Episodes 6 & 7 - Michaelmas and A Tangled Web

Mayfair Witches S02 E06 & 07
AMC Networks

This is a long one.  Get comfortable, bring a wedding feast...

From IMDb:

Episode 6: Rowan, Moira, Cortland, and Lark search for Lasher in Scotland; Sip is questioned by the Talamasca. 

Episode 7: Rowan seeks Lasher, who joined the Scottish Mayfairs; Sip reluctantly assists the Talamasca.

Across the social media of Chronicles of the Mayfair Witches/The Mayfair Witches Parlor, there really is a great deal to see and learn.  In total, I have been online with Mayfair Witches content and commentary since 2008, and I'm glad to still be here.  As an author, Anne Rice never wrote a novel that was not full and rich with detail, depth, and an impressive amount of research that she did in her own unique way.  You can read one of Anne's novels multiple times and still find a new gem you hadn't noticed before that can provide another perspective on the story.  Not many authors can write this way.  Anne Rice could and did.  

While the Mayfair Witches are not as well-known as the Vampire Chronicles, the two have crossed paths on the page and, it looks like, will eventually on the screen as well.  A hint of this was on an earlier Season 2 episode of Mayfair Witches.  

"What the d*** h*** are you?"

That is the question posed to Lasher in the flesh.

Let's see if we can figure out a bit more about that.

Season 6 has Rowan, Lark, Moira and Cortland traveling to Scotland to find Lasher.  Jojo and Daphne are still stuck in a thrall in the Mayfair house in New Orleans, which is crumbling down around them all.  Rowan's intellectual half was pulled out of Julien's Victrola at the last possible second by the hour-glass.  After arriving and renting a car that suddenly had a flat tire in...the middle of nowhere...the four hike to Kilbride, the Scottish village Cortland was finally able to call up from his memory and Julien petulantly revealed to Rowan via a wine bottle.

Something was going on, there.

A festival, it appears.  In the novels, the second Mayfair Witch, Deborah, had been conceived during a May Eve festival, but the identity of Deborah's father was unknown.  For the most part, anyway.  Because of the circumstances under which the conception occurred, Deborah was called a "merry begot", which, according to the entry May Eve in The Witches' Companion by Katherine Ramsland, meant "a child of the gods."  This is what prevented the villagers of Donnelaith from burning Deborah as a witch along with her mother, Suzanne.

I'm doing this from memory at the moment, but I have been anxious to point something out.  When Moira entered a pub in the village, it was immediately recognizable as the same one Julien occupied in his afterlife world of the Victrola.  Rowan didn't seem to recognize it when she was there with Julien, but why would she?  Moira didn't recognize it, either, when she entered it in real life, but why would she?  It's definitely a foreshadowing that tells the viewer, "Yes, the answer is in Scotland because the answer to Rowan's question IS Scotland.  Kilbride, Scotland, to be precise."

The question was, "Where is Lasher?"

The answer is that Lasher had been taken to an ancient castle still owned and occupied by Scottish Mayfairs.  Ian Mayfair (new character), Cortland's forgotten brother.  And despite the apparent betrayal of Albrecht Escher, Ian Mayfair would still be able to carry out whatever his plan was for Lasher on behalf of...Julien Mayfair?  So now, we have to ask who betrayed whom?  

So far, the one truly betrayed in this Julien-Ian-Albrecht-Cortland tangle appears to have been Cortland.  He's a character that makes it hard to muster up sympathy for because clearly, he has done so much harm to people, mainly Mayfairs, and among those who have suffered the most were his own children.  In turn, Cortland pointed out to his sister's ghost that yes, their father had also done them great harm.  Just WHY Cortland would trust Ian, the clearly favored son, to go into the Victrola with him to confront their father is a mystery.

To a point.

It does tend to show a redeeming quality in Cortland, though.  A willingness to go with Rowan, Moira and Lark to Scotland to find Lasher, and to come face to face with a brother he'd forgotten he had (thanks to his father's ministrations).  This is something he is willing to do to help his daughter, Jojo, who is stuck in the thrall in the currently crumbling Mayfair house.  Cortland is willing to travel with his other daughter, Rowan, to find Lasher and rescue Jojo.  

Meanwhile, it seems the Scottish Mayfairs are also well aware of Moira's abilities.  And they do NOT want the New Orleans contingent to find out what is truly going on.  

What IS going on, anyway?

Well, a wedding.

