If you’re like me or Mary Sibley, you can’t stand when petty talk of gender norms get in the way of your witch war. Sure, you can handle them as they arise, but you really would rather focus on the magical threats at home from an unknown, cloaked source (which just so happens to be the love of your life), or the world’s unluckiest witch and her quest for vengeance (ironically named Mercy), or the blood kiss from a very powerful witch with a proclivity for bathtubs (the Countess’ thing, apparently). The last thing you want to do is throw a dinner party and stand your ground against a misogynistic and long-winded Puritan. That’s just not a productive use of your time.
In “From Within,” Mary faces all of these problems—even the sham of a dinner party—barely breaking a sweat (except for in the final moments) and in between getting to flirt and make out with a handsome doctor (an ideal love interest even in the 17th century).
Yet it’s still not safe to assume every thing’s coming up Mary. Because as much as she learns, and as much as she thinks she’s ahead of the game, there are still threats around every corner.
Take, for example, the charred body of Mercy, the Salem character who battles with Isaac the Fornicator over the title of Unluckiest Salem Resident. After her flamboyant (if that’s not too redundant a word when talking about the character) entrance in “Blood Kiss,” Mercy has turned her father, Reverend Lewis, into one of her bird penis minions (making well to mention how he used to use his penis before). She also uses poor Dollie as her physical presence, as her eyes and ears out and about town. Mercy’s mission remains the same as it ever was—take vengeance on Mary—and it’s an endeavor that leads to her ordering Dollie and Reverend Lewis to kill Isaac.
Isaac, despite being on his death bed, is somehow absolutely captivating in the brief scenes he has this episode. His guilt upon his past indiscretions weighs so heavily on him that Mary has to momentarily drop the stern Puritan facade to convince him that any God who would be so uncaring is not one worth begging forgiveness. Isaac also drops what is the death bed equivalent of “What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this” on Dollie, which is… honestly just impressive. Leave it to Isaac to be charming even in such a debilitated state. It’s just a shame he ends up being collateral damage in Mercy’s war on Mary.
At this point, however, in the state that she’s in, it’s a wonder Mercy doesn’t just cut her losses in her attempts to finally take Mary down. She may win battles, but she can’t possibly win the war, and on the list of things Mary cares about, Mercy is way on the bottom. Simply put, Mercy sees Mary as her nemesis, but the reverse can’t be said, no matter how hard Mercy tries.
In an amazing turn of events, John Alden: Witch Hunter is actually one of the highlights of the episode, and this is a case where he spends most of the episode covering the bottom half of his face with a mask and skulking around town with a purpose. When he finally does get to speak, it’s a relief… because he is finally doing so in a way that suggests he’s finally a character on the same twisted, camp show as everyone else. This is no longer straight man, audience proxy John Alden. This is Indian blood ritual, witch hunter John Alden.
And it’s so much better. Part of the problem with the character in the first season was that while everyone else in this cast had their own idiosyncrasies, John Alden had to be the grizzled war hero who cast aspersions on the town for its witch fever. Now that John has the witch fever too, he’s finally allowed to play at the grown-ups’ table (in a sense) with everyone else. He can bring a little fun to him when he stalks and tortures Corwin (Hank Harris), another secret witch in the Selectmen, in order to get information about every single witch in Salem. His plan doesn’t work—because of Mary and Tituba’s interference, not because it’s as bad as his planning in the last episode—but he now has the hive worried about the powerful force that can cloak itself from them. John Alden is now a powerful force.