S01.E03: A Biddy’s Life

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Fort Salem excitedly greets male visitors on the eve of Beltane, but Raelle and Scylla’s budding romance is interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious man from Scylla’s past. One of the male witches catches Tally’s eye, but she is unsure of how to proceed. Meanwhile, Alder attempts to convince the Hague, an international military council of witches, to follow her strategy against the Spree and is startled by the news of an escalating humanitarian crisis in the Tarim Basin.

Promo:

Original air date: 4/1/20

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Sneak peeks:

General Alder Recognizes An Old Seed

Raelle Is Warned About Scylla

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[dungeonwriter]

Okay, this seems to be less of a military and more of a cult around Sarah Alder. Why is she important that she's literally worth the lives of tens of witches through the years? 

Especially when most witches are admittedly used as cannon fodder, and killed if they refused to serve. 

She's kinda a terrible negotiator. 

[GaT]

At least we know who the old women are, but why do they have to follow her around?

3 hours ago, dungeonwriter said:

Okay, this seems to be less of a military and more of a cult around Sarah Alder. Why is she important that she's literally worth the lives of tens of witches through the years? 

Especially when most witches are admittedly used as cannon fodder, and killed if they refused to serve. 

She's kinda a terrible negotiator. 

I've been wondering this too, she negotiated the original treaty, but why does that qualify her to be the witch leader forever?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ha, I loved when Abigail said, "I'm pretty sure that my scry is broken," and Quartermain said, "I am one hundred percent certain that it is not."

I was a little disappointed when the explanation as to why Tally was so good at the exercise was all the energy from the boys being around. I was hoping that she had a natural talent for it.

I liked Tally's new boyfriend/hookup. I'm glad there was a nice normal guy in the group for her.

Scylla gets more and more eeeeeevil every week.

[TiffanyNichelle]

Aw, the old lady gang are just called The Biddies? They couldn't have come up with a better name? But at least now we that the old lady gang (OLG?) are what keep Adler alive and young. Interesting.

The story that in disguise Scylla told Raelle about her parents turned out to be true. So that's something.

4 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Scylla gets more and more eeeeeevil every week.

Yup and it makes it harder to go "she's really good, she just got caught up in this terrorist group which is also somehow really good despite all the horrific murders, she doesn't want to be part of this" when she forces her ex to kill himself to cover her tracks. She's bad news! Get a new girlfriend Raelle!

I don't want a huge info dump in each episode but I would like to a bit of explanation on things like Beltrane, the Witchfather (hey Ashur from Spartacus) and the boy witches. What is the function of the boy witches? What is Beltrane? Is it a semi-orgy/hookup weekend to get powers amplified? Is that how the witches find their mates (Raelle said her father was a civilian and I think both Scylla's parents were witches)? Why do the boys have to mingle with several of the witches (but go Abigail for getting two)? Why did it also become a field trip into the history of the witches with the look at the bloodlines, the biddies, and the family stories?

I'm really getting into this and I don't know if it's because it's just something easy to take my mind off the outside world or what.

[oldCJ]

44 minutes ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

I'm really getting into this and I don't know if it's because it's just something easy to take my mind off the outside world or what.

Right? I feel like if this came out a few months ago I would have watched the first episode and been meh about it. But the show has sucked me in now. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The men arrive:

Abigail & the witchfather:

 

[viajero]

I wasn't expecting much from the series, but have been pleasantly surprised.  I'm still waiting to see where they go with the story, but it helps that they did a very good job of casting the main characters.  At this point I'm particularly curious about whether they are going to try to give Scylla a redemption story-line.  I'm not sure if that's even possible after her actions in this episode, though I do sense that she's beginning to develop genuine feelings for Raelle.

On 4/2/2020 at 11:32 AM, TiffanyNichelle said:

I don't want a huge info dump in each episode but I would like to a bit of explanation on things like Beltrane, the Witchfather (hey Ashur from Spartacus) and the boy witches. What is the function of the boy witches? What is Beltrane? Is it a semi-orgy/hookup weekend to get powers amplified? Is that how the witches find their mates (Raelle said her father was a civilian and I think both Scylla's parents were witches)? Why do the boys have to mingle with several of the witches (but go Abigail for getting two)? Why did it also become a field trip into the history of the witches with the look at the bloodlines, the biddies, and the family stories?

I'm really getting into this and I don't know if it's because it's just something easy to take my mind off the outside world or what.

I also don't want too much exposition, but am curious about many of these same things.

I do know that Beltrane is a traditional Gaelic festival held on May 1st to welcome the upcoming planting season.  The way its celebrated by some Wiccan groups is as a kind of fertility festival that can get more than a bit uninhibited and wild.  I read somewhere this show took more are than most to introduce some actual Wiccan traditions.

[Cranberry]

I caught up last night and I'm liking this so far. The worldbuilding is interesting (I also want to know more, but I think it's probably better that we're learning a bit of a time instead of having everything dumped on us at once) and I like the main characters.