Rowan on Lasher's Wedding Day - AMC

By the time Rowan finally found Lasher, he'd already been...sort of...introduced to his bride-to-be, Emaleth.  However, he had "handlers" for reasons that will become clear very shortly, I suspect.  Those who have read the novels will probably know what I mean, but I don't want to give any spoilers for those who have not read the novels.

Speaking of which, let me take a brief intermission here.  I'm very new to Tik Tok, so i wasn't sure how to go about replying to this directly.  There was a question posed to me about reading the books and watching the show.  Which one, I believe was the question.  The short answer is both.  The full answer is that even if you never see one episode of the show in either season, you should definitely read the books.  If you are a fan of the show, you should definitely read the books.  Either way, they are so full, so rich in detail, in history and so much more that to read them is an experience.  I think fans of the show will also understand better the characters and plots of the show and things will make more sense if they do read the books as well.

Episode 6 Recap amc+ on YouTube

Also, I'd like to point out another resource for fans of both the Mayfair Witches and Vampire Chronicles novels.  In the mid 1990s, before she began focusing on forensics and true crime, Katherine Ramsland wrote The Witches' Companion and The Vampire Companion, official guides to both series.  They were written in cooperation with Anne Rice, about whom Ramsland also wrote a biography, Prism of the Night.  A list of the books Ramsland has written about Anne Rice and her work can be found on the Anne Rice Commentaries page of the Parlor, as well.

In the recent auction of some of the items from Anne Rice's estate was a copy of The Witches' Companion.  It was included in a set of books from Anne's personal library.  Do look into the companion books if you get the chance. 

Now, let us get back to...

Lasher's memories.

Here is a page to screen moment that is accurate.  Lasher, when he had been born over a century before Suzanne called him, was indeed born to Anne Boleyn (in the novel, you understand).  Even though the King would no doubt have her executed (which, as the world knows, did happen), Boleyn ordered her ladies to conceal Lasher's birth as having been stillborn despite knowing he was a Taltos--a walking baby.  That could be a problem, yes.  But not just because Lasher (or Ashlar, as we now know his name had actually been) was a Taltos.  

Because Lasher would no doubt be able to figure out quickly that Henry was NOT his birth father.  That's my own observation, folks.

It was the 1530s.  There was no way to confirm paternity other than marriage and a close eye on those who bore a king's children.  When you consider laws of succession and things like primogeniture, you begin to understand how critically important that was in a time before DNA was ever heard of.  

Episode 7 Recap amc+ on YouTube

Oddly enough, Lasher's father had been the Earl of Donnelaith, a descendant of whom would the father of Deborah Mayfair, though this was not known at the time of Deborah's conception and birth.  Lasher was indeed snuck out of the birth room and to his father, who was waiting in a concealed area in case the child needed to be moved out of England faster than Henry VIII could get to him.

What Lasher told the vampire in New Orleans was indeed a memory.  He did become a priest.  The reasons, though, are yet to be seen in the series. While the Mayfairs and Lark were in Scotland, trying to figure out just what Ian Mayfair planned to do with Lasher and why, and to locate Lasher at the same time, Ciprien Grieve was asked for the kind of help only he could provide.  The Talamasca was in possession of a body that had been found in Scotland (a "bog body", maybe?) and believed it might be the body of Lasher.  From when he'd last been alive.  And the Talamasca wanted Ciprien to put his hands on the body to see what could still be learned from it.

Off Ciprien and the Talamasca went to Scotland.  And while Rowan was finally backed into a corner and had no choice but to attend her son's wedding, Ciprien still didn't seem to realize he was missing his son's wedding day.  He was, however, able to pinpoint the location where Lasher's mortal remains were recovered.  

There is a great deal to unpack across two episodes, yes.  And it's worth noting that it's become a "thing" for others like Ian, Julien and even Lasher himself to accuse Rowan of only acting out of greed and a lust for power.  It's a moment where one wants to say, "Excuuuuuuuuuse me?  Just what the d*** h*** have YOU have been doing all of this for?"

Could this be deflecting?  Oh, yes.  

Maybe Rowan does have a lust for the power Lasher gave her.  But name one Mayfair Witch who didn't.  And maybe it is greed.  But for what?  The Mayfair family, and the legacy Mayfair Witch in particular, is obscenely wealthy.  In The Witching Hour, Rowan Mayfair herself estimated to the firm of Mayfair and Mayfair that the fortune she was inheriting was worth about 7 billion.  And that was in 1989 US dollars.  It was a fortune built over the course of almost all thirteen generations of Mayfair Witches, with terms set in place as far back as Marie Claudette Mayfair, who was the first Mayfair Witch to come to America via New Orleans, bringing the surviving Mayfairs with her to escape a brutal Haitian Revolution.

