Summary
Mayfair Witches Season 2 continues to sag in Episode 4, saving its best moment for last and then ending before it can do anything with it.
The most interesting thing that happens in Episode 4 of Mayfair Witches Season 2 happens at the very end, and then “Double Helix” ends before doing anything with it. If that isn’t symbolic of this show I don’t know what is. AMC’s misguided Anne Rice adaptation is always waiting for something else to happen, in the hopes of us perhaps being provided some reason to care, but it never seems to get there.
There’s more going on here, at least, than there was in the previous episode. More witchy business and competing subplots – all of which revolve around Lasher, despite his notable absence – help the show to feel like it exists in a textured world, rather than as a series of loosely connected vignettes, which is sometimes how it feels. But I still only found myself switching on a bit as we neared the climax, and then I couldn’t help being disappointed when I realized we were going to have to wait to see where it all goes.
I do like the pairing of Rowan and Moira, to be fair. Rowan’s fine after being sprayed in the face by Sip – grow up – and is putting herself to the task of freeing Jojo and Daphne from the thrall she inadvertently locked them in. This task is made slightly more complicated by the fact that Lasher’s absence is causing the Mayfair house itself to wither and die, and her only real ally is Cortland, of all people.
Luckily, Moira is immune to Cortland’s silver tongue because she can read his mind, so she can tell when he genuinely wants to help (which he apparently does.) As we suspected – or at least hoped – after seeing Cortland interact with his father that Julien would be integral to forthcoming events, Rowan needs to somehow get in touch with him to find out where Albrecht has taken Lasher.
This is also Ciprien’s problem since Albrecht’s absconding with Lasher has totally blindsided him. He spends most of Mayfair Witches Season 2, Episode 4 retracing their steps in the hopes of finding out where they’ve gone, but another problem is quickly raised. The main Amsterdam branch of the Talamasca believes he and Albrecht were buddy-buddy enough to be in cahoots, so Sip’s going to have to prove himself before he can make any meaningful progress.
With Sip not available to help, Rowan needs to find another way to access Julien, which turns out to be Dolly Jean and Evelyn, both of whom have a longstanding arrangement whereby they take turns visiting Julien in his spirit’s supernatural prison, accessible through the record player. It’s a weird turn in a weird show, but a bit of eccentricity is no bad thing for a story that languishes as much as this one does.
He might have been awful to his kids, but Julien was apparently quite the guy as far as the ladies were concerned. However, he was also supposedly merciless to his enemies, and he might well interpret Rowan as one, which means her trip to his spectral home will be fraught with peril. It also won’t be happening until the next episode.
In the meantime, there’s little to discuss except for Lark, Rowan’s former paramour who is no doubt going to prove more trouble than he’s worth. Mayfair Witches Season 2, Episode 4 gives us a brief flashback of their breakup, which was caused by Lark taking a job out of town and keeping it to himself, but it’s his present-day activities that are of more immediate concern. Having already had his curiosity piqued by Lasher’s DNA sample, his scientific curiosity leads him to take a swab of Rowan’s DNA to prove she has the same chromosomal abnormality.
What Lark intends to do with this information and its implications is anyone’s guess, but it is clearly going to be a major storyline throughout the season, so it’s worth keeping track of. This and the mysterious word “Taltos”, which Rowan utters while accessing Julien’s dimension and which was also left in a note for Sip by Albrecht, are two of the key dramatic strands to take forward from “Double Helix”, which is better than nothing. But I’m still more interested in Rowan’s adventures on the other side than I am in anything else, which doesn’t bode well.
