Her sister is murdered. A confused, pissed-off witch and a guilt-ridden witch-hunter race against time to save her family and 11 remaining witches from the treacherous Bishop who hired "The 12" to protect England. 

SYNOPSIS:

Series Backstory In Brief: A powerful Bishop/Spymaster in Queen Elizabeth's court secretly recruits witches to protect England. When he decides to plot against them to protect the Queen and him from heresy, the witches’ lives are in danger. The unsuspecting, clairvoyant sister of one of the witches decides to recruit a guilt-ridden witch-hunter she saved, to help investigate her sister's murder and protect her family.

Pilot Synopsis: The "Thorn Trees" pilot opens in 1590s England with the village of Aelbank under threat of "clearing"—a legal term that describes the process whereby a landowner has the right to evict villagers if the fine exacted is not paid. A notice would be posted, and if the villagers did not pay, the landowner would use soldiers to burn down the village, forcibly remove the residents, and kill anyone who resisted. To help a vagrant was against the law, so villagers cleared from their homes, without anywhere to go, would die come winter. (The hidden power behind this order is BISHOP THOM who isn't visible or revealed until later in the series.)

RACHEL GARE uses powerful magic against the threat of clearing to save her family and village. A storm rises at sea, wrecking the merchant ship carrying a stolen serpentine box with secret contents placed in it by the Queen's bishop and spymaster. Under wrecking law, the villagers can take whatever they want from a shipwreck if no one has survived. PASTOR JOSEPH, the local Protestant priest of this Christian village, encourages his flock to murder every surviving sailor and steal any valuable cargo to pay the fine and avoid clearing.

The villagers, who see this as good fortune since they can keep any goods they find in the wreckage as long as the passengers and crew are dead, are drowning those who are still alive. Rachel is horrified, "What have I done?"

The pilot plot continues by introducing the Christian and Pagan characters who impact Rachel and her family's world, outlining their struggles with each other through scenes of magic, violent action, conspiratorial dialogue, and the dual determination to not only survive but to thrive.

Did Rachel's ritual or Pastor Joseph's parish prayers to God cause the ship to crash? Two bodies washed up on the shore are the spitting image of a shape Rachel has been seeing numerous times as omens of something coming. What does it mean and what does she do if anything? Why is Rachel's sister, LIZBET, doubling over in pain at the same moment when a witch in another village in England is being attacked? Why is teen ELLEN, Rachel's niece, hiding from dashing HUGH DACRE, the young county magistrate while attending the county fair in Salcombe?

Why is Pastor Joseph suddenly turning the parish against Rachel's family even though they attend his church every Sunday, as does the rest of the village—that is, everyone except Joseph's brother PAUL? Why does Paul's young adult son, THOMAS, believe his father is responsible for his mother's disappearance and did this event cause the unholy relationship between Thomas and his younger sister, JOCELYN? Will Rachel's family discover the truth behind Paul's fall to his death from the cliff overlooking the ocean during the storm? What does Rachel’s erotic, visceral vision with Paul’s presumed dead wife CATHERINE mean?

Rachel rescues LUTHER, a repentant, former witch-hunter who possesses professional investigative skills (and his young protégé MATTHEW) from the shipwreck who form the twisted shape omen she's been seeing and persuades Luther to help her solve why the village has turned on Lizbet. This leads her to discover that the ship was carrying a serpentine box containing Lizbet's name and the names of 11 other witches recruited in secret by Bishop Thom, QUEEN ELIZABETH's spymaster, to protect England without her majesty's knowledge.

The pilot ends where the story begins but by this time, we are caught up in a web of relationships, concerns and questions that beg to be answered and resolved.

First Season Ending In Brief: The first season ends with Rachel grieving the loss of two family members, recovering the serpentine box, leaving her home with her remaining family, and embarking on a journey with them and Luther to seek out and save the lives of the other eleven witches in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales without putting England at risk of invasion by Catholic Europe for consorting with witches.

The series is a prequel and twist to the Salem witch trials with political, economic, religious and social issues still relevant today for audience members.

NOTES

Comps: Vikings (History Channel/Amazon Prime Video) meets The Fall (BBC Two/Netflix/Amazon Prime Video) meets River (BBC One/Netflix/Amazon Prime Video)

Awards for "Thorn Trees" TV Pilot:

International Screenwriters Association, Family & Holiday Genre-Busting Screenplay Competition, SEMIFINALIST & Quarterfinalist (2022)

Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition, FINALIST, Semifinalist & Quarterfinalist (2021)