Last Episode on ‘Motherland: Fort Salem’:
- Alder tortures Scylla for information about the Spree
- Raelle heals Khalida of her non-coronavirus and unleashes her power
- Alder is given a taste of Khalida’s songs and has them turned against her
- After a Raylla reunion to break Scylla, City Drop begins.
And now we move on to Episode 8, the aptly named ‘City Drop’.
City Drop begins with a bang. After landing hard and breaking her ankle, Raelle learns that Tally turned Scylla in for being Spree while linking with her to heal her ankle. This naturally leaves a horrible taste in Raelles mouth and she confronts Tally. Abigail tries to break the two of them up to get them to focus on their mission. Raelle tries to fix it by speaking with Anacostia, but she cannot reach her.
The coven and all other units are sent off to clear an area of a street of Spree mines. Libba, of course, has a few words of encouragement for Abigail before setting off to clear her assigned mines. Their argument clearly takes precedent over their mission with Raelle slamming Tally into a mined car and setting off an alarm and causing a sound plague to infect them for a few hours. Abigail refuses to be sent home early and to lose sight of their mission.
The coven is fracturing with Raelle going off on her own to find Anacostia after lights out, followed by Abigail and Tally. On their walk, Tally and Abigail are confronted by witches, who for the purposes of this exercise, are Spree. Raelle has a confrontation of her own with Helen Graves who does not know Raelle what so ever because as we all know, after Raelle left Helen that night on Guard Duty, Helen burned her face off to reveal Scylla. Tally and Abigail have a much more hands-on approach with their confrontation. Unable to sing, they are forced to use hand to hand combat to subdue their assailants. Tensions are high with Abigail going too far with her hands and has to be restrained by her coven to stop attacking her agent.
Of course, the Bellweather Unit (ie Coven) is the first unit to take out an enemy combatant. There is no let-up though because it is now daylight and it is time for their next op, going to a High School and bringing back the Spree agents alive. Libba actually has some good advice for Abigail for once and tells her not to burn all her anger on City Drop.
On Abigail’s search, we see a timeline of events in a History classroom before we hear moans coming from a closet only for Abigail to be blind-sighted by a Spree Agent. Libba helps out and takes her out with the two agreeing to go hunting. Tally is facing a Spree agent of her own, which Raelle quickly sleep drops and takes her out, making it 1-1 between the Bellweather and Swythe units.
General Alder finally makes an appearance in the War Council Room with Izadora communicating with units looking to take out the Ammunitions Factory that they found in Scylla’s memories of the Spree. After two trucks make their way out of the factory, the strike teams move in.
On their way out, Raelle is pulled aside by Anacostia and Graves who have some questions. They let Raelle know that the Spree can change their appearance and push her about what they spoke about that night. Of course, they spoke about Scylla and her past as Scyllas aim that night was to put aside any fears Raelle may have had about her, which we all know about, but 6 episodes later Raelle is brought into the fold, and they ask her about Porter’s death again and if Scylla had any involvement. Her lack of an answer is all the answer that they need and Graves leaves Anacostia and Raelle alone. If I ever have to see Raelles heartbreaking right in front of me again I may have to rage for aeons because my poor baby Raelle deserves all the love.
General Alder is monitoring the Strike Team move in only to watch them be blown up by a Spree trap the second they get to the door. The entire room is stunned, as they just blew up their own Armory. Alder, however, realises that the only reason someone would get rid of an asset like that would be if they had already cleared it out, and they themselves had watched it be cleared out with the trucks driving away moments before the explosion. They seem to be heading towards Boston, with the intel Izadora receiving saying they are heading to the airport. No Strike Team is close enough to the trucks. No team but the Cadets in City Drop. The witches in the War Room doubt that the cadets will be up to the challenge, saying that they aren’t ready, but of course Alder has kept a close eye on them all and knows that they are ready.
