"Previously on Salem..." "Calm yourself." "You're still reeling from the loss of your powers." "In time, you will once again get used to being a mere creature." "You ever think you knew a man and come to find out you didn't know what he was at all?" "Real witches walked free and still do." "If only I could get one, and I know which one I want..." "Mercy." "We can become anything." "We might even fashion ourselves into the rulers of Salem." "You think John Alden is the man who stands between you and I?" " If not Alden, who then?" " My son." "I will have things as I wish them, or all will pay." "Just one little step, and wipe all the horrors from your heart." "I do have a choice, unlike you." "I'm no puppet." "I am free!" "You just found somebody else to pull your strings." "So, your Cotton will not make it to Boston, will he?" "Your love still sleeps." "A child?" "If you abandon Salem now, you will never see that baby alive." "They are winning." "Well, they picked the wrong witch and the wrong woman." "Hell have no fury like this woman scorned." "Who is this legendary John Alden?" "I am." "They just keep getting back up." "Stay dead!" "How do you kill something that's already dead?" "No." "No, no." "I got you." "No." "Please stop!" "You enjoy human suffering." "The cry of animals merely depresses me." "People are not animals but puppets..." "dolls, toys." "And toys are meant to be played with." "I do believe a few more strokes and your toy will be dead." "She deserves it." "But the innocent life inside her womb does not!" "She is with child." "And it signed no contract with you." "Slit his throat and be done with it." "You promised great reward to the one who delivers me to you." "Well, I have delivered myself and so claim the reward." "Release him." "And what do you want?" "I want her." "Safe and sound." "How dull and selfless." "But so be it." "And I thank you." "Not least for proving I was right to choose you." "For what?" "To be my Moses." "What are you doing here?" "Is it John?" "'Tis not John Alden I'm worried about." "It's you." "This is madness." "They will sense you here and kill us both." "Well, they shall have to be satisfied with killing just you." "I, of course, am not really here." "Yes, you always were willing to risk my life for your own cause." "No, sister." "This time, I risk everything to warn you." "Warn me?" "I've died, been torn from my grave, had my powers ripped from me as if they were my soul's spine, and yet I am still here." "What could possibly have to warn me of?" "You have come back from your Reckoning stronger than they know." "But you should never have returned back to the Essex tree." "They sought to rescue me, but I told them I didn't need rescuing, though I swear my enemies will." "Then perhaps that's not why they brought you out." "You doubt them?" "When you begged them to join you in your war against the Countess Marburg, what did they say?" "They refused." "Sought only their own survival." "But if you distrust them, why go to them to resurrect me?" "We needed their powers, the powers of the Essex roots, to bring you back." "Do you think we've already been betrayed?" "Do you?" "One thing has nagged at me." "When I returned, my son did not seem surprised, as if..." "As if he knew you were coming." "Yes." "You are in greater danger than we could've known." "If you would survive, trust no one." "You examine the Essex." "Leave me to make my first move." "Which is?" "Why, to trust no one, of course." "They said you are to return to the mansion right away, to stay there without me." "Devil wants me to be his biographer." "To recount his glorious failed rebellion against the tyrant God." "It is a cosmic joke." "But I am grateful that he has spared you." "Almost as grateful as I am that you spared me." "Why did you?" "You were free." "And you cannot possibly still love me." "You carry my child." "How can you know such a thing?" "I had a vision." "A vision?" "The curtains of time parted." "For a moment, I saw... our child to come." "I know it in my heart, in my bones..." "I am to be a father." "And, boy or girl, we will call you Hope." "And I will prove that I deserve your faith and our Hope through my charity, for all the good I will do for the souls of Salem." "She's still not back." "Time to go back to where you belong." "Go back, go back." "Go." "Over this road shall be your nest." "And I promise you shall never again have to sleep without a meal in your stomach or a warm fire in the hearth." "Dispatch her!" "No, no!" "Angel slew angel as we fought our way up Mount Zaphon." "As my troops and I crested the ridge, we saw the face of God, our Father, for once shining no light, but darkness visible." "I couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying or both." "Some Moses you'll make." "You've not written a thing down." "You have seen the very face of God." "And His ass." "It wasn't always easy to tell them apart." "Blasphemy." "Truth is blasphemy." "All power corrupts." "And God's divine power is no exception." "Our rebellion against Him was entirely just." "Just or unjust, your rebellion failed." "Yes, we failed." "And we fell to a place so far from the light that we forgot what light, and life, even was." " We call it Hell." " We called it Home." "Am I really to take this all down... yours and the Devil's account?" "You're a scrivener, no?" "I have sold more books than any man in the land." "Then keep scribbling." "Hey." "Hey." "Hey." "Stay awake." "Stay awake." "Stay alive." "Trust me." "If you fall asleep, you will not wake up." "I can't let that happen to my best