After an attack in the woods, Rayla's choice to take a rough path irritates Callum and causes problems, and Viren's dark requests worry Soren and Claudia.
A misstep from an approaching strange wakes Rayla. She investigates but finds only a deer, which tries to heal her now-purple hand by licking it.
Suddenly frightened, the deer runs and a net catches Rayla, and as a man walks out she barely escapes the net before he hurls a grappling hook like a weapon. Ezran wakes to find her missing and shakes Callum, confirming the egg is still there, though his brother is still suspicious of her. This annoys Ezran, who says obviously not all the things they've heard about elves are true; Callum corrects him that he's suspicious because she's hiding something. While fighting the man, Rayla tries to takes the trees to a safe path, but he follows and grapples her, demanding she return the boys. He doesn't believe they're not the prisoners of someone responsible for Harrow's death, and after she loses a sword, he taunts that they'll hate her when they find out. Using his hurled chain, she flings both of them over a cliff, leaving him stranded in a ditch telling her to savor her victory. Meanwhile, Ezran questions Callum about his dream; Callum says he talked about peanut butter because it was of sandwiches. Ezran is suspicious and confused, especially when his brother says they'll talk about "sandwiches" when he's older. Rayla returns, urging them to run; Callum demands to know why and Ezran wants food, but she snaps that she doesn't have to explain and they move, leaving the bread.
Soren rushes up to a castle wall to meet his father, who is irritated as his son does a workout while they go over the mission to find the boys. To Soren's confusion, Viren orders him to return with news of their deaths.
Back in the woods, Rayla realizes they're walking a common path and will likely run into someone, deciding they must instead take rough, unwalked paths. Ezran notes about the egg's weight, and when she says she hasn't been trusted to carry it, Callum questions her, so she scoffs and demand they stop complaining. Soren asks his father why they're hoping for essentially failure, and Viren explains they're at a tipping point where the war could help them take back Xadia. A child king, he says, would make weak choices and allow Xadia to crush all five kingdoms. With his son unsure he could do "the right thing" if they find the boys alive, Viren points out "deadly accidents" happen often in the wild. Saying he's strong, Viren orders his son to tell no one, even Claudia, saying it's his burden to carry. Likewise, the throne will be Viren's, and Soren will sit on it one day. Meanwhile, Rayla has the group stop for food and Callum realizes he lost there's. He blames her, and she wittily retorts that she didn't tell him to leave in in the rush. Rayla then realizes her moonberry juice is gone and Bait must've drank it; Ezran defends the glowing creature, saying he glows colors depending on his mood. After noticing he's never seen this berry color before, he realizes Rayla is right.
At the castle, Claudia tries to make the magic mirror in Viren's study reveal its nature, but fails, as he says he has with eight spells. She conjectures it's just a mirror, but he's sure it's important because the Dragon King and Queen kept it close in their lair.
He brings up the boys and tells her she has a secret mission to recover the egg, no matter what else happens, and she agrees. She jokingly asks what she should do if forced to choose between the egg and Soren, and is shocked when he says the egg. The boys continue to struggle with Rayla's path, and when Ezran sits because of the egg, she reminds them she could've taken it at any point and should be trusted. Callum snarls that not forcing them to hand it over means nothing, and she reveals she doesn't because it's important that humans return the egg themselves. Having noticed the ice cracking, Ezran ends the fight by pointing out they could start an avalanche, but Bait then causes one by burping. Ezran stumbles as they run and notices Rayla's injured hand when she helps, and though Callum momentarily saves them using Aspiro, they are washed away. Though they all make it okay, Ezran notices the egg nearby, and when he retrives it, they realize he's on a frozen lake and the ice is cracking.
It felt like a lot less happened this episode, though quite a bit happened to shape the characters and show us who they are.
At the start, we see the results of a typical story trope where the young heroes share nothing with others: Rayla's arm is suffering because of her wristband. A massive part of this story is centered around trust, because even if the group is on this mission to get the dragon prince home, there is centuries of bad blood. Both sides have obviously been massively misinformed, as the colliding groups have been puzzled by what the other believes and learned both were wrong. One might think characters could say "Okay if this is a lie, I can trust you," but really they're just left knowing even less than they thought, causing fear of the unknown. Our young protagonists are a good way to show this debate raging on, as they haven't experienced years of propaganda and fighting that would color their opinions. Because of this, the boys are willing to share things with Rayla and start trusting her, with the only problem being how her issues keep her from sharing herself fully. The assailant makes her fear worse claiming the boys'll hate her once they learn about Harrow, but a bigger problem is distrust keeps them from working together well. What I like here is that, unlike some series I've followed where characters kept secret for a long time, Rayla is able to come clean. It was frustrating enough Callum wouldn't even consider the truth when it came to Amaya, so having Rayla be more open was good to see. Another thing I liked to see was Callum's use of "Aspiro" again and how it "failed" but still saved them. This is a good way to teach a lesson about looking on the bright side. Like I said, they still get knocked down by the snow, but if not for Callum's spell, they would've been more heavily covered. Callum's intervention, even if it didn't save them completely, kept them safe for a time and allowed them to easily climb out later. Things at the castle allowed us to see more into Viren's darkness and learn about Soren and Claudia's characteres. Up until now, I had rather disliked Soren due to how he interacted with Callum and was constantly messing around, but it's obviously a bit of an "older brother" situaion. Considering his reaction to his father's demands, Soren is obviously goodhearted, and the idea of killing the boys in essentially a coup sickens him. Similarly, Claudia is caught off-guard when Viren says the egg is more important than Soren, and unlike the boys and Rayla being more open, they can't tell each other. I had thought this episode we'd be seeing the jell cell from last episode again, as I started to think of a surprise the secret prisoner could hold. What we saw last episode was Runaan chained to a wall, but maybe the use Viren saw in the elf was to put Harrow's soul into his body. I believe I missed that one of Rayla's armbands fell off to signify Harrow's death, which made something I said in a previous post rather silly, and shows why the other band is specifically tied to Ezran's life. If Harrow had turly "died" and been put into Runaan's body, it would be the perfect way for Viren to usurp the throne and keep Harrow around. Honestly I'm not sure why he'd want to keep Harrow alive; my idea has to do with studying or using Runaan's elven body somehow, and knowing the old king wouldn't know how to properly use the body to try escaping. Even if he did escape, no one would believe a moonshadow elf was their old king, and Viren could easily capture him once more. And perhaps he doesn't have some ulterior motive in keeping Harrow alive, but rather does truly feel a kinship with him despite his coup. Viren would in this way be able to take power while rationalizing that technically, he didn't kill Harrow to get what he wanted. With Viren's plans going off seemingly unhinged and Rayla and the boys facing more challenges, the task of returning the dragon prince is getting more dangerous.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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