A Discovery of Witches review, Episode 3×06

The sixth episode of A Discovery of Witches season 3 is also the penultimate of the series, and an aura of doom pervades it. The events taking place are few, but of enormous significance. It’s time to wrap up an entire show, face the consequences of the past and find out what it is, exactly, that witches discovered.

Creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin, and we explore the ethics of both here. Literary parallels run through this episode, and we’ll see where and how below.

The de Clermonts scatter

The episode opens with Matthew driving alone into Poland while reliving his last moments at home. He gets a look at his sleeping wife and babies at Sept-Tours. It’s painfully clear it may very well be his last as he goes looking for Benjamin. Matthew knows exactly where he’ll find him: in the Nazi camp where Philippe de Clermont was killed. He is certain because the witch who had escaped with Benjamin’s jacket also had Philippe’s watch that he had with him when he died, a clear message for Matthew and Matthew alone. As he drives in solitude, he thinks back to Diana silently hugging him goodbye with the fierceness of the lioness he deems her to be.

As if to prove that point, back home, Diana firmly lets Marcus know she’s in charge and takes control of the family. She positions her allies on the chessboard, getting everyone ready for their next move. She has no intention of waiting around for Matthew to come back: she’ll go to Oxford with Sarah and Fernando to finally get the Book of Life. The others will stay and guard the fort and protect the children.

Should things go wrong, Marcus will take the twins and fly to New Orleans where the clan will protect them; he may need to go into hiding for years. This prompts the conversation Phoebe has been dying to have about her own transformation. She is fully committed to Marcus and to this family and ready to join it, and much like Diana, she has no interest in being left out of the action. At this point, Marcus is fully used to being bossed around by the women in his family, so he gives one last order to the only person who will listen.

Fernando seeks out Gallowglass in Brighton, finding him in a tattoo parlor. The setting may seem casual or even purely decorative, but it contains a meaningful easter egg for book fans, showing Gallowglass’s firedrake tattoo depicting Diana’s familiar Corra, which in The Book of Life reveals his unrequired feelings for her. On Marcus’ orders, Fernando summons Gallowglass to accompany Diana on her mission. It’s only been a few days, weeks at best, but Gallowglass has been working on moving on from a centuries-long impossible love and he has reservations about falling right back into it. He refuses the command, but cannot block out his step-father’s words: “Don’t do this because you’re a de Clermont. Do it because you’re the man I know you to be.”

So… what is the discovery of witches?

The next thing we know, Gallowglass surprises Diana outside the Bodleian Library. She runs to him and wraps him in a hug that says more than words ever could. She admits she’s missed him, and he quips back by calling her “auntie” like old times. It’s his old shield against his own feelings, to remind himself that nothing could ever happen between them.

At the Bodleian, Diana calls up Ashmole 782 like she did all the way back in the first episode of the series. The book isn’t there, but she summons it with sheer desire. When Diana puts the ripped pages back, a surge of energy washes through Oxford and… The book becomes her. Literally.

Diana is the Book of Life now, and she is overwhelmed by information. Ink moves from the ancient tome to her skin as she absorbs all the knowledge about the history of creatures. She’s finally come face to face with the titular discovery of witches. It is, in part, the story of herself and Matthew, of their children, the Bight-Born, and their immense potential. The Bright-Born, children of parents from different species, were too powerful to control, and that is why creatures instituted species segregation. Once out of the library, Gallowglass is the one to notice that something is off about Diana, his eyes trailing her ink-covered hand, but she is oddly at peace.

Peter Knox, who has never looked more ragged and desperate, meets his demise at the hand of Sarah. He follows them and taunts them, and Sarah uses a spell Diana created to exact revenge on Knox for killing Emily. It’s not self-defense; she had the power and used it. This may be controversial, but I appreciate that the story poses no moral issue here; the wronged woman gets to avenge her loved ones (her partner, her sister, her brother-in-law and so many others) and kill the murderer for no other reason than he deserves it and he won’t stop until he’s hurt them all.