So, to say Rowan or any other Mayfair is doing anything out of greed, on the page or on the screen, is a pointless observation for other characters to make.  Why do I say that?

Because it's what is now popularly referred to as a deflection.  It tells us, the audience, what's at play beneath the surface.  As the Scottish Mayfairs fight off Rowan's attempts to find Lasher, her son by birth, they do so by trying to accuse her of having superficial reasons for doing so.  Greed and lust for power.  However, it's very clear that these Scottish Mayfairs, and Albrecht Escher, are exploiting Lasher for the exact same reason.  How they intend to satisfy that greed and lust for power has yet to be revealed.  Whatever it is, they consider their reason or reasons to be of far greater importance than the rescue of two people from a thrall in a crumbling New Orleans mansion that is at the center of the Mayfair Witches' existence.

Have the Scottish Mayfairs expressed any care or concern for the safety or well-being of Jojo or Daphne?  Nope.  Their objectives are always the most important ones.  Julien Mayfair's objectives are far more important than the lives of his descendants, even his own son.  It's their own selfish greed and lust for power that concerns them.  But does anyone who operates like that want that to be apparent in any way?

No.

So, in comes the deflection, the distraction.  "No, it's not US, it's HER!"

Mmmhmm.

On that note, let's look at Moira.  Even the Scottish Mayfairs express their fear of her as an aversion.  Moira Mayfair's ability to know what's in other people's heads is something that as a Mayfair, she has inherited.  It can't be helped.  That fundamental fact cannot be avoided.  It's the effect of Moira's knowing what is in someone else's head that all the Mayfairs fear.

Moira is a character that has no doubt spent her life being branded "no one's favorite cousin".  Given her youth, my guess is that as a child, Moira was no different than other children in that what she saw and heard, she repeated like it was the most normal, natural thing in the world.  Indeed, when a suggestion to contact a deceased relative for information is met with, "They're dead", Rowan's observation that the relative being deceased didn't seem to matter much in this family is pretty accurate.  It's normal among Mayfairs to not see this distinction as a deterrent.

To blot out the things she doesn't wish to see or hear among...anyone, Moira was often seen with a set of professional headphones around her neck when they weren't covering her ears.  Her family did their best to obscure their thoughts from her by playing music.  This is not a new thing among Mayfairs, though.  In Lasher, Marie Claudette often had live music around her in order to keep Lasher himself from hearing her thoughts.

If I had to contend with Lasher and I was a Mayfair Witch, the entire Garden District would know in no uncertain terms that I am a Led Zeppelin fan.

By the way, if you follow Jimmy Page on Facebook and find yourself getting a lot of responses to comments you've made on his posts by others claiming to be Jimmy Page, report them to Facebook and block them.  They are fake profiles.  Do this any time you find replies to your comments from someone claiming to be that person.  ESPECIALLY if they put in a link to their "private" chats or anything at all.  Christopher Rice has also had to contend with this on his public Facebook page, as have many other public figures.  Report the comment as spam (and untag yourself from it), and the profile or page that made it as a fake account.

Getting back to Moira, though, when we see someone like her who cannot help it if she has inherited something, we have a tendency to forget that they cannot help what they've inherited.  Or were born with, or what they have to contend with in the aftermath of something that has happened to them.  Moira as a character is a fascinating metaphor for embracing one's inherent differences and using them for the greater good.  We wonder then, if Moira's family, instead of them being afraid of what truth she will uncover, had chosen to accept it and even embrace it, would Moira truly have been "no one's favorite cousin"?  

It has always been true that as humans, we are often afraid of what we don't understand.  What would happen if we did make an effort to understand it?  Even if it's just the basics?  Can we try to understand something to the point that we can accept a difference even if we don't agree with it or feel comfortable with it?  Is it a matter of being unable or unwilling to understand it?  And do we even need to understand it to accept it?  

The type of vitriol flung at Moira Mayfair might have more to do with fear than with lack of understanding.  These are Mayfairs.  They understand Moira's ability perfectly well.  They understand that Moira's ability is one she was born with, and that she has to live her life with this ability regardless of her family's attitude towards it or her.  We know this is a family with A LOT to hide.  And when people have something to hide, they get very nervous around anyone or anything the truth cannot be hidden from.  For the Mayfairs, that unsettling glimpse into the truth of things comes in the person of Moira, and any other Mayfairs with abilities like hers.  

As Season 2 moves towards the season finale, it's looking more and more like Moira is being vindicated at almost every turn.  Moira has spent her life being no one's favorite cousin simply because she is no one's fool.