VIDEO: Sneak Peek - 'On Earth As In Hell' Episode of SALEM

On the next episode of WGNA's SALEM, titled 'On Earth As In Hell', as the Countess and her son move against two of John Alden's valued allies, Mary suffers under the yoke of Puritan oppression stemming from an alliance between the Marburgs and another of Mary's powerful enemies in Salem. But even as she seems to be at her most hopeless, Mary tries to take advantage of a widening schism between mother and son.

As John and Cotton proceed with their monumental and unfamiliar task, each must process new information and gather strength to aid them in what lies ahead. Meanwhile, wracked with guilt and sorrow, a mournful Isaac pays a surprise visit to an already somber town gathering, Anne Hale finds the fate of many may rest in her novice – but powerful – Witch's hands, and John and Cotton get the first glimpses of the enemy they are facing. 

The episode airs Sunday, 9/8c

From creators and writers Brannon Braga ("Cosmos," "24") and Adam Simon ("The Haunting in Connecticut"), "Salem" season two opens at the dawn of the witch war set into motion at the end of season one, with its catalyst and Salem's deadliest witch, Mary Sibley (Janet Montgomery, "Made In Jersey," "Human Target") at the center of the mayhem as she faces off against new and old adversaries vying for her throne. In the wake of the destruction caused by the Grand Rite, completed by Mary and inadvertently triggered by Isaac Walton (Iddo Goldberg, "Mob City") in the season one finale, the fates of Captain John Alden (Shane West, "Nikita, "ER"), Cotton Mather (Seth Gabel, "Arrow," "Fringe"), Tituba (Ashley Madekwe, "Revenge"), Anne Hale (Tamzin Merchant, "Jane Eyre"), Mercy Lewis (Elise Eberle, "The Astronaut Farmer") and Isaac hang in the balance.

New to the embattled 17th-century village for the second season of "Salem" are Lucy Lawless as Countess Marburg, one of the last descendants of a legendary line of ancient German witches; Stuart Townsend as Samuel Wainwright, a mysterious doctor looking to uncover the secrets of SALEM as he keeps a few of his own; Joe Doyle ("Raw") as Baron Sebastian Marburg, the charming and cultured son of the Countess; and Oliver Bell ("The Saint") as Mary's long-lost son, who was revealed in the season one finale to have been secretly kept alive all along by her coven.