soldier." "Open up." "Come on." "There you go." "Swallow it." "There you go." "Let's see what we got here." "No." "Please." "Don't." "I need to treat your wound, son." " No." "Leave it." " Billy." "No." "I'm sorry." "Wise mother, was this your plan?" "Did you know what the Devil intends?" "Do you plan to rule a kingdom of death and dust?" "All comes from dust." "And all returns." "The end he brings is a new beginning." "But not for me." "I love the only woman in the world I cannot have." "Your Mary is no longer a witch." "She is subject to the craft." "No." "I might as well please myself with a hand puppet." "I need to be loved truly and freely." "I will not use magic to win love." "All love is magic." "There's no difference between a love spell, a love sonnet, or a longing look." "It is all the invisible touch... just seduction through the air." "She seems to have lost her taste for love sonnets and seems quite immune to my looks." "Life is wasted on the living." "I could make love better as a corpse than you in your prime." "Give her what she wants before she even knows what she wants." "And then soon enough, she'll want you." "How?" "Tell me." "What must I do?" "Mary Sibley... bring me her blood." "What are you doing in my chambers?" "I came to find my Lord, to see what I might do for you." "I have no need of you... for now." "Now feed it to me." "No." "From your lips." "Brother, who is your opponent?" "Who else?" "Our Father?" "Surely not." "Who else but God is worthy to stand against me?" "Have you yet won a match?" "No." "Always stalemate." "Pardon me." "Mother, you seem different." "What has happened?" "A realization of sorts." "Your Reckoning took all my powers." "Left me with nothing but my failures." "Suicide seemed the only way." "Suicide?" "I heard a voice... tempted me to an eternal sleep." "What voice?" "Who would dare?" "Only my conscience." "And I understood." "All the horrors of my life are the result of my own will." "I have tried everything but submission... to my fate... to you... who are my fate." "So I come humbly to ask." "Give me a reason to live." "Some small sense of why you have preserved me and what lies before me." "I shall, dear mother." "I shall." "Out." "I am here to fulfill the promise of your existence." "I do not understand." "When my father took on a suit of flesh, he required two Marys... one to birth him and one to love him." "But I need only one Mary." "You." "My mother and my bride." "And then we shall rule, not this New World, but all worlds." "You will not be the queen of Salem, but of the universe." "An immortal." "A goddess." "I suppose you must be very beautiful." "Is that your version of a compliment?" "Why did you do it?" "What?" "Lie for me." "We both know it was not your conscience that nearly led you to destroy yourself, but me." "Why did you not tell him?" "Sometimes, we humans act without knowing why." "Acting on impulse is our nature." "Sometimes we know before we know we know." "And what is it you now know?" "What that stony face hides..." "your compassion." "You exploited my pain and suffering because you understood them." "That boy has never thought to use my own guilt against me because he could never feel such a thing." "And knowing that," "I believe we may yet find ourselves allies." "How so?" "He has plans for me, plans I cannot imagine you would favor." "Tell me." "Firstly, answer my question, and I will tell you what I know." "Do you have a spy within my hive?" "Who is it?" "That I do not know." "Samael meets with them alone." "And now I have made this small betrayal, it is your turn." "He wants me to be his Queen, a Goddess, which would make him..." "God." "The coming terror serves that purpose, rendering us both something more than what we are." "And of me, and the freeing of my brothers imprisoned in Hell?" "Not a word." "This was to be our time." "Revenge against God." "A chance to free our brothers from Hell and make this world our kingdom." "We did not suffer and survive the wrath of God only to make you God instead." "Be careful how you speak to me." "You are first among equals." "Stronger than I or any of our brothers, but you are not stronger than all of us." "Brother, is that some kind of threat?" "If that time comes, I won't waste time with threats." "There is a traitor here amongst us." "Now she will tell us who it is." "You." "Foul worm." "Trade us all, trade all the world, for your worthless life!" "You are absolutely certain?" "There can be no doubt." "Here." "See what I saw." "You must keep a close eye on my mother." "Send her to me." "All I have promised you, I will give you in the end." "Traitor." "No." "The bitch lies." "I am innocent." "Branches of birth on the tree of life, leaves of desire and bark of strife." " No." "No!" " Roots of the sun," " roots of the moon..." " No!" "Heed our call, bring this traitor's doom." "Heed our call." "Bring this traitor's doom!" "Heed our call." "Bring this traitor's doom!" "Heed our call." "Bring this traitor's doom!" "Heed our call." "Bring this traitor's doom!" "Stop it." "It's not..." "We both know I'm not gonna make it." "It's like a ballad." "The sad ballad of Billy who weren't really a man." "I kind of want at least one person to know... who I was... and why." "The Indians scalped my father in front of me." "Rounded up the women, tied us together like livestock, dragged us into the woods." "The Abenaki raped my sister and slit her throat." "All the while, my mother kept saying," ""Your uncles will come for us." "They'll hire the great John Alden to ransom us."" "She was waiting for a