The Venetian plot twist

Knox’s former ally Gerbert has abandoned his previous attempts at sabotage and is now plainly aiming to take over. He wants the de Clermonts eliminated and himself running the Congregation. To do that, he needs to take Agatha out by bribing her fellow daemon representatives. Upending the power balance like that doesn’t sit well even with Domenico, while Baldwin has capitulated, defeated. Domenico questions Gerbert and finds out he’s plotted with Benjamin for centuries to destroy the de Clermonts.

In a twist that is worthy of an early season of Game of Thrones, Domenico Michele turns his back on Gerbert. He may have always watched out his own interests, but deep down cares about right and wrong and the grand scheme of things — think Varys. Domenico opens Baldwin’s eyes to reality and tells him about the Benjamin-Gerbert alliance that’s about to destroy Baldwin’s family. The significance of this scene is enormous, because we’ve always seen Domenico clinging close to power and to safety, and he is actively sacrificing both here; he wants to be on the winning side with Gerbert running the show, but it is not right. Now he sabotages his protector in favor of justice.

He won’t help Baldwin any more than that, and Baldwin knows better than to ask. The entire exchange is utterly perfect: it would be tremendously out of character for Domenico to fight someone else’s fight and openly stand against Gerbert. He says he’s now played his part and, to his absolute shock and horror, he wants nothing in return. “I barely recognize myself,” he says. He exits the scene and drops a metaphorical microphone that makes him the most valued player of the episode.

Sins of the Father

The most significant and complex part of the episode revolves around the father and son duo whose conflict drives the story. Matthew roams the deserted halls of the abandoned Nazi camp in Chelm like a ghost, stalking the place where his own father found torture. “Father,” is the first word Benjamin utters upon seeing him; he looks maniacally relieved, and in the silence that ensued, I heard a phantom “why have you forsaken me?” that didn’t follow. They spit words at each other, each recounting their side of things.

I’m not sure if this was intentional, but every single word of their exchange made me think of literature: Matthew creating Benjamin and casting him out like God did to Lucifer in Milton’s Paradise Lost. “A narrative that you’ve invented for yourself, the wronged son,” Matthew accuses. “Abandoned, damaged, paying back his father’s sins in pain.”

There are real tears in Benjamin’s eyes as he recounts what is — in fact — his origin story. One day in Jerusalem, over a thousand years ago during the Crusades, Benjamin was a clever human who wanted to expose the de Clermonts. Matthew punished him and made Benjamin into a vampire, with the full intent to abandon him, hoping he would inherit blood rage and that it would drive him mad. Now, Matthew owns up to it and we see a different side of him, this vengeful, almighty god who had power over life and death and chose torture instead. Benjamin didn’t see blood rage as a curse, rather as the only thing of value his maker gave him, and proudly boasts of all the horror he’s inflicted. For this, Matthew is ashamed and regrets not having simply killed him back then.

And it’s when Benjamin replies, “I am exactly what you made me,” that the second parallel becomes eerily clear to me. Matthew is not a god, but a man who overreached. He’s Doctor Frankenstein giving unnatural life to a creature and casting it out rather than taking responsibility. They fight for hours, and as Matthew is about to deal the killing blow, he finally pleads guilty by giving an unconscious Benjamin his absolution: “It’s not your fault, I wasn’t a good father.”

This poetic, almost tragic streak has to be interrupted by a twist: Satu stops Matthew. Satu is aware that Benjamin has been hurting witches in these very walls. The idea upsets her, but she doesn’t take it out on him; she has no more thoughts for sisterhood and solidarity, all she wants is to hurt her fellow weaver who could have been a sister but didn’t give her a second chance.

Diana is back at Sept-Tours, frantically scribbling all the knowledge the book inside her is feeding her. Thanks to her, Miriam and Chris are unlocking world-altering revelations about the nature of creatures. If that seems like a good way to end the episode, Marcus bears bad news: Benjamin has seized Matthew and is livestreaming his torture.

No one on this show is a saint. All the characters have at one point chosen wrong, and that violence has caught up to them. There’s one more episode, and the big question is: how they will they be atoning for it? Who will find damnation and who salvation?

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