Marie Laveau’s immortality comes at a price, one Fiona is willing to give.
**CONTENT WARNING: Violence, child death**
Synopsis
Laveau shares a heart to heart with Fiona as she takes refuge under her roof. That night, Papa Legba (Lance Reddick) visits Laveau and demands an innocent soul, which she owes once a year as payment for the immortality spell he put on her; she steals a baby from the hospital and hides it at the school.
In order to impress the supposed next supreme, Fiona surprises Misty with a visit from her idol, Stevie Nicks, who is a witch like Misty suspected. Misty fangirls out and Stevie gifts her a shawl. Madison is super jealous and still thinks she has a shot at being supreme, since her heart murmur was healed when she was brought back from the dead. She tells Misty that Fiona and Stevie were just getting in her favor so that she’ll owe them when she becomes supreme. Madison takes her to the cemetery and revives a body that’s about to be buried to show that she now has that power, too. She convinces Misty to leave the shawl in the empty coffin so that she won’t owe anyone anything, but as Misty does, Madison knocks her out and closes the coffin on her, leaving her to be buried alive and taking the shawl for herself.
Nan and Zoe discuss the next supreme on their way to visit Luke. Nan demonstrates that she now can do mind control, too, and feels she could be the next supreme. She promises to be a kind one unlike Fiona, and Zoe believes her. They learn that Luke died and go to his house, but his mother has already cremated him so there is no hope of reviving him. Nan’s clairvoyance shows her that his mother killed him, so she uses her mind control to force the mother to drink bleach, freaking Zoe out.
Laveau confesses to Fiona and Cordelia that she hired Hank to hunt them. Fiona is more angry with Cordelia for letting him into their lives than Laveau for hiring him. Cordelia figures out that Hank’s father runs a witch hunting company, so Laveau and Fiona cast a spell on the company that cuts off their finances and support. Fiona faints after, and she asks Laveau again for the secret to immortality she gave LaLaurie. Laveau says if she gave Fiona that elixir now, she’ll be forever in the middle of dying from cancer. Fiona asks how Laveau got her own immortality, and she admits Papa Legba gave it to her because she wanted immortality so badly. The cost the first time was her own baby, and she tried to back out of the deal and get her mortality back, but he wouldn’t let her. Fiona succeeds in summoning Papa Legba, but he refuses to make a deal with her because she has no soul. Figuring she has nothing to lose now anyway, she decides to take down the whole coven.
Nan telepathically hears the baby Laveau hid and retrieves her, but Fiona makes her give it back to Laveau. When Laveau mentions Papa Legba is expecting the soul of an innocent, she and Fiona forego the baby and instead drown Nan as the innocent sacrifice. Nan’s soul happily goes with Papa Legba, figuring anywhere is better than here.
The Students
Queenie wasn’t in this episode and they haven’t confirmed whether she survived the massacre, but I’m assuming she did. If she didn’t, they probably would have offered proof.
Nan declared herself as kindhearted, then immediately murdered someone with her new powers. I mean, as Fiona states, “the bitch had it coming,” and apparently Papa Legba still considered her an innocent, but still. Of course, at the rate people have been returning from the dead, she’s not automatically gone for good, but her soul was taken.
Madison no longer has her physical ailment and can now can bring people back from the dead. But I still don’t think she’s the supreme. The last thing the coven needs is another cruel psychopath like Fiona as the next supreme.
The Staff
Fiona and Laveau are finally on the same team. They make a good pair, which is really unfortunate for literally everyone in the show who isn’t them. But I like that after 300 years, Laveau has finally found a true companion, even though it’s someone she always hated until now. I love enemy to friends storylines. Just, again, sucks that this new friendship is also hugely dangerous.
Cordelia is feeling really useless lately. She’s always lived in Fiona’s shadow, and now she’s learned that the man she trusted most was a witch hunter the entire time and lied to her about everything.
Papa Legba
I had to look this up because I’m not familiar with Haitian Vodou lore, but apparently Papa Legba is a spirit who stands at the crossroads between the physical and spiritual realm. His appearance here felt like a dark parallel to the angel of death from Season 2. Where she would soothe characters into accepting that their time had come and they were about to find peace, Papa Legba gleefully tricks people into immortality while forcing them to dirty their souls. It’s interesting that he straight up wouldn’t deal with Fiona because apparently she’s been so nasty and selfish for so long that she doesn’t even have a soul anymore. I’ve always liked Lance Reddick, and he was so committed that I did not even realize it was him until the end.
Conclusion
This was actually probably my favorite episode so far. I found Laveau’s backstory and the selling of souls to be an interesting development, and I’m looking forward to more of Fiona and Laveau working together. This episode also wrapped up the neighbor storyline, and the mother really did get what she deserved. The one part I didn’t really care for, honestly, was the inclusion of Stevie Nicks. It just felt a bit eyeroll worthy.
Score: 8/10