Coven Academy finale reveals Briar's real mother
Briar spent the whole first season believing Mary was her mother. She is not. The finale of Coven Academy, now streaming on Disney+, reveals academy headmaster Miss Graves is Briar's biological mother, as reported by Variety.
Coven Academy is a young-adult drama, meaning a scripted series centred on teenage characters, from Freeform and Disney+. It is set at a boarding school for witches and warlocks, presented with a New Orleans exterior. Disney+ describes it as a new supernatural series, and Season 1 is also available to watch on Freeform.
Briar herself is introduced as a fiercely independent New Yorker. She is played by Malina Weissman, credited in full by Disney+ as Malina Pauli Weissman. Weissman previously appeared in A Series of Unfortunate Events.
The adults around her drive the mystery. Tiffani Thiessen plays Miss Graves, the head of the academy. Cecilia Grace Deacon plays Mary, the woman Briar believed was her mother. Keegan Connor Tracy plays Tamora, who joined Mary and Graves to stop William's plan.
Devon Sawa plays William, a shape-shifting warlock who poses as a teacher and is listed by Disney+ as Mr. Cole. Malachi Barton plays Jake, William's son and a budding warlock. Louis Thresher plays Ollie, a newly turned vampire. Jordan Leftwich and Ora Duplass complete the central ensemble as Sasha and Tegan.
The school's magic is organised around ley lines, described as the source of all power for witches and warlocks. William plotted to pollute those lines. Mary, Graves and Tamora joined forces to foil him, and William later killed Mary and Tamora.
Romance runs alongside that history. Briar shares an almost-kiss with Jake before Ollie steps in to save her. Disney+ published official Chapter 103 images featuring Barton and Weissman together. Weissman talked through both the parent reveal and the Jake-Briar-Ollie triangle in her interview with Variety.
For fans, this means the finale resets two relationships at once. Briar has a different mother, with Jake on one side and Ollie on the other. Swayam Bhatia joined Weissman in launch press interviews for the series, alongside Thiessen and other cast members.
