TEXT: [PREVIOUSLY_ON] Increase: I will find Mercy Lewis with or without your help. [Women screaming] Anne: Are you saying that I am... Mr. Hale: A witch. Increase: Tomorrow I shall bring John Alden's case before the board. Cotton: He is innocent. And you know it. Selectman: By order of Increase Mather, I place you under arrest. Cotton: I've decided to defend Captain Alden. Increase: To defend? [Insects chirping] [Owl hoots] Mercy: Let the little children come unto me, for the kingdom of the Devil belongs to them. Come. Sit here, poor boy. Poor, sweet boy, worked to death by your family. Every day of your life, making you unfit for burial in the churchyard, so they dumped you here. [Voice breaking] Alice. Died in child birth, pregnant from your mother's brother. There. There, the baby. Smothered to hide the evidence. Let mother and child be together. I am your mother now. All of you! And you all are my children. My father, the good Reverend Lewis, said that there is no purgatory, no place for souls lost between heaven and hell. But he was wrong. Earth is purgatory. We are the ghosts that haunt this land. Mary: No, Mercy. You are very much alive. Perhaps more alive than any of us. Yet you have hidden yourself like a ghost. Increase searches everywhere for you. He will never look here. Mercy: But my girls. What of my poor girls? Mary: He has four of them. But do not fear for them or yourself. Soon our grand rite will cleanse this land of the evil men do and the men who do it, like the great flood of biblical times, making way for our new world. And rest assured, Mercy -- you, your girls, and all your children shall have a place there. Mercy: [Panting] Oh, thank you. [Sobs] But tell me -- tell me so I may reassure them in their fear. What is it? What is coming? Mary: Death. ["Cupid Carries a Gun" plays] <unk> Pound me the witch drums <unk>
SUMMARY:
The trial of John Alden is held, with Increase as his prosecutor and Cotton as his defense. However, the ordeal brings a few unexpected secrets to light, and Mary is ultimately faced with a difficult decision.