A Discovery of Witches Review: Bound Together (Season 1 Episodes 4-6)

If the previous three episodes were about Diana and Matthew meeting and getting to know each other, A Discovery of Witches Season 1 Episodes 4-6 focus on them getting together. They just have a teeny-tiny congregation-sized hurdle to overcome.

Episode 4

In Episode 4 we arrive at Sept-Tours, the ancestral home of the de Clermont. We also visit the famed Congregation chambers and meet all the members. Things start to come together and we meet two of my personal favorite characters Baldwin Montclair and Ysabeau de Clermont.

Baldwin Montclair is the head of the de Clermont family, he is Philipe’s son. Ysabeau is Matthew’s mother and Philipe’s widow. Both characters are in opposition to our main couple. Baldwin because he is the head of the Congregation and Ysabeau because she’s not a big fan of witches.

Ysabeau de Clermont: She’s too willful for my liking. Fiddat’s more biddable. As I get older, I find that quality admirable in horses.
Matthew Clairmont: And in sons.

In the previous episodes, we’ve seen how witches felt about vampires and here we get a bit of how vampires feel about witches. Matthew Clairmont, a vampire who is in love with a witch and has a daemon for a best friend, isn’t exactly the norm.

It is Ysabeau that wins this episode, and Lindsay Duncan’s performance is stellar. We see a woman who deeply loves her husband and is still years later mourning his death. While Matthew doesn’t quite understand his mother’s attitude towards Diana, Diana herself does.

Diana Bishop: There’s good and evil in every species, my parents were the best and I’m a witch. Who is willing to make her own mind despite the stories I’ve heard about you.
Ysabeau de Clermont: Why were they killed?
Diana Bishop: I don’t know
Ysabeau de Clermont: Whoever did it make them pay, it doesn’t take the pain away but it helps.

It leads to one of the best scenes of the episode in which Ysabeau and Diana start to find common ground. The interaction between Duncan and Teresa Palmer is poignant and emotional. It’s there that Diana recognizes Ysabeau’s suffering and Ysabeau starts to see why his son is so charmed by Diana. They have both known the pain that comes from death.

I spoke in the review for A Discovery of Witches Season 1 Episodes 1-3 about how gorgeous the cinematography is. Well, it just gets better and better. First, we get the beautiful scene of both of them horseback riding, the kiss with the breathtaking score in the background and then there’s the witch water.

Before they can truly be together they have to overcome the congregation-sized hurdle. Do they commit to each other or do they cave to what the Covenant says? It’s terrifying for both of them because they’ve never felt emotions like these before. Diana is ready to commit but there’s a part of Matthew that is scared she’ll get hurt.

Diana Bishop: We are bound together.

Matthew decides that they won’t break the Covenant and he needs to go to Oxford while Diana stays in France. The scene is heartbreaking but Palmer is absolutely stunning. She runs after Matthew but is unable to stop him and so the Witch Water begins.

In Episode 3, she brought out the witch wind; now it’s the witch water. It’s a glorious scene and the effects team deserves all the awards. The rain starts coming down and soon you don’t know where Diana’s tears end and the rain begins. It’s a true masterpiece.

Episode 5

This episode we see the result of Diana’s blood samples, we get to hear Matthew’s history, we see vampires being vampires and of course a lot of ship-worthy moments.

I want to say this episode is for the shippers but really a lot of these episodes are for the shippers. A Discovery of Witches definitely knows how to feed their fans. But we’ll get to talking about the ship scenes later.

We get a wonderful scene between Baldwin and Marcus that perfectly describes the series.

Baldwin: I thought this was about the book of life.
Marcus: It was. It still is. But there’s more to it than that.

The wonderful dynamic between Ysabeau and Diana continues in this episode as she takes Diana hunting. She wants Diana to understand what she’s getting into, go into it with her eyes wide open. Matthew is a vampire and that means he’ll act like a vampire. This is going to sound bizarre but I love this sequence.

Ysabeau de Clermont: This is the nature of vampires. Could you be with my son knowing that he kills? That hunting like this is the only way for him to survive?

We see Ysabeau hunting a fox intercut with Matthew hunting, Gillian. I love it when vampire shows actually embrace the different sides of being a vampire, it’s not just the scent and the inherent sex appeal of the vampire mythos. It’s the blood, it’s the hunt, they protect what is theirs no matter the cost.

There’s a good juxtaposition in the fact that Diana is learning about Matthew’s beginnings from his mother while Matthew is trying to find out about Diana’s from her blood work. Diana learns about the family Matthew had and we see that it doesn’t change how she feels, neither Ysabeau nor her aunts will change her mind about loving Matthew.

Diana Bishop: According to her, you’re a mix between Superman and Lancelot.

Who by the way gets a wonderful pep talk by Hamish. Hamish knows the good and the bad parts of Matthew. I love it when characters actually have deep and meaningful friendships with people outside of their significant others. The friendship between Hamish is so important.

Their scene is literally Matthew just talking wonders about Diana while Hamish just looks at him like you’re in too deep. Greg McHugh and Matthew Goode have a wonderful rapport.

Hamish: You fear she’ll come to know your past? I know about it and I love you.

We get a beautiful reunion that truly marks the beginning of their story. It has a beautiful score in the background as they just stare at each other. You practically feel the chemistry between Palmer and Goode.

Matthew Clairmont: From this moment we will always be one.

