Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches Season 1 aired back in early 2023 on AMC and AMC+, but just recently, it just landed on Netflix, and many viewers are just now catching up.
The long-gestating second season of the show, which is in the same universe of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, is also anticipated to premiere in early 2025 on AMC and AMC. But until then, there are several unanswered questions and theories as to where the second season of the show could go.
Here is a review and explainer for everything that happened plot-wise in the Season 1 finale of Mayfair Witches.
How Rowan avenges Tessa’s murder
The penultimate episode of the season saw Rowan (Alexandra Daddario)’s young Mayfair cousin, Tessa, killed by the man who was tracking witches. Rowan, avenging her death and feeling responsible, ordered Lasher (Jack Huston) to burn the man alive. This is the first time that Rowan truly embraces her power.
Shocking secret of Rowan’s biological father revealed
It was soon revealed that Rowan’s biological father is not the man who met her mother, Deidre, at her uncle Cortland (Harry Hamlin)’s party, but Cortland himself. He raped Deidre (Annabeth Gish). So Cortland is not Rowan’s great-uncle…but her dear old dad. He did this to fulfill Lasher’s prophecy that he would be reborn via the 13th Mayfair witch. In return of helping fulfill the prophecy, Cortland would get immortality.
“The beginning of this story is not just Rowan discovering her powers, but also we see Rowan’s birth in the pilot,” said co-showrunner Esta Spalding to Entertainment Weekly about the decision to have this reveal in the finale as opposed to earlier in the season. “And to really save and bookend that origin story at the end of the season and to have the story of Rowan’s birth be a part of the fulfillment of this prophecy, which is what the finale is about, it just felt like a great shape for the end. We [wanted to] land all those things at once, to understand who that masked man was with Deirdre in the pilot and why that was all about something Cortland was doing to make this prophecy come to fruition.”
Rowan and Lasher
Lasher took Rowan into the world of his memories, which is where he had previously taken Ciprien (Tongayi Chirisa). Lasher has sex with Rowan in this memory world and also gives her the knowledge of Suzanne, the first Mayfair witch who made the deal with him that has led up to Rowan being the 13th one. After they had sex, Rowan goes through and learns all of this history as well. Rowan is pregnant and her baby grows in size pretty quickly and she gives birth and the baby grows in size quickly as well. Suzanne tells her she can accept the baby and Lasher’s power or leave it. She chooses the power and she also gains access to Lasher’s knowledge.
What Rowan does to Cortland
Knowing everything that Lasher knows, Rowan now knows what Cortland did to her mother. He thinks he is immortal now, but because she has this power now, she turns him into stone .
Who is the father of Rowan’s baby?
Rowan gives birth and yes, Ciprien is technically the baby’s father after they did develop a romance (which was manipulated by Lasher, of course). But Ciprien is just a conduit for Lasher’s prophecy to be fulfilled and Rowan’s baby is the way in which he could be reborn within a physical body.
The truth surrounding the Talamasca and what they know
The Talamasca also knows about this prophecy and what Lasher and Cortland were trying to do as well, and they only wants to be observers of this. Ciprien learns that his boss, Albrecht, has the power to erase memories, and now everything begins to make sense. Ciprien then uses his own power to learn about the truth of what Cortland did. He convinces his boss that since he is the father of Rowan’s baby, than it makes sense for him to be there and with her to see everything through, as well as to continue to observe. Therefore, he does not have his memory wiped.
Does Rowan end up with Ciprien?
It initially seems like Rowan and Ciprien may end up together with the baby. However, once Ciprien tries to separate her and the baby for what he says is to protect her, she realizes what is going on– and she doesn’t want to be controlled by Lasher or Ciprien, but the power and knowledge she has gained.
Spalding told TV Insider, “As opposed to which guy is she gonna end up with, it’s like which version of power will she take on? There are risks and costs to both. And of course, we’re gonna see what happens now that she’s made the decision she’s made. What does it mean to have taken on Lasher and that power? What is that deal that she made? How will it change her, and how will it cost her?”
Similarly, she told Entertainment Weekly, “There were a lot of people who thought about it in the writer’s room as a romantic triangle. I always thought about it as a power triangle. Lasher is saying to her: Fulfill your power, take it, own it. You’re this destructive, creative, incredible being and Cip is saying you have this amazing power, control it, control it, control it. And she’s torn between those two versions of her power. And ultimately she reaches for the version that Lasher offers. But we know there’s gonna be a cost to it because Lasher is not all good. So, to me, it was always about Rowan and who she was much more than it was about either of the two men.”
