Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 Episode 2 Review: The Price of Work

Boy, are the young witches of the Bellweather Unit in over their heads!

That became even more apparent on Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 Episode 2.

The problem is that when they were attending Fort Salem, there was a command structure, and they were given orders, which they followed at least a good portion of the time.

Although let’s face it, they freelanced way too much. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn’t.

Now that they’re on the run, it’s all making it up as they go along. And with the prominent personalities involved, that was bound to lead to big clashes. This isn’t a group built for consensus.

Looking from the outside in, there’s only one apparent leader: Nicte. The founder of The Spree has been a fugitive hiding in plain sight for decades.

But Army brat Abigail has been bred to hate The Spree her entire life. Plus, as the unit leader that bears her name, she should be in charge of this little posse of fugitives, right, despite having led nothing more extensive than a trio so far?

Then there is wildcard Tally. The former timid granola has left her kumbaya persona behind as she becomes more aware of how powerful she is. She’s demanding a seat at the table as well.

Raelle has been deferring to her boo, Scylla, which was a sure sign that she wasn’t feeling like herself. More on what’s up with Raelle later.

Deferring to Scylla was a great idea since she is probably the second-best qualified to lead this little party. Ex-Dodger, Ex-Spree, she knew about living in the shadows.

The poor Tarim, Adil and Khalida, are like a couple of Amish who suddenly find themselves in the middle of a motorcycle gang. They’re powerful but way out of their element.

The Cession had seemed like the perfect hiding spot for the fugitives. The residents are live-and-let-live and are no fans of the federal government.

So what’s with these marshals, who seemed like some magical Border Patrol? Were they looking for the fugitives in particular or just screening everyone to keep out undesirable elements?

Listening to the cautious respect in Nicte’s voice, she had stayed just a step ahead of the marshals for some time. 

Hence the spirited debate among the witches about whether to stay or pass through The Cession as quickly as possible.

The marshals later became the fugitives’ most immediate threat but were hardly the only ones that they faced.

The biggest one they didn’t know about was the Camarilla’s effort to poison the mycelium. They found out about that soon enough, however.

It was a little too late, though, as Raelle got sucked into the mycelium so that she could heal, according to Scylla.

Let’s hope that Scylla was correct on that front. The late scene with Raelle in a replica of her bedroom being waited upon by her late mother Willa suggests that was the case.

There will be less of Raelle this season as Taylor Hickson won’t be in several episodes as she was recovering from a car accident.

That healing will be dependent on whether the Camarilla succeeds in poisoning the mycelium as they hope.

That’s why Petra felt she had little choice but to follow Anacostia’s suggestion and have her nearest soldiers, the fugitives, check out the Camarilla chemical plant in The Session. 

It was supposed to be a surveillance mission, but Petra should have known better based on the unit’s history. Once Hirst showed up, the gloves came off.

Earlier, Khalida appeared to know more about “the union of the earth and the sky” than she let on. 

But when Abigail and Adil joined forces while battling the Camarilla security forces, that union was something to behold. It was little wonder that the Camarilla was attempting to discourage that.

Tally also was learning more about her powers. She could see several days into the future, which was unheard of, judging by Nicte’s reaction. But she couldn’t develop reliable intel in the middle of a battle.

That’s the problem with all three of the witches in the unit: Not enough control over some frightening powers. And now they’ll have to finetune their abilities on the fly while not listening sufficiently to Nicte, the only experienced witch among them.

They managed to set things back at the chemical plant and momentarily capture Hirst but at what cost? The raid couldn’t be tied directly to the Army, but it could be blamed on witches, so bad publicity is bound to follow.

Thanks to the marshals, the fugitives ended up on the run again. Khalida was missing, but she’ll be fine as the most level-headed among them.

Petra got the information she needed from her convoluted dinner party, even if Minerva did the heavy lifting for her.

Wade was on the witches’ side, even if too much of her administration was Camarilla.

And what was up with Izadora resurrecting Penelope? And why did Penelope end up attacking her rather than thanking her?

Did that reaction have anything to do with the assault on the mycelium?

To revisit the rise of the Camarilla, watch Motherland: Fort Salem online.

Why can’t the fugitives just get along?

On whose side are the marshals?

How can the witches get an edge on the Camarilla?

Comment below.

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