Mayfair Witches Episode 2 review: “The Dark Place”

Mayfair Witches Episode 2 focuses on setting up what’s to come this season, maneuvering characters like chess pieces to get them all into New Orleans. I enjoyed “The Dark Place” more than the premiere, but I’m still not entirely sure where the show is headed. However, a shocking twist at the end of Episode 2 has me excited for what’s to come.

The second episode transports us to the small village of Donnelaith, Scotland in 1681. Book readers know that the Mayfair witches originated here, and that one of the first Mayfair witches, Suzanne, was also the first to call forth Lasher.

SPOILERS ahead for Mayfair Witches episode 2

When we first meet Suzanne (Hannah Alline), she’s a healer tending to the sick and teaching a girl named Florie (Emma Rose Smith) the difference between helpful plants and poisonous ones. They’re interrupted by a lecherous old man who tells Suzanne not to “make him wait.” Suzanne tells Florie not to watch. They appear to have some kind of deal, exchanging sexual favors for something undisclosed. While Suzanne tends to him, a flock of birds flies overhead, followed by a cacophony of sinister whispers.

We don’t return to Scotland in this episode, so the opening scene feels very random, especially for those unfamiliar with the source text. I thought “The Dark Place” would be bookended with a follow-up flashback at the end, but it isn’t. Apparently we’ll be learning about Suzanne’s origins over multiple episodes, as Alline and Smith are each credited for several.

Many women in that family have been haunted

Returning to contemporary San Francisco, Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) isn’t coping well with Ellie’s death. She’s turned to drinking alcohol and taking benzodiazepines to get by.

When we first catch up with Rowan in “The Dark Place,” she’s on the phone with the adoption agency attempting to get more information regarding her supposed “closed adoption.” The problem is the receptionist doesn’t know what Rowan is talking about because Rowan’s adoption occurred in 1991, and their offices didn’t open until 1995. Now Rowan knows Ellie has been hiding something from her.

The only thing keeping Rowan sane at the moment is her work, which is why she freaks out when Dr. Keck (Jim Gleason) removes her from the schedule. Rowan confronts him at the hospital, where he admits that he is concerned that Rowan is off her game in light of her mother’s death. He won’t let her return to work until she gets the all-clear from resident psych team member Dr. Noreen Davis (Sylvia Grace Crim).

Reluctant to discuss her feelings, Rowan lies and avoids digging into her emotions during their session. When Dr. Davis pushes Rowan to talk about witnessing the death of Daniel Lemle (the gross stem cell researcher from the premiere), Rowan shuts down. This line of questioning triggers her powers, and Dr. Davis suddenly gets a splitting headache and a nosebleed. Not wanting to be responsible for another death, Rowan rushes out of the office.

In the parking lot, Rowan notices her car is covered in bird poop. Similar to what we saw happen to Suzanne, a flock of birds hangs out above Rowan’s car, and she hears a series of ominous whispers. Both seem to be indications of dark magic at work. Several of the birds drop dead onto Rowan’s car. She takes the dead ones with her (ma’am, you’re a doctor, don’t you know how many diseases you can get from dead birds?!). Unbeknownst to her, Ciprien Greaves (Tongayi Chirisa) has been watching her this whole time, following her from place to place.

Speaking of Ciprien, he breaks into Rowan’s boat/home while she’s at work. Using his abilities, he can see visions of Rowan self-medicating and killing Daniel Lemle. He continues following her, snapping photos of everything she does.

Rowan brings the birds to the beach and buries them there. Then she pops another pill and passes out on the sand, dreaming that she’s at the Mayfair manor in New Orleans, following Ellie into the house.

As Rowan sleeps, Ciprien watches over her and contacts a man named Samir at his agency. Ciprien wants to tell Rowan the truth, but Samir warns him against it until they know for sure what they’re dealing with. After all, Ellie kept Rowan’s past a secret for over 30 years for a reason.

Ciprien argues that Rowan deserves to know because her life could be in danger. “Many women in that family have been haunted; their lives cut short.” Samir hits back that Rowan shouldn’t have to protect herself: that’s Ciprien’s job.

Rowan is awakened by a rowdy bonfire party on the beach and some guy riding his dirtbike up and down the shore. She stumbles off the sand and finally comes face-to-face with Ciprien. Their first meeting doesn’t go well. When he reaches out to grab Rowan’s arm and prevent her from leaving, something magical passes between them. Ciprien passes out and Rowan administers CPR until the ambulance arrives.

She tries to go to the hospital with him, but the EMTs tell her to follow behind in her car. Rowan takes Ciprien’s phone and finds all the photos he’s been taking of her, in addition to some older images of a younger Ellie and Deirdre. One picture shows Ellie and Deirdre posing outside of the Mayfair manor in New Orleans, with the city conveniently written on the bottom of the image.

Once Rowan catches up to the ambulance, she’s surprised to learn that Ciprien woke up, ripped out his IV, and took off. He’s long gone, but now Rowan has his phone and a destination in mind where she might find answers about her adopted mother and her biological family. She boards the next flight to New Orleans. While on the plane, Rowan resumes inspecting the photo of Ellie and Deirdre on Ciprien’s phone. She zooms in on the background, spotting Lasher (Jack Huston) lurking behind them on the porch.

Now that I’m awake, so is he

In New Orleans, Deirdre (Annabeth Gish) hangs out with Lasher inside her mind palace (thanks for that phrase, The Flight Attendant). The second episode quickly establishes that Deirdre is still in league with Lasher, who informs her that Rowan is alive.

