A New Orleans voodoo priestess returns to Haiti to search for a missing aid worker and is forced to battle the witch doctor who murdered her parents and destroyed her childhood innocence. 

SYNOPSIS:

WHITE WITCH is an episodic supernatural television series that takes place in the shadowy streets and back alleys of modern New Orleans, steeped in superstition and the muffled cries of the oppressed. There are no rules here and those who crave wealth and power bargain with evil to fulfill their darkest desires.

The tone is dark, dramatic and brooding, taking place in a parallel existence born of ancient beliefs and paranormal beings who coexist unseen with the modern world. Much like the protagonists of PENNY DREADFUL and BEING HUMAN, these are characters who are relatable and inspire empathy, though our society has taught us to fear and abhor them.

NICOLETTE DUPLANTIER (Nicci), not her true name, was raised in New Orleans from the age of 10 by a bizango, a secretive Haitian sect, to fulfill a purpose she does not comprehend. She was forced to flee her Haitian home to escape Papa Ti San, a powerful bokor or witch doctor, after he murdered her parents in front of her and destroyed her childhood innocence. Now she is a vigilante who battles the Haitian drug gangs who poison the streets of New Orleans and enrich her lifelong enemy.

Outside of her tight-knit bizango family, no one here knows the name she was born with. Those who fear her call her Mambo Blanc – the white mambo – because beneath her black battle garb, her only visible features are her striking green eyes and light skin inherited from her mulatto father. The Haitians of her mother’s village call her Abeni, which means "we asked for her, and behold, we got her" in the Yoruba language of their ancestors. Is it just a coincidence that her appearance is the very image of Erzulie, voodoo’s most revered female loa?

But Nicci rejects such talk. She suffers from PTSD, a legacy of the night her idyllic childhood existence was ended forever. She still sees Papa Ti San through the eyes of a small child - an evil too powerful to ever defeat - and she feels responsible for the death of her parents and the disappearance of her beloved older brother that night. Her emotional wound is deep and leaves her unable to form intimate relationships, for which she compensates by self-flagellation.

Lately Nicci’s been afflicted with nightmares that force her to relive her encounter with Ti San, so it’s unwelcome news when a ceremonial dancer, in the throes of possession by a loa, gives her a cryptic prophesy of the inevitable battle to come when she will again meet with her enemy: “the two will die; one will be reborn.”

Nicci is less than receptive when REV. PAUL DANIELS shows up to seek her help. His older sister disappeared several weeks before, while on a mission to Haiti for their church. Their parents had died in an accident when they were young, forcing his sister, still in her teens, to take over the job of raising him, not something he made easy on her at the time. She is his only family, and he will stop at nothing to get her back. Unfortunately for Nicci, the place where she disappeared was in the vicinity of her mother’s village, where Nicci’s childhood ended forever.

When one of Ti San’s assassins shows up at her peristyle (voodoo temple) and nearly kills Nicci, she realizes that if she doesn’t go to Haiti, Haiti will come to her, and those closest to her will be at mortal risk. She can no longer put off the inevitable and joins Paul for the journey.

The moment they arrive in Haiti, it’s immediately apparent that their arrival was anticipated. They are assaulted administratively by government officials and physically by Ti San’s associates. Eventually they manage to escape the city and arrive in the distant village of Nicci’s maternal ancestors, where they are greeted with a mix of joy and trepidation by those who were closest to her mother. Not all of the villagers welcome Nicci. Some fear Ti San too much to cross him, and it won’t be long before he knows they’ve arrived. They are shadowed by a mysterious police lieutenant. Is he friend or enemy?

Nicci is given a priceless gift secretly saved by her mother’s closest friend – an ida, the two-handed sword of the Oyo warriors who once ruled west Africa. This one belonged to her grandfather and was christened with the blood of the Ton Ton Macoute, the secret police that once served Papa Doc Duvalier, the most powerful bokor of modern times. It was recovered by the bizango that bloody night in 1961, when her grandfather died in an attempt to stop the assassins bent on the bizango’s destruction.

Nicci believes she is now ready for Ti San, but Paul questions her intent, telling her there is a difference between justice and vengeance, the latter of which belongs to God, not to mankind. Soon both are put to the test as they are attacked by Ti San’s army of the dead – a zombie army comprised of the souls he enslaved for defying him. Among them are the loved ones of the villagers, and worst of all, one of them is Paul’s sister. The battle to defeat them is bittersweet, but Paul manages to capture his sister alive. Nicci goes after Ti San.

Ti San initially defeats her and tortures her for secrets of the bizango, but she defeats the worst of her enemy and escapes to confront him. He cuts her with a poison knife that makes it difficult to find him through the fog of phantoms from Nicci’s past. But she does find him and ends his evil reign, but at great cost, emotionally and physically. She is nearly dead from her wounds. Before passing out, she is confronted by the police lieutenant who has shadowed them. It’s her brother, alive and also living under a new name. He tells her that the name she was born with is now dead, and she should never return. The prophesy is fulfilled. She is brought back to New Orleans under the care of her adopted family.

Paul agonizes over his sister, who remains a vegetable despite the best efforts of modern medicine. Secretly provided by Nicci’s bizango, a caregiver finally brings her back. Paul tries to reach Nicci to thank her and profess his love for her, but she doesn’t answer his calls. She may have defeated death, but Nicci still has a lot of healing to do.