16 September, in the year of our Lord 1702.
The wind has favored us on my journey.
The crew informs me we are soon to make port.
I hear he is a great man.
Please, Lord, let him be kind and handsome.
And make room in my heart for his children.
I thought my time for marriage had passed,
but you had other plans.
Today I begin a new life.
I am to wed a leader,
an explorer,
the founder of this island hamlet.
I, Sarah Westcott, shall this day become Mrs. Richard Warren.
Just missed the fog.
Stroke of luck, I suppose.
No getting in or out once it arrives.
Straight to the church then?
What is he like?
Well, he's the reason we're all here.
Everyone on this island owes a great debt to that man.
Fore he arrived, it was a place with nothing but barren dirt.
But today, blossoms on the trees, food for every hungry mouth, mild winters.
He controls the weather, does he?
What's that?
He controls the weather, does he?
No.
But a cold breeze cuts half as quick
when you've got a warm home and a strong coat.
Who said that?
Richard Warren.
Have you no kin come with you?
No.
I had resigned myself to the lot of a spinster.
Perhaps the greater celebration may be me no longer a charge on my father's purse.
It's a rare blessing to marry at such an age.
Lucky the island proved too small to furnish him a wife.
He had no choice but to look to the mainland.
A man of stature doth require a goodly wife to order his household.
Is he a man of-of good repute then?
Sarah, my child,
I am Pastor Collins, shepherd of the flock here on this island.
- Pleased to meet you, Pastor. - And I, you.
How was your journey?
Well, I… I arrived in good order, for which I give thanks.
It must seem to you a strange land, and you a stranger in it,
but know that you have friends here
and the light of God to lift you up whenever you feel alone.
Thank you, Pastor.
If you are ever in need, do not think twice to come to me at any hour.
I will do what I can, by God's grace.
I will, Pastor.
Good.
Richard has requested to be part of the wedding vows.
Something he's written himself.
They are unique.
Unique?
Love is as strong as death.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.
Richard, do you take this woman to be your lawful wife?
I do.
Sarah, do you take this man as your lawful husband?
- I do. - For you, as his helpmeet,
will be bound to him.
You will agree to serve him as the Reeve Prime of the colony,
the handmaiden to the Lord Island Protector.
I do. I do.
Thomas,
John,
Cromwell,
Holyoke,
Frances.
Wagon wheel took her finger.
Children, your new mother.
'Tis a blessing to meet you all.
Has she a name?
Mary.
Good name.
But I think she's missing something.
This brooch came from my mother.
Is there one for each of us?
Perhaps the morrow shall yield further tokens.
At such an hour?
Ensure no harm comes to them.
Have you an errand that requires my company?
No, I have work that needs doing.
On our wedding night?
The burdens of leadership ride my shoulders by day and by dark.
See them all laid down to their rest.
I set down these lines for the first time as a married woman,
though I confess when my mother spoke of what to expect on my wedding night,
she missed the mark.
First, there are five children here.
Second, my husband departed suddenly with neither a caress nor a kind word.
But Christ asks us not to despair,
and I look with hope to grow into the duties of a wife.
Richard?
Richard, are you home?
Richard?
Leave me be.
You're a watcher.
I'm sorry?
You like to watch other people,
see into their business.
Forgive me, what befell them?
There's a plague upon us.
A violent madness comes over the infected.
Can they not be healed?
Well, that's my husband.
Town physician.
He does what he can for them,
gives them something to calm their nerves,
but heal them? No.
But don't worry.
Richard Warren always says the bad times will end.
God be with you.
And with you.
There's three more infected this week since the fog.
That makes 20 now in total.
I have warned them to stay out of the foul air.
Otis Stevens tends to the sick every day.
But he's not infected.
Well, not yet.
They say they suffer from some kind of mania.
Should we be worried?
No.
Cornelius Evans was the first to fall ill.
At first, had no symptoms beyond a headache.
His wife gave him brandy. He slept soundly, but…
he woke always with the same headache. Here.
Five days like this.
And his eyes were yellow with spoiled moons.
He changed.
He was angry, confused.
Otis saw him that very night.
He told him to take a warm bath,
and he thought to come back with a draught in the morning.
But by dawn, when Otis came back,
he saw a knot of hair in the doorway.
Went inside and he found Cornelius on the ground.
With his fingers inside his wife's skull.
The infections are growing faster.
It will soon overwhelm us.
We must do something.
- You must do something. - Sarah,
would you take yourself to bed?
But I haven't finished cleaning.
They say that you're in communion with this island,
that you whisper to it.
You tame it. You turn it to your will.
That you are the only reason we survived
- the first years. - Hold your tongue.
They say that you kiss that necklace like it was a cross,
but it's no cross, sir.
What is it you hide in there?
They say it is a covenant!
Child, what ails thee?
I feel I have greatly mistaken my course in coming here.
Though my days before were sorrowful, I fared well enough.
Perhaps the life of a… of a childless woman without a husband,
it is… it is… It is one I could… I could come to bear…
- Enj… Enjoy! Enjoy the role… - Good woman, you are not making sense.
Well, I am filled with terror, Pastor!
I saw him.
I saw him murder Ezra Lowery.
Is there a body?
No,
but there's a hidden chamber beneath our home
and Ezra's bloody cane therein.
You must be told the truth.
Evil stalks this land.
There is a wrongness about.
I fear that the devil himself has chosen your husband.
For what cause, I cannot tell.
Others share my belief.
We fear Warren consorts with him.
Villagers go missing and they're never seen again,
including his last wife.
Oh, God.
I cannot stay here a moment longer. I want off this dreadful island.
I am but four and ten years almost. Allow me to wither in my father's attic…
- Sarah. Sarah. - …as my womanly destiny.
Sarah.
Know that God has chosen you for a special purpose.
You arrived on this island not for the reason you thought,
but for a greater one still.
Thou art not alone.
When you retire to bed tonight,
leave the front door unlatched so that we may enter.
To do what?
What must be done.
No one understands the burdens of leadership.
They're conspiring against me, and you know that.
They are afraid. The plague, the disappearances…
Disappearances?
What disappearances?
Who have you been speaking with?
I've spoken with no one.
'Tis nothing.
I…
Forgive me, I cannot make sense of my own…
My own words.
Take all the children upstairs.
The…
Children.
Is something wrong?
All shall be well.
Did I not plainly forewarn you?
For your own safety, you must not leave this house again.
Not to do the wash, not to accompany the children.
Well, let no fear take hold.
I will unearth the one who bears this guilt.
None may hide forever on an island where there is no way out.
I will protect us.
Go to our room.
Pray.
Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, Father, please.
Please.
Pastor Collins!
Richard is alive!
Yes, we noted that with some distress.
Be not afraid. This committee can be trusted.
Then you all must listen.
He is not consorting with the devil.
He is the devil.
I saw him struck with a knife again and again, but he died not.
For the good of every man, woman, and child, you must make haste
and stop him immediately.
There's a secret tunnel that leads to the house.
There's a well at the far southeastern edge that will grant to serve you passage.
You must send ten good, strong men.
A merchant sailing vessel is due to depart this evening
with a berth for you on it…
God be thanked.
…but we need your help.
Pour this in his drink, and he will be helpless as a babe.
No, I cannot go back there.
You must, or he shall know.
You said he must be stopped. Now you bear the burden as well.
Consider the welfare of your children.
My children? I have but just met them.
Sarah, please.
You are our only hope against this darkness.
I do not comprehend the nature of the curse
that has fallen on the island.
I do know that its heart beats inside the cylinder my husband wears around his neck.
Who will crush my throat?
His hands? This plague?
Death comes for us each, but I fear to me first.
I know not how, but who.
Of course, he's here with me, so I say all this in jest.
And with that, I retire.
You're home. What a blessing.
What do you write in that book?
A woman's silly thoughts.
I want to read it.
I would feel too abashed.
A swig of brandy to ease your mind.
No, I need to be clearheaded.
Go to your beds now, children.
Now. I need a quiet word with your father.
Now.
If folk are truly set against you, you need your wife at your side.
We are married all these days and have not yet…
known each other.
Well, the burdens that have been placed upon me…
Let me help you bear them.
What sin lies on your tongue?
You're in league with them. Traitress.
He killed my mother.
Gather your siblings. We're leaving.
Who are they?
Just keep moving.
They left without us.
Here, into this boat. We can catch them.
Easy.
Are you leaving?
Abigail, I…
I reckon you are not well.
Go to your husband, the physician.
I did already.
I will get on board with you.
I'm sorry, there is not enough space.
But I am not sick!
Forgive me, there is no space.
Then leave off these children. They're not of thy blood.
They're with me.
And under my charge.
Stand back! I will take no more orders!
Go. Go. The ropes.
Traitors.
You've set yourself above the law of God and man.
You have murdered those you swore to protect.
No!
It doesn't want you to open it.
What does not want me to open it?
That which has kept us alive.
It is just as we feared. You have made a deal with the devil.
No, it's not the devil.
It is our God.
He's gone mad. Let us be rid of him.
You cannot rid yourself of me.
It won't allow it.
This is my burden.
Free me, you will all be forgiven, and I will continue to carry it myself.
Your fate will be decided by God, the one true God.
No. You cannot bury me! You cannot bury me!
You'll doom yourselves! The pact!
The pact must be honored!
The pact which spared us… in that first winter.
It spoke to me through the mushrooms!
Please. Fulfill the pact.
How?
Sacrifice! A life…
Life for life.
Whatever I have undertaken, it has been for the welfare of our people!
Fulfill the pact and the plague will stop!
But if you don't…
If you do not,
the terrors will not cease!
They will only deepen!
Please do not make my children suffer for your mistake.
Your wife is taking your children back to the mainland, far from you.
No. No, no, no.
The island won't… The island won't let them leave.
Oh, please! Oh, please!
You'll kill them all! You'll kill them all!
You'll kill them all!
I got it.
- You got it? - Come on.