Episode 4 - Double Helix

Mayfair Witches S02 E04 AMC Networks

Originally posted Sat, Feb 1, 2025 @ 9:40 am

From IMDb: Rowan must find Lasher in order to right her wrongs, but even Sip doesn't know where Lasher is.

Now, then.

WHAT happened in episode 4 again...?

I believe this is the first time the word "Taltos" has been mentioned in the series. But let's don't get ahead of ourselves, here.

Moira woke Rowan, telling her to clean up her mess. By "mess", Moira meant Jojo and Moira's little sister still stuck in a thrall. The problem is, Rowan couldn't do it. She thought it was because she needed Lasher's help. Without Lasher, her powers are drastically reduced. Here's the problem.

Lasher was not in the house when Rowan put the two INTO the thrall the night before.

If Rowan was powerful enough to put two people in a thrall without Lasher's help, how is it that she was unable to pull them back out? I mean, what's going on, here?

Perhaps Rowan was mistaken about the reason for her dwindling powers?

Meanwhile, Cortland was upstairs in Julien's rumpus room, with the ghost of his sister Millie. And Millie knew just what buttons of Cortland's to push. His weak spot seems to be the fear of his father, alive or dead.

Given Cortland's now evident love of entertaining, it was pretty funny that his suggestion of breakfast that would require cooking on somebody's part was replied to with a box of cereal. And it was really funny when Cortland started shouting out a song to keep Moira out of his head. Meanwhile, the deception regarding the true reason for Rowan having Cortland throw a party at the Mayfair house has really angered a great number of family members. Ryan Mayfair was already hosting a Mayfair family gathering of his own when Rowan and Moira went looking for Dolly Jean.

Dolly Jean's house has a lot of the features the house Anne Rice used as Ancient Evelyn and Mona's house in the novel. While it's true the house Rice used was one she owned, she did not use the Amelia Street house as the home of the legacy Mayfair Witches (that would be her former home at First and Chestnut in the Garden District). The house used in Lasher is at the corner of Amelia Street and Saint Charles Avenue.

Moira Mayfair holding Julien's Victrola, AMC,
Image: GeekGirl Authority

In the series, Dolly Jean was in the house with Julien's Victrola. The Victrola that had belonged to Julien Mayfair and served as a way for Julien to connect with living Mayfairs long after his own death. And Dolly Jean was in something of a thrall, herself. Connected and drawn into the afterlife world of Julien, Dolly Jean appeared to be dancing with him.

It took Rowan and Moira helping Evelyn to pull Dolly Jean out of there.

The Victrola is something that did indeed appear in the novels. It appeared in almost the same way, generally speaking. I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler when I say that in the novels, the Victrola had been found hidden somewhere in the Mayfair house on First Street. Julien had hidden it before his death, which, again in the novels, was in 1914.

As neither season of Mayfair Witches included the restoration of the Mayfair house when Rowan inherited it, seeing the old house suddenly begin to crumble is an interesting plot twist. Rowan had left the house to meet with Dr. Larkin at the Pontchartrain Hotel but was called back by Moira when plaster and wallpaper started coming down.

In the midst of this, Moira learned that the Talamasca had taken Lasher the night before, right as they blasted Rowan in the face with something purple.

I've got to sit down and watch the episode again. To be honest, I watched it while I was waiting for the initial phase of Windows restoration to finish. So, I was a bit distracted.

Episode 4 Recap amc+ on YouTube

One has to wonder why the house suddenly began to crumble at that moment. Is this the sign of a house about to "give up its secrets", so to speak? Or is it now like the Mayfair emerald key, now nothing more than an interesting artifact? If the key is no longer useful to the Mayfair Witches, does this mean the house also no longer serves no purpose beyond being an ordinary domicile?

I'd really like to know where the part about the house seeming to suddenly self-destruct is going.