Spoilers for Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches Season 1 Finale, “What Rough Beast”
The road to Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches season 1 finale has been long, winding, and at times, frustrating for Rowan and those viewers who have stuck with the show to see how it all plays out. In this episode, “What Rough Beast,” we get interesting twists, some excellent character moments, and the same kind of issues that have plagued the show since the beginning. It is all wrapped up in a final act that has a bit more merit with the announcement that the show has been renewed for a second season.
At the end of the last episode, Tess is killed, Rowan is injured, and to no one’s surprise, she accepts the necklace from Tess and calls out to Lasher for help. In truth, not many tears were shed when Rowan killed the group of witch hunters save the one, and seeing Lasher burn him alive, as they were planning to do to Tess, was ironic justice. However, that decision by Rowan, even while being injured, grief-stricken, and, yes, very angry, triggered a series of events that more than a few people were waiting to happen.
The sleazy relationship between Cortland Mayfair and the Talamasca, especially Albrecht, is a breath of fresh air to the show. It would be hard to believe a group like the Talamasca, full of powerful people who existed for so long, could stay away from this Mayfair clan without getting corrupted. Ciprien has been infatuated almost his whole life, but he believed in the cause. Meanwhile, Albrecht and others struck deals behind closed doors, awaiting the arrival of the thirteenth witch and the fulfillment of a long-awaited prophecy.
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Rowan, of course, is the thirteenth witch. While she is pregnant with Ciprien’s child, no one is quite sure what she will give birth to when the time comes. To that point, Rowan’s choice to bring Lasher back into her life sends her down a rabbit hole of sorts, reliving the origins of the Mayfair clan and discovering a hidden language courtesy of Lasher. As always, when Lasher is involved, you should take everything with a grain of salt, but the parallels to the Mayfairs are almost humorous. Both have their own agendas and endgames. It just so happens that this prophecy is the mother of all endgames for everyone involved. Can either be trusted?
Speaking of agendas, Ciprien discovers what the Talamasca wants and, while searching for Rowan, discovers more dirty secrets in the Mayfair closets. Cortland leads the charge in that regard, whose past is worse than was even let on. When he finds out Tess is dead and Rowan is missing, he calls Albrecht, which leads him to Rowan, injured and struggling. He takes her to the family mausoleum, where all roads lead as the episode ends.
Rowan ends up giving birth in the mausoleum, which, while not the best birthing chamber, was a great set piece here. She confronts Cortland and makes him pay for his past deeds before exiting the mausoleum, finding Ciprien waiting for her. However, all thoughts of a happy ending quickly evaporate as Rowan has had enough of people trying to control her (odd since she has, at this point, accepted Lasher back into her life). She walks off into the rain with her newborn child, who is growing at an alarming rate, to meet the world on her own terms.
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The Mayfair Witches season 1 finale managed to do what many episodes this season couldn’t, that being tying together plot points in a coherent and interesting way. Watching everyone scramble around to cover their ass while attempting to enact their own agenda regarding the prophecy was enjoyable and sometimes almost humorous.
However, the back end of the episode loses some steam with bizarre leaps of logic. Interestingly, the show as a whole seemed confused at times about what to do with Lasher, making him all-powerful at one moment and almost irrelevant at other times. While it plays into the mysterious relationship with the Mayfair theme, it had too many moments where events or dialogue didn’t seem to fit, like forcing a puzzle piece into a place it obviously doesn’t belong.
Ultimately, the Mayfair Witches season 1 finale held my interest and curiosity for the most part and was a good enough conclusion to the first installment to make one curious as to what will happen next. It remains to be seen if season two will push the boundaries a bit more or be content in the space it has created, which while good enough on the whole, has some promise to be even better.
