Episode 2 - Ten of Swords

Mayfair Witches S02 E02 AMC Networks

From IMDb: Rowan must find Lasher before more people are hurt; Sip finds an ally in an angry Mayfair cousin.

I watched the entire episode thinking the actress playing Gifford was one I recognized from...somewhere...but didn't realize it was Thora Birch until I went to look for some meaningful images from the episode.  Wow.  She made a good Gifford Mayfair!

As usual, I need to tell you that I am writing this under the assumption that you have read the novel, Lasher (which is also the name of Episode 1 of Season 2).  Also, that you have seen the episode or will see it soon.  This is, of course, because I would hate to give too many spoilers.  

Gifford Mayfair was a fairly minor character in The Witching Hour, as was her sister Alicia and her sister's daughter, Mona.  All three become more central characters in Lasher, Mona in particular.  If we recall, in Season 1, the character Tessa, whose mother was Alicia, was chosen to "take over" as the Designee of the Legacy from Rowan.  Between that and Rowan's advice to Tessa, "don't feed the trolls" when it came to modern-day witch hunters in New Orleans with personal beefs with the Mayfair family, was killed.  The inclusion of Tessa, who seemed to be a stand-in for Mona Mayfair, had fans in quite a snit, right alongside the obliteration of Michael Curry and Aaron Lightner.  

There is a Tessa in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series, but we might end up revisiting the issue of Tessa at a later time.

Thora Birch as Gifford Mayfair (AMC, TV Insider)

Instead, though, we'll come back to Season 2.

In Episode 2, we see more of a new addition to the cast--Moira Mayfair.  She is indeed Alicia's daughter, and at the center of her conflict with her mother is Alicia's drinking problem.  Now, the series does not have Moira in the location Mona Mayfair was actually in when she learns that her aunt Gifford is dead.  I trust no one has any objections to that particular adjustment to the screen adaptation?  No?

Fantastic.

Now, then.

Unfortunately, Moira would then be the one to find her mother dead as Mona did in the novel.  Slight difference in location, but still a lot closer to the novel than it might have been in Season 1.  It is the same cause of death for Alicia as it was for Gifford--an exsanguinating hemorrhage.  The kind that is life threatening.  It is what the girl in Episode 1 died of and Lasher carried her all the way home to get Rowan to save her.

It isn't long before Rowan learns that the common denominator in these seemingly mysterious deaths is Lasher.  She knows he is the reason behind the deaths, and once she confronts him, she knows he will not stop.  Not even if multiple Mayfair women are dying of whatever it is he's trying to do.  

What IS Lasher trying to do?

Rowan starts by exploring whatever she can find about the Mayfair family history with regard to Lasher.  It's clear that Lasher figures just as prominently in the lives of many of the Mayfair family, not just the Mayfair Witches.  Whatever it was, Gifford Mayfair seemed to have known quite a bit, enough for it to have scared her into avoiding the family at key moments.  In the novel, Gifford did rely on her faith, her spiritual beliefs, to protect her.  Whether that takes the form of not returning to New Orleans until after Ash Wednesday, or relying on a reading of the Tarot to guide her, that deep spiritual faith was central to Gifford's decisions because it was her guide.  When an entire family has been haunted by a being like Lasher for over 300 years, it's not hard to imagine members of the family arming themselves with whatever spiritual and religious beliefs they have faith in.

Gifford's "home away from home" could be a beach house or a lake house.  The important ingredient here is that it would have been a place meaningful and comforting to her.  And it was--until she found out that she was right.  Lasher had indeed been born into the flesh.

Rowan, understandably, wants to know WHY Lasher wanted what he wanted.  WHY he managed to orchestrate an entry into--or a return to--fleshly existence.  And despite her examination of written and photographic records left behind by her Mayfair forebears, she has been unable to find answers to her questions.  The questions she had when she asked her former colleague, Dr. Sam Larkin, to run genetic testing on samples she sent after testing them herself at Mayfair Medical (pop quiz: did Mayfair Medical exist before or after Rowan relocated to New Orleans?) only resulted in more questions.  This person looks and functions like a human (yet manages to reach adult height in a matter of...days?), and yet, this person's DNA is not...human?  What.

