Rowan Mayfair (TV series)

This article is about Rowan Mayfair from the AMC adaptation. You may be looking for Rowan Mayfair from the series of novels.

Rowan Mayfair

Biographical Information

Date of Birth

1990s

Species

Witch

Occupation

Neurosurgeon

Status

Alive

Relationships

Family

Suzanne Mayfair (ancestor)
Florie Mayfair (ancestor)
Angelique Mayfair (ancestor)
Stella Mayfair (great-grandmother)
Antha Marie Mayfair (grandmother)
Deirdre Mayfair (biological mother)
Ellie Mayfair (adoptive mother)
Cortland Mayfair (great-uncle/biological father)
Carlotta Mayfair (great-aunt)
Millie Mayfair (great-aunt)
Lasher (son)
Jojo Mayfair (cousin/half-sister)
Dolly Jean Mayfair
Alicia Mayfair
Tessa Mayfair
Daphne Mayfair
Barnaby Mayfair
Electa Mayfair
Delia Mayfair
Beth Mayfair
Shelby Mayfair
Lilia Mayfair
Kit Mayfair

Paramours

Ciprien Grieve (formerly)
Sam Larkin

Adaptations

Portrayed By

Alexandra Daddario

Rowan Mayfair is a main character on the AMC gothic horror drama, Mayfair Witches. She is portrayed by Alexandra Daddario.

Rowan is an intuitive young neurosurgeon who discovers that she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches.

Biography[]

Discovering her powers[]

After discovering that her adoptive mother's cancer has returned, Rowan pleads with Dr. Norman Keck to put in a good word for her with Daniel Lemle, whose company has been making progress with stem cell research. However, when he refuses and accuses Rowan of being too arrogant, she accidentally uses her latent powers to rupture an artery. The following day, she displays this ability again, but this time one Daniel Lemle after expresses less than desirable qualities in a boss. Unable to save her mother, all Rowan can do is comfort her in her final moments. And later that night, whilst sleeping at home, she receives an unexpected visit from Lasher.^[1]

After learning that she was not adopted from the South Bay Adoption Agency as her mother had claimed, Rowan meets with a psychiatrist, who she nearly kills before fleeing the hospital into the parking, where she unintentionally kills several crows. Rowan buries the aforementioned crows at the beach, where she has a dream about her mother before discovering that she's being followed. Ciprien Grieve introduces himself and tries to convince Rowan to come with him, but when she refuses and he grabs her hand, she sends him into some kind of unresponsive state. With Ciprien unconscious, she takes his phone and discovers that he's been watching her. Also in his phone is a photo of her mother, leading Rowan to New Orleans, where she comes face to face with Deirdre, who is killed before she can ever step off the elevator.^[2]

Rowan and Lasher, who is posing as Deirdre

After being questioned by the police following her mother's death, Rowan briefly meets her great aunt Carlotta before convening with Ciprien, who takes her to his safe house, where he explains why he's been following her and that a being named Lasher is attached to her family. After a brief exchange with Ciprien's pregnant sister Odette and being evacuated from the apartment, Rowan goes searching for the Mayfair house, during which point, she is approached by Lasher, who appears to her as various people. Once she realizes that Lasher is simply posing as her mother in an attempt to convince her to join him, Rowan returns to the apartment, where Ciprien reveals that he saw Rowan's birth by touching Deirdre's body and that she loved Rowan. With Lasher on the loose, the only way for Rowan to protect herself is by learning about her abilities, which Ciprien offers to help her with.^[3]

Disowning Lasher's[]

Rowan awakens from a sex dream involving Ciprien and Lasher before attending her mother's funeral, where she is invited back to the old Mayfair house for the reception. There, she learns more about her mother from Carlotta before meeting Jojo, who explains that Rowan is the 13th witch and designee. After a brief exchange with Cortland, who claims that Lasher is a gift to Rowan, she finds her mother's necklace, putting it on and unknowingly establishing a connection between her and Lasher, forcing Carlotta to try and kill Rowan in a fire, but Ciprien comes to her rescue and is stabbed in the process. To make matters worse, Lasher has locked them in the house.^[4]

Rowan and Ciprien are placed in a thrall by Lasher, trapping them in an infinite loop together whilst Ciprien slowly dies from his stab wound. However, after becoming cognizant, she attempts to escape the house, but when that fails, and she discovers that Lasher has amplified Ciprien's wound with a supernatural affliction, she makes a deal with him to willingly stay so long as Ciprien is released. After coming to an agreement, Lasher tells Rowan her heart's every desire and claims that everything that has happened is because she wanted it to. But when he attempts to convince her to kill Carlotta, Rowan refuses, though she ultimately ends up doing just that after Carlotta attempts to encourage Rowan into jumping off the balcony and killing herself, the same as her grandmother Antha.^[5]

