"Previously on "Salem"..." " Do you ever wonder?" " What?" "If we could leave this place?" "Gloriana, you mustn't be here." "What will you do here... in the house of the lord?" "What the hell are you doing here, Hooke?" "Now, careful, Captain..." "unless you do not mind me telling the good people of Salem just who John Alden really is." "The package shall be yours by midnight." "The familiar has been cut from her." "How?" "An exorcism... performed by her dolt of a father, no doubt." "So we must replace it." "My God." "The girl has been rendered frail by her circumstance." "She needs but a moment of rest." "After which, she will again be strong enough to point the finger." "Open your mouth." "I know what you are." "Get 'em into a room, will ya?" "I'll be back in two shakes." "You're leaving?" "Are you deaf, girl?" "Get 'em into a room!" "Yes, mum." "_" "I do not." "Yo'a'nes John Alden." "John Alden." "Yes?" "Yes." "Yes." "Yet, you say the man who holds the secret is dead." "Are we certain we can trust her?" "I'm not so sure the servant is loyal." "I used to think your stubbornness a virtue." "And you don't any longer?" "Why go alone when there is influence in numbers?" "The girl has shown her color." "We are well beyond the point of intimidation." "Then perhaps we are at the point of elimination." "Perhaps, but for the time being, she is worth much more to us alive than dead." "Look who's here, Mercy..." "Mrs. Sibley." " Sit up straight, girl." " Leave us." "Leave us, Reverend." "Yes." "Certainly." "You came to visit me last night." "Did I?" "The time for coyness has passed." "It is clear you know exactly who and what I am." "The only question that remains is what you will do with that information." "That depends on you, Mrs. Sibley." "What do you want, girl?" "I want it to stop... the torture, the torment, the suffering." "Or I will tell them." "I will tell them all who and what you are." "You know nothing of me..." "Or what I've done or given up or endured to be who I am." "You are tortured because you resist." "Give in to me, and you will know only pleasure." "You torture me." "You put the snake inside of me." "You are the hag that bites my shoulder." "Careful, or your foolishness will come to overshadow your usefulness." "You live still..." "Because I allow it." "You breathe only because I wish it." "You would kill me?" "If you speak." "Stay silent, and you shall live." "My heart is deep and full." "It yearns to give you further chance to prove your worth." "Fail me, and you fail yourself." "The crag awaits your decision." "Damn it." "You sent for me?" "Yes." "If your purpose is further humiliation or probings of the heart, I, for one, have had my fill." "My purpose is a proposition." "A business arrangement of sorts." "I'm listening." "In which you would tell me the sum of your most fruitful week's bounty, and I shall provide double in perpetuity..." "For your company..." "And your precious time..." "In exclusivity." "So you wish to buy me outright." "I'm an only child." "I never learned to share." "Which is as close as a man like you comes to an apology." "Was it really so very painful for you to see me with another?" "Yes." "Will you be mine?" "Cotton." "Captain Alden!" "What brings you here?" "This." "Are you sure, Dottie?" "Are you sure she won't hurt us?" "'Course she won't hurt us... unless you be a witch." "Shh!" "Hello, Mercy." "May we come in?" "Mm." "They come to you in your room, Mercy?" "Them..." "Witches?" "Sometimes..." "And other times in other places." "Are they here with us now?" "Can you see them as we speak?" "No, I don't see them now." "Do they hurt you?" "Sometimes." "What's it like?" "What's it like?" "To point your finger and make them shake and tremble with fear." "To point your finger and watch them run." "No, it's not like that..." "At all." "I swear." "No woman in Salem has ever had that kind of power." "Not even Mary Sibley." "You think I have sway..." "Amongst all the people of Salem?" "Your little finger points to life a-and death itself." "Tell us... what do the witches look like?" "Mm." "One more thing, Mrs. Sibley... there was an overflow of parcels left on the Britania, all of which are to be delivered to a William Hooke." "Now, we've looked high and low." "No one could seem to locate the fellow." "I see." "I'll take care of it." "Thank you, madam." "They will not find Mr. Hooke... not