Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 Episode 1 Review: Homo Cantus

It was evident that the Bellweather Trio would have to unlearn much of the disciplined training they had received at Fort Salem.

Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 Episode 1 proved that Scylla would have to take the lead for the fugitives because the rest are woefully unprepared to live life on the run.

Most of them didn’t get the concept of lying low, and, as a result, they were back on the road by the end of the episode.

Yup, it’s good that they have both Scylla (ex-Spree, ex-Dodger) and Nicte (ex-Spree, longtime fugitive) on hand to offer their hard-won wisdom.

Let’s give Scylla’s old contact Mac credit for even taking the most wanted witches in the country into his Dodger hideout/working distribution center. What a genius concept: a hideout that pays for itself.

Leave it to newbie fugitives Abigail and Tally to screw things up for a lot of Dodgers just because of sheer antsiness.

For all that Abigail bitches about Petra attempting to run her life, that’s exactly what she wanted now, someone to tell her what to do.

So she and Adil stupidly tried to use a public pay phone. That was magic, finding a working pay phone.

But to do so at the same time as a Not Our Daughters rally, while a cop is using some doodad that detects spells, was plain stupid on their part.

They got away with it that time, but that cop would be back thanks to Tally.

That being said, Adil and Abigail are proving good for each other, as their hard edges appear to be wearing off. Their playing Midwesterners was cute, and the possibility of their starting a family came up organically.

Adil and Khalida seemed quite comfortable being undercover. The Tarim have kept themselves hidden for centuries, so this wasn’t much of a stretch for them.

Adil and Abigail, Raelle and Scylla, Tally and Nicte?

That last pairing is a definite odd couple, the sensitive child and the hardened warrior. And yet, they were intriguing together.

The lonely Tally decided to finetune her powers during her downtime from moving boxes, and Nicte was a natural mentor for her.

However, Tally overdid things with her powers and almost fell off the roof before Nicte grabbed her and pulled her back. But this activity was seen by a passerby who reported it to the police.

Might there have been a space inside the building where people could have worked out? Maybe, maybe not. There were a lot of Dodgers living there.

So Tally’s misstep ruined things for everyone, as the cop used his gadget to view the beds hidden behind a magical bulletin board. The warehouse was burned, and everyone had to leave.

The saddest moment came when Scylla had to say goodbye to young witch Tiffany, who she had rescued from the Camarilla on Motherland: Fort Salem Season 2 Episode 3.

The one lesson the trio had to take away from this bugout is using all the tools at their disposal. This choice means even employing Spree works, such as changing their faces or employing a mirror to communicate, as Abigail did with Petra near the end.

The most crucial point of that conversation was that the Camarilla feared a union between a witch (Abigail) and a Tarim (Adil). It wasn’t clear whether this meant combining their powers or producing offspring.

Next, it’s off to the Cession, where residents are suspicious of those in power and Dodgers are both plentiful and welcome. That sounds like a great place to hole up.

They shouldn’t expect much help from government officials, who are constantly checking which way the wind is blowing, or Fort Salem, as the effects of the witch plague lingered.

Just as Izadora perfects a vaccine for the witch plague, the skies opened up, and the plague rained down on Fort Salem. They should have looked into that weird atmospheric condition sooner.

Then there’s General Alder’s legacy overshadowing the whole base. That, or having a daughter on the run, would be plenty to disconcert any new leader.

Luckily, Petra’s successor as intelligence chief, Anacostia, was hitting on all cylinders. She was using her wards and connection with Silver’s security man to eavesdrop on Camarilla meetings.

When her wards began to get blocked, she brought in a secret weapon: M.

Poor M felt discouraged after the witch plague claimed so many of her troops. So Anacostia decided to employ M’s skill for infiltration, sending her to listen in on a meeting that included Silver and Birch.

So the Camarilla’s big project involving industrial drilling bits is that they’re going to dig down and destroy the substance that gives witches their powers.

You would think that the early witches would have put some protective spell around that which would stand up to drilling, but who knows?

It also seems that the history of Mother Tongue and witches will be revealed this final season.

How this will play into the current conflict should be fascinating.

And, hey, Alder’s back. Will the returned general have new powers that can tip the balance in the war with the Camarilla?

To revisit Penelope’s death, watch Motherland: Fort Salem online.

How is the trio doing as fugitives?

Is Petra ready for command in the upcoming war?

Will the Cession welcome the fugitives?

Comment below.

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