Motherland: Fort Salem Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Delusional

The truth came spilling out from all sides when the unit became part of a strike team going after Nicte Batan.

Petra warned Tally before they left on Motherland: Fort Salem Season 2 Episode 8.

But Tally and Abigail were too full of themselves, and Raelle was too rattled by her mother’s second death and Scylla’s reappearance to have their heads fully in the game.

Let’s start with Tally. After saving Alder (a second time), she had ultimate leverage by identifying the traitorous Biddy that Nicte had planted in Alder’s inner circle.

Tally knew that when she laid down an ultimatum on Alder after being assigned to the mission going after Nicte. Either her whole unit went, or she didn’t go.

Tally let herself be used by Petra in her neverending crusade to usurp Alder’s authority. As usual, Tally didn’t ask enough questions, as Petra’s end goal matched with Tally’s: To have the truth come out about the martyred witches.

Never mind that Petra could care less about the truth. She just wanted to embarrass Alder. So, yes, Tally was being exploited by Petra from the get-go.

Surely, Petra has to realize that without her own set of Biddies, she’s never going to live long enough for that to happen. Immortality, even borrowed, is truly a trump card for Alder.

While Abigail appeared to be back at fighting strength, hauling Raelle back into a combat situation while still grieving was Tally’s mistake. 

Tally made up for that by outvoting Abigail and having Scylla come along unofficially since she was the only one who knew the Spree’s spells.

If Scylla hadn’t come along on the mission, the Bellweather Unit would have been dead since she knew how to overcome the Spree’s suicide spell.

Fortunately, Abigail appeared to have worked through her doubts about her place in the world after she and Adil leveled the Camarilla compound on Motherland: Fort Salem Season 2 Episode 7.

Yup, she was back to being her overconfident, bossy self. First, she unsuccessfully tried to bully, then sideline Scylla.

She even spewed some sass at the back of the mission leader who sent the unit to the back of the expedition.

But the most conflicted was Raelle, who frankly had the most with which to deal. Her mother, Willa, died saving her, and her long-lost love Scylla, the traitorous Spree, resurfaced afterward.

It was enjoyable watching Raelle and Scylla reconnect. It was evident that neither of them had truly let go of the other.

Rather than disappear again, Scylla hung around to go on the mission to protect Raelle, despite the possibility of her being taken into custody. 

As for the mission itself, well, hopefully, the Army usually plans more carefully than this. It was obvious that they were going in blind.

And why, oh why, couldn’t anyone figure that bats flying into faces in broad daylight was, I don’t know, a little unnatural? Tally whining about the bats was supposed to be a hint, I guess.

Petra definitely nailed Nicte’s power. She was twisting everyone’s minds to uncover their greatest fears, which was revealing.

Raelle’s hallucination was a no-brainer. Her deepest fear was that her mother never really loved her. Willa just sacrificed herself for Raelle, so that should have been a clue that something was amiss.

Luckily, Scylla was familiar with that Spree spell and was able to break through to Raelle. Without that happening, the entire mission would have gone south.

Tally’s nightmare centered on her tortured, love-hate relationship with Alder. The general wanted Tally back as one of her Biddies, and the other Biddies were attacking her zombie style.

Why is Alder’s relationship with Tally so different? Alder treats Raelle as her secret weapon and Abigail as Petra’s brat.

But there’s almost a mother-daughter relationship between Alder and Tally. Is that why Tally gets away with talking to Alder like she does?

Or is it simply that Alder doesn’t know what exactly Tally has discovered about Nicte? Is that why she handles Tally with kid gloves? She treats Tally better than her own foster daughter Anacostia.

Abigail’s hallucination was that she doesn’t measure up to the fabled Bellweather legacy. No great surprise there.

The big problem was that, unlike the previous two members of the unit, Abigail had created a real-life danger in the form of huge waterspouts. Fortunately, Tally and Raelle got through to her while Scylla fended off the spouts.

Yet the four of them learned nothing from their travails as Nicte kept messing with their minds even within her cabin. All the nasty thoughts that they had ever had about each other came spraying out.

If Tally hadn’t gotten miffed and talked off, they might all be dead.

As it was, Tally, the strategic thinker of the unit, determined what Nicte was up to and forced her to drop her spell on the others. On the other hand, Tally is the weakest of the three in hand-to-hand combat. So it should have been apparent that Nicte had switched places with her.

Luckily, Raelle and Abigail observed that Tally wasn’t as gung-ho as usual, so they were able to foil Nicte’s attack on Alder.

It’s a shame Scylla had to leave, probably for the rest of the season. But by steering her toward the Coller family home, at least Raelle knows where to start looking for her.

To revisit Raelle and Scylla’s history, watch Motherland: Fort Salem online.

Were you sorry to see Scylla go?

What’s Tally’s next move?

Is Abigail back on track?

Comment below.

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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

You can view the original article HERE.