‘Salem’ Season 3 Spoilers: What Happened In Episode 3? [SPOILER] Loses All Her Witch Powers In ‘The Reckoning’ [RECAP]

WGN America TV Series “Salem” premiered a shocking episode in Season 3 this week. Last week’s episode ended with The Sentinel itching to kill witch Mary Sibley after she failed a loyalty test. Did she die?

Here’s what happened in Season 3, episode 3 “The Reckoning”:

There Are Punishments Far Worse Than Death

Mary’s (Janet Montgomery) son the devil (Oliver Bell) isn’t ready to kill his mother. Instead, he spares her life and tells his bodyguard The Sentinel (Samuel Roukin) that there are punishments far worse than death. By the end of episode 3, we learn which punishment is worse than death.

The Sentinel entraps Mary’s soul in a box. He puts her whole face inside it and her soul is quickly locked in a mental dungeon. This mental dungeon is much worse than any physical one. Mary is tortured several times. But as we know, Mary is a very strong witch.

Cotton Gets Rid Of Brown Jenkins

Elsewhere in Salem, the great reverend Cotton Mather (Seth Gabel) gradually gains his wife and witch Anne Hale’s (Tamzin Merchant) trust enough to let him go alone to a town meeting in a bar. This meeting requires his presence since he needs to calm people. With the influx of refugees, people are worried they are in danger. They want to get rid of the refugees. Cotton uses this meeting as an opportunity to get rid of her familiar Brown Jenkins.

Earlier in the day, Mather procures the herbs necessary to get rid of the familiar. During the town meeting, he drinks the herbs and a lot of alcohol in order to vomit the creature out. Fortunately, he is able to get it out of his body and squish it to death. Of course, Brown Jenkins is immortal and quickly finds his mistress Anne.

However, before Cotton gets rid of Anne’s rat, the townspeople had woken up one night to skies drenched in blood. Then it started to snow.

Captain John Alden (Shane West) senses that his boy – the devil – and those Native Indians he shot but didn’t die have something to do with it.

Alden Takes A Boy And Investigates

The politicians, including Magistrate Hawthorne (Jeremy Crutchley), refuse to let Alden leave Salem with men. They want the militia to stay in the town and protect them. So, Alden decides to take only a brave boy and find out what happened that made the skies bloody.

When the boy and Alden arrive at the town, they discover that it is burned to a crisp. Not even a blade of grass can be found.

Within a few minutes of reaching the destroyed town, they see Sebastian Marburg (Joe Doyle) give the Indians and the French a locket known as angel tears. This locket only brings death and destruction.

We later learn in “Salem” Season 3, episode 3 that the devil had enlisted the French and the Indians to fill Salem with frightened men and women so that they can take the blame once the town is burned to a crisp. Once Salem is destroyed, it will be the spark that ignites a war that will go on for a 100 years. It will lead to humanity’s destruction.

Mercy Makes A Deal

Meanwhile, Mercy (Elise Eberle) makes Hawthorne a deal. The Magistrate, still reeling from the side effects of the poison that Mercy administered him in the form of a drink of wine, unwillingly agrees to the deal. This deal requires the Magistrate of Salem to please her sexually every night. In return, she will keep giving him an antidote to stave off the poison.

Mercy’s Men Beat Up Isaac

Poor Isaac (Iddo Goldberg). He knows that Mercy killed a man in Knocker’s Hole but the Magistrate isn’t taking any action. Now that Hawthorne is under Mercy’s thumb, he dismisses Isaac’s claims of her killing men.

A desperate Isaac even goes to Cotton and Alden but neither of them listens to him. In the end, the truth seeker gets some solace from a girl he once saved. She touches his ‘F’ tattoo and calls him fearless.

Mary Loses All Her Powers!

In the most shocking twist of “Salem” Season 3 yet, the devil decides that the most fitting punishment for Mary would be losing all her powers. He declares their contract null and void and takes away all her elemental powers. Mary is now nothing but a woman. She has no witch powers!

We also learn in this episode that Anne thinks she has a child growing inside of her.

“Salem” Season 3 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST on WGN America.