The President is back, after her suspiciously long absence, and has arrived with the VP to watch Nicte’s interrogation. Despite having a Work-inhibiting collar on, Nicte still turns a witch trying to Link with her into ash with the power of her mind, telling Alder she’ll only talk if Tally is the one doing the interrogation.
The unit fill Anacostia in on what happened over break and celebrate bringing in the founder of the Spree. Raelle thanks Anacostia for helping to bring Scylla and Willa back into her life, and the four of them share a toast. It’s at this moment that Tally is summoned for interrogation duties. Adil and Khalida reunite, but the moment quickly turns sour when Khalida figures out that Adil has killed; that he wants to fight back. She tells him that, if the Camarilla wipe them out, then peace will have to die with them.
Scylla is settling into the Collar home and we learn that Quinn is finding Tiffany a new home. Scylla and Raelle talk over the phone; Scylla asks Raelle if her dad “knows” and Raelle assumes she means about them, to which Scylla asks if there’s a them to know about. Raelle dances around the answer and Scylla lets it go for now. Turns out Scylla is anxious if Edwin knows about her past, but Raelle reassures her that he won’t ask too many questions. Scylla tells Raelle she’s made a friend as we see a large crow land outside the kitchen window; the look on Scylla’s face is hard to decipher, but she’s definitely planning something.
After some casual flirting on Nicte’s part, she tells Tally that the Spree have killed one civilian for every witch killed in combat throughout the years, which Tally is initially disbelieving of. As soon as Nicte starts talking about the truth, Alder tries to intervene and end the interrogation, but Tally persists and asks about the Martyrdom. And, just like that, the truth spills out. In front of the President and Vice President, Nicte recounts the truth about Liberia, and there’s a horrible silence before Wade tells Alder that it’s time to talk about the future.
As it turns out, Wade now knows all about the two separate occasions in which Alder controlled her, having been told by Petra. Wade thinks it best that nobody else knows about the truth behind the creation of the Spree, and that Alder steps down with distinction. Alder gives Petra an impassioned defense of her actions over the past 300 years, showing how much good she has done in that time. Petra thinks that, somewhere along the way, Alder forgot that she was also human. Left alone with the reality of what’s going to happen, we see Alder’s emotional walls crack as she breaks down in tears.
Elsewhere, Raelle finds out she’s to be taken off active duty to go on a press tour in an attempt to convince the masses that the testing centers are a good thing, which she’s less than enthused about. The unit learn from M that Alder’s stepping down, with no official reason given, much to Tally’s frustration. Nicte asks Tally if she really expected that it would go any differently; whether or not the truth came out widely, it was always going to end in her death. Nicte pleads with Tally to just let it go and find something to love, because this quest isn’t her story, but Tally isn’t prepared to give up. She reads about the Rite of Proxy in a military etiquette book and an idea sprouts.
Abigail tells her mother that she’s dropping out of War College and going to the front lines of the fight against the Camarilla. She returns Charvel’s voice box to her mother, who tells her that she’s done the family proud, but is still reluctant to let her daughter go. Abigail points out that the battle isn’t going to wait until she’s done with War College; it works, Petra is onboard.
Raelle is drawn to the Mycelium wall, where a hand extends itself to her, turning more and more human until Raelle is standing next to her mother in a field. Willa really is dead, but part of her lives on through the Mycelium, and she’s here to tell Raelle about Her origins. Alder came back after fighting a war to find that the Camarilla had burned her coven at the stake, and her song of grief created the Mycelium wall, which is made of dead witches. Fort Salem was built on that very same ground, and now the power of the dead lives on through Raelle. She tells Izadora that she’s not going to let anyone tell her how to use the power that the Mycelium gave her; she’s not going on a press tour.
