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The Witch Who Came In From The Cold Season 1 Recap

[SPOILER WARNING]

The Witch Who Came In From The Cold is set in Prague, Czechoslovakia during the early months of 1970, amidst the turmoil of the Cold War. The story follows agents of both the United States and Soviet Union’s intelligence organizations in a world where magic is real and accessible by those trained in the art. Beneath the Cold War between the East and West simmers another, more ancient, conflict between the Acolytes of the Flame and the Consortium of Ice. The two organizations have fought their secret war for centuries: while the Ice generally seeks to preserve the status quo, the Flame hopes to harness magic to burn down the existing order. Unwilling, as yet, to confront each other directly, the two factions strive to gain control over the Hosts--select humans who have been mystically joined with one of the 36 Elementals that embody alchemical power--in order to power world changing magical rituals. Agents of the Ice and the Flame, the CIA and the KGB must balance their loyalties between country and coven with the fate of the world at stake in more ways than one.From the EastTANYA MOROZOVA: A loyal Soviet descended from a long line of Ice witches and sorcerers. She works simultaneously as an undercover KGB agent in Prague and as a secret Ice operator. NADIA OSTOKHINA: A friend and college of Tanya’s both with the KGB and Ice. SASHA KOMYETSKI: Chief of the KGB office in Prague and a high-ranking Acolyte of the Flame.ZERENA PULNOC: Wife to the Soviet Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and secret Flame witch with great power.From the West:GABE PRITCHARD: A veteran CIA officer, Gabe was forcibly introduced to the world of magic when a Flame ritual in Cairo left him bonded with an Elemental, but somehow not a Host. FRANK DRUMMOND: Chief of the CIA office in Prague. A grizzled veteran predisposed to suspicion. JOSHUA TOMS: A rookie CIA agent and Gabe’s partner. A gay man desperate to keep his preference a secret lest he lose his promising career in espionage.ALESTAIR WINTHROP: An M16 agent and member of the Ice. Over the course of season one Alestair and Josh begin a relationship.Neutral:JORDAN RHEMES, an old friend of Gabe from his Cairo days and a witch doing her damnedest to stay neutral in the war between Ice and Flame as she sells magical spells and charms from the back room of her establishment, Bar Vodnář.ANDULA ZLATA: A young Czech student, loyal to the new regime. She is also an Elemental host who went willingly with the Ice under Tanya’s care, only to end up trapped in magical “stasis” on a barge on the Vltava.Through Alestair, and his defacto alliance with the Ice, Gabe was forced into an uneasy partnership with Tanya but their competing loyalties to the US and Soviet Union continued to spurn distrust. Gabe began to doubt his decision to work with the Ice at all when he discovered that they were keeping their Hosts in stasis. Horrified, he revealed this to Tanya, forcing her to doubt the organization she has been loyal to since birth. Despite this rocky start, the two continued to turn to each other for help in the face life-threatening magical situations, leading to a bond neither could deny.This bond would be tested over Operation ANCHISES: a CIA mission to extract a Soviet scientist wishing to defect to the US. Gabe and Josh were able to extract the scientist out from under the watchful gazes of Sasha, Tanya, and Nadia, but everything was thrown into chaos when it was revealed that the hopeful defector was a Host himself, and the American agent, DOMINIC ALVAREZ, sent to complete the extraction was a secret Flame acolyte. Forced to work together to prevent the Flame from capturing the Host, Gabe and Tanya, with Jordan and Alestair’s help, stopped Alvarez from successfully delivering the Host to the Flame. But the fallout was a mess: a dead Host and a wandering Elemental, a dead CIA agent whose treachery can’t be explained to those ignorant of magic, and utterly failed attempts by both the US and Flame to extract their desired target. Worse yet, Tanya now stands revealed to both Sasha and Zerena as an agent of the Ice, while Gabe’s CIA colleagues begin to wonder if he might be another traitor in their ranks.So what will Season 2 hold in store for our spies and sorcerers? Find out every Wednesday all season long when The Witch Who Came In From The Cold returns on February 8!

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