Their fingers are interlaced and then he just pulls her closer before kissing her. Ysabeau turns away from the window because she knows what it means, they’re mated now. There’s no turning back.

The music soars as they kiss but what makes the scene extra adorable for me is Teresa Palmer on her tiptoes. Because Matthew Goode really is that tall. Ships with height differences are totally the best.

I have to say as someone who ships things are mostly will-they won’t-they, stuck in slow burn hell, or never actually happen, it’s so refreshing to ship something with no love triangles. It might be fast but they love each other and now they get to face their problems together.

I am so here for that. It’s so interesting to see a ship where the drama comes from outside factors rather than feelings. Matthew and Diana love each other and fight for each other. They’re a unit and together they can handle anything.

This, of course, leads to the gorgeous scene where Ysabeau accepts Diana as her daughter and tells her not to fear her power.

We finally get to see Diana’s results and well what they say is that she’s really powerful. To Diana’s unending surprise considering that the circumstances of her upbringing, her parents being murdered, always kept her at arm’s length from magic. Matthew just looks at her in awe.

Matthew Clairmont: We don’t understand everything yet, but so far we’ve discovered that you have every genetic marker we’ve ever seen in a witch.

It’s clear he’s going to tell her what happened with Gillian but at the moment all she wants is to kiss her man. Which is extremely relatable, to be honest. Diana is a modern woman and she does not mind taking charge. If you’re a fan of romance you probably love these scenes.

The scene is extremely intimate considering they both still have clothes on. She kisses the scars on his back and promises to hurt anyone that hurts him. Between Matthew attacking Gillian and now Diana threating those that would hurt him, it’s clear these two are ride or die for each other. It’s fantastic.

Diana Bishop: I want to hunt down everyone who hurt you.

The scene ends with female orgasms and the two of them smiling and laughing in bed. As always when things are going well you know shit is going to hit the fan. Which comes in the place of a cliffhanger.

Episode 6

This episode is brutal, to say the least. That should come to no surprise considering most of it takes place while Diana is being tortured. Satu follows through on what she’s been wanting since she found out about Diana, and she even allies with Gerbert to get it.

Satu is an intriguing character, Malin Buska is doing a wonderful job. She’s a fascinating female villain mostly because she’s not completely aware she’s a villain. Satu firmly believes she is in the right, even going as far as keeping Gerbert from Diana.

She only sees what she wants to see. She justifies her actions by her idea that Diana has betrayed her kind and so this is necessary. She’s still a villain and I’ll enjoy her getting her comeuppance, but she makes things interesting.

Matthew Goode is also great as he portrays a man completely unraveled. Just the previous episode Diana had remarked on how Matthew was always so in control and here we see him lose that control. But of course, the shining star in this episode is Teresa Palmer herself.

This episode features one of my favorite moments from the book. Diana imagines her parents are there with her and she remembers a story her parents told her.

Major props to director Sarah Walker because this scene is stunning. As Rebecca Bishop is retelling the story we see a montage of everything that’s happened. It’s gorgeous and iconic. Every part of the story that Rebecca says is something that happened to Diana. It’s a wonderful way to tell a story via a montage.

Rebecca Bishop: It doesn’t work that way Diana, I can’t skip the bad parts of the story, you have to face them. Diana was locked in a dark room all alone.
Diana Bishop: A witch trapped me inside.
Rebecca Bishop: She wondered how she would ever get out. But then, she heard a knocking at the door. It was the Prince. He used all of his strength to open the locked door, but he still couldn’t get to her.
Diana Bishop: Then how did she get out?
Rebecca Bishop: Diana spied a hole in the roof, just big enough for her to squeeze through. So she called up to him.
Diana Bishop: Fly down and lift me out.
Rebecca Bishop: But the Prince couldn’t fly, so Diana had to help himself.

Diana comes to and realizes she is in that very same dark room. Matthew is there but as the story said, she has to save herself. Diana remembers everything that brought her to this point but as much as she tries she can’t fly. Until she hears her father’s words.

Stephen Proctor: Magic is in the heart don’t forget.

It’s only when she stops thinking with her mind and starts thinking with her heart that she’s able to fly. I love this so much because yes Matthew did go rescue her, but he is only part of the rescue. Diana does the heavy lifting on her own because she’s a hero in her own right.

We see Diana’s strength when Matthew is patching her up and she talks about what happened. She doesn’t fall apart or breaks down. No one would blame her if she did but she doesn’t. She’s been through what’s practically a trial by fire and came out on the other side.

Teresa Palmer is absolutely stunning in her performance throughout this episode. From the pain and agony at being tortured, the fear when she is in the room and the resilience at the end. Even when she sees she’s been branded she doesn’t break. Their attempt at breaking her failed.

Now they have unleashed her true potential.

Stray Thoughts:

• I wish we’d gotten Ysabeau singing to Diana after the witch-water.
• Get you a man that will rally an order of knights to protect you. No, but seriously I love the Knights of Lazarus.
• In these chapters in the books, there are some aspects that have kind of iffy consent issues so I’m really glad they were removed from the show.
• Matthew you literally lasted one episode after saying you weren’t going to break the Covenant. I don’t think you even tried at all.
• I haven’t been able to dedicate a lot of time to it but know that I deeply love Sophie. 
• Weaver, pay attention to that word. 

What did you think of these episodes of A Discovery of Witches? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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A Discovery of Witches now streaming on Sundace Now / Shudder.

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