The Apprentice
College student Sarah McBride (Haviland Morris) applies for a part-time job in Colonial Village, a living museum that recreates daily life in Puritan Salem. Though she can't wait to experience the historical value that the village has to offer, Sarah soon wanders through a mist-shrouded closet and falls unconscious. When she awakens, Sarah gradually discovers that she's actually traveled back in time to the year 1692, where her "boss", Magistrate Thomas Branford (Wayne Tippit), expects her to complete all the hard labor she's tasked with, as expected for the time period. Sarah promptly objects to this treatment with her 1980s mindset, and her rebellious and feminist attitude results in her being branded as a witch to be burned at the stake.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parent: Thomas expects his daughter to blindly obey everything he says to her, threatening to hit her and subject her to Sarah's punishment if she should ever question him. He actively assaults her with his cane when she tries to help Sarah escape and return to the 1980s.
- Arranged Marriage: The 16-year-old Jane is soon to be married to Peter, as her father introduced her and arranged everything in advance. It's common for the time period, but Sarah (who thinks Peter likes her) is concerned about why Jane wants to restrict herself to marrying someone she hardly knows at such a young age.
- As the Good Book Says...: Thomas is heard mentally reading Revelations 18:2 as Sarah changes into her Puritan "uniform", indicating how he intends to mold her into a perfect Puritan woman.
- Jane further tells Sarah that the Bible is law in Puritan times, and as such, children must obey their parents without question. In her case, this includes agreeing to the marriage her father has arranged for her with Peter.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Though he loses his daughter to the future, Thomas ends the episode by condemning Sarah as a witch to be burned at the stake, and is free to keep changing the 20th century into his era as he sees fit, including bringing more and more women back to burn at the stake if and when they question him or Peter.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Sarah goes on and on about how she loves studying the past and wants to apply for a job at Colonial Village because of its historical value. Thanks to the time portal in Thomas' closet, she gets what she asks for, but is forced to experience women's role in Puritan life, expected to accomplish all the hard labor and obey the men around her without question. When she starts smoking and getting frustrated with the whole thing, she's gradually condemned as a witch and burned at the stake.
- Big Bad: Thomas, a fanatical zealot who uses the time portal that mysteriously formed in his cottage to plunge the 20th century back into the Puritan days.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Very mildly with Sarah. In the opening act, she's pleasant and affable towards Thomas and boasts about how she loves studying history. When she's actually brought to 1692 and still thinks it's the present day, she quickly becomes a Totally Radical man-hater who takes the job much less seriously. She's still a good person at heart and tries to help Jane come with her when she sees how Thomas and Peter treat her, but the time period she's stuck in doesn't take kindly to this.
- Peter is a much greater example, as his original portrayal as a humble man who treats Jane with kindness disappears during supper, as he witnessed Sarah and his future wife bonding and neglecting their work, as well as establishing that he expects Jane to comply with whatever he says without question, nor will she contradict him when she insists on saying grace.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Thomas has this idea of everyone in the 20th century, since despite the expected hardships, life was simple and pure in his time, and faith and virtue were uncorrupted.
- Burn the Witch!: Sarah meets this fate at the very end of the episode, though it ends before she's actually burned. Jane reveals at the start of the second act that every apprentice that came before Sarah was killed in the same way, and that Sarah is only the latest statistic. The climax has Thomas further revealing that he uses these "witches" as a scapegoat to keep the people of Salem united.
- Chekhov's Gun: The time closet is activated by a spinning wheel on the wall. When Sarah and Thomas struggle against the wheel at the end of the episode, the time closet opens again, allowing Jane to reach the future, though Sarah isn't as fortunate.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Getting a little too fed up with Peter's treatment of Jane and the living conditions of her new "job", Sarah lights a cigarette before she starts eating, ultimately leading to her being burned at the stake.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Sarah has this reaction to the bowls of venison that Peter serves them and Jane for supper.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: This is heavily explored when Sarah travels to Puritan Salem, where her feminist values start hitting a nerve with Jane, who thinks that a wife's duties solely revolve around obeying her husband without question. As the episode progresses, Peter and Thomas make her learn her place through hard labor, and ultimately condemn her as a witch when she starts smoking.
- Downer Ending: Sarah ends up stuck in 1692, and her 1980s feminist mindset has her condemned to burn as a witch. Jane also ends up being stuck in the present day without the young woman she was slowly becoming friends with, forced to go right back to doing what she's been doing all her life to placate tourists instead of wanting to take charge of her own destiny, as Sarah inspired her to do.
- Entertainingly Wrong: After fainting while entering the time portal, Sarah thinks that she's still in Colonial Village, making cracks about the uniforms and way of life and telling Jane to rise up against her treatment by Thomas and Peter. She gradually learns that she's genuinely entered the past by noting that the calendar she saw is gone and the painting she looked at is now wiped clean. Given the time period, this leads to her being burned at the stake.
- Establishing Character Moment: Thomas is seen reading Scripture in what appears to be his cottage. Sarah, dressed in then-modern fashion, soon walks in and tells her that she's hoping to major in American History at college.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Though he has nothing but contempt and misguided actions in store for the 20th century, Thomas treasures his daughter Jane with all his heart.
