Mayfair Witches episode 1 recap and ending explained: How did Dr. Rowan Fielding become a witch?

AMC recently premiered the much-awaited Mayfair Witches starring Alexandra Daddario as Dr. Rowan Fielding, and viewers are buzzing with questions.

Mayfair Witches follows the story of a successful neurosurgeon named Dr. Rowan Fielding, who discovers that she belongs to a family of powerful witches. Alongside Alexandra Daddario, the series also stars Tongayi Chirisa as Ciprien Grieve, Jack Huston as Lasher, Harry Hamlin as Cortland Mayfair, and several others in crucial roles.

Mayfair Witches is based on the novel trilogy Lives of the Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice, which came out in 1990, 1993, and 1994 respectively.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from Mayfair Witches.

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Mayfair Witches episode 1 recap: Rowan Fielding was adopted at birth

The episode, titled The Witching Hour, begins with a doctor arriving at a woman's house and giving her a dose of Thorazine. It's usually used to treat patients with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. The doctor is surprised that the patient is a young woman, but we are told she is 47 years old. The doctor instantly realizes something is wrong.

2000 miles away, Dr. Rowan Fielding is seen on a boat. She believes that this is her way of "traveling the world, looking for home." She is adopted and wants to find her birth mother and is also supported by her adoptive mother, Elena.

She is also a successful neurosurgeon who seems to face issues of sexism from her male peers, especially in the form of the Chief Surgeon, Dr. Keck. Moreover, she has a bigger problem with her mother's cancer becoming malignant.

Rowan requests Dr. Keck to let her mother into the stem cell research trial that a person called Daniel Lemle is conducting, but he refuses. She loses her cool and envisions a certain artery of Dr. Keck rupturing, and shockingly, this kills him instantly.

She tells her mother that things like these were recurring and that is the reason she is so adamant about finding her parents and understanding her reality. She then gets a call from an investigation agent named Ciprien Grieve, saying that they are just inches from their mission of finding her parents.

Lemle agrees to include Rowan's mother in the study, but sadly, he is another sexist who isn't just disrespectful towards women but also doesn't close the door to the bathroom while using it around them. And yet again, Rowan accidentally uses her powers to kill the arrogant man.

Rowan cannot run or hide from her power. She has to learn about her reality.

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Mayfair Witches episode 1: What did the ending mean?

A young Dierdre, living with her aunts, is shown feeling suffocated because she is only allowed to attend church and school. She is in love with "the man" aka Lasher and wants to be with him, but he leads her to Uncle Conrad's party. Her uncle was aware that his niece was coming and pulls some strings to get a boy from the party sleep with her that night.

Dierdre gets pregnant and gets locked in the house. As her due date draws closer, the father, who believes that the child is Lasher's, tries to talk to her. Dierdre denies Lasher being the father of the child and tries to commit suicide, only to be saved by her lover.

He shows her his true form and reveals that the necklace binds them together. After wearing the necklace, she goes into labor and gives birth to a baby girl who is instantly taken away from her. Corlotta, Dierdre's aunt, gives the child to Elena, another niece of hers, and asks her to raise the baby without the Mayfair name.

The doctor we saw at the start of the episode denies Dierdre the medication and takes off her necklace. This frees Lasher and the episode ends in horror, with Rowan walking up in the middle of the ocean with a strange man, but then disappears in a second.

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Episode 2 of Mayfair Witches will air on January 15, 2023, on AMC.