Review

The second season is loosely (very loosely) based on Lasher and Taltos, the second and third books, in The Lives of the Mayfair trilogy where we see Lasher grow from an infant into an adult within the first episode. As an adult, Lasher poses a threat to the Mayfair women as his drive to procreate leads to them bleeding to death when they conceive. Desperate to protect her son, Rowan finds herself at odds with the rest of the family as she races to find Lasher before the Talamasca capture him but she is too late. However, Ciprien soon discovers that Lasher has been taken by a rogue agent and his whereabouts is unknown.

Rowan uses a spell to contact Julien’s spirit for help in finding Lasher but he traps her inside the Victrola and separates her intellect from her emotions so we have two Rowans. As Intellect Rowan continues to question Julien about his history with Lasher, she learns about a race of beings called the Taltos and their connection to the first Mayfair witches in Donnelaith, Scotland. Realising she has been divided, Emotion Rowan performs a spell to successfully reunite her two halves. Rowan travels to Scotland where she discovers the Scottish Mayfairs have a female Taltos, Emaleth, and plan to marry her to Lasher.

Not trusting the intentions of the Scottish Mayfairs, Rowan tries to persuade Lasher to leave with her but he has started to remember his past when he was known as Ashlar and longs to be reunited with Emaleth. Ian Mayfair, the head of the Scottish family, is revealed to be the half-brother of Cortland and they both confront the spirit of Julien in the Victoria. However, Julien takes over Cortland’s body. The wedding goes ahead as planned and it isn’t long before Emaleth starts to produce multiple children. The true intentions of the Scottish Mayfairs is revealed when Ian tells Rowan that Taltos blood has magical properties and she realises they intend to murder the Taltos children.

I wish I could say the second season was an improvement but it is even more of a mess than the first one as the writers continue to take the odd thread from the books and twist it into a plot that makes little sense. We are introduced to even more Mayfairs in the first few episodes only for them to either be killed or disappear into the background. At least we get Julien this season as he is one of the most powerful of the witches in the family, but he has inherited the Villain of the Season tag. The Victrola scenes between Cortland and Julien, and the Rowan and Julien are excruciatingly dull. Plus, do we really need another spirit searching for a physical body to take over?

Lasher and Ashlar were separate beings in the books with the latter being a successful businessman who has lived for thousand of years and was regarded as a saint when he converted to Christianity. However, on the show, the two characters have been merged and we get some nonsense about how Lasher was the issue of a Scottish laird and a much loved witch queen from the Tudor period judging by their clothes. The show writers also opted to use Emaleth, the daughter of Rowan and Lasher, as their female Taltos while neglecting to mention her parentage. In the books, we are told that a Taltos can be born to humans with the correct genetics so Lasher breeds with Rowan to create more but only Emaleth is born.

As the series has been renewed for a third season, it seems the producers have decided to stop pretending to use the source material and have chucked the books away in favour of sending Rowan to Salem. Some might say the series might find its own feet if it is finally freed from the restraints of the books but the show has hardly bothered to follow the plot anyway and all that rich material has gone to waste.