Since her physician Dr. Lamb (Billy Slaughter) is no longer administering Thorazine, Deirdre is finally waking up. In her mind, Lasher tells Deirdre that it’ll be more challenging for her to find him when she awakens. She needs to remember the words her mother used to summon him. Once awake, Dr. Lamb tells Deirdre he knows a family lawyer who can help her, but Deirdre says no. She can’t wait that long to leave the manor.

For now, she continues pretending to be catatonic to fool her aunt Carlotta (Beth Grant), who’s the one who’s been drugging her and keeping her in limbo all these years. Dr. Lamb plays along, pretending to inject the drug despite actually emptying the syringe onto the ground.

Now that Deirdre is awake, she wastes no time looking through her old bedroom and knickknacks. She finds her skeleton key necklace and puts it on, summoning Lasher. He tells Deirdre that Rowan is coming to them, and they have sex. While on the airplane, Rowan connects to Lasher/Deirdre and seems to feel him inside her, resulting in some sort of spiritual orgasm on the plane, as if she’s having psychic sex with him at the same time as her mom. Freaky. Is that considered incest? Ew.

Even though Carlotta is still in the dark about Deirdre being awake, her maid Delphine (Deneen Tyler) knows something is afoot. She heard the sex noises the night before. When Carlotta returns, she tells Delphine to keep an eye on Dr. Lamb because she doesn’t trust him. The second she leaves, Deirdre gets up and walks out of the house for the first time in years. Delphine sees it happen, but there’s a silent exchange between them that implies Delphine will keep Deirdre’s secret.

Deirdre goes to her Uncle Cortland’s (Harry Hamlin) house, recalling memories of the party that occurred so many years ago. Cortland is shocked to see her there and immediately tells Deirdre that it wasn’t right how Carlotta kept her captive all these years. I don’t trust this guy; if he feels so bad, why didn’t he do anything to help? Cortland also knows about Lasher and asks Deirdre where he is. She says that even after all this time, she still never knows.

To his credit, at least Cortland gives Deirdre some new clothes to wear since she’s been wearing that same filmy nightgown for who knows how long. Dressed in an elegant turquoise gown similar to the dresses he used to gift her as a girl, Deirdre looks far more like a powerful Mayfair witch. She enlists Cortland to help her in a ritual to connect with Lasher.

I’m confused about the rules regarding Lasher. Why does Deirdre need a ritual and incantation to connect to Lasher now when she could summon him easily for a ghostly booty call after putting her necklace on earlier? He said she would find it harder to connect to him after waking up, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The same dark place as you

Once Rowan touches down in New Orleans, she checks into the luxurious Pontchartrain Hotel in the Garden District. Inside, Rowan connects with one of those tour guide who take tourists through all the haunted and ghostly places in town. Rowan asks her if she recognizes the house in the photograph. Of course she does. It’s the old Mayfair house. It was part of her tour until the Mayfairs paid to remove it.

There are all kinds of rumors swirling around the Mayfair family, like parties that went on for days at the turn of the century, disappearances, ghosts, murders, vampires, and more. All your typical haunted house clichés. Rowan bribes her into taking her on a little detour so she can see the house, though we don’t see that happen in this episode.

At Cortland’s, Deirdre recites the incantation to connect psychically to Lasher, who manifests in Rowan’s hotel room while she’s in the shower. In a scene reminiscent of Psycho, he lurks outside her shower curtain and reaches in as if to grab her before Deirdre redirects him elsewhere. He extends his hand toward Rowan’s room key, which says the name of the hotel, and then Deirdre returns to herself at Cortland’s. Now she knows exactly where Rowan is and heads to the Pontchartrain Hotel to find her.

Post-shower, Rowan receives a call from Ciprien on his phone; he seems to have figured out she has it. Ciprien reveals that he’s working for an organization called the Talamasca, a secret society designed to keep tabs on the paranormal. Ciprien reveals that Ellie always knew who Rowan was but kept it a secret in an effort to protect her. Ciprien also understands what Rowan is going through regarding her uncontrollable powers, as he went through something similar and wants to help guide her. They agree to meet in the hotel lobby.

Moments later, Deirdre arrives in the lobby and runs right into Carlotta, who is understandably shocked to see her niece up and walking around. Carlotta immediately tries taking Deirdre back home as she obviously wants to keep Deirdre, and by extension, Lasher, under her control. Deirdre warns Carlotta: “You understand that, now that I’m awake, so is he.”

She leaves a spooked Carlotta to consider that as she boards the elevator. Rowan simultaneously exits her room to go downstairs, and when the elevator opens, she comes face to face with her mother. But this touching mother/daughter reunion is cut short because the second the elevator doors part, we see that someone has slit Deirdre’s throat! She collapses into Rowan’s arms.

Like I said at the start, “The Dark Place” feels less like storytelling and more like a series of maneuvers to get Rowan to New Orleans. Now that she’s finally arrived, I hope the story will pick up the pace.

It helps that the southern gothic vibes are much better suited to the story now that everyone is in New Orleans than they were back in San Francisco. It feels right that we’ve finally got all of our key players in NOLA now. The only thing that’s still not working for me is Lasher himself. He doesn’t seem very scary, and the actor isn’t convincing me he’s a threat, but we’ll see if that changes.

Odds & Ends from Mayfair Witches episode 2

• Early on in the episode, while Rowan is making breakfast, she hears a news report claiming a 32-year-old woman’s charred body was found on the outskirts of the Phoenix, Arizona desert with her hands and feet bound. Was someone trying to burn a witch?

Episode Grade: B

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