now, not ever." "I won't ask what happened to him." "Nor should you." "Then contain it before curiosity grows." "Uh, Mrs. Sibley, uh, good afternoon." "Might I borrow your girl?" "The missus has taken ill with a batch of wayward mussels and now begs relief with one of her exceptional tonics." "Please send Mrs. Hale my most urgent regrets." "Most kind." "Mm?" "Oh, Mr. Richards, uh, fetch for me a list of items this Mr. Hooke was here to receive, one that also perhaps includes their site of origin." "Right away, madam." "Your lie is clumsy." "No one is ill." "My mistress can see that as clearly as I." "Yes, well, when it comes to lies and subterfuge," "I defer to your expert endowments." "State your purpose or be gone with you." "My purpose is to rid this town of John Alden once and for all, unless that is a purpose for which you lack interest." "That was the same girl... from lamb's, the one you threw a punch over." "Was it?" "Wasn't aware they made outcalls." "Tell me again of the visions." "Yellowed faces... bodies overcome by rash and blister..." "Death in great numbers." "And this came to you as the artifact was brought to life?" "Yep." "Where did you say it came from?" "Where everything in this town comes from... a ship." "Ritum magni." "The grand rite?" "Most of what we know is lore... rumor, legend." "It says this object, this "malum,"" "has thought to be present at every grand rite throughout history." "Everything I have read has said that the grand rite has only ever been attempted, never completed." "Maybe plague's only part of it." "This object is evil." "It consecrates the earth for the devil's return." "It was here for delivery." "Someone was expecting it." "A witch." "We must inform the selectmen immediately." "No." "No?" "We have something the witches want." "What better way to get their attention?" "What better way to get yourself killed?" "We are all in danger, but I would rather die before Salem's finest control my fate." "Are you with me?" "Not over there, you infernal mutant!" "Over here!" "That's him." "And the true purpose in taking you from me?" "My eyes betrayed my sense when I came upon Mrs. Hale bent over her chamber pot." "If you insist upon this lie, it forces me to ask where you're off to now with such great urgency." "The apotek." "I run low on the bark of cascara sagrada." "By all means." "It's like the great flowing robe of the pope." "Or the jeweled-up crown of a king." "Well, it's quite disagreeable on..." "I assure you." "Just think of it... being led through the market by the handsome Reverend Mather." "What's he like, Mercy, hmm?" "Does he speak of God and demons?" "We've spoke many times." "He's shown great interest in my affliction." "It's you who points the finger..." "While all of Salem holds their breath and waits." "Well, it's not exactly like that." "I..." "If I had your say-so, I know who I'd accuse." "Who?" "Who?" "It's her father." "She'd accuse her own father." "Why?" "Makes her sing in the streets all day long while he nurses the bottle at lamb's... sing and beg." "Then he takes what coin she's made for spirits and beats her senseless for her troubles." "Is this true?" "I'm to be 15 next month, and he swears to sell me to the rod." "Your father means to sell you to the whorehouse?" "I'll run away." "Even if he sells me, I'm..." "I'll run." "No one is running away." "No one." "Sinner or savior!" "How are we to know?" "!" "Look but to the torment of the damned, and think well of the difference betwixt angels and devils, and you will know what sin is and where sin resides!" "How 'bout you not rile the crowd further than they are?" "It's two bits a sheet." "I'm still full up here, unless you'd like to buy me out." "Be loads more fun to beat you stupid." "Miss Hale." "Captain Alden." "It's a fine day." "Is it?" "Perhaps not." "Oh, indeed." "Perhaps not." "Perhaps there will be no more fine days in Salem." "Perhaps the days of fine days are tragically behind us." "Have I offended you, Miss Hale?" "Do you consider it offensive raising hope in a heart most normally well-guarded while your own beats in the breast of another?" "Do you, Captain Alden, find that reprehensible" " or simply unkind?" " Well, I..." "Or, most likely, you think not of it at all or me or others, as is the wont and practice of most men." "Ah, Mrs. Sibley." "Anne." "Perfect." "Are you ever grateful to be no longer