Episodes 01

“The Witching Hour”

San Francisco pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Rowan Fielding learns that her adoptive mother Elena’s cancer has returned. When Rowan’s chief surgeon refuses to help her get Elena into a clinical trial, she envisions the arteries inside of his head, and he collapses. Rowan’s belief that she somehow caused the incident is dismissed by Elena, who secretly makes a call to the Talamasca for help. Empath Ciprien Grieve, the Talamasca agent assigned to Rowan, reassures Elena that “the man” remains in New Orleans. Rowan loses her temper, and this time the man she is arguing with dies. In New Orleans, Dr. Vernon Lamb secretively withholds Thorazine from a catatonic Deirdre Mayfair so he can give his new patient a proper psychiatric exam. Elena dies, and the entity Lasher, bound to Deirdre, appears to Rowan. In the past, young Deirdre is guarded closely by her stern aunt Carlotta, but Mayfair patriarch Cortland hires a young man to seduce her. She becomes pregnant and is saved from suicide by “the man”, an entity known to the Mayfairs as Lasher. Deirdre gives birth, but Carlotta hands baby Rowan over to her niece, Elena, with strict instructions to disappear with the child and never return.

Episodes 02

“The Dark Place”

A grieving Rowan learns that Elena lied about trying to find her birth parents, and spirals further. Though instructed by the Talamasca to only surveil Rowan, Ciprien approaches her and promises answers when the chaos around her escalates. He touches her and collapses from the empathic shock. Rowan looks through his phone and sees photos of Deirdre and Elena. Ciprien awakens in the ambulance and flees. Rowan makes her way to New Orleans just as Deirdre awakens, feigning catatonia for Carlotta. Dr. Lamb promises to help free her, but Deirdre cannot wait. Lasher, who has been kept closely bound to Deirdre due to her drugged state, reassures her that her daughter is alive and coming to her. The Mayfair maid Delphine lets Deirdre escape to Cortland, where she uses magic to see Rowan’s location through Lasher’s eyes. Carlotta is shocked when a lucid Deirdre enters the Pontchartrain Hotel. Deirdre dismisses Carlotta’s attempt to bring her home, reminding Carlotta that if she is awake, so is Lasher. Ciprien arranges to meet Rowan at the hotel. On her way to the lobby to meet him, Rowan comes face to face with Deirdre, who suddenly collapses, her throat slit.

Episodes 03

“Second Line”

In the wake of Deirdre’s death, a blood-covered Rowan rebuffs Carlotta and leaves the hotel with Ciprien. He tells her about himself, the Talamasca, and Lasher. Carlotta and her sister Millie decide to have a wake for Deirdre to lure Rowan to them. A vengeful Lasher comes to a fearful Cortland, who reminds him that Rowan is the 13th Mayfair witch. Carlotta locks Delphine in the basement with the jeweled key necklace that bound Lasher to Deirdre. Rowan meets Ciprien’s pregnant sister, Odette. Rowan is drugged, and Lasher comes to her as a mysterious stranger in a funeral procession. He impersonates Deirdre, but Rowan is not fooled for long. Lasher kills Delphine to free himself from her. Ciprien touches Deirdre’s body and has a vision of a man getting into the elevator with her.

Episodes 04

“Curiouser and Curiouser”

Carlotta finds Delphine’s body, but the necklace is missing. Rowan and Ciprien attend Deirdre’s funeral. At the Mayfair house on First Street, Carlotta confesses that she sent Rowan away to save her from Lasher. The Talamasca find the man hired to kill Deirdre, but Lasher tortures and then kills him. Rowan meets some of her relatives and learns from Cortland’s daughter Jojo that she is the “designee”, the Mayfair heir. Jojo explains that there were 12 before Rowan. Cortland encourages Rowan to talk to Lasher. Carlotta is upset to see Rowan wearing Lasher’s necklace, and locks herself in the dining room with Rowan and sets it on fire. Ciprien breaks through the door but is stabbed by Carlotta. Lasher appears to a fearful Carlotta, declaring that Rowan is already his.

