Salem Episode 7 Review: "Our Own Private America"

     As with every episode of Salem so far, there are many things to speak about with story paths and character moments. In this particular episode, I will try to keep it focused on the main story elements. In this case, I'll start with John and his dream "situations" with Mary.  I've always thought of the next best step from an action packed episode of any series is to be a more calm and character focused one. After John and Cotton finally got the upper hand on a witch in a very climatic battle and intense moment, we get a more cerebral directed story with John, Mary, and to a degree Cotton as well. I'll start with Cotton as he has the less focused story in this episode amongst the main character cast. After hearing what Rose was forced to tell them during their interrogation, Cotton has mentally broken down after realizing the difficulty in deciphering her words. This brings him down to a sea of doubt in which John intervenes by telling him "You make doubt itself a weapon". This continues the
route that I really liked about the last episode given these two the dynamic duo-like chemistry of being the answer to each other's problem. As for Mary, we see her using a risky spell noted as "dream walking" on her former lover, John. We get a direct sense of what feelings still haunt him deep down about her. Throughout the series, there have been many hints about whether or not, the two may come back together as a couple due to whatever reasons, but this is the first episode to really take the initiative of testing it. After the frequent dream invasions by Mary seductively using John to get what she wants (the Malam), she finally reveals the location to be Giles Corey's grave. Although this would be considered a mission success for her and Tituba, Tituba warns her that she may be getting lost in the dreams of being with John. This is confirmed as she continues to "dream walk" after Tituba leaves even though she has already accomplished their task. This brings forth the emotional drawbacks of the two warned about from Tituba as John is "sexually bothered" by his intimate dreams with Mary. He even kisses Anne at one point attempting to control his urges (of course I doubt she minded the situation at all on her end). This also puts a toll on Mary as she finally entered a dream where she witness John in the war killing soldiers in the robes and colors of an indian warrior. I really liked that scene as we never really get a glimpse of what John's experience in the war was before he returned to Salem.

     This puts a strain on Mary as she foams to the mouth almost in a cardiac arrest state in the real world as Tituba finally snaps her out of it. After doing so and Mary admits herself to getting to deep into being with John in his dreams, Tituba decides to find the Malam at the grave site with Mercy. Eventually, after being mentally broken down from the heavy thoughts of being deprived of his inner desires, John finally confronts Mary at her own home and makes love to her. What I found a little interesting about this moment is when Mary tells him that it's not possible for them to be together telling him to leave without given any valid reasoning behind it. When John confusingly asks what happened to her stating that it makes absolutely no sense for her to respond that way, I could've sworn we would've gotten the "Are you a witch?" moment. It felt like the perfect moment for him to draw that conclusion that something dark happened to her trapping her away from him. It was very interesting to see him leave without containing on about his curiosity. Something tells me in the next episode, he might confront her about her reasonings a bit more. That I would love to see. As with Mary herself, I loved the fact that you can tell how difficult it was for her to tell him to leave without being able to reveal her true reasoning. After all the much passionate dream invading, you can tell that she would love to be with him by any means necessary. This adds on a very interesting dilemma to her character even more on whether or not she may change her path as a witch just to be with him. She does go against the other witches' ideals just to make sure he's safe from their craft, so that in itself should hint towards a possible major character change in the future.

     Another great thing about this episode is the "Yoda/Luke" (for all you Star Wars fans out there) relationship between Mary and Mercy. Mary mentors her by teaching her different methods of witchcraft to use for their plans of killing more people in Salem.  Mercy is one of those characters that I'm very interested in to see where she goes in terms of character arcs. We've seen turn from a tortured soul to a witch in the matter of seven episodes. I've been wondering if she has her own hidden agenda behind this decision or has she really become twisted into Mary's promise of power for her as a woman. Either way, I've always found it appealing when a character changes completely from "hero" to "villain" with justifiable reasons. Mercy is the one side character of the show that I am the most curious about. There are some hints of doubt in her perception of whether or not witchcraft is the right path for her. This can be slightly suggested in moments such as where she causes her "friend" to see the skull in the water/egg mixture or when she witnessed the two families fighting each other because of her spell. I guess only time will tell if we might get a "I've made a big mistake" moment from her. If we do, I'm almost guaranteed that Tituba will be the center of that moment or result.

