For all Kit’s one-note resentment earlier, Tom Hughes gave us the episode’s most psychologically complex moment. Over a fireside cup of wine with Diana, he tries to warn her off with a scarily on-point description of how Matthew operates around love objects. Diana calmly put him in his place, but the accuracy of his words must have given her pause.
Not much gives Diana Bishop pause. Inner conflict isn’t this witch’s thing. Diana feels, speaks and acts largely free of qualms. She’s a strange combination of intensity and… breeziness. (Essentially telling Kit, ‘No biggie, your Matthew will probs come back when we leave, it’ll be fine. Whatever’.) It’s an uncomplicated way to go about life, which is probably fair enough as complications seem to find Diana without her needing to invent any more of her own.
The script is similarly goal-focused and unambiguous. Characters have a habit of stating their aims as they enter and leave a scene, like an extended game of ‘I went to the shops and I bought…’ This episode’s shopping list is 1) get Diana a teacher, 2) get the Book of Life and 3) get the hell home – where we know that Satu, Knox and Gerbert are waiting.
No, ambiguity isn’t much called for in lush, escapist A Discovery of Witches. Diana’s usually set to one of two modes: ‘sure about something’ or ‘very sure about something’. She’s very sure, for instance, that Olden Days Sophie is meant to be her new magic teacher, even if Olden Days Sophie isn’t having any of it. The new witch not only resents Matthew for torturing Catholics, she’s also likely worried she could go the way of that bowl of pears if she gets involved with Diana.
Not all witches feel the same way, as that bonfire prologue showed (ladies and gentlemen, Dame Sheila Hancock!). We learn that Dr Bishop’s step back in time was prophesied, dangling a more enticing thread than anything we saw in this opener. Until next week.