Episodes 05

“The Thrall”

Ciprien and Rowan are disoriented and trapped in the First Street house by Lasher’s magic. Ciprien’s stab wound has become infected, but Rowan cannot break out of the house. Lasher distracts Rowan by coming to her in the form of a healed Ciprien, but the spell is broken when she notices he is not wearing gloves, as Ciprien would. Ciprien has a vision of his predecessor Stuart Townsend, a Talamasca agent who had been assigned to Deirdre’s mother, Antha Mayfair, but disappeared. Stuart warns Ciprien not to die in the Mayfair house, or Lasher will trap him there forever. Rowan sees a distraught Millie, who is revealed to be a ghost, and leads Rowan to Delphine’s body in the basement. Rowan promises Lasher she will stay with him if he releases Ciprien, which he does. Odette finds a dying Ciprien in his apartment, and Samir, Ciprien’s superior at the Talamasca, brings a psychic healer to save him. Rowan resists Lasher’s machinations and frees Carlotta, who tells Rowan the only way to escape Lasher is to commit suicide. Rowan realizes that Carlotta killed Antha, and angrily uses her powers to kill Carlotta. Now that Rowan has given Lasher what he wants, he lets her leave the house.

Episodes 06

“Transference”

Tessa Mayfair tells Rowan about a growing conspiracy against witches like them and encourages Rowan to use her new powers. Rowan wants nothing to do with any of it. She seeks advice from Cortland about getting rid of Lasher and realizes that Cortland has ALS. Cortland thinks his cousin Dolly Jean Mayfair may know how Lasher was once transferred from Mary Beth Mayfair to her brother Julien, Cortland’s father. Ciprien touches Lasher’s necklace, and has a vision of the Mayfair ancestor Suzanne, a healer, tried as a witch in 1681 Donnelaith, Scotland, by the Witchfinder. As a last resort, she uses “wicked words” of power, which summon Lasher. He kills the Witchfinder with his own jeweled key necklace, which unlocks Suzanne’s cage. Jojo and Dolly Jean gather Tessa, Alicia, and other Mayfair women to attempt a ritual that employs a fetish doll made from bones or hair from every designee, including Deirdre. Special words of power call Lasher, and Rowan chokes up the necklace. The women come to believe Lasher has chosen Tessa as Rowan’s successor and losing the necklace traps Ciprien in the memory. The anti-witch cult abducts Tessa, but Lasher does not come to her aid.

Episodes 07

“Tessa”

Rowan realizes she is pregnant. The cult holds Tessa in a cage as their captive at an old auto parts factory. She tries to use her power to coerce one of them, Keith, to unlock her but fails. Rowan seeks out Tessa but finds that she is missing. The Mayfairs summon a scry to find her. Rowan feels responsible for Tessa’s predicament but refuses to try and summon Lasher to help them. Lasher tells Ciprien he will never escape the vision, but Ciprien poisons himself with henbane and wakes up in the present. Aware that Rowan is pregnant, Cortland calls his associate, Talamasca leader Albrecht, who stops Ciprien from intervening. Albrecht explains that Rowan is about to make a choice that will fulfill an ancient prophecy and begin “a new era”. As the cultists threaten to burn Tessa alive, Rowan arrives and begins killing them. Rowan is shot but saves Tessa from the flames. Keith appears and shoots Tessa, mortally wounding her. Rowan puts on the necklace and calls Lasher.

Episodes 08

“What Rough Beast”

Commanded by a wounded Rowan, Lasher burns Keith alive. Cortland refuses to tell Jojo the truth behind his obsession with Rowan. Ciprien discovers that Cortland ordered Deirdre’s murder, and any psychic trace at the crime scene was wiped by the Talamasca. Lasher draws Rowan into a vision, where she learns she can heal herself and others, and they have sex. After Odette calls the Talamasca looking for a missing Ciprien, they erase her memories of recent events. Ciprien touches a mask owned by Cortland, learning that Cortland raped Deirdre and fathered Rowan. Jojo is horrified, and takes Ciprien to the First Street house. He touches the designee fetish doll, seeing a vision of Lasher’s prophecy, “the 13th witch is the doorway”. While Rowan is trapped in the vision counting down to midnight, “the witching hour”, her pregnancy has accelerated and Cortland takes her unconscious body to the Mayfair mausoleum. Rowan awakens with the knowledge that Lasher will be reborn via her child. She goes into labor, and the spirit of Suzanne helps deliver the baby. Rowan turns Cortland to stone for raping Deirdre. Ciprien tries to take the child, but Rowan leaves with her baby.