young?" "Yes." "Though her youthful moxie does bring to mind another." "I was never that young." "We were both..." "Once." "What brings you to market?" "Tituba." "We were to meet at the herbalist." "A fine pair you two make in this place of death." "Give it to her." "It will take time." "And you will report to me as soon as you're finished." "Afraid to stay?" "My time is better spent elsewhere." "For the best." "Once a man dabbles in the dark arts, it's difficult for him to return to the light." "Fetch me a rabbit." "Y-yes." "Get on there!" "Mrs. Sibley." "Mrs. Browning." "Oh." "No need to turn away." "He is an arresting figure." "Only my old lady's eyes that keep me from staring myself." "Don't be ridiculous." "You still insist on ignoring my expertise." "Yep." "There are less pedestrian, less painful methods, with which we could accomplish our goals." "It must happen tonight." "There will be no second chances." "The ways of the common are always good enough for me." "And if it causes pain, so much the better." "Still in a brown study, I see." "Hasn't spoken a word all day." "Mm." "Well, she'll recover." "From what?" " What did you say to her?" " Nothing." "Merely trying to spare her heart the inevitable woe." "Worry not, my husband." "This will all be distant memory once she's become Mrs. Cotton Mather." "Mm-hmm." "I wonder." "Wonder what?" "If he'd never left, if you'd been allowed to marry, and found yourself now in that house of his with three squalling brats, working ceaselessly to spread your meager wages..." "Would Captain Alden still hold such desperate appeal?" "Or is it that you're trapped in first bliss, romance from which there's no escape, your heart ever hurting from the imaginings of what could have been?" "Do not stare at him in public." "It weakens you." "It never even occurs to you, does it?" "I might have outgrown your sage advice." "Though she cannot speak She will show us the witch!" "She will show us the witch!" "Balbin, gab, Gabor, agaba!" "Arise, I call thee!" "Colpriziana, offina alta nestra, fuaro menut." "William Hooke, thou art the dead I seek." "William Hooke, answer my calling." "She will show us the witch!" "Though she cannot speak She will show us the witch!" "She will show us the witch!" "She will show us the witch!" "She will show us the witch!" "She will show us the witch!" "Stop her, Reverend." "She makes mockery of you." "Stop her!" "William Hooke, thou art the dead I seek." "William Hooke, answer my calling." "Fortis roa, strength and breath, strength and breath, strength and breath." "William Hooke, thou art the dead I seek." "William Hooke, answer my calling." "Strength and breath, strength and breath, strength and breath." "You." "Yes." "I thought our business concluded." "Tell me John Alden's secret." "Meet me in hell, you bitch." "Oh, there are worse places than hell." "Speak!" "Ahh." "Witch!" "Oh, no, Emily." "It's your father." "What's happened now?" "Query your mistress." "I haven't the faintest idea." "What of your mission?" "Of course I find you here, not at the jail investigating this new witch, not with Mercy Lewis, but here, alone, playing with your blasted toys." "It seems I am determined to displease you, Mrs. Sibley." "Mrs. Sibley." "Please." " I'm sorry." " Please." "Tell me... what troubles you." "That girl has gone mad with power." "Encouraged by her peers, influenced by petty dispute." "The selectmen fear that she's no longer reliable." "Nonsense." "They are uncertain that she can be further trusted." "It is not theirs to decide." "I will assess the girl and form my own opinion of her role." "You would do that, Reverend?" "Of course." "I am torn and harried by my many responsibilities." "It's my fault completely." "I hadn't considered the toll this has taken on you." "Oh, and a rift amongst the selectmen at this fragile moment might be more burden than I... or Salem... could bear." "Worry not, Mrs. Sibley." "You fetched me here to run these witch trials, and run them I must." "Thank you, Reverend." "What a relief to find at least one who can relieve my hardships." "What is that?" "It's an artifact that I'm researching." "Does it have to do with witches?" "It's associated with the grand rite, a ritual of death attributed to witches over the centuries." "And why does this object in particular concern you?" "Everything regarding witches concerns me, madam." "We cannot be too