     Although I hardly mention Tituba in my reviews due to her small re compared to the much larger stories, I do enjoy ever second that she's onscreen. You can tell that she owns her craft as a professional witch (so to speak). After all, she was the power behind Mary becoming and evolving as a witch. Although, I do have a small feeling that situation involving John almost dying (most likely due to witchcraft) will be the trigger that may cause Mary to have to kill her (just a theory). Now to the more entertaining part of the episode in my opinion. As I said in one of the older reviews, it's always a good thing to add more mysterious and interesting characters to this type of show. In this case, we get the father of Cotton himself, Increase Mather  (played brilliantly by Stephen Lang). From the moment he was onscreen I was automatically sold that I would love this character. His presence and demeanor practically screamed "fear me for I am powerful". And people should have that thought as he is known to be such a man (as I've read from his character notes). He is a feared with hunter driven by his convictions and will do whatever it takes to remove the evil of witch craft from the world. I'm a huge fan of characters driven by such commitment in their goals as it usually leads to them performing the impossible in situations. For example, seeing a newly trained martial artist defeating a world champion black belt fighter just from his drive of becoming the best. Those are always the more intriguing and engaging character stories. As for Increase, there is an amazing moment where he seeks out a witch aboard a ship of sick an dying people with the help of the captain.

     Eventually, it leads to him unraveling the truth that the captain himself was the with all along. It was  such a badass moment just to see him stab down both of the captain's hands to the table getting the answers he wanted by moving the knives in his hands (rarely do we see the witches of this show on the weaker defenseless side of things). Then after getting what he wanted and killing the witch, he turns to one of the crews of the ship who stumbled upon them simply telling him "I am now master of this ship". Everything about that scene was pure gold for me as I've been hoping for a new character of the series to be a powerful witch hunter (to counter the show's heavy presence of powerful witches). As the conflict between the two families caused by Mercy erupt accusing the three family members to being witches in public, we get the second showcase of his boldness as a witch hunter as he burns them in front of the town. It's the cold personality that he has towards witches that makes me believe why he is known as the most feared of all witch hunters. The fact that he burns them after possibly just overhearing the situation when he docked on Salem is astonishing to me causing me to wonder what ends does he have to his means of justifying his actions. What makes this moment even more interesting is the fact that Cotton spent a lot of effort just to have them jailed for the night so they may be fairly trialed the next day instead of killed off by the angry mob that Salem became that night after seeing one of the family members dead. What this signifies is Cotton's father's opposite and more direct way of handling witches as being more of the "shoot first, ask questions later" approach. It also shows his authority over the witch hunting situation of Salem as no one seems to go against his actions.

Another moment that I really appreciated is where he confronts his son about the situation telling him that he has been going about everything the wrong way. He tells Cotton that his method of finding out who is innocent and guilty of being a witch is considered dim-witted and moronic to him and he sits him down in a stern parenting fashion. This shows the chemistry between the two as being more towards the "father that can never being impressed" route which I really like for this character. I enjoy seeing stories where two siblings have the same agenda in mind, but go about it in complete opposite ways causing them to be in conflict with each other. (Professor X & Magneto is the perfect comparison for this). At the end lies possibly my favorite moment to end off his character for this episode, which involves him intruding in Mary's home telling her that he'll stay to kill off every single witch that remains in Salem. What makes this moment great is that we see the fear in Mary's eyes just by the mere thoughts of Increase being in Salem. This only furthers the concept of his character being as powerful as everyone says. I also get the feeling that he suspects her to be a witch while he spoke to her about being there. It was the way he spoke to her in a way of overpowering her while at the same time being there as a friend of hers. Ironically, this is the way Mary has been speaking to the non-witch characters of the show such as Mercy and Anne. It's refreshing to see the tables turned and as I said, Increase is great addition to the series for being able to do such a thing.

     What I'm hoping for is that we see a lot of his character learning more about his background in Salem and maybe even a little origin story by Cotton. It would also be great to possibly see a dynamic trio storyline of John, Cotton, and Increase as witch hunters in Salem providing many entertaining character moments and group dynamics. John's war stories mixed with Increases' witch hunting stories would make for "good TV" in my book. Either way, overall I loved this episode quite a lot as it opens the door for more story and character development.