"Previously on "Salem"..." "There is not a soul who can stop me." " What's become of Mary?" " She's dead." "For now, we go home... for her." "The terror outside drives refugees into Salem, where, soon, they all, including my dear father, will be but the burning candles that ignite my inauguration." "You have no idea what you're up against." "Lead the militia, and I'll clear your name." "My sister harbors a great danger to you, Lord..." "Cotton Mather." "Cotton." " Aah!" " Have no fear." "It's just you and me... and baby makes three." "What you and the Essex witches have done by bringing back the Devil himself..." "Now, see what I see." "You and Mary Sibley gave the Devil the earth." "Now you and Mary Sibley have got to take it back." "Who do we have here?" "A little lost bird for my little nest?" "You will never have to deal with your uncle again." "This is where you work?" "Knockers Hole." "Does anybody know this man's name?" "Finally, brother, you are here." "We all know that this is our only chance." "Raise the dead, and you never know what you raise." "John." "No!" "John!" "John?" "John!" "John, where are you?" "I'm here, John." "Where is he?" " No!" " I'm sorry, Sister." "No, get out of my way!" "Shh, shh." "What have you done to me now, Queen of Bitches?" "Only ripped your soul through the wall of silence, cursed you back to life, and trapped you forever in the home of all your tears." "Run as far and as fast as you may, Mary Sibley." "You can never escape Salem." "You are resurrected by the very life force of the primordial tree." "Now you are forever bound to the realm of its roots..." "To Salem." "Is this now to be my personal Hell?" "Have you brought me back and staked my soul to Salem just to watch me suffer?" "No, child." "'Tis no punishment, but a gift." "You've been given the chance to undo all your crimes." "My crimes?" "Why, you lying, filthy whore!" "My crimes are your crimes." "We are all responsible." "Together, we turned the witch hunt against the hunters." "And we sought justice for all our sisters burned and hanged in the old country." "But the devil lied, and he delivers justice only for himself and death or slavery for all others." "It is true." "I have seen it." "The devil we led you to birth will enslave this land unless we stop him." " We must..." " We?" "We?" "!" "No." "No, if you want to undo all of this, then you will have to undo it without me!" "You are the only one in Heaven or Earth who can destroy him." "You and he were of one body." "You knitted his flesh in your womb." "I already saved the one person in this world I loved." "Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but your sacrifice accomplished precisely nothing..." "Saved no one, least of all John Alden." "If you want to save the life of your love, it is not enough to kill yourself." "You must kill your son." "Corrected by Addi67" "You stupid waste of flesh and blood." "I didn't kill Mary." "I saved her." "What..." "By bleeding her dry through a goddamn hole in her neck?" "You didn't deserve it." "What?" "I left her blood enough to survive, to be free of Salem..." "Free of me, even." "She must have found you clinging to your pathetic life and wasted her last precious life's blood to save you." "You killed her, Captain, as if you cut her throat." "You should have had the decency to let them hang you this morning." "Gentlemen!" "Gentlemen, please!" "Salem's survival rests on the shoulders of two men." "And I can't afford either of you to reduce that number by half." "Captain Alden, you promised me trained troops." "We need them." "The enemy may be at our very gates." "Not all enemies are in the woods." "So, this is what it all comes to." "The great hope of generations of Cottons and Mathers, reduced to a hand puppet of Witches and demon lovers." "Please." " Let me." " No." "I cannot..." "I will not..." "Allow you destroy yourself, nor will I allow them to destroy you." "Time will show us the way if you will but let it." "Our true marriage has not yet begun." "The children we might have..." "If you wish me to endure, I need a drink." "And drown poor Brown Jenkins?" "I think not." "You do not understand the danger you... we all are in." "The power that now rules Salem is far greater than mine and utterly evil in its intent." "You must trust that all I do, I do for you..." "For your protection, our future." "I am in your hands." "Not hers, but in the hands of the Dark Lord." "Lay a finger on Cotton and I will paint these walls with your insides." "That boy be damned." "Our little master simply has use of your husband." "The people are afraid." "They need to hear from the great Reverend Cotton Mather." "What does the Devil care if people are afraid?" "Even the dimmest butcher knows not to let the cow see the blow that is coming." "Fear taints the meat." "I will not serve him." "I'd rather die instead." "I would do so in an instant were I allowed." "I'm not sure I believe you." "I think you and I are more alike