Having taken ownership of the necklace, Rowan and Lasher's connection has grown stronger, so much so that he is able to reach her in Ciprien's apartment despite the protections placed by the Talamasca. Lasher claims that he's a part of her, and so when Ciprien suggests taking the necklace to the Talamasca, Rowan freaks out and tells Ciprien to stay away from her. It's only after regaining her composure that she gives the necklace to Ciprien and confess that Lasher is in her head. Looking to part ways with him, Rowan goes searching for answerers from Cortland, who informs her of a transference spell. With the help of the other Mayfair witches, they perform the spell, calling on the designees of the past for their blessing to bind Lasher to another witch. With their blessing, Lasher departs from Rowan and seemingly chooses Tessa.^[6]

Avenging Tessa[]

After discovering that she's pregnant, Rowan goes searching for Tessa in hopes that Lasher may be able to provide answers. However, she learns that Tessa has been taken by witch hunters and that Lasher is M.I.A. Hoping to find her, Rowan offers up her blood to Alonso, who uses it to track Deirdre's heart to the very same hunters that took Tessa. Upon arriving at the warehouse in Jean Lafitte, Rowan subdues the witch hunters before rescuing Tessa from the fire. However, Keith returns and shoots Tessa, who with her final breath, urges Rowan to avenge her. Doing just that, Rowan puts the necklace back on and summons Lasher.^[7]

Fulfilling the prophecy[]

Rowan and her child who is embodied by Lasher

Wounded and infuriated, Rowan chases Keith through the woods, but struggles to keep up due to blood loss and sends Lasher after him instead, at which point, Lasher burns Keith alive. As she lies on the ground, too weak to even crawl back to the warehouse, Lasher instructs Rowan to use her ability and look deep into her wound, granting her access to a place of ancestral knowledge in her own psychological, where Lasher shows her how to heal herself, and they have sex, allowing Lasher to embody her child. When the witching hour finally approaches, Rowan awakens in the mausoleum, where Suzanne helps her deliver the baby, which in turns grants Rowan great power and knowledge, which she uses to case Cortland in stone after learning that he raped her mother and had her killed. Having accepted baby Lasher as her own, Rowan exits the mausoleum, where Ciprien awaits, but like Cortland, he too seeks to take the child away from Rowan, and so she warns Ciprien to stay away from him.^[8]

Raising Lasher[]

Rowan struggles with her new-found parenthood, especially considering Lasher is prone to random grown spurts and ages years in a matter of hours. Rowan uses her abilities to see inside of Lasher in hopes of better understanding his nature. She documents this along with any other oddities. When she asks Lasher why he gave up all his power for a body, he refuses to give her an answer, forcing Rowan to seek out Dolly Jean and Jojo for help. After healing Lasher as well as a young dying girl at the hospital with her new abilities, Rowan tells Lasher that thinks that his purpose is to help her do good. When asked what he thinks his purpose is, Lasher tries to kiss Rowan, but she pulls away and tells him to never do that again, which angers Lasher to the point that he sneaks out the house and kills a young girl, forcing Rowan to cover up her death and submerge her body in water.^[9]

After learning that Lasher killed Cousin Gifford and that the girl Rowan submerged in the lake was also a Mayfair, Rowan realizes that he's going after Mayfair witches by scent and attempts to stop him by conjuring a storm, which only lasts momentarily. However, before she can make her next move, she receives a surprise visit from Lark, who has come to deliver his analysis of the blood she sent him. After learning that Lasher has killed another Mayfair, this time Alicia, Rowan awakens Cortland in hopes that he has answers as to why Lasher wanted to be embodied, but he doesn't.^[10]

Rowan brings the entire family to the First Street House under the guise of giving them a protection spell in hopes of using their scent to lure Lasher back to the house, where she intends to place him in a thrall. However, she accidentally places Daphne Mayfair and Jojo in a thrall before heading to the street, where she comes face to face with Lasher. Ciprien arrives and tries to spray him with a purple gas to knock him out, but Rowan jumps in front of him and within seconds is unconscious on the ground as the Talamasca takes Lasher away.^[11]

Searching for Lasher[]

With the house falling apart due to Lasher's departure, and Jojo and Daphne still trapped in the thrall, Rowan seeks out a way to speak with Julien in hopes of finding out where Albrecht took Lasher. From Dolly Jean and Evelyn, she learns that Julien bound himself to his Victrola before death and that she can use it to speak with him.^[12]

