A little boy steals a chicken and takes off into the seedier part of town known as Knocker's Hole. A man takes after him and a girl suggests he not go much farther. He does and what he finds is horrid. Death is in there, in the form of the plague, released by the Malum.

The near dead are far worse than the dead, that's for sure.

Cut to Mary singing a lullaby to her boy, who has no name. Mary is still getting to know him, and it's been three days and she still has no real sway over him. Tituba has to take him back to his "home" or else he seizes. Mary reminds Tituba she has doe what none before her have accomplished. She is going to consecrate the ground so the gate can be open on time. 

Tituba suggests Mary get Mercy and Anne Hale under control. Anne Hale, being a cradle witch of the highest and oldest order, is most concerning.

Mary goes to the seer to locate John Alden. She must know where he is now. He plucks his eyeballs out and puts them into Mary's hands. She sees the Indians setting John on fire and thrusting his boat into the water ablaze. She stomps off unhappily and the Indians are pleased to have shown Mary what John wanted her to see. By the time she sees him coming, every witch will be dead.

Mary goes to Mercy in the body pit. Mercy still holds a grudge. There is no surprise there. Mary puts a curse upon Mercy that if she is defied she will suffer unimaginable, infinitely painful horrors. As she walks away, Mercy's friends pop up to stare Mary down.

At a church elsewhere, Cotton Mather is discussing his father's death with a group of men. Despite his argument that the front lines of a war is in Salem, Cotton is forbidden from returning to Salem. He's of course angry and takes to having sex with a gal named Ariana to dull the pain. He cannot stop thinking of his Gloriana, however.

Cotton starts talking to his father's large portrait on the wall and he assaults it, all which one of the preachers (the men from earlier) watches on. Hmmm.

An idiot (or any ole Salem man) sees one of Mercy's friends smiling and singing walking through the streets. She takes him to the woods where Mercy and all of her friends are waiting in the cemetery. Mercy whacks off his package and replaces it with a bird. His new cock will be Mercy's eyes. WHAT?!

Anne is taking a bath. She attempts to take her own life, but she's unsuccessful. Not because she didn't do it right, but because she cannot die, apparently. The slices were incredibly deep. The blood, however, went right back into her body. Mary comes in just at that moments. Anne doesn't like being compared to her at all. 

It seems like an odd time for Mary to bring up being responsible for the doll that almost killed Anne. Anne doesn't like the idea of building a new world on the corpses of innocent souls. Mary reminds Anne that there are a bunch of predatory men who will be jumping at the chance to take her money and her virginity.

At the meeting house, a new fellow named Mr. Hawthorne thinks the problems in Salem are all due to a woman being on top. Of course, he's right. Then in walks Stuart Townsend, Dr. Wainwright, I believe, to say he's a nut. He's going to go to Knocker's Hole to see what's up. Mary decides to join him because it's her pox so she's immune.

Dr. Wainwright hopes to find the origin of the pox, because from the beginning of things is often found their end. That wouldn't bode well for Mary.

John is with the Indians, talking about hell. I have to question whether they're really speaking in Indian language. I'm skeptical.

The doctor has the area pinpointed to the deep woods and he's ready to head in. 

Mercy appeals to the three old witches and when they spit at her, she merely licks it (as she does) and then calls in her group before she kills the old bags. She's going to take over, they young girl.

Wainwright finds Isaac in the woods. OK. That guy is good!!!

A fellow confronts Cotton about the Grand Rite and who killed his father. It's the guy who was watching him outside his window. He doesn't believe Cotton has any idea who killed Increase.

The fellow returns to Countess Margburg. She's bathing on board a boat. She's wearing some terrible scars. She's pleased that Increase is dead, truly and definitely dead. It was him who put the marks on her shoulder.

She wants to know who led the Grand Rite. She says she's sorry he won't be accompanying her to Salem. He can look upon her nakedness, however. He does so and the water drains from the tub and comes out of his mouth. What an awful way to drown.

The Indian tells John it's time to go. However, once he goes, he'll never come back alive. He's given some peyote to drink and stabbed a lot. Tattoos? They chop off his hair and insert things into his neck. He looks much different than he did earlier. He's licked all over. There's a lot of that going on. The girl puts a hand with an eyeball up to his forehead and soon he's ready to go.

Back in Salem, Mary is showing her boy things from her family that her mother gave her, such a comb made of coral from the West Indies. He asks about his father. The boy can't have a name, not until he's baptized, but if he can, he wants to be John, just like his dad. He starts saying dead... Tituba realizes Mercy killed the witched and they're dead. Mercy killed them. Outside the gallows are on fire and the witches on them. War is spelled in flames. Mercy started the Witch War!