S01.E11: Cat And Mouse

[Meredith Quill]

Episode Synopsis:

Alden finds himself the target of fresh accusations; Anne finally discovers the truth.

 

 

[mustbekarma]

Mercy, you had one job! Dammit, I was hoping to see Increase die. Increase just throwing the boiling water/oil on the girls was just twisted. He just enjoys his job too damn much. However, I thought those girls were idiots saying Mercy would save them. They and Mercy are just too stupid to live. It disturbs me that I wasn't caring all that much Increase was torturing those girls. Not that I want to see John Alden tortured, but what is it with the womenfolk being the only ones tortured?

 

Oh well, at least Cotton grew a pair, even if I don't like him, either. At least the people he condemned to death he actually thought were witches, and he didn't get enjoyment out of their suffering.

 

Edited because getting the characters names right really helps make a coherent statement.

Edited July 1, 2014 by mustbekarma

[Amberosia]

Welp, Anne's a witch. i feel silly now since I probably should have seen that coming. Still, I love the way the reveal to her was played out, and it was nice to see Hale's  flashback rather than just hearing for the hundredth time his parents were burned at the stake. 

 

I'm so there with you, mustbekarma, I was rooting for Increase to kick the bucket, too. He's such a horrible, horrible man. When Mary started crushing his chest, I was practically bouncing with glee... then the old bastard had to whip out some knife skills. Gotta give him credit, that old bastard is made of some tough stuff. But I've really reached my limit with him threatening bodily harm to Isaac, and don't even get me started on his House of Pain *shudder*.

 

Do you mean Cotton when you say John? I didn't like him at first, but I gotta say, he stirs up my kicked puppy instincts when Glorianna was banished, and with a father like Increase I get the impression the poor guy never stood a chance.  He's never had his father's respect because he's not just like him, and I can't behind that kind of logic.  At least he wanted to investigate things, with Increase I feel like he's just a masochist who gets off on torture porn. If I saw for even a second he did actually dread the awful things he does. But he seems to look forward to it, and is so unbothered by it he can have a meal break in the midst. That's scary.

 

I should have known Mercy would fuck it up. That's pretty much her M.O.

[Nanda]

Didn't I tell Anne would turn out to be a witch? I knew it! Still am shocked!

People can say what they want of Increase but the truth is, he has the nearby most determined flair. He puts under torture the right ones. And I'm convinced he's performing an act concerning John Alden. It's obvious that he already  spotted Mary, he knows she is the leader and he's using Alden to catch her in due time. He's trying to handle Mary's feelings for him. If he thought the captain was culprit of witchcraft, he already would have tortured him and no trial.

[Amberosia]

I don't know... Increase may have a knack for zeroing in on the guilty, but I just can't get behind his methods. And let's not forget, his first night in Salem he had a whole family burned at the stake who most certainly were not guilty, and all he had to say about it was if he was wrong then God will make it up to them. Well, that's a pretty lofty ideal to have about burning a whole family when he hadn't even been there long enough to know anyone. I simply cannot supports a kill em all and let god sort em out line of thinking.

 

He's also very condescending when he speaks to people, disguised beneath a thin veneer of politeness that irks me something terrible. And it really seems like overkill to me to keep threatening to kill Isaac the way he does. I can't get behind a guy who can scald a bunch of teenagers chained to the wall so casually. If he seemed even the least bit troubled by the things he does so effortless, I could be more supportive of him. Or maybe not. 

Edited July 1, 2014 by Amberosia

[Nanda]

Yes, methods with a hellish smell. Inquisitional smoke. However the witch's methods aren't exactly a model of correction. They run the village with an alarming impunity, using anyone to achieve their purpose as if everybody belonged to them, and without an ounce of pity for regular humans. Increase is not the type of character we can root for as the hero, but he's the only one capable of facing them as equals at this point. And we can't forget how many innocents Mary and her disgusting affiliates have sent to the gallows.

I don't remember if the family Increase sentenced to the bonfire turned out to be guilty or not, but the way he's being portrayed as a hunting dog with an acute sense of flair, he might not have been wrong at all in that one too.

Though is not clear if he already has committed many injustices, it's clear to me that he has a pinpoint accuracy to identify the witches. While his methods are only used on witches I won't complain and they won't have my sympathy. The problem here is that at any moment I'm expecting him to go wild and start to kill right and left.

[Amberosia]

Oh, I remember quite clearly.  They were not witches, they were accused of being witches when Mercy, who was only supposed to scare someone and make her see a member of that poor family, Mercy opted to kill her instead.  The crowd started indulging in typical mob behavior and of all people it was Cotton who calmed the fervor and said to place them in jail for the night, that if they were in fact guilty they would still be guilty in the morning. Increase, on the other hand, had them all burned (in my own humble opinion, of course)  sentenced them to burning simply to prove a point. That he was here now, he's the one running things, and its on like Donkey Kong. Increase may be right about who he tends to suspect, but he goes about it in the most wrong way he can manage, and that's why I can't like him.  He may be the only true foil to the witches, but he's not exactly protecting the innocents, either. He scares and bullies them, and preaches in a manner that can easily rile up  suspicions and paranoia that otherwise may never have manifested.

 

As for the witches... well, since they are the villains and wish to destroy Salem, they aren't supposed to be noble. They're in league with the devil... but that's the ones who have willingly *become* witches. What of those who were born into it? We don't know yet because no one has presented it, but I'm not at all prepared to accept out of hand that just because someone is a witch that they are horrible.But I don't think Increase is the sort of person who would give much of a damn about the difference, a witch is a witch and all that. 

 

Another problem I have with Increase is that he strikes me as the sort to believe himself right and refuses to even entertain the possibility of otherwise. His way is the only way and all that. But the fact that he did burn that poor family proves that he's not always right. He just won't let a little thing like that dissuade him from his way of thinking.