TV Review: A Discovery of Witches Season 2 Episode 4

At first, I thought to myself "I like that they're going with this formula of starting and ending episodes with developments of the present-day story arc". And then it kept going from one scene to the next without any sight of 1590 and then I realised there was no historic setting today, instead we are making progress with the people Diana and Matthew both left behind and ran from. And, like I've said in previous reviews (I think), this is one of the benefits of book-to-TV adaptations - that you get to see what doesn't happen on the page but happened to other characters elsewhere at other times. The primary focus follows Marcus' development on one side, and Peter Knox, Gerbert and Domenico on the other.

The episode opens with another violent vampire murder of an unsuspecting victim in Oxford. After Domenico's investigation, it leads him right back to Peter Knox and Gerbert at the Congregation's headquarters in Venice. Knox, for his part, has been interrogating the Madison Coven continuing their search for Diana and Matthew for information on where - or when - they have gone. When it comes to the vampire matters in this episode, it seems to all tie back to blood rage and this is the first part of it as we first find out that amongst other vampires, the blood rage in the de Clermont family has only ever been rumours and suspicions. With these scenes of Domenico, Gerbert and Knox we get a clearer view of what some more hostile characters know about the de Clermont family and understand their resentment for their permanent position of power in the Congregation. And before we ever meet him on screen, we understand just how strong Phillipe's impact is on the creature community even decades after his death. This leads to a very enjoyable scene at Sept-Tours of a verbal battle of knowledge and wits between Gerbert and Ysabeau where he attempts to intimidate her with the Congregation's knowledge of the latter vampire's blood rage. But we all know Ysabeau is not the kind of character to let idle threats phase her in front of her enemies. She knows best of how to deal with it!

Speaking of Ysabeau and Sept-Tours, I really enjoyed seeing more of how Sarah and Emily were settling in with her as I was really looking forward to it. I love that it's hostile but they're trying to make it work - Emily is the cool and calm aunt that just wants everyone to get along so that they can do whatever they need to help. It was good to see Emily's further attempts at sneaking around with higher magics trying to summon Rebecca and reaching results. I talked about the visual effects of the magic in my last review, and I noticed here that there is a big difference with the look of the magic that Emily is practicing and the magic Diana is training in. And not just because of the type of magic but the time - Diana is in a time when witches were more powerful than they are in the present day. Diana is dealing with purer, older, weaver, elemental magic creating life, Emily is using higher magics to do with death and summoning dead spirits. The VFX team has a wonderful grasp on designing different types of magic to suit the person's ability and the time it is being done in. I can't wait to see how far Emily gets with it.

This episode is a whirlwind of events for Matthew's main vampire son, Marcus Whitmore. You don't see a lot of him in Shadow of Night and big changes take place in his life between the end of A Discovery of Witches and the beginning of The Book of Life - the main change being how things developed from him and Pheobe meeting to the latter being ready to become the former's mate as a vampire. The progress was masterfully done as the whole thing isn't at its finishing point just yet but you get through those key moments. We get their meeting at the auction house where Pheobe works, which goes the way readers of the book know it but then it moves on to them attempting to get to know each other. We get a brief glimpse of the familiar portraits Diana and Matthew left with Jack at the end of the previous episode. I think the "vampire revelation" surprisingly isn't often done by the human finding blood bags and old pictures but with Pheobe's interest in objects with historic significance, it was well suited to her way of finding out Marcus is a vampire. I'm glad to see that even with his admission that vampires are real and that's what he is, she didn't believe him and he wasn't so desperate to convince her by showing off some vampiric ability.

Beyond his burgeoning relationship with Pheobe, after a conversation with Nathaniel, Marcus' willingness to see that the ineffectiveness of the Knights of Lazarus and deciding to change that as the new Grand Master showed more development of his character. Marcus generally does act independently but he does rely a lot on doing what Matthew wants him to do. But by showing that Matthew had become an incapable leader of the Knights, to have let them become useless, defunct and self-serving (their purpose being to help those who can't help themselves), it gives Marcus' character a new purpose beyond being the most loyal member of the de Clermont family to Matthew.

The revelation about Ysabeau's line being carriers of blood rage and the culling of Marcu's children by Matthew at the orders of Phillipe was so effective. This is one of those story points that are put on hold at the end of the first book and aren't picked up again until the second book because a lot pauses while Diana and Matthew are in 1590 and it was a good move to reveal this not only to the audience but to Marcus as well so that he found out from Ysabeau instead. This is probably the scene where Edward Bluemel's portrayal of Marcus really shines, his reaction to the truth of his existence is strongly written across his face, to the realisation about why so many of his children were killed and why the murders across Europe are tied to the de Clermonts.

Reasons to Recommend:

• A break from Diana, Matthew, and life in 1590
• Brilliant development of Marcus's character and story arc
• Further developments with the vampire murders in Europe
• Sarah and Emily trying to live with Ysabeau (it's amusing and I want more)
• More of an understanding about how the de Clermonts fit into Congregation matters and why there are some members that would like to see them fail

I rate this episode a 9/10. Considering the fact that they dedicated an episode to moving forward with the arc in the present and they managed to fit in a lot on both sides of the conflict. It was refreshing to see an episode dedicated entirely to Diana and Matthew's supporting characters and opponents.