The comet heralds a new dawn.
Here is our review of Salem season 2 episode 12.
I mean, theyre competing with an exorcism.
Mary (Janet Montgomery) is miserable.
The former Mary Sibley was even stripped of her last name.
Mary herself is lost.
Like a boxer who is way past punch drunk, she just lets the blows land at will.
They hate the Essex witches.
Montgomery has brought a lot to this role.
She has been a seductress and a serpent, sometimes both at the same time.
Her vulnerability has been allowed to surface, but tonight she shows a fatigue that goes to the bones.
Mary has become fatalistic and is teetering on the verge of nihilism.
Last week she was rallied by Anne Hale (Tamzin Merchant).
This week shes just giving it that last shot.
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Alden is tired too.
But if he rests, he just might never get up.
Baron Sebastian von Marburg (Joe Doyle) didnt see that coming, did he?
For the spawn of such a powerful witch, the evergreen baron is a flop and a fop.
And he doesnt treat the help that well either.
Alden has a very human moment when Cotton is tending to him.
It expresses the pain properly, but on top of that its funny and in a very relatable way.
Shane West brings more humor to his role than any other character.
This also makes sense if you look at the John Alden of history.
He was just passing through Salem and didnt take the puritans very seriously.
Then he was also free to mock it.
West brings that to his Alden.
The frontiersmans fortitude is also tempered by the obvious love hes got for his son on Fathers Day.
Lucy Lawless gets to play Darth Vader tonight.
I am your mother.
Search your feelings, you know this to be true.
No need, it was on page 39 of the Book of Shadows.
If only she could see the former Mary Sibley for what she is.
The countess, her daughter and the shackled slave Tituba (Ashley Madekwe) make a power trio.
I love that Countess Marburg smells children.
Wonder if she got the Marilyn Manson Smells Like Children album.
Lawless is at her best in the scene with Anne Hale.
The threats dip from her lips like luxurious crocodile tears.
The reading is as humorous as it is frightening.
I kept giggling in delight as Marburg twisted every sentence into Hale like a razor.
Every sentence is a prolonged negotiation for the boy.
The boy is the key.
The witchizens of the forest dont care about Mary.
They dont care about the boy.
They certainly dont care what they look like.
Mary is greeted by a spider witch who just keeps yelling get out.
The scene inside the tree was beautifully shot and wonderfully rendered.
The blue grey dark realm of the witches in waiting was a universe of bad dreams.
The witches appear to speak backwards.
This may be a nod to the backwards chanting of Christian prayers in gnostic and demonic masses.
Watch the ritual scene inEyes Wide Shutfor an example.
All the characters grew exponentially in the second half of this second season.
Cotton Mather (Seth Gabelas) is about to have the biggest growth spurt of all.
He is the only truly good man in Salem.
He stood up to his powerful and imposing father, Increase Mather (Stephen Lang).
He took punches from Captain Alden, ridicule from Dr. Wainwright (Stuart Townsend) and abuse from Hathorne.
He took solace in a bottle and tavern whore, who was driven from town because of him.
Now, he is defending his own wife from an accusation hes only just learning about.
It just might break his mind.
Though that is something to celebrate in Salem.
Iddo Goldberg really goes all out capturing the look, degradation and demeanor of the demeaned.
He has been pockmarked, carved, poked, prodded, branded, sliced and partially diced.
But they all really pale in comparison to his teeth tonight.
There are viewers who will brush the enamel off their roots because of that scene.
Dolly may have dodged a bullet.
That was the wince moment of the night.
Betrayals upon betrayals mark this season inSalem.
But of course it comes all too late.
Thats the fun ofSalem.
The devil gets its due.
Midnight Never Come was written by Donna Thorland & Adam Simon and directed by Alex Zakrzewski.
Rating:
4.5 out of 5