than that." "And we both know that martyrdom is for fools who dream of a glorious death that will ensure their memory lives forever." "Personally, I'd prefer it were not my memory that lives forever, but me." "And I think deep down, you are the same." "If I am wrong and you do wish to martyr yourself, you will have that chance in the meeting house." "Say the wrong thing, and you will die." "Say the right thing, and you will live." "Either way, the cattle shall still be eaten." "Just serve him in the most minimal of ways, and he will allow you and my sister to live happily ever after." "This is our chance." "Chance?" "A chance to destroy everything I've lived for." "You would have me be a Judas Goat and lead my own people to slaughter." "No, I would have you live." "Most men die as they are born... in agony, but this man's agony must have been exceptional." "Every bone in his body... has been crushed." "A suspicious death, then?" "Well, in Knockers Hole, all deaths are suspicious." "Why care about this one?" "Every man..." "Even a poor man, even a bad man..." "Deserves dignity in death." " I think dignity begins with a name." " That I could give you." "Stitched him up more than once." "Nick Land... a gambler, a thief, a drunkard, and pimp." "Did he have any family?" "Alice." "I can assure you she won't be shedding any tears." " Why not?" " I did say that he was a pimp." "Her pimp." "I have better use for those precious hands." "Mary!" "No, it cannot be." "But it is, my love." "How?" "I buried you." "I've seen the other side, John." "There's no life there, no love." "All we have is here and now." "Fine, then come away." "We can escape before anyone's even awake." "John, I can never leave this place." "The magic that raised me traps me here." "I must spend the rest of my life in Salem." "Whatever you must do, we do it together." "Tell me." "There will be time to talk of that." "For now, it is not talk I need." "John." "I've swum beyond the wall of sleep." "I've been alive and dead and then alive again." "And right now, all I want is to feel you inside me." "Can you do that?" "Let the Devil rule the world just one more night." "Where are you going?" "Where only I can go." "No." "Not alone." "You can't help me, John." "I made that boy's body." "Only I can unmake him." "You said you'd tell me all, that there'd be time." "I lied." "There's no time..." "No time at all." "If I succeed, then we'll have all the time in the world." "If I fail... then at least I felt your love in me once before the darkness fell." "I'm sorry, my love." "Perhaps it was selfish of me to come here." "Then again, that's me." "By the power of the love I crave, glamour me one, who's crawled from the grave." "Flee, or it won't be aims you'll be begging for." " It'll be mercy." " I am no beggar, sir." "I am his mother, and I want to see my son." "I swear there was no such hallway in my house." "It is not your house now, but his." "Is this Nick Land's room?" "You must be Alice." "I'm sorry for your loss." "My loss?" "Which one?" "My parents?" " My maidenhood?" " Your uncle." "That was no loss..." "to me or anyone else." "I've no time to talk of him with you." "Now, if you'll excuse me." "I found your uncle's body on the street." "Pigs chewing on his flesh." "I've got a new home... and somebody who cares about me." "Maybe he jumped out..." "Ashamed of all the misery he caused me." "Yeah, maybe." "If I was to jump out of a window..." "I think I'd open the window first." "But then, that's just..." "Do not commit suicide for the sake of your name or your pride." "You would have me act a foul play written by the Devil himself." "Yes... if it means you survive." "But as what?" "Some weak shadow of a man wearing this sad suit of flesh." "I know you will do what you will no matter the cost." "I hope against hope that you choose me." "Choose life." "She always leaves the head and the heart spinning." " Where is she?" " Stalking the halls of that house, waiting for a moment alone with the thing that was her son." "She has little enough chance of success." "Anything you do will only lessen it." "If you ever want to see her again, you must listen to me." "And why on Earth would I believe a word you say?" "Because she believed me when I spoke of you." "How do you think I got her to come back here?" "You used her love for me to make her risk her life yet again?" "You conniving bitch." "I'm afraid I'm not here, but well-hidden." "If he knew that we plot against him, Mary's life would be forfeit." "Fine, you hide." "I'll go get her out of there." "If you love her, trust her and trust me." "I do love her, and I'm trying to trust her." "But trust you?" " Never." " How frustrating." "I must save the world through two stubborn fools that only want to save each other." "What do you want from me?" "You have already seen that it is no ordinary war blazing outside of Salem." "While she wages war on the inside, you must do the same on the outside as a soldier." "And