In Review: Motherland: Fort Salem (S1-E9) – Coup

Synopsis: In the aftermath of Citydrop, the unit comes closer together, while their distrust of Alder grows.

The Story

Raelle, Abigail, and Tally develop a mistrust of General Adler having seen her lie in her speech in last week’s episode. Tally reconnects with Gerit who is now married. As they are getting somewhat passionate Gerit’s new wife walks in on them and suggests a threesome, which Tally is not happy about. Meanwhile, Raelle is still pissed off at Scylla’s betrayal and gets to let her know just how much so.

Elsewhere, General Adler has a run-in with the President over the death of Cadet Libba Swythe in last week’s episode. We later see Adler and her Biddies conjuring a spell that puts words in the President’s mouth while she is speaking at some rally.

The Acting

Taylor Hickson and Amalia Holm absolutely rock this week as Raelle and Scylla. The one big scene that they have together is so powerful and brilliantly acted to the point where you completely empathize with both their points of view. But particularly Raelle, who is right to feel betrayed and used.

We also get a brilliant scene with Lyne Renee as General Adler at the close of the story where we see her and her biddies literally using the President as a sock puppet.

Overall

This was another solid episode, which built upon the show’s ongoing mythology. I also liked the scene where Abigail spoke about her family rivalry with the Swythe family and her particular dislike of Libba. The moment where Scylla tells Raelle that she is more powerful than she thinks she is has me intrigued. We’ve seen a lot of what Raelle can do thus far on the series and she does seem to have an edge over both Abigail and Tally, but now I am wondering how much more power she has.

It will be interesting to see where all of this is going to go as we approach the last episode.