The witches of Motherland: Fort Salem sang their final song on Tuesday, and the world will quite literally never be the same.
TVLine spoke with series creator Eliot Laurence about the finale’s “unapologetically hopeful” ending, but before we share his thoughts, here’s a quick recap:
While Alder traveled the world, frantically searching for the final piece of the First Song, the witches of Fort Salem defended their home against the Camarilla. A familiar scenario? Absolutely, though this battle (appropriately titled “Revolution Part 2”) had a much happier ending than the one that served as last season’s finale (aka “Revolution Part 1”).
That’s not to say that this battle was all sunshine and rainbows. We’re sorry to report that Anacostia Quartermain was killed in the line of duty when she saved everyone from being crushed by a flying truck. She herself did not survive the impact, but don’t worry, we’ll get into that tragedy with Laurence later.
The finale’s climax took place — where else — inside the Mycelium. But rather than Raelle ending existence with a witch bomb, as Tally foresaw, Alder arrived on the scene with a crucial piece of news. The Bellweathers were once stewards, and the missing final piece of the song was in Abigail all along. Cue the music!
As the Mother (via Alder) would later explain, that song changed the word. “Long ago, I merged with six women. I changed their voices, and the way they hear. As my gifts traveled down their lines, descendants of the six came to be known as witches. Now my gift is freely given, thanks to you three. They are awake, all of them, singing one song.”
And before Alder dissolved into the ether, she dropped one more little bombshell on them: “They will call you goddesses. … Make sure you live up to it.”
Your thoughts on the Motherland series finale? Grade it in our poll below, then read on for Laurence’s insight on the episode’s many developments. When you’re finished, drop a comment with your full review of Fort Salem‘s swan song.
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Image Credit: Freeform screenshot TVLINE | So, goddesses, huh? That’s pretty huge.
[Gasp] Right? I mean, look, it’s a witch show. It’s always been about this force, this eternal sentience that is the Mycelium. It was pretty fun to get her speaking. And here’s the delicious part about the goddess’ voice: It was [Lyne Renée] performing part of it, but we also got our brilliant producing director and executive producer, sci-fi royalty Amanda Tapping, who is an incredible part of the show. We merged her voice with Lyne’s, so it was extra special.TVLINE | How do those new titles work, exactly?
They have unleashed a massive change on the earth, waking witchhood in all people. Thousands of years from that moment, those three will be known as the bringers of that change, and they will be heralded as goddesses. … There was a lot of information in that speech, which is always risky to throw into a scene, but hopefully it resonates with our viewers and people think it’s cool. It was a heady moment to shoot that. The way we scheduled it, that scene was the last thing we shot. The emotions were there in that fake helicopter. You could feel it. -
Image Credit: Freeform screenshot TVLINE | Do you know where these three go next, or did you not map it out in your head beyond this?
if(typeof(jQuery)=="function"){(function($){$.fn.fitVids=function(){}})(jQuery)}; pmc_jwplayer('jwplayer_3cJSYJzL_o5tBZGK5_div','o5tBZGK5').setup( {"vloc":"auto","floating":true,"playlist":"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/feeds\/3cJSYJzL.json","ph":2} ); alypse of language and sound — and that everything would change. But after that, I have no idea.
I really don’t know. A lot of the fun of this season was getting to use some of the ideas I had when I was planning this as a book series almost 10 years ago. I always knew it would end in what I thought of as a linguistic apocalypse — an apocTVLINE | It’s nice to think, even in just these three seasons, that you were able to tell a complete story.
It is! And part of me felt nervous about that. Fans like to know stuff. They like to know where their people are going to be. But I felt like the right vibe for this finale, especially with everything going on in the world, was just a new beginning and unapologetic hopefulness. To leave on that note felt like the right vibe.TVLINE | Was there anything you didn’t get to fit into this last season that you wish you had?
I mean, there’s always stuff. We were going to get into the witch navy at one point, and the witch air force, and all kinds of crazy stuff. We’re always a bit too big for our britches and we’re always dreaming a little too big. But there’s a lot of stuff. We were treated so beautifully by the network and by Disney. They were so supportive. I think we got it all out. I would also love for it to keep going, but I think we did it all in Season 3. -
Image Credit: Freeform screenshot TVLINE | I have to say, I didn’t love everything in the finale. Pardon this terrible choice of words, but I was crushed by Anacostia’s death. “Why” feels like a stupid question, but… why?
We all felt like it was the right choice to make. This is a war show, and we’ve had some losses along the way, but this felt like a debt we would have to pay at some point. It’s a terrible thing to happen, but it was great for the story. And on a kind of banal scheduling level, the brilliant Demetria McKinney had an opportunity to shoot a pilot, so it was also about maybe not having as much of her during the shooting part [of the finale]. I hear you, and I love her so much, but it felt like a good sacrifice to make. Even if it wasn’t fair. -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Freeform TVLINE | Switching gears completely, last week’s double wedding was really something. How did it feel as a creator to be able to give that to the fans?
[Laughs] Well, I value my life! No, it was everything. It just felt really good. Our fans, particularly our “Raylla” fans, had really hung in there, and I don’t want to be a queer-baiting queer creator. I want to deliver. It felt really good to do that.TVLINE | Were you on set for the big day?
Unfortunately, I had a bit of bad luck and got COVID when I got up there, so I was quarantining for that. But boy, when I saw the footage I was like, “Yes!” -
Image Credit: Freeform screenshot TVLINE | Raelle was sidelined for a bit because of Taylor Hickson’s accident. How might Raelle’s journey have differed had that not been the case?
Yeah, Taylor got in a rough accident. She was the ultimate trooper, but she needed to take a little bit of a rest for her health. And it was a big chunk. Luckily we figured out a way to kind of [work around it]. It was also set up in a way. Due to her connection to the Mycelium, Raelle was feeling this poisoning, and it was a mounting threat to her. Hopefully it fit well within that. And then when she came back it was just so great.TVLINE | That reunion! Even if they were only apart for a few episodes, seeing Raelle and Scylla back together was special. Their chemistry is insane.
It is insane, and it has been from Day 1. They’re close friends, they adore each other, but it’s really something that happens on screen when they’re working. It’s very special. … One nice thing that happened as a result of Raelle taking a bit of a break is that we got to [explore more of] Scylla. I thought the most heartwarming stuff was about her getting integrated into the unit. That was another weird gift we got from some bad luck.