you must make these lambs into soldiers, too." "For the real war is only just beginning." "Mom." "I climbed over the black wall of sleep and crawled from my grave, because I cannot deny the truth." "You are my son, and we belong together until the end." "How long I've waited for you to say those words, and I promise you we shall be so happy." "Just being here and holding you," "I already am." "So, it's true." "This is the pretty little sow blessed with birthing our new world." "These for the gentlemen." "Whatever the Captain's drinking." "Aye, sir." "To Captain John Alden..." "Hero of Bloody Brook, the Great Swamp, Turner's Falls, and Mount Hope." "To your honor, Sir." "You're full of shit, little man, and so are your fairy tales." "There weren't any heroes at any of those battles, least of all me." "Only difference between me and everyone else there is..." "I'm still alive, more or less." "An interesting way you have of inspiring your troops." " My troops?" " I didn't save your neck from the rope for you to keep Mr. Lamb's pocket full from your drinking." "I look forward to your first muster." "Today, Captain." "So, will the great Cotton Mather bend to my needs?" "Well, he is a proud and stubborn man..." "From an all-too-long line of proudly stubborn Puritans, but... if I were a betting man, and I am," "I would lay gold that my sister is a widow before the day's done." "Should be delightful entertainment either way." "Yes." "The mystical chords of mother love have drawn our beloved Mary back to us." "Certainly you share my joy at her return?" "Yes." "Yes, of course." "You cannot lose what is truly yours." "Goes for my mother, and indeed this entire earth, I believe." "I cannot fathom how, but it is true." " You came back." " Not for you." "For my son." "Even I am not vain enough to think the sun rises for me alone." "But I am grateful beyond relief, that it has risen." "Had I more than one life, I might well spend it with you, but I have but this one and it is his." "Come." "Time for us to collect your sister and her good man." "Besides, my dear mother and my most trusted friend have so much to discuss." " Far as I can tell, Alice Land..." " Who?" "The niece of the dead man recently joined a brothel." "Seems a new proprietor has been recruiting girls off the streets." " Indeed." " And when the uncle took exception to losing his niece, his only source of income, someone, probably the brothel's new master, did him in." "The denizens of Knockers Hole are more animal than human." "No one can be surprised at their doings." "But what about Nick Land?" "He will be just as dead tomorrow." "In the meantime, I will see to this matter, the brothel in Salem, myself." "Welcome to my Bird's Nest." "Do you see any birds you'd like to share a nest with?" "That won't be necessary." "Strictly business, Madame..." "The kind that's best discussed privately, unless, of course, you'd like to find my militia here in the morning." "Well, shall we?" "Uh, for a poor mistress, you've obviously done well for yourself here, and in such a short time." "There is gold in men's lust." "And there has been, shall we say, considerable pent-up demand in Salem." "Pent-up demand?" " Indeed." " Yes." "A woman who knows business." "Please, how can I serve you?" "I had, shall we say, an arrangement with your predecessor..." "May he rest in pieces." "And would be prepared to offer your charming establishment the same generous protection, so long as a fair percentage flows towards the brothel's new benefactor... i.e. myself." "And what does your honor think is a fair percentage?" "Well, I am by no means a greedy man." "Let's say, perhaps, 50%?" " 50%?" " Mm-hmm." " How about 30%?" " How about 60%?" " 40%." " 70%." "That is no way to bargain." "You are going the wrong way." "I never bargain." "50% it is." "It will be an honor, and indeed a pleasure, to be partnered with a man as firm and hard in his dealings as you." "To the love of business." "And the business of love." "Mm." "Mmm." "Fair trade, Grimalkin." "I shall give you back your light, and you shall give me back my sight." "They send savages to do their fighting, so we will be savage in kind." "If you all want to survive, if you want this town to survive, then forget everything you think you know about war." "It'll be your thumb in his eye, or your knife in his gut, that decides your day." "So... show me what you got." "Who's next?" "Now, you..." "I remember you." "You." "You fight well alone." "That'll keep you alive." "Already has." "Been alone all my life." "Yeah." "Step inside, please." "I see you hiding there behind your eyes." "Did you really think you could just walk back in here?" "No." " No, I knew there would be questions." " Good." "Questions there certainly will be, and pain." "Questions not backed up by pain are like tin coins." "You can press a king's face upon them, but they remain worthless..." "No gold in them." "It is gold that I want..." "Your golden truth and your true