Today in Salem: A dog is leaping in lopsided circles and bucking like a wild horse as the afflicted girls shriek nearby. A specter is riding him, they cry, and no matter how fast the dog twirls he cannot shake the specter loose. It’s no ordinary specter, though: A judge has recently announced that he is skeptical of the entire witchcraft situation, and will not arrest so much as one more person. Now the judge is in hiding, knowing that he could be accused in retaliation. It’s obvious to the girls: They can see that his furious brother has sent his own specter to attack the girls through a dog.

Finally a Village man finds a gun and shoots the dog, who stops and dies mid-leap, as if he’s hit a wall. But this dog isn’t the only one: Nearby, another dog is shot when an afflicted girl claims he’s the Devil in disguise.

The prominent Rev. Increase Mather is furious. It’s impossible to kill the Devil. Since the dog had in fact died, it was obviously an ordinary and innocent animal. Just like that, Mather’s belief in the afflicted girls is gone.

Tomorrow in Salem: The furious Rev Increase Mather is *done*