Hello, witches, daemons and vampires! The long-awaited second season of A Discovery of Witches is finally here. This is my favorite book in Deborah Harkness’ series, so I’ll be attempting to keep up with weekly recaps this season. Besides having Diana and Matthew’s timewalk to Elizabethan England to enjoy this season, at long last we’ll meet daemon playwright Christopher Marlowe (Tom Hughes), James Purefoy as Matthew’s father Philippe, Steven Cree as Gallowglass, Sheila Hancock as Goody Alsop, Adelle Leonce as Phoebe Taylor and Barbara Marten as Queen Elizabeth I. If you haven’t read the book, I’ll just leave you to wonder about the unfamiliar names for now.
On with the show.
Recap
We open in the room where we left off, minutes after Diana (Teresa Palmer) and Matthew (Matthew Goode) timewalked out of the old Bishop house in upstate NY on Halloween night. At the end of S1, Gerbert (Trevor Eve), Satu (Malin Buska) and Peter Knox (Owen Teale) were breaking into the house, ready to capture and torture Diana the same way witches did with her parents. Now, they’re examining the remnants of Diana’s magic, trying to figure how she and Matthew escaped.
Though Knox always presents himself as the leader and magical expert, it’s Satu and Gerbert who closely examine evidence Diana and Matthew left behind, then quickly solve the case. Meanwhile, Peter stands off to the side, assigning his own motivations to the missing couple. Satu asks if Peter can feel the power in Diana’s spell, but he doesn’t directly answer her. I don’t think he senses it the way she does.