Anyway, two important things happen in this episode that we need to take note of. The first is what we learn from the encounter with Perry and the second happens at the end of the episode.
Let’s take to the video first.
Mattie doesn’t attack Perry. It’s important to remember this because she knows that something is off and that Perry knows more than she’s letting on.
A vast number of fans have the theory that Perry is possessed by the Dean but there’s something that Mattie says that pushes this to the side.
“Someone killed your little pals at the paper but not you. No, they send you messages. They send you dreams.”
Perry isn’t possessed. Not in the typical way that we know. Rather, there’s another force at play here and it isn’t the Dean. It’s certainly something with power that even Mattie is wary of.
Now, the dream.
“I see the great beast dead and the gates opening. I see the reign of hell on earth and the end of all things. The first gate wants strength, wants the rook.”
It’s a doomsday prophecy and one in which Mattie is at the centre.
Important to our knowledge of this is the word “rook”. According to Carmilla, this is what the Dean used to call Matska and, as we’ve seen, names are important.
The rook is a valuable piece in chess that has considerably more range of movement than the bishop or the knight but less so than the queen. It is at the same time a powerful and weak piece used in the defence of the player’s side of the board and can be quite strategic to the advancement of the player’s plans.
However, the rook is also a member of the Corvus family of birds, similar to the crow and the raven.
Now, take into account the way these girls are named. Carmilla is the Dean’s kaiserin while Mattie is her rook. Essentially, Carmilla has more value to the Dean, but Mattie is more useful to her strategically. It’s probably part of why she’s been allotted so much power. Why then, would the gates want her?
Take into account the other connotation of the word. Generally, members of the Corvus family such as crows and, to some extent, ravens are associated with death. Sightings of such creatures are seen as a bad omen for the person who sees them or the place in which they are seen.
Mattie’s mere presence at Silas is a bad omen as it denotes the university’s current state. However, by including her in the prophecy, it becomes clear that she is the key to what is, essentially, the apocalypse.
Now, let’s go back a little bit. Perry is also central to all of this because she’s the source of our information. Something has been wrong with Perry from the moment she came back from the newspaper’s offices but this confirms that she isn’t just Perry anymore.
However, is she the Dean? I’m inclined to say no. Why? The Baron, incidentally bringing us to the episode’s other important bit.
The Baron comes in just as they’re discussing Perry’s whereabouts with the news that the Summers are dead.
They’re inclined to blame Mattie because of her state covered in blood as she is but look at the story. Laura says that there are bloody footprints on the floor. Perry wakes up to bloody footprints.
This isn’t enough on its own to clear Mattie but pay attention to her appearance in the video vs. her appearance afterwards.
Mattie is clean in the video which is, seemingly, occurring while Laura and company are on their way to the pit. Moreover, we know from twitter that Danny is late.
Of course, all of this is just guesswork and hearsay until the rest of the season airs. What I will say is this. We need to consider Mattie’s reaction to everything they learn from the video. If Mattie was up for killing the fish and unleashing hell on earth, she would have been the logical choice for killing the Summers. However, her reaction to the prophecy is one in the negative and which would suggest that she was never going to kill the fish in the first place.
That being said, it’s possible that either she or Danny were manipulated into killing them with no memory of the incident in question. It’s all connected to the prophecy and who exactly is playing Silas like a chessboard.
What then is the real evil and who is the key to all of this?
Perry. Perry knows and we won’t find out until one of the later episodes.