Edwin offers his home to a touched Scylla for as long as she likes, telling her that if she’s a part of Raelle’s life, then she’s a part of his, too. Tiffany, who has been found a Dodger family, says goodbye to Scylla. Scylla shows Quinn something she’s been working on with her crow friend; she’s been able to teach it her Work and use it to control people. She demonstrates this by making passers-by dance with each other, explaining that she’s named the Work “Morrigan’s Whisper”, and she has a plan to use it against the Camarilla.
Petra, who is being made the new leader of the army, has promoted Anacostia to Captain and head of Intelligence. At Nicte’s execution, Anacostia flirts with a man named Sterling who works for VP Silver, whom she knows from back in the day. Alder arrives to carry out the execution, but Tally intervenes and declares Rite of Proxy – her life for Nicte’s. She goads Alder into a fight, but before Alder can strike Tally down, the rest of Sekhmet Coven declare Rite of Proxy one by one. In the end, Tally reveals the truth of the Spree to everyone in attendance, and Alder apologizes for the twenty-year conflict she has led them into. With tears in her eyes, she strips off her bars, and walks away from her 300 year legacy.
That night, Penelope prepares to speak to the press and hugs her emotional father, the coven reflect on what they’ve achieved and what comes next, and Anacostia and Sterling lean in for a kiss… and then all hell breaks loose. Someone on base has been infected with the new, more aggressive version of Witchplague that killed Willa, and Raelle realizes she can’t Fix it. She tells everyone to run.
Tropes Used:
- Almost Kiss: Poor Anacostia was so, so close to getting some with Sterling.
- Awful Truth: The story of the Spree’s origins come out to the entirety of Fort Salem by the end of the episode.
- Badass Boast: A more subdued example, but Alder’s speech to Petra as she recounts the number of conflicts she’s fought in and the sights she’s witnessed counts, reminding us how hard she’s worked over the past 300 years.
- Broken Pedestal: The one Tally put Alder on is pretty broken by the end of the episode. Nicte even tells Tally that she knows how she feels, having gone through a similar journey.
- The Chains of Commanding: Alder delivers a speech to Petra about the wars she’s fought and the sacrifices she’s had to make over the past 300 years.
- Continuity Nod: Wade recounts Alder’s decision to send the cadets into an active operation in 1x08 as well as the time Alder puppetted her in 1x09, having gotten the intel from Petra.
- Foe Romance Subtext: Nicte openly flirts with Tally, nicknaming her “Red” and waxing poetic about her dimples.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Mycelium uses Willa, or perhaps the spirit of her, to talk to Raelle.
- Grief Song: Alder’s is what created the Mycelium wall.
- I'd Tell You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You: Anacostia says this word for word to Sterling. He responds that he’d die a happy man.
- Job Title: The title of the episode refers to Alder, who acts as a "mother" to the witches of the American army as a whole although she has no literal children of her own.
- Meet the In-Laws: It was subverted in Willa’s case, as Scylla didn’t know she was Raelle’s mother until the end of the first season, but this episode plays it a little straighter as we see Scylla spending time with Edwin, who is immediately welcoming to her even though she and Raelle aren’t officially together at this point.
- Not So Stoic: Alder’s emotional walls start to crumble when she’s left alone after being told she’ll be ousted as leader of the army and retired after her centuries of service.
- Playing Both Sides: Alder laments that her failings with Nicte and the Spree have allowed the Camarilla to do this.
- Power Copying: Scylla, having observed Nicte using bats to spread her work, figures out how to use crows in a similar way.
- Propaganda Hero: The army want to turn Raelle into this. She flatly refuses.
- The Reveal: The Mycelium wall is made of dead witches, was inadvertently created by Alder, and now Raelle channels their power.
- Run or Die: The episode ends this way.
- Ship Tease: After their kiss, Raelle and Scylla start to discuss what it means for them, with no concrete answer for now.Scylla: Does your dad know?Raelle: About us?Scylla: Is there an us to know about?Raelle: Kinda walked into that one, huh.
- Suicidal Pacifism: Khalida says she’s willing to let them Camarilla kill her and her people rather than resort to violence.
