With only three episodes left for season 1, it’s all happening in A Discovery of Witches! Each episode has seen different groups of characters together, and now they are slowly making their way to one another: the Congregation to Diana, Sophie to Diana, Juliette to Diana, and so forth. Poor Diana, she’s got a lot coming her way, and the end of this week’s episode sees the very start of it all.
During last week’s episode, Matthew and Diana arrived at Sept-Tours where Matthew’s mother Ysabeau lives. The pair spent plenty of time together horse riding and dancing, all the while receiving disapproving looks and comments from Ysabeau. Meanwhile, the full Congregation met to discover Matthew and Diana, which resulted in a visit from Domenico at Sept-Tours. Domenico realised Matthew’s feelings and Diana learned that species intermix when it comes to the heart. After a break in at the lab and Diana professing her love, Matthew says he must go and leaves Diana in tears.
The Hunt Is On
Matthew (Matthew Goode) races back to Oxford and meets with Miriam (Aiysha Hart) and Marcus (Edward Bluemel) who tell him that it was witches who broke in. Thankfully, everything is well and they were unable to access their computers and Miriam believes it’s all because of Diana. She also believes that Matthew will mate with Diana as she has mated before and knows the signs. Matthew inspects the lab himself and asks if Diana’s bloodwork is safe when he picks up on a familiar scent before angrily storming out. Miriam doesn’t want him to go, but he does so they decide to call Baldwin (Trystan Gravelle). Marcus explains that there’s more to the story with Diana and that perhaps Baldwin can protect them because he’s on the Congregation. Baldwin says if he breaks the rules, he pays the price.
Meanwhile, Diana (Teresa Palmer) bathes and looks utterly devastated. Marthe (Sorcha Cusack) comes in and explains that what Diana did was witchwater, and she hasn’t seen it for centuries. Diana wants to go to Madison as her aunts may be able to help her, but both Ysabeau (Lindsay Duncan) and Marthe reject this as they made Matthew a promise. With that, Ysabeau tells Diana they are going hunting.
She asks if Diana has seen a vampire hunt before, as it isn’t as romantic as what humans believe—it’s relentless and brutal. Ysabeau tells Diana not to come close to her while hunting as the animal scent may mix with Diana’s, and she can’t promise she won’t attack. While Ysabeau hunts, so does Matthew…and his prey is Gillian (Louise Brealey). He begins to mock Gillian’s inability to rise in academia, when he reveals he knows Gillian broke into the lab. In a blink of an eye, they attack—Matthew with Gillian, and Ysabeau with a fox. It’s intense and invasive, especially when Matthew starts viewing Gillian’s memories as he guzzles her blood. He sees her taking photos of the lab, but the memories stop as Gillian and he drops her to the ground, leaving her in the street. Meanwhile, Diana slowly approaches Ysabeau, but Diana is not scared of them feeding and Ysabeau’s little plan didn’t work.
Surprisingly, Gillian is not dead yet and turns up on a fellow witch’s doorstep barely alive. We then cut to the Witches Archives where Knox (Owen Teale) and Satu (Malin Buska) learn that Matthew was behind the attack on Gillian and that he is studying witches DNA. Knox says Gillian must have broke into the lab out of concern for Diana, but Satu doesn’t look entirely certain.
Matters of the Heart
Diana calls Sarah (Alex Kingston) and Em (Valarie Pettiford) to tell them about Domenico and about the Convenant, but they say they didn’t tell her because she turned her back on magic. She tells them she loves Matthew, but Sarah is against it while Em is a little more open to it.
As for Matthew, he talks to Hamish (Greg McHugh) about his situation with Diana, and he also agrees the Congregation shouldn’t be able to tell them who they can love. Matthew speaks of Diana’s courage and all her other qualities, and that he is her latest research subject and he is worried she will learn of his past. Hamish says if he loves her, they he shouldn’t let anything get in the way.