pain." "Now tell me... how you came to be here?" "The Countess Marburg ordered me dead." "Her son, the Baron..." "Sebastian... tricked her, left me just enough blood to survive." "But...?" "I gave what remained to save the man I loved, but I wanted to live for an even greater love." "I crawled out of the dirt, into the moonlight, and back to Salem." "Back to your lover." "Only to say goodbye to him." "Why?" "Not all loves are created equal." "I am no longer just a woman but a mother, and my love belongs to my child." "He exists no more." "My mother's heart denies it with every beat." "My son is still there." "I will not leave him a motherless child." "Motherless child?" "You really have no idea what he is..." "What we are." "I can assure, you neither of us have ever been children." "We were never even born." "What are you?" "God's first creation... and his most enduring." "And we have met before." "Never." "Seven years ago when the Dark Lord's vessel was taken from your womb." "You cried for help." "I came in a multitude." "The ground around you opened up, and a swarm of insects crawled up through the earth onto your stomach and across your chest." "They are me." "I and the swarm are the same." "My thousands of legs have crawled across your flesh." "One day, I will burrow deep... and devour you." "Now I will know the whole truth." "No." "What is the opposite of a miracle?" "A force beyond human or natural power, but not, as in a miracle, for good, but for evil." "Not to spread faith, but to spread terror." "Inexplicable flames that blackened this Meeting House, the very heart of Salem, was just that..." "A miracle of evil, an act of terror," "a warning shot from an enemy far darker than Salem has yet seen." "This boy is not what he seems." "This... child... is God's lesson to us all." "His own family slaughtered by savages..." "Taken captive, tortured, abandoned until our late, lamented founder, George Sibley, ransomed him into the arms of Salem, into his own home!" "And now... and now this... best-of-all boys... has dedicated his fortune from our beloved founder to the future of Salem, starting with the restoration of our beloved Meeting House!" "And that is just the beginning." "With his noble guardian, the Baron Marburg, little Sibley is dedicated to growing and rebuilding" "Salem until it truly is what we came here to build..." "New Jerusalem!" " Well-done, Reverend." " Thank you." "Thank you." "Inspirational words." "What's wrong with you?" "Whatever do you mean?" "It is one thing to lay low." "It's something else to do the Devil's work for him." "My work has not changed." "I am now, as always, serving the greatest good and the glory of God." "Tell me the truth." "Your wife have your balls in a box?" "Leave my wife out of it." "We both know what your wife is." "What the hell are you now?" "As an unmarried man, you cannot hope to understand the unbreakable bonds that hold a man to his wife." "I hope that we remain friends." "Now you can hide nothing from me." "I shall taste your truth." "Ah, 'tis true..." "Venus' curse is as harsh as her glove is soft." "Dinley, you bloviating blowhard, shut up and tell me what it is!" "I've seen a lot of canker blossoms since the new brothel's opened, but nothing quite like this." "Let me see what I've got." "We're gonna need something to relieve the itch and something to lessen the stench." "This is your work!" "What have you done to me?" "Quite simply put, I've killed you." "Not to worry..." "You don't have to die today or tomorrow." "I have an antidote." "Right here." " Would you like some?" " Give it to me." "No!" "Then we must begin as we mean to continue." "On your knees." "I see you!" "Ooh, little bird." "Ooh-ooh." "You don't seem as enthused about Reverend Mather's good news as all the others." "If I hear one more round of toasts to the Reverend or good little Sibley or blessed Baron Marburg," "I might start tearing up the place." "You ever think you knew a man and come to find out you didn't know what he was at all?" "You know Cotton Mather personally?" "I thought I did, but maybe not." "Or maybe you can't ever really know a man or what he... or you..." "do... when put to the test." "You did it, my love." "You did it!" "I didn't know what you were gonna say." "I thought I'd have to watch you die right there." "There was a moment when I knew the Devil had won..." "That I had fallen out of God's world into his." "And then I saw you..." "Your face and the love..." "Light shining from it." "I knew in an instant that even if I was in a dark and godless universe, there was still love." "There was still you." "Well?" "To my infinite surprise, her loyalty seems perfectly genuine." "You have made me very happy, Mother." "You have no idea how much I've missed you, Mother." "And I've so missed my beautiful boy." "Only you are not him." "Mother, please!" "Mother, how could you?" "Such a disappointment." "You failed my final test." "Now may I kill her?" "Corrected by Addi67"