A Discovery of Witches Review: Episode #2.3 (Season 2 Episode 3)

A Discovery of Witches Season 2 Episode 3, “Episode #2.3,” branches out from male-focused storytelling and places the women at the helm.  

With witches and a queen controlling the direction, Season 2 finally finds its narrative footing. 

Frankly, A Discovery of Witches just works better when the men are lurking in the shadows or on the fringes.

Domenico is in all the corners, plotting and power playing and it feels so right. Kit pops up to enhance the central Diana character with his heartsick brooding over Matthew.

These characters, even Matthew, aren’t meant to carry the stories on their shoulders.

Diana is the apex, the giver of the life, the weaver.

When the show lets her and the other ladies be primary, the whole thing falls into place. 

The stunning art direction on the season reaches a new height when Diana ties the third knot and the tree of life shoots from her being. The tears rolling down Diana’s eyes relate perfectly how emotional and simply amazing the moment is. 

Goody Alsop informs us that this is just the beginning: Diana hasn’t even tied a fourth knot yet and her familiar is just around the bend. 

The idea is repeated that this unexpected pair of witch and wehr is at the root of how creatures came to be. It is in the opposition that something meaningful rests. 

It is haunting in the most glowing way possible. 

Matthew and Diana are opposites in many ways, and yet as she says on the episode, together is how they will find their way. 

Diana clearly has the power to control living beings. She can make fruit rot and an inanimate snake turn into a real slithering thing.

Matthew, on the other end of that spectrum, has the power to freeze life, to halt the progress of aging. 

For vampires, there is no death but there is no birth either.

In that way, there is something about eternal life that is like death; there is no change or growth, just permanence. 

A Discovery of Witches is taking us deep into this exploration of the essence of creatures and it is simply fantastic. 

Jack is essential to this messaging about the significance of the union of opposites. Happily, there is still much mystery to this character that Diana and Matthew have taken on as their child.

Mystery is a good place for this show to simmer. 

Matthew is finding, slowly but surely, the difference between protective and controlling.

Like the strands Diana weaves, the lovers can’t hold the other up like a marionette. They rely on each other with equal gravity and tension. 

Even though it sucks that Diana can’t finish her lessons, at least until she gets her familiar (I AM EXCITED), this is a good place for the couple to be as they embark on a their book-retrieval quest. 

As usual, the cinematography and set design and just everything visual on the episode is phenomenal. We get so many sweeping shots of 16th century London, and we will never tire of it. 

The costumes are impeccable. Diana’s carefully selected garb to meet the queen is my favorite so far. 

Even the way we see Miss Norman sitting to the side in an austere chair via several close up shots is powerful. It composes a mystery without any dialogue. 

Miss Norman is quickly becoming out of the best characters of Season 2. Her observant ways help us to see beyond the obvious and assure us that there are actual real stakes to all of this. 

The main narrative pitfall of the episode, and season really, is that the premise that Diana’s presence is to be secret is directly undermined by the fact Matthew can’t shut up about his new wife. 

There have been literally zero instances where he hides her identity. 

Luckily, that is not so important now that things are quite out and Matthew and Diana are getting out of dodge anyway. 

Still, it is annoying. 

Aunt Em conjuring Rebecca is a surprising delight on the episode to counter-balance any annoying parts. 

It can not be overstated how wonderful it is that Aunt Em, who married into the Bishop family, is just as connected to the ancestry. 

Overall, this episode is the strongest of Season 2 so far and one of the best of the whole series. It will be on replay until next week!

Stray Spells

• Queen Elizabeth’s room is nothing like we’ve seen before from royalty. It’s so detailed and amazing. 
• Matthew is such a good dad. Could this be foreshadowing of a baby? 
• Mary Sidney is the friend we all dream of. Bring your trunks to my place, please! 
• Diana is great, but honestly I don’t see what is so brilliant about her responses to Queen Elizabeth?
• Diana belongs in libraries.
• Where does Satu fit in?
• Kit wears unrequited love so well. Hot. 

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

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A Discovery of Witches airs Saturdays on Sundance Now, AMC+ and Shudder.

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