I'm glad it looks like Raelle will be questioning Scylla's motives in the next episode. I don't like it when people are oblivious or too quick to write off shady behavior from their friends or love interests. Raelle has been the right amount of wary about Scylla all along -- she cares about her, but acknowledges that she's cagey and a little weird -- and Scylla's ex jumping to his death hours after spilling her secrets is too big of a coincidence to ignore. I do get the feeling the writers will go for a redemption storyline with Scylla, though. Considering how shady the general seems, I wouldn't be surprised if the overarching good guys vs. bad guys situation isn't as black and white as it appears, either (although considering The Spree is killing innocent civilians, that'll be a hard sell).

In any case, I'm interested enough to keep watching and see where they go with all this.

[Featherhat]

 

12 hours ago, Cranberry said:

Considering how shady the general seems, I wouldn't be surprised if the overarching good guys vs. bad guys situation isn't as black and white as it appears, either (although considering The Spree is killing innocent civilians, that'll be a hard sell).

I suspect since Sarah Alder was introduced as "controversial" and has only become more so that they might try a "the Spree" has some good points even if they're terrible. Although they oppose conscription of witches and are causing so much world wide carnage and killing of witches which doesn't make sense. They seem to be the ones causing everyone to acknowledge that joining the army is a death sentence. There's also Raelle's mother blaming Abigail's mother for basically murdering her own side so that will come in to play. 

"The Biddies" being General Alder's life force was obvious from their previous creepy tutting and hissing reactions every time she was upset or annoyed. I doubt it's a state of affairs that's going to last much longer. 

Beltane is the Wiccan and Neopagan May Day festival which is supposed to be much older and revived version of an ancient Celtic festival. Certainly May Day has been celebrated for many hundreds of years and has been one with the most acknowledged pagan roots in European Christian societies. This show seems to be blending it's own version of what witchcraft is from various sources and the modern pagan religions and festivals are the most well known shorthand for that even though they're actually younger than the Salem Witch Trials. 

I continue to love Tally, Jessica Sutton had some amazing facial expressions this episode and enjoy Abigail and Quartermaine. Still not sure on Raelle as she carries a lot of maincharacteritis still, although she has her moments of interest. They've gone so hard with Scylla being evviilll that I do wonder if they're going to walk it back with her "genuine" love of Raelle. That or have a potential cliffhanger of Raelle briefly joining the Spree before they both decide to escape in a S2. 

I was always going to give this show a lot of chances as it seemed so ambitious for Freeform and I enjoy alternative history discussions but this does seem to have me hooked for the remaining episodes. Albeit it has the advantage that I'm not actually doing much else at the moment. 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Featherhat

[tennisgurl]

I caught up with this over the weekend, and I am liking it so far, even if it is still clearly trying to figure itself out. I really like Alternate Universe stories (especially when they come up with more unique What If scenarios then "What if we lost WWII/What if the south won the Civil War?) and this is a really interesting idea with witches being well known parts of society. I really would like more wold building, but I am enjoying getting more information about this world every week. 

Like, we find out that there are both male and female witches, even if female witches seem to have greater numbers, and that other countries also seemed to have jumped on the magic soldiers bandwagon, or at least thats what I think was implied. So, do male and female witches have similar powers, or do they have different strengths? It also makes sense that they would encourage their male and female magic soldiers to hook up, even beyond getting hot and bothered giving them a power upgrade. After all, it seems like magic has a genetic component (with all the long standing witch families) so of course the military would want to encourage hook ups and eventual dating between their magic soldiers, who could eventually marry and have more magic kids who can one day grow up to also serve and so on a so fourth. Also always fun to see Nick Tarabay show up!

They do seem to be hinting at the sketchiness of  the military complex Sarah Alder (especially with young women giving up their youth for her to live) and that the whole fight between them and the Spree as kind of morally ambiguous but its going to be pretty hard to make me see the Spree as anything but the bad guys, considering we keep seeing them murder innocent civilians (including children) in increasingly horrific ways. Kind of like how I wondered if they might give Scylla a redemption arc or say that she was manipulated into this or something, but its looking like its will be hard to play it that way, with her forcing her ex to kill himself to cover her tracks. 

Tally is my favorite character, she is just so sweet and adorable, and the actress does a great job of making her really endearing in her sweetness. Her new hook up/boyfriend is really cute, good for her!

Edited April 6, 2020 by tennisgurl

[Cranberry]

Those "After The Storm" episode roundups are worth watching. I'm not sure we were explicitly told some of those things in the actual show -- for example, that witches have an extra set of vocal cords they use to make sounds normal humans can't make (that also explains why their voices echo when they get angry and yell, I guess). Or that it's illegal to use any of the military magic techniques before you get conscripted. Or that the biddies only last in the position for five or six years before dying. Or that not all witch armies use vocalizations; some use mainly gestures, while others have different methods (I assume we'll see these eventually).

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Tally Masters The Seed Of Revealing

Scylla Tells Raelle About Her Past

General Alder's Ceremony

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo