Original Airdate: October 19, 1999
An odd case comes before Amy - a mother's Wiccan beliefs are being used by the father's child to argue that she should lose custody. The mother, Anne Featherstone, believes the misconception about Wiccan rituals and beliefs should not justify her son being taken away. The father, along with his attorney, believe the environment in which spells are cast and obscure gods are called upon is no place for a child to grow up. News of this trial slowly begins to spread.
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| Anne Featherstone, the Wiccan mother |
Lauren is told ghost stories by older boys at school, and because of that, doesn't want to go trick or treating. When Amy tries to find out why she doesn't want to go out, Lauren clams up, and only after trying to cut her hair (the ghost in question went after only little girls with long hair) did she tell Maxine the reason. She's convinced by her mother to go as an angel, as they scare ghosts away.
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| Amy and Lauren discussing Halloween |
Maxine's given a case by Susie over a family she's worked with before, though the former case was inconclusive insofar as abuse was concerned. Troubling her though is the fact that neither Susie nor the family in question admit knowledge of a third child at the house, a child Maxine was sure existed. Upon searching for birth records, even going to former neighbors, she concludes that the child was killed. Susie forbids her from making any additional contact with the family, telling her the case is "over," but Maxine ignores her, taking it upon herself to go and search the house for any evidence, eventually locating, in a locked basement, the sickly third child in question, locked up "because he was different."
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| Maxine receiving case |
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| Susie Nixon forbidding Maxine from further investigation |
An old professor of Vincent's contacts him, and lets him know that Artists Literary Talent is interested in signing him, in part because a former peer of his is an agent there, a Hilary Baker. Dismayed, in part because Vincent believes Hilary stole a story idea of his back in college, and in part because the two of them once had alcohol-influenced sex, he considers not taking the deal. Amy tells him, upon hearing this, that he can't let "the devil win," and Vincent decides to try to go above Hilary's head, which ends up working as they decide to draft the paperwork.
Amy attends a PTA meeting for the first time (against the suggestion of Maxine), and finds the moral outrage of most of the parents questionable. She spoke up against the idea to limit what their kids should dress up as for Halloween (the parents believe that violent characters, not to mention scary characters, are inadvisable), but was shot down. Upon hearing that they would be getting rid of the haunted house and replacing it with a "funhouse," she again spoke up, only to be told that cult members are raising children in this town (referring to the Wiccan Featherstone), and their concerns are not overblown. Ethically unable to talk about her court case, she leaves the meeting.
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| Amy standing up to the foolishness of the PTA |
A representative from the Wiccan Anti-Defamation League is called in the case, but to the surprise of Featherstone, refuses to assert that her rights are under attack, reasoning that Wicca is still a misunderstood belief, and they need to pick their battles and those they represent carefully. Following this testimony, Featherstone comes to Amy's office and lets her know that she'll rescind custody of her child - kids are breaking her windows, she's getting death threats, and overall, she just doesn't think she can keep her child safe in these condition.
Featherstone neglects to come to court the next day, and without any other choice, Amy grants custody of the child to the father, though making it clear both that she is far from happy and more so, the mother can come back at any point and contest this decision, as she refuses to terminate parental rights. The boy's mother was ran out of town due to hysteria, Amy states, and she's not going to allow a situation in which he can never again see her.
At the end of night, neither Maxine or Amy are able to sleep. Maxine can't help but think that if she did more on the case years back, she could have prevented the boy being locked up, but Amy tells her she did all she could have done, and that most importantly, Maxine gave the boy a fighting chance. They then decide to make late-night pancakes.
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| Maxine and Amy discussing difficult days |
"Witch Hunt" is a fantastic Halloween-themed episode. Amy deals with a compelling case about an innocent woman attacked because of her unconventional beliefs. Maxine battles with her boss about the potential death of a small child. Even Lauren has a somewhat interesting story in which she's scared out of trick or treating. All around, it was pretty good.
The main case was pretty interesting to watch - clearly, the father had little to nothing on the mother, and referring to her as a Satanist did little to support his claim that his son wasn't in a safe environment. Anne Featherstone was clearly a loving mother, but refused to buckle down to the beliefs of others. In fact, her quote "I know why all this is happening - because I've never chosen to behave like other people. I didn't marry [my son's] father and I have all these strange beliefs which to me don't seem strange," particularly moving. She was chased out of town because she was different, which was the exact same reason why the youngest child in Maxine's case was locked up in the basement (the reasoning as to why the child was different wasn't gone into).
Amy gets a chance to go against the type of people who would chase her client out when she attends the PTA meeting. A great scene all around, Amy clearly has no interest in being an overbearing mother, barring what her child can dress up as or voting for a "funhouse" as opposed to a haunted house. These parents are simply not the type of parents Amy wants to be, and in fact are not the types of parents Maxine ever much cared for. Will Amy attend another PTA meeting in the future? If she did, it's already comedy gold, but given the cold reception she got this time around, it does seem rather unlikely.
Maxine's case, though there's not a whole lot to say about it, was an emotional one also. She was standing against the world; Susie Nixon refused to believe Maxine's claims of a third child (and in fact mocked her a few times), and the family wholly rejected the existence of another kid, but going against Nixon's directive, she did find the other child. What I would have liked to see is another blowout between Susie and Maxine, only with Maxine getting the upperhand this time around, but perhaps, if we're lucky, that'll be in an upcoming episode.
Even though Lauren's story wasn't amazing, it was Vincent's portions which really didn't do much for me. That's not to say that they're bad - Hilary Baker seems a character that will pop up once or twice more, and potentially cause Vincent some problems. Overall, though, I wasn't too enthralled with these subplot, especially compared to Amy and Maxine's stories.
"Witch Hunt" is a pretty solid episode. Some good subplots, and two interesting cases. Definitely one of the high points so far.
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