Rowan enters Julian's victrola only to find that he is old and confused. So she instructs Moira to pull her out. However, Moira is only able of pulling half of Rowan out, that being her feelings, splitting Rowan into two, leaving her intellect trapped inside the victrola with Julian. From her time stuck in the victrola, Rowan questions Julien and discovers that Albrecht is taking Lasher to Kilbride, Scotland and that it was Julien who ripped the pages out of Marguerite's journal about the Taltos. Meanwhile, in the real world, Rowan is also dealing with lark, who shows up at the house unexpected and reveals that he tested her DNA, which has four extra chromosomes. Back into a corner, Rowan reveals to Lark that she's a witch and gets his help in making a concentrate with Lasher's DNA that she can hopefully use to save Jojo and Daphne. Unfortunately that fails, and with Lark having already learned too much, Dolly Jean makes an elixir to make Lark forget ever knowing Rowan, but she saves him from drinking it and then retrieves her other half from the victrola.^[13]

Rowan arrives in Kilbride with Lark, Moira, and Cortland. However, they get separated from Moira and ultimately find themselves at the Mayfair family house, where Rowan is greeted by Ian. From him, she learns about Lasher, the Taltos, and the upcoming wedding, but also Rowan cares about is getting Lasher's blood to save Jojo. While Ian refuses to take her to Lasher, he does insist that she stay for the wedding. In search of both Lasher and Moira, Rowan heads into the basement and finds the tunnels described to her by Hamish, who has tricked Rowan and locked her inside.^[14]

Lost in the dark tunnels, Rowan can feel Lasher is close and forms fire in her hand, which grows as she gets closer to him, but what she is actually tracking is a vial of his blood, which Amintha and Bonnie offer to Rowan in hopes that she'll leave, but she refuses to do so without seeing Lasher first. After tracking him down, Rowan attempts to convince him to leave but according to her, he's been brainwashed. Lasher remembers his past and now knows his purpose. Not only does he intend to stay, but he goes through with the marriage and invites Rowan to attend. When Rowan attempts to intervene, Ian reveals that Lark has been linked to their family.^[15]

Rowan is drugged by Julien and locked in a dungeon until being rescued by Sip and Polina. The three of them escape and track Lasher down to the woods, where his throat has been slit, but Rowan manages to use her powers to save him. At which point, she and Lasher go searching for his children, who Ian and his family intend to kill for their power. A battle ensues between Rowan, Lasher, and Ian's family, which results in the death of Ian, his family, and unfortunately Lasher as well. However, Julien, who has taken over Cortland's body, offers a solution, claiming that if Rowan drinks Lasher's blood, the two of them will be connected and able to raise the dead. Rowan declines his offer but drinks the blood to gain more power, which she uses to save Daphne and Jojo, but not before parting ways with Lark and making him forget that they ever met.^[16]

Powers and abilities[]

Rowan has biology-based powers, allowing her to manipulate the inner-workings of the human body, displayed when she ruptured Dr. Keck and Daniel Lemle's arteries. She was also able to discover that Cortland was suffering from ALS, heal her shoulder when she got shot, and she was also able to sense she was pregnant once the egg dropped. Lastly, she used her abilities to kill the people who captured Tessa. Additionally, as the prophesied 13th Mayfair witch, Rowan inherits the full potential of the Mayfair family lineage (despite being the newest member), making her by far the most powerful witch known. This is only true when Lasher is nearby after he is reborn. Previously, it was possible because they were linked and the emerald necklace augmented their connection. Being the thirteenth witch means that she is genetically able to carry a Taltos-human hybrid pregnancy to term without hemorrhage to death.

Lineage Magic : Thanks to Lasher, Rowan has inherited the powers of all the Mayfair witches since the beginning of the line. (Spoiler: Rowan obtained this power permanently by drinking the blood of Lasher.)

Pyrokinesis : Rowan can summon fire and flames from her hands.

Electrokinesis : Rowan can summon lightning and electricty from her hands or summon a lightningbolt to smite enemies.

Petrification: Rowan turns Cortland into a stone statue and back into normal.

Aeliokinesis: Rowan conjures blasts of wind to fell trees in an attempt to stop Lasher.

Telekinesis

Hydrokinesis: She drowns the body of a Mayfair that Lasher killed.

Energy Tracking: She is able to locate Lasher by felling his energy.

Witchcraft: She casts a few spells and brews at least one potion during the two seasons of the the show.

Levitation: She lifts off the ground after drinking Lasher’s blood.

Healing: She heals a little girl with a brain turmor along with several other characters during the show.

Chlorokinesis: Flowers grows when she drinks Lasher’s blood.

Appearances[]

Mayfair Witches[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Trivia[]

Rowan's storyline is changed from the novels; she is the main lead of the TV series, instead of co-protagonist with Michael Curry.
Rowan has more powers than she does in the books.
Rowan gets some of Michael's plots from the books, i.e. talking to Julien Mayfair instead of being in a coma for half the second book.