'Motherland: Fort Salem': Is Scylla recruiting Raelle for the Spree?
Spoiler alert for 'Motherland: Fort Salem' Season 1 Episode 2 - 'My Witches '
America is at war with the Spree, and the Spree need soldiers. Unlike America's witch army, the Spree don't have witches from across the country conscripted into their service. We know very little about the Spree, aside from their horrific terrorist acts, but we do know one thing - Scylla (Amalia Holm) is a member, and she's been getting very close to Raelle Collar (Taylor Hickson).
We know very little of Scylla's goals, but as her report to the blue balloon in the mirror shows, everything she's been doing with Raelle has been going successfully. "She's mine," she says, to the mirror. She also asks when "we" will be extracted - implying either that there are other Spree members in disguise at Fort Salem, or that she and Raelle are due for extraction by the Spree - or both. Whatever the Spree's plans are, Raelle seems central to them, and recruitment seems the most likely purpose.
Let's take a closer look at what Scylla's been doing with Raelle. She's been gaining Raelle's trust. She's been helping Raelle break the rules - to the extent of getting in trouble with her superiors at Fort Salem, causing friction between Raelle and the military. She uses two separate identities - Scylla and the lieutenant on night guard duty - to build up Scylla's background of someone whose parents were killed by the army. Considering Raelle's own mother was killed by her service to the military, that has to resonate with Raelle. She's also been giving Raelle a more nuanced look at death, something the Spree appear to be very comfortable with.
It's bad guy 101 to blur the lines between good and evil, and life and death, when trying to convince the protagonist to join them, and Scylla has definitely been blurring a lot of lines. Raelle is the perfect target for the Spree - it's been hinted that she's a witch of prodigous power, and she's got plenty of reason to hate the military. She's young, rebellious, and angry - exactly the type of person a terrorist organization targets and exploits.
Scylla's methods are perhaps a little more...hands-on than most recruiters, but with a witch as powerful as Raelle has the potential to be, the Spree might just be finding that it's worth going that extra mile.
The next episode of 'Motherland: Fort Salem' airs April 1, on Freeform.