How To Hang A Witch

Sam and Elijah look through her grandmother’s notebook, and Sam wonders if the drawing of the back of a woman’s head is significant. They decide to ask Mrs. Meriwether, who is in town at the Remembrance Day Fair staffing her bakery’s booth. Jaxon shares that his mom grieved heavily when his dad died. She began talking to him out loud in public, scaring people away from the bakery, and they struggled financially. Mrs. Meriwether says the drawing was from Sam's grandmother’s nightmares. She called her “the crow woman” (188). Sam worries, remembering her dream with the crow. Sam and Jaxon walk through the fair, and he kisses her while they shoot arrows at a booth. Elijah messes up Sam’s shot by appearing in the path of the arrow, which goes through him. Sam leaves with the Descendants, disappointing Jaxon. The Descendants tell Sam that people are accusing her of being a witch. They are all magically inclined and share that Lizzie blames Sam for the problems in Salem. They drive to the woods.

Elijah helps Sam find her way through the woods. Elijah watches as she and the Descendants perform the same ritual. Faces of older women, their ancestors, appear in front of the Descendants, and each speaks to Sam about what happened to them during the Salem Witch Trials. Mary breaks the circle, and Elijah tells Sam her face appeared as Cotton Mather. They are all still suspicious of each other, but finally, Susannah tells Sam that Alice reads bones and has been getting Sam’s name repeatedly, leading Lizzie to believe Sam is the connection between all the bad things happening. They ask how Sam knows things, and she reveals, with Elijah’s permission, that she sees spirits.

Sam misses Vivian’s special dinner and doesn’t apologize, instead accusing Vivian of not caring about her dad. Vivian slaps her. Sam wants to confront Vivian about the medical bill, but Elijah breaks a glass, distracting Vivian. Sam goes to her room and locks the door. Elijah brings ice for her cheek and tea and snacks to eat on her bedroom floor. They discuss Cotton Mather and his influential writing about witches. Elijah reveals his fiancée was one of the primary accusers in the trials. It turned into a power play, providing a way for people to accuse those they disliked. No one stood up for the accused, so people got away with it. Sam and Elijah connect it to bullying in high school. Elijah confesses he admires and cares for Sam. He kisses her hand, and they are interrupted by Jaxon’s call. Elijah disappears when she answers.

Sam has a vision during class. She is a woman being accused by Cotton Mather during the trials, and she sees a noose hanging from the ceiling. The teacher reminds them to report to the auditorium for the reenactment practice. The school counselor tells Sam to come to the office after classes as there have been complaints. At the rehearsal, everyone but Jaxon avoids Sam. She goes backstage to get away from stares, and John grabs and threatens her. She bites him, and he throws her into pulleys. She blacks out and has a vision of a rope in her hand with a girl hanging up above her. When she comes to, she sees a large metal shelf has fallen over on John. He is dead. Jaxon sits next to Sam as the police question her. Sam’s vision of a boy crushed has come true, and now she knows the hanging girl is next. When she tries to stand, she faints.

Sam wakes up with Mrs. Meriwether in their house. Jaxon teases her about fainting in his arms, and Mrs. Meriwether feeds her. Sam tells Jaxon she saw John's death in a vision, and they realize it’s the day Giles Corey was pressed to death in the Salem Witch Trials. She runs to her house to talk with Elijah. She tells him about her vision, which is identical to one of Mather's sermons. She realizes the Descendants won’t help her now, and Elijah confirms their parents are talking about Sam and using the word “murder.” They decide that if Sam wants to talk to Mather, they need to be in a place related to him personally and to create heightened emotion. They decide his brother’s grave will be a good place.

As they go to the graveyard, Sam asks Elijah where he's buried. Elijah said his body was dug up by persons unknown. At Nathaniel Mather’s grave, Sam addresses Cotton, saying she knows she's bound to him and needs to know who she saw hanging. She asks him to tell her about the curse. When nothing happens, she gets mad and says his brother was smarter than he was. This works, and Sam has a vision of being in the woods, where Cotton is telling the spectators not to believe the words of the man being hanged. The man's face turns into Susannah’s. Cotton grabs her and tells her she's focusing on the wrong things. Elijah brings Sam back and says the man must be George Burroughs, the only minister accused of being a witch. Elijah thinks what Sam saw is what happened during the trials and wants to investigate it.

They go to Susannah’s house, but Susannah's mother tells Sam to go away. Sam thinks she needs to embrace the weirdness that's happening to her but admits she's scared. Elijah shows her one of Abigail's letters about how he should help change the world. Elijah realizes that Abigail meant for him to help Sam change the curse, and this is the reason he came back to Salem. He tells Sam that she is powerful and brave.

Sam feels guilty about avoiding Vivian. Jaxon tries to talk with her, but she thinks he won't believe her and feels guilty that she's treated him badly. The students at school stare at her and talk behind her back. She sees Elijah, and they go into the custodial closet. Elijah tells her that the story Sam has seen seems to be from a book by someone named Calef, who wrote after Cotton and criticized him. They realize that Cotton’s message means that someone Sam thinks is a friend is her enemy.

The Descendants' seats are empty. During class, Sam goes to see Elijah, who says he found a piece of paper with spells written on it hidden in the dress Susannah wore to the party. Sam is caught by the counselor in the hallway and goes to her office. The counselor asks Sam questions, which sound very like questions asked during the trials. The counselor claims that parents and students have made these accusations. Sam realizes she can start breaking the curse if she can change the way people were treated during the trials. She leaves the counselor and goes to a vacant room where she talks to Elijah about how her situation is part of a larger pattern of people not standing up for the accused. Now, she's the accused, not the accuser. The witch trials haven't disappeared; they have transformed.

Sam maps out a formula for how to hang a witch: a fearful community with mysterious deaths, strange events and accusations, one group turning against a witch, and no one standing up for them. Sam says the school is afraid of standing up to the Descendants, and now the town is, too. Elijah says people could escape a death sentence, but they needed support and to be heard. Sam realizes that she can make her voice heard during the school assembly.

Sam listens nervously to the assembly in the auditorium, but Elijah comforts her. The Descendants stand up to say things about John, and Lizzie makes a speech about anger, accusing Sam. A teacher clarifies that the police report says the death was an accident and calls up a grief therapist, but Sam stands and approaches the microphone instead. Sam tells the crowd that they have legitimate reasons for disliking her, and even though the crowd jeers, she tries to continue. When she knocks a piece of paper off the podium, Elijah catches it and lifts the paper. The students stop speaking as the paper hovers in the air. Sam says she's not perfect; she's weird, and she can see spirits. She also knows why John died. She explains the curse to the crowd. A girl shouts for her to prove that she can see ghosts, and Elijah lifts her so that she appears to float in the air. She walks out of the auditorium and the school.