prepared." "What luck for Salem that your father was unavailable." "We will owe our future to you, Reverend." "Of that I am sure." "The secret is useless." "John Alden will not leave town for a gambling debt." "That's what she told you?" "She lied?" "I'll beat it out of her." "No." "Does Tituba not yearn for the grand rite?" "Is there another, in fact, that craves it more?" "So she'll use the real secret." "In her own way, but for the same purpose... to control Mary." "Ah." "We have another problem." "The object William Hooke was tasked to deliver has fallen into other hands." "And what exactly was William Hooke tasked to deliver?" "The malum." "The malum?" "We must be prepared for every eventuality, even one that does not include Mary Sibley." "That is the malum's purpose." "Who has it?" "John Alden." "I looked for you at market." "The apotek ran low." "I was forced to pick the bark myself." "The next lie to cross your lips will be your last." "You would threaten me, your one true ally?" "So the others have turned on me." "Yes." "Who?" "Each and every one." "Rose?" "Everyone." "They meet in secret, speak of your weakness, plot to rid Salem of John Alden." "Fearful he has taken me from myself." "Yes." "Nonsense." "I am most completely myself!" "You are not!" "You are in love." "Let me tell you about him..." "this man that you love." "He is a murderer." " He is not." " Yes." "And he has killed yet another to keep his secret." "If I tell the Magistrate, the militia will come, they will take him, and they will hang him." "Lies." "If you wish for John Alden to live, you will complete the grand rite." "The next moon will see eight more dead." "Lies." "The dead don't lie." "Hello, father." "I'm locked up." "Yes, you are." "What for?" "You're a witch." "A drunk, a card sharp, a two-timer, maybe." "But a witch?" "I think not." "I come to say goodbye." "And thanks for nothing." "I'll be out of here in no time, and then you will be sold, just like we planned." "Or you'll hang..." "Or burn." "We'll see, father." "We'll see." "Miss Hopkins?" "Miss..." "Miss Hale." "A small collection to help ease your circumstances in this most trying time." "Thank you." "He'll get a fair trial." "My father will see to that, or I'll see to my father." "You're most kind, Miss Hale." "Ah, it's not kindness." "They hung my friend." "I watched her kick and..." "Scream and..." "Soil herself." "I will not do that again." "Stay strong." "Time for truth." "I lied to you earlier." "I was young once... young enough that I believed in goodness." "I believed in it because I saw it in you." "You can't help it." "Y-you can't stop it." "You can't be any other way." "And I think that's why I loved you." "Imagine my surprise..." "Being told you're a murderer." "You don't know me." "What?" "You don't know me!" " I killed 20 men." " No." "Yes. 20 men." "And their only crime was that they had come to save me." "No, I won't believe it." "Believe it because it's true!" "Lucky men go to their graves with no regrets." "Barely a day passes when I don't have one." "Sometimes in life, we make choices." "And sometimes, these..." "these difficult choices... they lead us to do things, terrible things, and we don't wish to." "We'd do anything not to." "But choice informs choice." "Your actions, though your own, they... they don't resemble anything you'd have wanted or wished for." "Tell me that it was like that, tell me that it was a difficult choice, a terrible thing, please, please, so that I might still believe in goodness." "I murdered 20 men." "And I make no excuses for myself." "Will you have me arrested?" "I am the only one that knows." "Prince of darkness, master of all, father of evil, hear our call." "Prince of darkness, master of all, father of evil, hear our call." "Prince..." "Father of evil, hear our call." "Prince of darkness..." "Father of evil, hear our call." "Prince of darkness, master of all, father of evil, hear our call." "Prince of darkness, master of all..." "Prince of darkness, master of all, father of evil, hear our call." "Father of evil, hear our call!" "Prince of darkness, master of all, father of evil, hear our call." "Prince of darkness, master of all, father of evil, hear our call!" "Prince of darkness, master of all, father of evil..." "We had a deal." "Our deal no longer pleases me." "Then I ask again... what do you want?" "I want to be just like you." "Aah!"