But it’s not all doom and gloom for Abigail. This season her relationship with Adil (Tony Giroux)—the nomadic male witch who comes to Fort Salem to find help for his ailing sister— will blossom. “I’m so excited to get to show off this relationship. I feel like Abigail needed Adil. She didn’t open up to anyone. I think we took a take on toxic masculinity and not wanting to show your feelings with Abigail, and Adil breaks all that mess down. He allows her to be vulnerable.”
Going into the second season, Raelle’s feelings about the military have changed, and she’s a far cry from the reluctant recruit we initially met.
“Strangely, it’s because she’s now such an asset, and she’s so important to the army, there’s a strange new protectiveness over Alder and over the importance of protecting that many people, which feels contradictory to her morality considering when we met her,” Hickson says. “But with new purpose comes new objective, and that’s been really transformative for her. I think she understands that the responsibility is beyond that of her personal judgment.”
The Spree and the military have a long simmering grudge that creator Eliot Laurence promises to get into this season. “It’s so juicy and personal and messy, I can’t wait.” The fight isn’t between the witch factions, it’s between all witches and the Camarilla.
“The ancient rivals that are the Spree and the army are actually going to lay down their swords in the effort to wipe out an enemy that truly, truly wants to wipe witches from the world,” Laurence says. “We’re actually going to see these people saying, ‘you know what, maybe we should help each other because they’re about to take all of us out.’”
Motherland: Fort Salem premieres Tuesday, June 22 at 10 p.m. ET on Freeform.
