'Motherland: Fort Salem': What's going on with Raelle's strange connection with that mysterious fungus?
Spoilers for 'Motherland: Fort Salem' Season 1 Episode 7 'Mother Mycelium'
The latest episode of 'Motherland: Fort Salem' had a lot of scattered plot points. Some introduced, some resolved, others progressed to be resolved later, but perhaps the most mysterious of all of them was Raelle Collar's (Taylor Hickson) connection to the mycelium wall at the necromancer's base. Given the episode title — 'Mother Mycelium' — it seemed like this episode would provide us some answers, but all it's done is deepen the mystery. The mycelium wall and Raelle's strange connection to it is worth taking a closer look at, because after this episode it might be an even bigger threat than the Spree.
We were first introduced to the mycelium wall of fungus last episode when Raelle was searching for Scylla Ramshorn (Amalia Horn). Immediately, we see that this is no ordinary fungus. It responds to Raelle immediately, reaching out to form a hand, getting the barest touch of Raelle's. Raelle was too distraught over the (fake) news of Scylla's death to really ask about it, but the show reveals to the audience that even that brief contact has had a powerful effect on the mycelium, as it forms an exact replica of Raelle's face before fading away.
Raelle has had a unique connection to funghi even before that moment. In Episode 2 of this season, Scylla uses the remains of a recently dead pigeon to grow a Death's Cap mushroom from the bird's corpse, talking about how mushrooms occupy the underworld in the kingdom of plants. "Death is more complicated than people think," Scylla tells Raelle. "It's not so cut and dry." As a powerful Fixer, Raelle has a special relationship with the lines between life and death, between healing and decay — which is possibly the very reason that the Spree wish to recruit her.
Raelle's relationship with her powers appears to have changed, and it's possibly her contact with the mycelium that's caused it. In training to link life forces, she instead knocks her entire squad unconscious. In trying to heal Khalida (Kylee Brown), she encounters for the first time in her life a disease that doesn't transfer over to her. The disease does, however, make a significant transfer — whatever that dark rot is, it now covers the mycelium wall entirely.
There are two things this could mean. One, that the disease is sentient and has an agenda of its own. Through Raelle's connection with it, the disease saw a more potent target than Khalida, which is why it gave up its hold on the girl so easily. The other meaning has more dangerous implications for Raelle. She mentions that she takes on some of the disease for every healing she's ever done, and the fact that the mycelium has taken on the disease she was healing means that the fungus is now a part of her, though what that implies is still unclear.
Both Khalida's disease and the mycelium wall are mysteries that the show hasn't even begun to provide answers for, but their union this episode is a dark omen for every witch in Fort Salem. Only one thing is for sure — at the center of the mystery is Raelle Collar, though not even she knows why.
The next episode of 'Motherland: Fort Salem' airs May 6, on Freeform.