Ysabeau then tries another tactic: Matthew’s past. Ysabeau takes Diana into the village where Matthew was born and the church Matthew built himself, which Diana is amazed by. However, she comes across a memorial to Blanca and Lucas, and Ysabeau informs her that they were Matthew’s wife and son who fell ill and died. She says they will always be Matthew’s true loves as Diana will never be able to give him a child and Matthew has never mated, and probably never will. Diana’s life is fleeting, and Matthew will have to carry on living his life without her after. She then continues saying she sired Matthew in the church—who either slipped or jumped from the tower—and that afterwards he was in a rage and his need to feed was endless.
A Little Species Drama
At the Congregation, Knox demands Diana be taken from the de Clermont family and brought back to the witches. He says Matthew attacked a witch, but Baldwin says it was because she trespassed on vampire territory. Gerbert (Trevor Eve) offers his services as he can be more persuasive than Domenico (Gregg Chillin), and that a representative from each species should go. However, Baldwin is against this and says he will get Diana himself.
Afterwards, Satu tells Knox they need to learn how Diana is hiding her power, but Knox says they can’t put a witch through that dark magic and trauma. Satu then says perhaps they should work with one of the vampires as Baldwin may want Diana for himself, and Knox warns her against them.
In Oxford, Nathaniel (Daniel Ezra) is having dinner with a group of daemons and debating about being hidden and the Congregation when Sophie (Aisling Loftus) turns up. She says she had a weird dream with Agatha, the witch, and her dad who said she had to tell the truth. Sophie wants to speak to Agatha and tell her the truth about who she is, which Nathaniel is against significantly at first, but he eventually agrees.
Later on, Gerbert unlocks the chest with the head in it once more and asks if Diana is the witch from the prophecy, when Satu turns up at Gerbert’s. As for Domenico, he finds Juliette (Elarica Johnson) and tells her that Matthew is in love with Diana. Juliette won’t have a bar of it, and he then tells her where she is.
It’s Time For Some Bundling
While working on her computer, Diana discovers stamps and medals hidden in Matthew’s desk, meanwhile Matthew longingly sniffs a piece of Diana’s hair before eventually calling her, which she is overly keen about. Diana says Ysabeau has been telling her stories and he says that the lab is fine. After a few awkward seconds and unspoken words, they say good night. Matthew then works on Diana’s samples overnight and it seems none of her markers match. He shows his findings to Miriam, and they are shocked as Diana’s DNA seems to be fine in comparison to when the species started to decline. The pair run the tests again before Matthew heads back to tell them of his discovery.
Diana races out of Sept-Tours and she asks him to tell her, even though it means no going back. With that, Matthew confesses his love and kisses her. The pair then happen upon Ysabeau, who is not overly pleased with their choice. She says they can stay and Diana is now her daughter as their fight is now her fight and then hugs her. She says the women of the de Clermont family defend themselves, and Diana will be no different.
Matthew shows the results to Diana and that she has every genetic marker they’ve ever seen in a witch, including the elemental markers of air, water, and earth. Matthew says they will face the challenge together, and while Matthew wants to talk about Oxford, Diana has other plans. He carries her to the bedroom and he asks her what she knows about bundling. As she begins to take his shirt off, he’s worried she might not like what she sees, which is scars upon scars, but things only get steamier.
At the end of the episode, Diana watches on while Matthew sleeps and then decides to go for a run, unfortunately, the run ends with her getting snatched into the air and whisked away…
Overall Thoughts?
Things got a bit hot under the collar this episode! Now that Matthew and Diana have professed their feelings to one another, there certainly is no going back, which means they are about to face an onslaught of issues from every side. Honestly, with each episode, it truly feels as though is possibly one of the best adaptations of a book series I’ve ever seen. The actors capture the characters well, the storyline is essentially the very same as the book, only with additions to help us understand motives and the world better such as the scenes with the Congregation and Sophie and Nathaniel. Personally, I’m in love with this series (perhaps even more so than the books) and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
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