Mayfair Witches Showrunner Unpacks Rowan’s Shocking Season Finale Choice

The second season of AMC’s Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches has taken viewers on an international adventure as Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) — along with Moira (Alyssa Jirrels), Lark (Ben Feldman), and Cortland (Harry Hamlin) — left New Orleans for Scotland in search of Lasher (Jack Huston) not only to stop him from the threat he posed to the Mayfair family but to help Rowan save her sister and cousin trapped in a thrall in the process. However, Rowan soon learns that the real threat isn’t Lasher but the Mayfairs themselves (at least the Scottish branch of the family) and in Sunday night’s Season 2 finale it all comes to a head — with Rowan making shocking choice that could change everything.

ComicBook sat down with Mayfair Witches showrunner Esta Spalding to talk about the season finale and according to Spalding, Rowan’s choice is as much about Rowan truly wanting to fulfill her purpose as it is her finally embracing real power — and everything that comes with it.

Warning: spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches beyond this point.

In the episode, Rowan discovers that not only is Cortland actually possessed by Julien, but he has a very nefarious plan for not just Lasher, but for Lasher and Emmaleth’s Taltos children: the plan is to kill them and drink their blood in order to take their magic.  Before Rowan can intervene, Lasher is lured away and his throat is slashed so that his blood pours into a chalice. While Rowan is able to get to Lasher in time to save him, things do not go so well just a short while later. She and Lasher are able to stop the slaughter of the children — while Cip and the Talamasca manage to escape with them — but it all comes at a cost. Lasher is killed after taking an axe to the chest.

[RELATED: Is AMC’s The Talamasca Setting Up a Beloved Anne Rice Storyline (And Crossover)?]

As she’s grieving and desperately trying to bring Lasher back again, Julien approaches with the chalice of blood, revealing that he’s consumed it and it has given him near god-like powers. He urges Rowan to drink the blood as well, suggesting to her that she can raise Lasher from the dead if she takes the power. Rowan ultimately does so but doesn’t bring Lasher back. She also doesn’t reveal to anyone close to her that she’s taken on these new powers. It’s a major turn for Rowan and for Spalding, it’s something of a transgressive act.

Rowan Claiming Power is an Act of Transgression

“I think that Rowan from the very beginning — and this is in the books — she’s got a wild, passionate life. She’s a single woman doctor, all that stuff, but she essentially has been telling herself for her whole life that she’s a good girl,” Spalding said. “I’m going to be a doctor, I’m going to heal people, and maybe because even as a child she knew she sort of had these destructive forces. She has acted out to care for people and to heal people and that’s her M.O., oh, now I’ve got power, now I’ve got the possibility of Lasher I’m going to use it for good. I think what’s so exciting in her choice to drink the blood is that she’s telling herself that she’s doing it to see if she can raise Lasher from the dead. Julien has hinted that maybe there’s the power to raise the dead and so that’s why she’s doing it, but as soon as she has done it, she feels the power coursing inside her. She feels this extraordinary feeling she’s never had. And I think it’s a really transgressive act to lie to Lark and to hide this. To know that she has done this and to know that it means that she’s more powerful and she’s enjoying it.”

The Stage is Set For a Potential Season 3

Rowan’s choice also sets up for a major conflict should Mayfair Witches get a third season. Rowan isn’t alone with these powers, Julien has them as well and now, she’s searching for him.

“I think the exciting thing is to feel Rowan is this new, powerful, transgressive witch,” she said. “Somebody who’s… maybe she’s trying to do some good, too, but she’s much more single-minded in her war with Julien.”

“So, where it’s going is some place I think where she gets to be really, really dynamic and we get to explore the very small ways and slow ways that power works on someone or that they resist power. So that’s exciting. It’s very exciting.”

What did you think about the Season 2 finale of Mayfair Witches? Let us know in the comment section.