man to save us." "And I was waiting for you." "But you never came." "No man did." "The only thing I ever wanted to be is the one thing no woman is allowed to be..." "A warrior." "To take revenge for my family." "Just sorry I failed." "You didn't fail." "You're right." "I didn't." "I got to meet my hero." "And maybe reminded him that he is one." "Hathorne, Marburg, Mather." "Arrogant fools." "And with John Alden lost... probably dead in the woods... the people remain terrified, utterly without confidence in their leadership." "I may have lost a battle, but I'm winning the war." "Hathorne stands no chance when I challenge him for the leadership." "Not with the will of the people behind me." "Don't you agree, Mr. Dinley?" "I do." "There's just one thing that can stop you." "You could have done it sooner and spared my ears his noxious voice." "No." "See, I listen until it builds into something like a roar." "And then I wait for that perfect moment to silence him." "See, murder is a fine art." "I would have done it just for the Dark Lord's honor." "Or just for the sheer pleasure of it." "Well, you shall have much pleasure to come." "The Dark Lord always rewards the faithful." "Do you need any help disposing of the body?" "Of course not." "Excellent." "Would you like a meat pie for the road?" "Cotton." "You!" "I am not here to hurt you." "I am here to help you." "Like you helped me kill my father?" "I cannot undo the wrongs I've done." "I can only beg for your forgiveness and tell you I am not the woman I was then." "No, then who are you?" "The whore of Babylon?" "What else should I call the woman who brought the Devil himself to earth?" "!" " We did that together." "You and I." " I had nothing to do with it!" "Puritan hate is as responsible for raising the Devil as any witch's malice." "You still think that you can manipulate me so easily, you lying witch." "No, I cannot." "Not least of all because I am no witch." "The Devil himself tore up my contract." "The Devil freed you?" "In all of recorded history, such a thing has never happened." "Given your history of saying and doing anything and everything to get your way, I don't think I believe you." "Believe me or not, the Devil is here, Cotton Mather." "And whether he merely walks this earth or rules it, may be up to the two of us." "Where is she?" "My angel." "My angel." " Who did this?" " My own men." "What would possess them to do such a thing?" "Please." "Perhaps it is simply justice." "The great circle of pain rolls on." "But how many times in my short life must I be ground to dust?" "I do not think I have it left in me to try again." "I-I know why you've come." "Here." "Drink it, all of it this time." "And you, too, shall be free of my hold forever." "But I've given you your freedom." "I do not want it." "I would only long for the freedom of my chains." "Shh." "Fetch Dinley." "Tell him money's no matter." "He's needed immediately." "No." "A surgeon's no use." "Only blood can save me now." "I haven't the heart to take their blood." "No, Mistress, no need to take it." "We give it to you freely." "What brings you here at this hour?" "No doctor in town will serve the refugees." "So I go to offer my few herbal skills." "But first, I came to say good night." "I'm glad you did." "Your shining face and soft lips do much to calm the storms in me." "All will be well." "I know it." "Your..." "your vision proves it." "You don't need to trust me." "Just trust your vision." "And our Hope." "Here you are." "Thank you." "Who else is hungry?" "Here's more bread." "Mrs. Mather." "Please." "Please!" " Yes?" " There's one with child." "Will you have a look?" "With child?" "How many weeks?" "Where is she?" "She walked the entire distance from Boston, or so be her claim." "From Boston?" "For God's sake, why?" "To find the baby's father." "I am here." "Allow me." " Please." "Please." " Shh." "Sister." "Please help my baby." "Please help my baby." "I feel a strong heartbeat." "Your baby's fine." "It's you that needs proper care." " What's your name?" " Gloriana." "I need to find him." "If you find him, I know he can help." "Find who?" "The baby's father?" "I can help you find him if you tell me his name." "Cotton Mather." "Cotton." "What do you want?" "Not what I want." "I manage this house and hold keys to many doors." "And what will this one unlock?" "Something you want." "Come see." "It wasn't I who took all this from you." "But it gives me great pleasure to be the one to restore it to you." "I don't know how you knew, but you were right." "This is what I wanted." "Thank you." "I see you have not lost your touch." "Destroying an Essex Witch with the very tree from which he derived his powers." "I had to act." "I have sown mistrust between Mary and the Hive." "Once again, I have done all that you've asked of me." "So the time has come for you to..." "No." "I have resurrected and delivered Mary Sibley to you." "I have kept John Alden far from your door." "And then, I sent you Cotton Mather when all your other witches failed." "I have earned my reward and my vengeance!" "Indeed, you have." "And all shall be as we agreed once you arrange this one last matter." "One more?" "And then another and another and another." "I've served you because it was to our mutual benefit." "But you make me a pact here now." "I will do one last errand for you, and you will deliver on all your promises to me." "And how shall we seal our pact?" "In blood." "Now, what do you wish from me?" "As my father liked to say..." ""If your right hand offend thee, cut it off."" "Your right hand?" "Murder my brother."