Mayfair Witches – Season 1 Episode 1 “The Witching Hour” Recap & Review

The Witching Hour

Rowan Mayfair

Episode 1 of Mayfair Witches season 1 starts with a new doctor visiting Deirdre Mayfair to administer her treatment. He asks to review her file before giving her a shot. He leaves her alone and goes inside to re-familiarize himself with her file. He sees a man speaking to Deirdre but when he goes to her, the man is gone. He asks for a moment alone with the patient.

Elsewhere a beautiful young woman is driving her boat alone in the open sea. She lives on the boat, her mom later visits her to celebrate her adoption day. After that, she leaves for the hospital where she works as a doctor, her name is Rowan.

At the hospital, another doctor, Keck poaches her patient to impress the board of directors who decided to sit through a paediatric surgery. Rowan points out that the position the patient is currently in is the wrong way in. She is right and the young boy’s condition starts to deteriorate but luckily they are able to save him.

After the surgery, Rowan gets a visit from her mom who informs her that her cancer is back. Rowan visits Keck and asks him for a favour. She noticed Daniel Lemle was observing the surgery that day. He runs a company that is currently running trials with cancer patients. Rowan wants Keck to recommendation for a part-time research job at the company. She is hoping to get her mom into the trials and thinks she has a better chance if she worked there.

Keck denies her request and tells her that he doesn’t feel comfortable doing that. He says she is arrogant, has a sense of superiority and she is not ready. She starts picturing his brain and sees one of his veins popping. Keck drops on the floor in pain.

She later tells her mom about the incident as she gets her chemotherapy treatment. She believes she rupture Keck’s and wants to know how she did it. Her mom dismisses her concerns and reminds her that she has been unable to open her closed adoption records. Her mom sends her out for a milkshake.

After Rowan left, her mom calls a woman and asks to speak to the agent in charge of her daughter. The woman checks and tells her the agent in charge of Rowan is away but she will have him call her later. She asks the woman to tell the agent to go and see if something has changed in New Orleans.

After her shift, Rowan goes to her local pub and picks up the bartender, Max. She takes him to his place and they have sex. It turns out they are friends and he wants more but she is not looking for a relationship.

In the meantime, the agent in charge of Rowan, Ciprien Grieve calls Ellie and tells her nothing has changed in New Orleans. He says he feels the man is still in New Orleans and that it is all good. Ellie asks what will happen once she dies and Grieve promises he will keep Rowan safe.

The next morning, Brown pays Lemle a visit to ask for a job. He is willing to hire her and add her mom to the trial. He only asks her to choose one patient who they will have to drop from the research. He also tries to make a pass at her, but Rowan gets angry and refuses to strike off the name of another patient.

Lemle pressures her harder and says he needs a killer, not a doctor who is caught up with being fair to patients. Rowan loses control and gets angrier, she pictures his brain rupturing and he suddenly drops dead.

Rowan rushes to her mom crying and blaming herself. Her mom tells her such power is non-existence and she can’t be sucked into a sick delusion.

After a while, Ellie dies and Rowan mourns her.

Deirdre Mayfair

In a flashback, we meet a young Deirdre Mayfair at the confessional. She tells the Father that she has not seen “the man.” The Father knows she is lying and calls her out for it. She admits that she likes seeing the man and is grateful to see him. She believes that he understands her especially since her aunts have isolated her.

After leaving the confessional, she goes out and sees flower petals floating around and young girls playing outside. A man dressed in a suit watches her from far away and asks her not to believe what Father Duffy says about him. Her aunt, Carlotta Mayfair calls out to her and drives her home while chastizing her for entertaining the man.

Carlotta insists she is only trying to protect her but Deirdre keeps on disobeying her. She sends Deirdre to her room to reflect on her behaviour. In the room, the man, Lasher visits Deirdre and encourages her to put on her late mom’s dress and go to the party at her uncle Cortland’s place.

At the party,  Cortland gives a young man the job to seduce Deirdre. As soon as Deirdre arrives, he welcomes her with open arms and shares stories about her mother. Deirdre tells him that she doesn’t believe her mom committed suicide by jumping from the balcony. Her uncle says she might be right and asks her to be careful before setting her free to enjoy the party with the young man he hired to seduce her.

She and Patrick dance the night away and get along well enough to spend the night together. As they were having sex, Patrick’s appearance kept on changing to something demonic but she ignores it. The next morning, she wakes up alone and sees a few men taking out a dead body from the house. A servant knocks on her door and informs her that her aunt has arrived to pick her up.

Nine months later, Father Duffy visits a heavily pregnant Deirdre who is convinced the body she saw being carried away belonged to Patrick. She is certain her aunt Carlotta killed Patrick for making her happy. Father Duffy refuses to believe her and she gets angry and tells him he is denying the truth because he is scared of her family. Father Duffy thinks Lasher is the one to blame and wants Deirdre to get saved. She kicks him out and tries to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony.

Lasher appears before her and stops her. He tells her she knows where to find him. Deirdre makes her way to a room in the house.  She asks Lasher to give her one good reason to live and he mentions that the baby she is carrying will change her life. Deirdre refuses to believe him. He tells her that he can help her and that she will need to bind with him of her own free will.

Lasher reveals that he is a demon and if Deirdre will accept him, he will be hers forever. Deirdre accepts him and puts the necklace from her mom back on. She starts experiencing contractions and gives birth to a girl. Carlotta takes the girl under the pretence of taking her to the hospital and later tells Deirdre that the child died.

Carlotta takes the baby and gives her to a young Ellie with five instructions. Ellie will have to change the name of the child and no longer be a Mayfair. She is no longer allowed to call or come back to New Orleans and lastly, the baby should never find out who she really is. Ellie agrees to these terms and names the child Rowan as Deirdre wanted.

At the present time, the new doctor takes off Deirdre’s necklace. He unknowingly sets Lasher free by doing so. He also refuses to administer the drugs to Deirdre because he wants to see who she is without the drugs.

Ciprien is notified that Lasher is on the move and he tries to call Ellie but she is dead. The episode ends with Rowan sailing on her boat on a rainy night, she wakes up after hearing strange noises. She looks out her window and sees Lasher watching her.

---

The Episode Review

The first episode introduced us to different characters and we end up immersed in two different timelines. The writers did a great job connecting both timelines and showing how the decisions made in the past have led to the future.

Lasher is free now and has his sights on Rowan, what will happen to her? There is also the question of whether he is her father, for all we know he could have face-shifted.

Deirdre will be off her medication now so does she suspect her daughter is alive? Why have they been drugging her for decades?

This is only the first episode but it gets off to a great start. Waiting for a week to get the next episode feels like torture! However, we can be sure that this one will surely keep us entertained and enthrall us with a new magical world.

	Next Episode
Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!