After being informed of the change in plans, Glory heads off to vomit and the witches are told they are being given permission to use any force necessary to stop the trucks from getting to Boston. Abigail and Libba seem to have finally put their differences aside and have found some common ground, what it is like to be the leader of a unit. The coven also seems to have put aside their differences and let each other know that they have each other back. Raelle doesn’t feel strong after Anacostia tells her that is why the Spree targeted her. She is told to trust her unit and they will be her strength before they all drop into their war zone.
Standing in the middle of the road in a V formation with oncoming Spree trucks seems to be the smartest thing for this battle and they wind strike the first truck to the side of the road. Anacostia has Tally ‘see’ into the trucks, something she can do without her Scry and has Raelle make sure no one leaves the crash alive. Inside the truck they are arming miens while Raelle runs off to find a crash survivor, only to find Scylla. I guess Raelle is angry with Scylla and they have their first fight as a couple, and yes it is a fistfight, no wind strikes allowed. Raelle grabs her Scorge and strikes Scylla down, only for her to be returned to her own form of the truck driver.
Tally, able to see past a glamour, can see that there are hostages inside the remaining truck. Alder makes the call that the mission must go ahead, regardless of the hostages. Tally questions the orders, understandably so, but the orders have come from Alder so they must be followed no matter what. Once it is close enough, the witches Windshear the truck to shreds. Abigail wakes up on a cot on a Bat with Anacostia there to keep her company, but they aren’t alone as someone didn’t make it out of the mission alive.
Now is the point where you all cry with me.
Abigail lifts up the white sheet to reveal none other than Libba Swythe, that dumb noodling neigh neigh. Abigail demands that she get up but some debris from the truck sliced her up so badly that the fixers couldn’t fix her. Let’s just say that Ashley Nicole Williams acting is second to none in this scene and I cried so much over Abigail’s breakdown and Anacostia embracing her in her pain. Abigail not only lost a childhood ‘friend’, but Anacostia lost one of her own under her own watch.
Back at Fort Salem, witches prepare Libbas casket with the US flag, folding it precisely into a triangle and it is too much for Abigail who has to leave. We hear a very slow mournful version of the shows theme tune in this scene and I really hope we never have to hear it again because it is way too emotional. The coven can barely make sense of what has happened. Tally reveals that she saw civilian hostages inside the second truck and that orders came from General Alder herself to take it out knowing that innocent people would die, meaning that Libba’s death was not an honourable one and that her pledge was not fulfilled. This is the woman who sent in cadets to take out the Spree before they finished their training so it does not surprise Raelle in the slightest.
Alder summons Anacostia to discuss the mission with Anacostia clearly affected by what has happened, refusing to let Alder keep her any longer and getting just enough information from Alder to know that there will be a statement. The cadets are like Anacostias children, and they need her, and she needs them, now more than ever with the loss of one of their own.
Adil visits a grief-stricken Abigail in the covens room who only needs to be held after the loss of Libba. It is the ONLY scene with a male in it in this episode, and I would have preferred it to be a hug between the coven, a show of strength and unity from them and showing that their fractures are healing, but we get Adil spooning Abigail instead.
In a televised address to the nation, General Alder announces that there were civilian hostages in the trucks meaning that Tally was right. She blames the Spree for the loss of the hostages and the loss of Libba but offsets this with the fact that a worldwide disaster was prevented and that the Spree lost their munitions supply and several top Spree agents. She takes questions from the journalists, but what we all want is for her to answer to the coven and Anacostia instead.
Ok, you all know how much I love General Alder, but she is making it pretty hard right now for me to love her as much as I do. I see she is flawed, I see that she has a great burden upon her, but she seems to answer to no one and her Biddys follow her every rule, chastising those who speak against her. She is out to grab all power but everything that she does is for the greater good. Look familiar? Anyway, I still love Alder and I really hope that the next episode allows her to answer to the coven for her actions thus far.
-Written by Christine
fangirlden.com 