face.
- Foreshadowing: A report on Raelle is mentioned by the Camarilla, implying someone who has witnessed Raelle’s Witchbomb powers is feeding them information. Of course, come the season finale, we find out that VP Silver has been working with the Camarilla.
- Funny Background Event: It’s small, but Abigail has an extremely disgruntled look on her face at being pushed aside when Scylla picks up Raelle by herself to pass her into the van.
- Leitmotif: Raelle and Scylla’s theme underscores the dialogue between Scylla and Willa in the van, specifically the part when Scylla talks about loving Raelle and wanting her to be safe.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Abigail didn’t even know Raelle had been kidnapped until she heard the facility she and Adil had gone to was housing a blonde girl who couldn’t die.
- Oh, Wait!: Raelle snarks the Camarilla Doctor this way by reminding him how she killed his people during the events of 1x10 and he therefore can’t ask them about her powers.
- Preserve Your Gays: The Mycelium has made Raelle almost unkillable.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: The biddy that replaced Tally at the beginning of the season is revealed to be working with Nicte.
- Sympathetic Magic: Nicte uses this, killing willing Spree agents in order to harm Alder with the same effects.
- Torture Chamber Episode: Poor, poor Raelle spends almost the entire episode being killed in various grisly ways.
