Is Mayfair Witches Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Somewhat, 4 out of 10. It's gothic witch drama with a haunting, some jump scares and a few grisly scenes.
Ruling: It's a witch family saga with a haunted house and a few grisly scenes, so keep the lights on.
Mayfair Witches follows a San Francisco neurosurgeon who learns she is the heir to a New Orleans witch family. The inheritance includes a house on First Street and a spirit named Lasher who has been attached to her relatives for generations. This summary covers seasons one and two, eight episodes each.
The premise, briefly
A neurosurgeon learns she is the heir to a New Orleans witch family and the spirit that has haunted it for generations, and neither is easy to get rid of.
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
In the last episode covered, Amintha kills Lasher with an axe, Julien kills Polina with lightning, and Rowan drinks Lasher's blood to gain more power. She makes Lark forget her, goes home to New Orleans with Moira, and stands at the First Street house while Julien watches her from a distance.
The end of episode two, early in the series: Rowan is heading for the hotel lobby to meet Ciprien when an elevator door opens onto her birth mother, Deirdre, who collapses with her throat slit. Rowan ends up covered in blood.
The dog situation is not fine: a wolf is reportedly stabbed in the neck after Lasher orders it to attack, though viewers disagree on whether a dog dies.
It's a slow gothic family saga with a few grisly scenes, and the plot is easier to follow when you already know who survives.
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A hotel elevator opens at the worst possible time
Dr. Rowan Fielding is a pediatric neurosurgeon in San Francisco whose adoptive mother, Elena, has a cancer that has returned. When a senior surgeon refuses to help Elena into a clinical trial, Rowan pictures the arteries inside his head and he collapses, and soon another man she is arguing with dies. Elena secretly calls the Talamasca, who send an agent named Ciprien Grieve to watch Rowan. Elena dies, and Lasher, an entity attached to Deirdre Mayfair, appears to Rowan. A flashback explains that Deirdre had a baby, Rowan, whom her aunt Carlotta gave to Elena with orders to disappear. In episode two Rowan travels to New Orleans, where Deirdre wakes up and escapes. At the end of that episode, Rowan is heading for the lobby of the Pontchartrain Hotel to meet Ciprien when an elevator door opens onto Deirdre, who collapses with her throat slit. That is the scene people brace for, and it ends with Rowan standing in the hotel covered in blood. In episode three, a blood-covered Rowan leaves with Ciprien, who tells her about the Talamasca and Lasher.
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A dining room full of portraits catches fire
Carlotta admits that she sent Rowan away to protect her from Lasher. Cortland's daughter Jojo tells Rowan she is the designee, meaning the Mayfair heir, and that there were twelve before her, whose paintings show each wearing a key necklace. Cortland urges Rowan to speak with Lasher, and Carlotta, upset to see Rowan wearing the necklace, has the dining room locked with her and Rowan inside among the portraits, recites a prayer that sounds like an exorcism, and burns the room. Ciprien breaks through the door and takes a stab wound meant for Rowan, from Carlotta. Lasher traps the two of them inside the First Street house with his magic, and Ciprien's wound becomes infected. Lasher tries to fool Rowan by appearing as a healed Ciprien, but she notices he isn't wearing gloves. Rowan promises to stay with Lasher if he releases Ciprien, and he does. Carlotta then tells Rowan that the only way to escape Lasher is suicide, and Rowan, realizing Carlotta had a hand in the death of her grandmother Antha, uses her powers to push Carlotta over a balcony.
A doll made from the whole family tree
Tessa Mayfair warns Rowan about a growing conspiracy against witches, and Rowan wants nothing to do with it. Cortland, who has ALS, thinks his cousin Dolly Jean knows how Lasher was once moved from one Mayfair to another. Ciprien touches the necklace and has a vision of Suzanne, a healer put on trial as a witch in 1681 in Scotland, who speaks words of power that summon Lasher. Lasher strangles the Witchfinder with his own necklace and gives her the key to her cage. The Mayfair women hold a ritual that appears to choose Tessa as Rowan's successor, and the anti-witch cult then abducts her while Lasher does nothing. Rowan, now pregnant, goes after Tessa and kills several cultists, is shot, and saves Tessa from a fire, but a cultist named Keith shoots Tessa and mortally wounds her. Rowan puts on the necklace and summons Lasher, who burns Keith alive. Ciprien learns that Cortland ordered Deirdre's murder and, from a mask, that Cortland raped Deirdre and fathered Rowan. Rowan's pregnancy speeds up while she is caught in a vision, and she gives birth with the help of Suzanne's spirit. She turns Cortland to stone and leaves with her baby.
A baby with a teenager's appetite
Rowan tries to raise Lasher, who has been reborn as her baby, and finds that he eats enormously, is very strong and grows at a frightening speed. Dolly Jean encourages him, and Moira, Tessa's mind-reading sister, blames him for Tessa's death. When Lasher is about a week old he turns into a teenager, goes after a girl at a street festival, and ends up killing her. Rowan disposes of the body, locks him in the basement, and he escapes once fully grown. A vampire named Felix tells him to follow his instincts. Rowan tries to lure him home but hesitates when she has him in the street, and a Talamasca machine sprays her instead. The Talamasca takes Lasher. Rowan then uses Julien's Victrola, a spell that tricks her and splits her into Mind Rowan, who is trapped in it, and Heart Rowan, who stays with the family. Mind Rowan learns from Julien that Donnelaith is now called Kilbride. Reunited, Rowan asks Lark, a man she used to be with, to come with her there. Albrecht has already taken Lasher to Ian's castle in Kilbride, where Ian kills Albrecht.
A Michaelmas wedding with a bad guest list
Rowan, Moira, Lark and Cortland travel to Kilbride, Scotland, just as a Michaelmas celebration is under way. Moira disappears, Lasher meets his intended bride, a female Taltos named Emaleth, and Ian's son Hamish takes the others to the Scottish Mayfair castle. Rowan decides to stay for information, lights her way through the tunnels below the castle, and finds Moira held in a cell. Rose Mayfair casts a stitching spell on Lark, and Ian uses it to threaten his life. Ian persuades Cortland to use the Victrola, and Julien takes over Cortland's body and traps Cortland's spirit inside. Rowan attends Lasher and Emaleth's wedding, where Ian holds her back when she tries to stop the wedding night. Julien, in Cortland's body, then gives Rowan drugged tea, and she wakes in a cell with Ciprien and Polina. While Emaleth is in labor, Ian cuts Lasher's throat and collects his blood. Rowan revives him, and the Mayfairs fight, with Moira and Lark going for the Taltos children.
The ending, explained
Lasher and Rowan fight off Ian and the others while Moira and Lark try to reach the Taltos children. Amintha puts an axe into Lasher's chest and kills him. Julien discovers that Ciprien and Polina have taken the children and kills Polina with lightning. When Rowan confronts him, Julien disappears, and she drinks Lasher's blood to gain more power. Lark says he can't be part of the war she is preparing against Julien, so Rowan makes him a tea that makes him forget her and everything about the Mayfairs. She and Moira return to New Orleans with Jojo and Daphne, whom they have freed from the thrall. Outside the decaying First Street house, Rowan stands there while Julien watches her from afar.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether Mayfair Witches has a scene after the credits, so stay if you like.
Questions people ask at 1am
The whole plot of Mayfair Witches is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
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