And what is this constant need for MILK?

Even at adult height, Lasher would like nothing better than to find a wet bar stocked ONLY with milk.  Lots of it.  Because it would be real weird to...ah...go straight to the source...

Anyway.

What Rowan has is offspring with DNA that is of a species not her own.  As a doctor, she wants to know WHAT this is and HOW it is even possible.  Whether one is a neurosurgeon, a geneticist, or an anthropologist, this is a disturbing anomaly that would have all three thoroughly puzzled.  It is indeed a puzzle, as Rowan stated more than once.

So, what now?

Well...how about the man who did so many things "for" the family, "for" Lasher, including fathering the 13th witch, and a host of other things?  Surely, he would know WHY...wouldn't he?  

The only way to know would be to ask him.

Since he is a statue, that poses a bit of a problem for Rowan.  While Rowan seems to be having a one-sided conversation with his statue, the man himself, Cortland Mayfair, finds himself in the presence of his father...Julien Mayfair.

Real quick: Cortland Mayfair is indeed the son of Julien Mayfair in the novels.  He is also the father of Rowan Mayfair with Deirdre Mayfair.  However, the timeline of the novels is different, since The Witching Hour was first published in 1990.  In the novels, Cortland Mayfair had already been in his 80's when fathering Rowan with the then-18 Deirdre Mayfair.  He also died before Rowan Mayfair's birth in 1959.

The series has a timeline reset in the present day, but Julien Mayfair seems to be the ghost of a man whose lifetime might have played out across either time period.  As a character, he was complex in ways that made just about anything possible.  He could be whimsical and fun-loving one moment, but serious to the point of terrifying the next.  Of all of Anne Rice's characters across the novels Julien Mayfair appeared in, only Lestat seems to have been the one to truly terrify Julien into compliance of any sort.  The "stay away from me, you annoying gnat" sort of compliance.

Here, Julien Mayfair is dignified, yet terrifying.  He can command respect--right before he rips into his son's weaknesses and insecurities.  Finding it amusing in a decidedly unamusing way that Cortland had always been intimidated by his own sisters, something Cortland was well aware of.  And yet, Cortland maintained a blind devotion to his father, accepting without question what he thought his father expected of him as a Mayfair.

Cortland Mayfair clearly tried to live up to his father's expectations of him as a Mayfair even after Julien's death.  Especially where Lasher was concerned.  Cortland never questioned it; he did what he thought he was supposed to do.

Rowan, despite Josephine's objections, believed in light of the deaths of Gifford and Alicia that waking Cortland up was essential.  She needed to know what Lasher really wanted, and Cortland Mayfair was the person most likely to know what that was.

But does he?

How many times have we heard of people blindly following a person who repeatedly told them that they were part of a noble cause, and somehow managed to convince these people that they, their "leader", had the answers?  Even though the "leader" never shared anything close to what those answers were?  So these followers bleat out what they're told to say, do what they come to believe they are expected to do, no matter who it hurts.  Because they are convinced it is a "noble cause", then surely, their actions are justified.  Right?

A-hem.  No.

Episode 2 Recap amc+ on YouTube

It's like a cult, isn't it?  Well, in certain cases, it is.  In others, the same tactics are used.  Whether it's a family blindly following directives from ancestors long dead without question, without ever knowing the true reason for why things had to be done a certain way, or a cult, or even groups of people who form online alliances focusing on matters that don't always concern them directly, we see this dynamic play out.  Sometimes, in ways that are terrifying due to the real damage they can do to others.

I don't recall a hellish vision of Cortland Mayfair serving up his arm and hand to his father in the novels.  However, it's some powerful symbolism.  The leader gets all the food and if he's still hungry, his (or her) followers then ARE the food.