Posted in: Freeform, Review, TV | Tagged: fort salem, freeform, motherland, Review, season 3

Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 E04 Starts Turning the Tables: Review

This week's episode of Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem started off a bit slow, but thankfully the tides turned towards the last half of the chapter. We are not exactly sure in which direction yet, but things have reached a new level of WTF, and we can only imagine everything will pick up from here on. We went from Avengers-type moments to heartfelt, supportive, and gender-affirming moments. One thing I will always give "Motherland" credit for is how unapologetically out there it is when it comes to diversity and LGBTQIA+ representation.

So the President (Sheryl Lee Ralph) moved her address to the nation, and as expected, the Camarilla made an attempt against her life and was successful at it. Suddenly things are chaotic, and the Vice-President (Victor Webster) is now being sworn in to take her place. Let's just say that between this and the budding issues between "The Traveling Sisterhood of the Witchy Pants," I was not taking it well. It seemed very cartoony and painfully unrealistic how no one seemed to be even putting on the facade of being upset or in mourning. The POTUS just died, but they're not putting on a front to show shock and a sense of mourning. Not to mention, how many times do our heroes have to keep going through cycles of hating one another?

So to celebrate, the new President makes his way to a Camarilla private celebration… but how was this even possible without the media finding out? Anyway, the mess starts to go "Hunger Games" crossed with "The Purge" as they have captured some witches and now have them saved up so they can fight each other to the death as they watch. Within the group, there is Anacostia (Demetria McKinney) and her boo, Sterling (Luc Roderique). Things take a turn south once they include two members of the Spree in their container, and they are able to get control of Sterling and successfully coerce him into stabbing himself. Man, we already knew Anacostia was badass, but this was some next-level skill. Anacostia was done with that chick from the spree in just a second.

Meanwhile, the Cession Marshal (Michael Horse) now has the witches as guests: Abigail (Ashley Nicole Williams), Tally (Jessica Sutton), Scylla (Amalia Holm), Nicte (Kandyse McClure), Adil (Tony Giroux), and Khalida (Kaylee Brown), who calls over Alder (Lyne Renee) with a song. Alder explains to the Marshal what brought her over and, later on, gets to find a vessel for the song that had been stolen. Raelle (Taylor Hickson) is still within the mycelium and does give a signal back to Scylla during Yule festivities.

Oh, and did I mention old Ms. President is not actually dead and actually hiding in the Marshal's home with the witches? I was pleased with this little turn, to be honest. Even more so seeing her and The Marshal flirting. Although my favorite part and what actually made this episode ten times better was the conversation between Tally and M (Ess Hodlmoser) and the way they handled gender identity. It was my absolute favorite moment, and I hope we get more heartfelt moments like that as Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem nears its series finale.

Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 Episode 4 "Happy Yule!"

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Review by Alejandra Bodden

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8/10

This week's episode of Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem started off a bit slow, but thankfully the tides turned towards the last half of the chapter. We are not exactly sure in which direction yet, but things have reached a new level of WTF, and we can only imagine everything will pick up from here on. We went from Avengers-type moments to heartfelt, supportive, and gender-affirming moments. One thing I will always give "Motherland" credit for is how unapologetically out there it is when it comes to diversity and LGBTQIA+ representation.

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