- Exact Words: When Peter insists that he, Jane, and Sarah say grace before they have supper, Sarah simply exclaims "Grace!" and prepares to eat.
- Extreme Doormat: Jane starts out as one, given the time period, but she quickly wises up when Sarah talks some sense into her.
- Faint in Shock: Sarah does so right at the end of the opening act, as she's overwhelmed by the time portal. When she awakens in the past, Thomas and Jane tell her that the "excitement of the day" was responsible.
- Faux Affably Evil: Thomas comes across as a humbling man who takes pride in running Colonial Village while in the 20th century. In his native era, he's an abusive zealot who (per the time period) treats women as slave labor, ultimately condemning Sarah, who he thought had what it took to function in his time, as a witch to be burned at the stake after she lights up and keeps questioning him. Jane reveals to Sarah that her father had done the same to numerous other women when he deemed them to be his new apprentices.
- Fiery Redhead: Sarah, who quickly rails against the "values" of Colonial life, especially the treatment of women.
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: A husband and wife in such shirts discover Jane after she's sent to Colonial Village in Sarah's place. Not knowing what to make of this, she hesitantly gets to work on the spinning wheel as they take pictures.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Peter seems nice enough on the surface, but when Sarah and Jane start bonding and don't get their work done, he reveals his true colors as a man who treats women as drones and expects to have his future wife blindly follow everything he says.
- Invincible Villain: As the Magistrate of Salem, Thomas wields supreme authority over everything and everyone there, and he ends the episode continuing his crusade to expand his rule to the entire 20th century.
- I Was Quite a Looker: After spending the majority of the episode as a Puritan woman, Sarah goes from attractive, clad in makeup and jewelry, to a dirty and disheveled mess.
- Mood Whiplash: The penultimate scene of the episode has Jane, nervous about where she's ended up and confused/saddened to see that Sarah hasn't followed her, reluctantly getting to work on a spinning wheel for a pair of goofy looking tourists, complete with a Peanuts-esque synth tune playing throughout. After that, we cut to Thomas sentencing Sarah to be burned at the stake for witchcraft.
- Mundane Utility: Thomas happens to possess a portal to the distant future in his cottage, and he uses it to bring his Puritan lifestyle to the 20th century, one article and one person at a time.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Thomas quotes the trope verbatim when he witnesses Jane turn against him and flee into the time closet, which breaks down.
- Negative Space Wedgie: Thomas has one of in his cabin's closets, which takes the form of a mist-shrouded passageway that emanates all sorts of unusual noises and voices, the experience being enough to knock Sarah unconscious. He uses it to travel between the 17th and 20th centuries so the future can be shaped in his 1600s mindset, albeit for what he thinks is a good cause.
- Never My Fault: Thomas blames Sarah for bewitching him into making him assault his daughter, when it was clearly his aggression at being questioned that was responsible.
- Nice Girl: Jane may accept everything her father and Peter tell her to do, and agree with everything they say without question, but when she's alone with Sarah, she does her best to help the new apprentice with how to work a spinning wheel and make an adjustment to her dress. She starts believing her when she claims not to be a witch and offers to help her escape before Peter and her father can subject her to the traditional punishment for witches, only for her to end up stranded in the 1980s.
- Not Hyperbole: Thomas' claims about Sarah wanting to become "a part of the past", as well as how Colonial Village features "no trace of the 20th century", is quite literal, given that he has a time portal contained in one of his closets that leads to Salem, 1692.
- The Scapegoat: Thomas makes the entire 20th century one of them to keep his people from fighting with each other, hoping to unite them to bring down a common enemy. Namely, the witches he brings back as apprentices.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Thomas is the Magistrate of Salem, allowing him to bend and twist the laws to his heart's content, as Jane tells Sarah when she wants the cops called on her father.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Realizing that Sarah's not actually a witch, Jane tries to help her escape before she ends up like all the apprentices before her, only for her father and future husband to capture Sarah while Jane is sent to Colonial Village in her place.
- Smoking Is Not Cool: Jane certainly has this opinion when Sarah lights a cigarette and starts smoking, suspecting her to be a witch on account of how she can produce fire from her fingertips.
- Straw Feminist: Sarah, who tries to inspire Jane to stand up for herself upon seeing how Thomas and Peter treat her. This hits a nerve with Jane, who slowly agrees that getting married to Peter at only 16, in a ceremony arranged by her own father, isn't such a good idea, and gradually leads her to continue agreeing with Sarah's modern sensibilities. Given the time period, this ends with Sarah being declared a witch to be burned alive.
- Totally Radical: Sarah starts speaking this way after she's brought to the past and thinks that her new job is secure, revealing that her love of history was more-or-less an act she was putting on to boost her chances of getting hired. Jane and Peter grow confused and hesitant with her vastly different vocabulary, gradually increasing to her ultimate fate at the end of the episode.
- The Unreveal: How exactly the "time closet" works, as well as where it came from, is never revealed.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Thomas believes that the 20th century is a far cry from what his era was like, so he attempts to slowly-but-surely change the future back into the past so life can be pure and faith uncorrupted again. The near-end of the episode also reveals that he marks the women he brings to his time as witches to unite his people and stop them from fighting each other.
