In this week’s episode of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, Ciprien begins his investigation into Deirdre’s death while Lasher tries to reach Rowan through magic and mental manipulations. Read on to find out what happened in “Second Line”!
A Healer’s Touch
Revisiting Suzanne in 1681, her fellow midwife is brought in with a deadly wound to the abdomen from a boar attack. She quickly sends away the men who bring Aoife into the cabin, when she asks Suzanne for two herbs that will speed up her death rather than heal her (there’s no healing a wound this severe). When Suzanne refuses, Aoife asks her why she’s afraid of death and Suzanne confesses she doesn’t fully believe in scripture. Aoife simply says she’s smart and that she’ll be going to the earth with her mother and so on. Suzanne agrees to the requested herbs to give Aoife a good and peaceful death.
Ciprien Investigates Deirdre’s Death
Rowan gives a statement to the police about what happened with Deirdre in the elevator. She explains she is a doctor and was trying to help. As they finish up, Carlotta introduces herself to Rowan attempting to take her to the house. A bellhop interrupts them to inform Rowan Mr. Mayfair is on the way and when she sees the sharp response that gets from Carlotta and spots Ciprien outside the hotel. She hastily heads to his car and he takes her to his apartment with top security measures. Ciprien refers to it as a safe house and begins to explain his job as she asks questions. He also explains the house on First Street, one that’s been in her family for generations. Rowan asks who the man in the photo is, Lasher, and Ciprien tells her he’s a being who was known to visit Deidre and Ellie was worried he’d try to visit Rowan, too. Understandably, Rowan is a little overwhelmed by everything. He leaves to take care of some things. Outside, he meets with a few people who are there to apply additional (magical) protections to the building meant to protect Rowan.
Realizing she’s still covered in blood, Rowan decides to shower and change. Rowan asks why Ciprien has so many gloves and he explains it dampens his powers most of the time. He gives her a rundown of the family, Mr. Mayfair is Cortland her great uncle who is powerful in terms of money and influence but not power. Carlotta and Millie also have no powers as far as he knows. Ellie contacted his company years ago about the playground incident from Rowan’s childhood. Cirprien tries to sympathize with her but it backfires on Rowan who is understandably upset. He has to head back to the crime scene but makes her swear not to leave the apartment.
At the hotel, Ciprien enters the elevator intending to use his powers to see who killed Deirdre but it’s been wiped with magic. He cannot see anything at all when touching the walls. Left with only one other option, he heads to the morgue in the hopes Deirdre’s body will have answers. Under the guise of being a forensic’s trainee, Ciprien gets a few photos of Deirdre’s body and touches her forehead. Sadly, the strongest memory left in her body is the day she gave birth to Rowan and she was taken away. He also gets a glimpse of a man entering the elevator with Deirdre and sends a sketch to his coworkers when he leaves. As he walks out, the coroner hands him a rally flyer thinking Ciprien believes the Mayfair witch legends. Ciprien takes it but adamantly denies being one of them.
The Auntie’s Begin Plotting
Carlotta sorrowfully tells Millie how Deirdre died and blames the rattling trees outside on Lasher, commenting he’s already on to the next woman. Millie asks what Rowan is like and Carlotta believes she’s tougher than Deirdre. The two hatch a plan to hold a wake for Deirdre believing it will draw her to them. How could Rowan not want to attend the wake?
Meanwhile, they “gift” Deirdre’s key necklace tied to Lasher to poor Delphine. Carlotta locks her in the basement believing it will tie him to Delphine. Lasher seems displeased with this and the magic simply doesn’t work that way as Delphine is seen repeatedly slamming her forehead into one of the beams in the basement bleeding everywhere.
Lasher’s Plans Evolve
Lasher finds Cortland in the bathroom of the hotel. Cortland tries to talk him down and tells him his time has come with “the 13th witch”. Lasher says she’s close to him somehow and different from all the others. Cortland only says Lasher will find a way in and cowers before Lasher vanishes. Cortland heads upstairs to go through Rowan’s things spying her plane tickets, birth control, laptop, and clothes in her bag.
He finds Rowan locked away inside the apartment that is warded against him, but smokes her out literally by setting off the fire alarms. Outside in her pjs, Rowan decides now is a good time to drop by her family home and heads toward First Street thanks to directions from Ciprien’s visiting sister. Along the way, she encounters a full New Orleans wake headed to the cemetery complete with costumed marchers, a chariot carrying the casket, signs of the deceased man, and more. She talks to a fellow observer outside a restaurant who tells her death isn’t the end only and she expects to see the one she lost again soon. Rowan isn’t having it but the woman insists she drink a mystery vial of liquid (presumably alcohol or some kind of drug) being sold by a street seller. As she drinks it we see that the woman is actually Lasher in another form. He grabs her hands encouraging her to dance and walk along with the funeral procession. Under the influence of whatever she drank, she agrees.
Thoroughly under the influence and now at the cemetery grounds, Rowan continues dancing when Lasher approaches her wearing a masquerade mask. She’s more than a little entranced by him as they begin talking. He tells her his name is Adonis for tonight as he slowly circles her. They continue talking and wondering through the crowd when Rowan begins to see the dead with them. Lasher tells her not to be afraid and that the dead are always with them. After toying with her a bit, the two finally kiss a couple times before Lasher lures her away to the Mayfair house on First Street. There she believes she’s seeing Deirdre who tells her she’d never have given her away. Deirdre says that Rowan is only beginning to see the world and that she can have it all the time if she allows herself to be transformed. They are connected by blood through “him”. Rowan realizes this isn’t Deirdre and stumbles backwards.
Suddenly, she’s being woken up outside the restaurant as if she never left that spot.
The Truth of the Night
Ciprien arrives home to discover a firetruck outside his building. He touches the brick to discover Lasher set a fire to force Rowan out. Once inside, Rowan tells him everything that happened and he tells her that all three were likely Lasher. He fills her in on what he found out including the memory of the night Rowan was born. The strongest memory in Deirdre’s body was her heart breaking that night. She wonders if it was the drink or if Lasher can simply get in her head whenever. She never even felt it start she was just inside the event. Ciprien offers to help her use his powers to sort out how to understand what was really going on. She needs to learn about her power. She agrees to let him help her and they begin palm to palm.
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. You can find our other coverage of the series here.
