A Discovery of Witches review, Episode 3×02

Episode 2 of A Discovery of Witches Episode is about fathers and sons, and that many shapes and forms that dynamic can take.

The episode opens with Benjamin Fox going to see Father Hubbard (I know it’s hard to picture him as anyone’s son, even in his rejuvenated 21st-century form) to ask about his own son Jack Blackfriars so he can torment him some more. Jack, the orphan boy Matthew and Diana adopted in the 16th century, is now all grown-up and a vampire Hubbard sired to save from the plague. Hubbard tried his best to be a guide for Jack all these centuries, although he knew he could never be a true father. Only Matthew can do that.

After 500 years, Jack is finally reunited with Diana and Matthew. They embrace him like no time passed at all, like he is still the hungry child in Blackfriars rather than an adult who looks like Toby Regbo. When Baldwin shows up and things spiral, we learn that Jack truly is Matthew’s son; not just his adoptive son, but his great-grandchild through Benjamin and Hubbard, and he has the genes to prove it. Blood rage manifests in Jack, and Benjamin’s torture has made it worse. Benjamin proves Jack is the vampire killer in Oxford who has gotten the attention of the human press; he must be eliminated.

When Baldwin, as head of the de Clermont family, orders Matthew to kill his own son to protect their clan, Matthew cannot outright refuse. It’s Diana who objects and protects Jack from Baldwin — threatening his life and choking him with a spell, no less. It’s Diana who looks at Matthew with stern eyes and tells him, curtly, that a father should protect his children. It’s almost nice to see some tension between Diana and Matthew when they are usually so in sync. It’s always good to see her stand up to him and his anachronistic ways.

Time is running out on A Discovery of Witches Episode 3×02

It was also refreshing to see Diana keep a secret from Matthew when usually it’s the other way around. It’s revealed that in 1591 she let Hubbard have one drop of her blood in exchange for a promise of protection from Jack, as we saw in the final episode of season 2. Matthew has the decency not to act out in public and get mildly angry in the privacy of their bedroom. It’s there that we see how much Diana’s belly has grown, letting us know that a lot of time has passed. That means time that is running out for Miriam and Chris to research blood rage.

At least a full month must have passed, so it’s hard to fathom why Peter Knox would still be in Venice after being banned from the Congregation premises in the last episode, but we shall let that slide. Despite everything, it feels good to see Satu coming into her powers and her identity as a weaver… although it goes to her head. She fully believes she has a right to challenge Diana now; she thinks herself the witch from the prophecy, the one with the blood of the lion and the wolf who will bring about destruction to the world as we know it.

Rather than wreaking havoc, Diana at this moment is content to lay in bed eating lychees and arguing with Matthew. They disagree about the past, although the future also depends on them. Matthew is not happy Hubbard sired Jack when the latter should have died. Matthew still struggles to come to terms with mortality and immortality; he truly would not wish his existence upon anybody he loves, and we are brutally reminded that as a human he tried to commit suicide when he lost his first wife and son. He chose to die before Ysabeau found him and decided to give him a new life, condemning him to one he had not asked for.

This has always been a sore topic for both of them, one they have not properly broached, Diana out of fear and respect, Matthew out of shame. Hearts break when she asks him if he wishes he had died that day. And perhaps, despite the various twists, that is the true emotional climax of the episode. Matthew breaks an impossibly palpable tension by saying that of course he doesn’t regret not dying that day. He reminds himself and Diana that he would never have met her and he wouldn’t have gotten the chance to be a father again, and not just to their unborn twins, but to Marcus and Jack.

This is where the dichotomy with Benjamin Fuchs is stark. He is the epitome of an abomination, one Matthew never meant to love. It is as clear as the sky, because Matthew doesn’t love his adopted son or his vampire son any less than the children of his flesh, but Benjamin was never supposed to be his son. Turning him was a a cruel punishment Matthew was exacting, like a biblical god inflicting a cataclysm on his unworthy subjects. This is a relic of a different Matthew, before he got the best of his blood rage.

Watching Matthew help Jack control his blood rage is like watching him come full circle, after Diana has given him hope. In the 1800s, he assassinated over 20 of Marcus’ children because he had to eliminate all carriers of blood rage. With Jack, murder was never an option, despite the obvious danger he poses. The only uncertainty comes from the clear order Matthew has received from his Sieur Baldwin.

All along, Matthew has repeating Baldwin’s mistake of assuming that everything their father said or did was to be taken as gospel. But Diana cleverly reminds him that Philippe believed in fluidity, that the only reliable thing in the world was change itself. Matthew at last accepts this, but not when he goes to find Jack, because he is still not sure then if he will follow Baldwin’s order. The father in Matthew wants to spare Jack, but he knows the Congregation will soon order his killing, and wouldn’t it be merciful to grant him a quick, painless death? It’s when it’s clear that Jack won’t fight his own father, when he’s ready to die at his hand, that Matthew accepts a new fate and a new impossible mandate.

To disobey Baldwin means death. The only way Matthew could get out of his obligation to Baldwin is to not be part of his family anymore. The scion Marcus proposed to create in the first episode, for them to strike out and create a minor branch of the family, is their only hope. But it’s not as easy as it sounds, because Matthew has to convince everyone in his bloodline to accept the scion and to follow him, and that includes Marcus’ unruly children in New Orleans, the five Matthew didn’t kill. And that will be a herculean deed in itself.

Marcus holds much against Matthew, but he follows him without question. He owes him that, but he also wants to. It’s the only way they can ever truly be free to live as they wish. At the airport on their way to New Orleans, they finally talk after weeks of presumably avoiding the elephant in the room. In exchange for his forgiveness, Marcus sets impossible terms for Matthew: that he find a cure for blood rage, fight the Congregation, repeal the Covenant…These are impossible feats, but Marcus doesn’t mean to be unfair. He knows they can do it. He promises he will be the first to swear his allegiance. Father and son will be at peace.

This episode’s most emotional moment is undoubtedly the conversation in the drawing room where Fernando reveals that Gallowglass is in love with Diana. It’s heart-breaking and impossible and they all know it. Gallowglass has no expectations, except to be around her a little while longer before he lets her go forever. The scene is quick, but it shows just how much love and understanding there is between these two characters, another father and son of sorts.

This season has been moving at light speed, such that the moment where Matthew reveals the existence of creatures to a lab of PhD students is almost funny; a scene that should have been epic and feel like the end of the world was dismissed as no biggie. Then there’s the way we get a tender goodbye scene between Marcus and Phoebe but not between Matthew and Diana before the boys leave for New Orleans. This season is so fast-paced it hurts. People could argue that the events of this episode could have been covered in half the time, but I do not agree.

A Matthew-centric episode was necessary. Too often he is perceived as stoic, but even his resolve can crumble, which is something we have to be reminded of. We’ll need it for what’s coming.

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