Mayfair Witches (Season 1) Episode 5: The arson attempt at the Mayfair house may have been contained. But from the looks of this week’s episode, the show’s fire is not ready to die out. In the most American Horror Story meets Penny Dreadful episode yet, Mayfair Witches faithfully pursues a grander manifestation of its mystique. Like our Rowan, it breaks out of the other end, turning our moderately set expectations upside down.
Mayfair Witches (Season 1), Episode 5 Recap:
The Thrall
We may have been a smidge shortsighted when it came to speculating on the goal of the Scotland time jumps. The writers shrewdly kept the purpose opaque and led us to believe that all we witnessed was the episodic unfolding of the Mayfair clan’s origin. Episode 5, however, comes with an even more riveting origin story. We find Suzanne guiding the birth of a strange offspring.
The excited father is soon taken aback when he sees the newborn’s webbed fingers. By morning, the sudden disappearance of the new mother and the baby baffles Suzanne. Rattled by a commotion nearby, Suzanne walks into the passionate condemnation of a captured witch. The king’s witch hunter has caught a woman dancing peculiarly while chanting prayers for her dark lord. The sinking feeling in her gut as she sees that the alleged witch is the very woman who birthed the strange child makes Suzanne leave the crowd in a hurry.
Picking up in the bizarre aftermath of the Mayfair housefire, a fever dream-like state of the already strange house steers us to Deirdre’s bedroom. Lying in bed without a worry in the world are Rowan and Ciprien. As we follow Ciprien to the kitchen, where he makes breakfast, we are left wondering what led to this faux heaven. Before we can collect our thoughts or even begin coming up with conjectures, we see the two going round and round in circles–stuck in a loop of sharing an intimate conversation and having breakfast in bed. It is now more than evident that Rowan and Ciprien are stuck in Lasher’s elusive trickeries. But the strangeling’s unusual mystifications are more engaging as Ciprien’s physical state worsens, and he notices the gaping stab wound on the side of his stomach.
Puzzled to see Ciprien’s dreadful condition, Rowan begins questioning their strange state of being. She rushes to the lavatory only to find the knife that Carlotta stabbed him with. Her fevered consciousness tries to pin the blame for Ciprien’s fatal wound on herself. With Carlotta nowhere to be found, Rowan makes haste to get Ciprien some much-needed medical assistance. But when she attempts to make calls, she realizes that Lasher has severed the house’s ties with the world outside.
Rushing downstairs to take him to the hospital, Rowan finds out that they are being held captive in the house. She runs upstairs haphazardly while Ciprien chants inconceivable invocations. Puzzled, Rowan is shocked to see Ciprien upstairs, holding out a breakfast tray as though nothing is wrong. He tells her that he is fine and it is Rowan who is suffering from a concussion. While she does come close to falling for the comforting lies, she notices his strange hand and quickly comes to her senses. Now here’s where the intrigue is off the charts. If you remember the peculiar newborn from the opening sequence, you will readily associate his deviance with that of the faux-Ciprien, who is clearly Lasher.
If that baby happens to be Lasher himself, he is likely to be a part human-part devil concoction who grew more powerful as he aged. Meanwhile, Ciprien sees a ghost. Stuart Townsend, a long-missing member of Talamasca is seen standing at the foot of the stairs, calling out for Antha, Rowan’s deceased grandmother. A lover recognizes the same predicament in another and rebukes him for the same. In charge of Antha’s protection, Stuart fell in love with her and ended up facing the worst of Lasher’s rage-induced lunacy. Ciprien, the Talamasca member who is clearly in love with the witch he is meant to protect, is warned against dying in the house (Murder House, anyone?).
When calling out for help results in nothing, Rowan attempts to use her own skills to help the dying Ciprien. Looking for first aid in the bathroom, she runs into Millie Mayfair, dissipating and coming to form like an apparition. Now, there’s a lot to unpack here. Crying Millie complains that it’s difficult for her to hold on without having her sister Carlotta by her side. What we have seen of her so far has always carried little clues pointing at the reality of her condition without making it absolutely evident.
Millie is dead. And if we are to go by the theory that the people that die in the Mayfair house never really leave, Millie has been stuck in this hell for a long time. (Does it also mean that we may get to see Antha?) Before Rowan can begin to tend to his wound, Ciprien clarifies the grave condition of his existence to her. Lasher will not let him go alive, and he has laced Ciprien’s wound with devastating magic. Desperate to save his life, Rowan calls out to Lasher and agrees to face him if Ciprien is allowed to go.
Sending Ciprien through the wall, Lasher appears in front of frantic Rowan and makes her dress up the same way Deirdre was seen dressed up on the night she conceived Rowan. An air of tranquility and joy washes over Rowan as she dances with Lasher all over the living room. In a world where she accepts him, she gets to eat all the cake her heart desires, and she gets to untaint a happy memory. More than anything else, she gets to be an ever-glimmering star in the sky instead of living the fleeting life of a beautiful firefly.
She falls hard on the gritty surface of disillusionment when she sees Carlotta suspended in the air in the corner of the room. It isn’t easy for Lasher to convince her that it’s all happening according to her wishes. Having no cruel bone in her body, Rowan believes Lasher is trying to manipulate her and lead her down the path of darkness. To banish the devil from the house, Rowan seeks the help of Millie.
Uncovering the ritual Carlotta had followed to keep Lasher in check, Rowan goes down to the gloomy basement to find the ingredients. Stumbling on the rotten remains of the dead nurse sends chills down her spine. Lasher finds another bloodcurdling example to throw Rowan’s way to make her see just how inhuman Carlotta really is. In the Grieve house, agents of Talamasca storm in to save Ciprien from the occultic wound with the help of benevolent magic.
Mayfair Witches (Season 1), Episode 5 Ending, Explained:
It isn’t Rowan’s profession as a doctor that has given her the instincts for healing and helping. It is her innate compassion that has made her want to become a doctor. Considering Carlotta practically strove to kill her and that she had kept her mother drugged and paralyzed for decades, wanting to hurt her would only be a reasonable emotion for Rowan to feel. But she would rather choose a righteous path than cause someone immediate harm.
When she finds herself stuck in the basement, Lasher’s voice reminds her that she is in control. Being able to concentrate and free herself still doesn’t convince her of his truthfulness. And frankly, she can’t be blamed. Nonetheless, Rowan places a bet on her own abilities and succeeds in freeing Carlotta from the state of floating above the ground. Disappointed in her new favorite witch, Lasher disappears for the time being. It is evidently going to take him longer than he anticipated to perforate Rowan’s veneer of emotional generosity.
Once she is free and is done acknowledging Rowan’s part in saving her life, Carlotta lures her to the balcony with the false promise of giving her a way out. When she reaches the balcony, perceptive Rowan senses the disturbing memories that are attached to the haunted extension of the Mayfair house. Carlotta once again yells out her prayers to God and wishes to kill Rowan if that is what it will take to save her soul. The young witch realizes that Antha didn’t kill herself.
It was Carlotta who made her grandmother take a plunge into death from the ominous balcony. Rowan may have a soft heart. But she isn’t about to let herself be manipulated by the savage woman and kill herself. Instead of Rowan, it is Carlotta who falls off the balcony while having a painful aneurysm caused by the powerful, enraged witch. One way or another, Rowan’s ferocious outbursts clear the path for Lasher to get closer. As she commands her way out of the locked door, the new Mayfair designee enters a world upside down. What awaits in the anomalous reality is as enigmatic as Rowan’s strange future.
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