'Motherland: Fort Salem' Episode 7 Review: A dreamlike episode of scattered, engrossing plotlines
Spoilers for 'Motherland: Fort Salem' Season 1 Episode 7 'Mother Mycelium'
There is something of a scattered air to this episode that makes it feel like a bad dream. Not a bad episode, mind, but one that takes on a dreamlike quality with an anxious, dark undertone where things get worse in ways you're not entirely sure just happened, where new scenes and surprises show up that you just have to accept with all the dazed numbness of dream logic. In the last three episodes, 'Motherland: Fort Salem' has gone from trauma to grief to a sort of numb moving on in a world where events continue whether or not you're ready to deal with them and it's a struggle just to hold on.
A lot of differing plot threads lose this episode compared to the thematic cohesion of the other episodes. There's a lot going on here, none of it's connected, but all of it is fascinating in its own way. There's a lot of great worldbuilding to 'Motherland: Fort Salem,' and the show always reveals just enough information about it to be engrossing without going off into an expositional tangent. The mystery of the disease attacking Khalida (Kylee Brown) only deepens, as it first appears to attack those attempting to cure it, then gives up its claim to its host entirely as it uses Raelle Collar's (Taylor Hickson) connection to the mycelium wall to infect that, instead - answering no questions, but certainly raising more.
Adil (Tony Giroux) and Abigail Bellweather, in the meanwhile, pursue a charming relationship that soon turns sour as, for the first time, Abigail is given reason to question her unshakeable faith in the military and her pride in the same. For all of her pride in the glory of war, she's never actually seen it up close - but Adil has and he's rightfully wary of anyone who places their trust in military might.
Perhaps the most hard-hitting scenes, however, come with Scylla (Amalia Horn) as, stripped of her protections, her power and her agency, we are at last given just enough reason to find her sympathetic beyond just how much Raelle loves her. The traces of regret sensed from Anacostia Quartermain's (Demetria McKinney) unbiased point of view and the way that the only thing that gets through to her is the shocking and brief reunion with Raelle. Scylla is completely vulnerable for the first time and there's no room to wonder how much manipulative she's being. For the first and possibly only time on the show, you can trust that what you see is what you get with Scylla, and what you get is...complicated.
Scylla is by no means a regretful member of the Spree who was manipulated into her position - she sought it out and accepted it wholeheartedly, prepping for a "final war" against non-witches. The witches themselves aren't coming off in the best light, either, as the enchanced (or should that be enchanted?) interrogation techniques employed are nothing short of horrific - especially their blatant exploitation of Raelle and Scylla's feelings for each other, blithely traumatizing the both of them then gaslighting Raelle without the slightest hesitation. It's needlessly cruel and it's a scene that sticks with you.
The episode's end is a thing of beauty that cements the bad-dream quality of the episode, giving the Bellweather unit little time to process everything they've had going on this episode. With no previous mention of whatever this "citydrop" is, it takes over the entire show and the final shots of Salva-enhanced witches dropping down from gray skies, set to dizzy, haunting music is one of the most chilling and memorable scenes in the series. The Bellweather unit just can't catch a break and their traumas, doubts and secret burdens might just cost them big, during whatever operation this "citydrop" entails.
'Motherland: Fort Salem' airs Wednesdays 9 pm ET on Freeform.
