When Big Jo kidnaps Elfo, it's up to Bean and the knights to get him back along with a magic pendant Sorcerio learned of. We open on Zøg, grieving at his wife's statue, admitting that he wishes she were back for himself just as much as for Bean. Watching is Jerry, the servant of the two who cursed Bean, and the Enchantress changes the crystal to check on Sorcerio. The wizard fails again to make the elixir of life, instead making a truth serum that causes him to spout insults at the king. Since his previous attempt resulted in a horse that laughs, Zøg says he'll be punished if he can't figure out the solution. In town, Elfo tries to make sure things aren't awkward between himself and Bean, and she brushes his worries off by pointing out a festival. She explains it's the newly discovered "entertainment," and Elfo gets a less-than-entertaining encounter with a man in a kilt. Back in the castle, Sorcerio vents to Odval about having still not discovered the elixir. Odval reassures him and reveals there is actually another book of magic they could look in. They head to the witch's melted home and find the "Omnicon," which Sorcerio says there are only two of; the other is with a collector. He menitons that it's also for Sunday dinners and we see it's the book Hansel and Gretel used to cook, and Sorcerio comes across a symbol and the words "Elixir Vitae con Arroz," which they translate as "Elixir of Life with rice." Back in town, a disguised Big Jo kidnaps Elfo, and Bean gives chase. Though she catches the carriage, she is knocked back when Elfo, who had escaped, opens a door in her face. Sorcerio and Odval go to Zøg with a long joke about their discovery, the "Eternity Pendant," which gives immortality when filled with elf blood. Bean arrives with the news about Elfo, so Zøg sends the knights to get him back and find the pendant, believing Big Jo must be after immortality as well. Elsewhere, the Enchantress says they can't let the wrong hands have the pendant, and the man calls in for their stealthiest assassin. In a montage, Bean leads the knights to the witch, Gwen's, new house, where she lives with her sister. She explains the book was her husband's, and he left to live atop the tallest mountain, the Devil's Snowcone, after he got the pendant. Two men die to the man's "one trap that has two parts, but once it's safe, Bean, Sorcerio, and Luci find the husband, Malfus, inside. They ask about the pendant and he laments that immortality is a curse, as life is meaningless and repetitive. Malfus goes into the full details of his relationship with Gwen, and how after 90 years, when they were having problems and she refused immortality, they split. Upset with himself for missing the love in front of him, Malfus then threw the pendant over the Edge of the World. He urges them to get Elfo back and stop Big Jo from using the pendant, and they leave him with the laughing horse as a form of entertainment and company. Bean asks how he knows they'll properly use the pendant, and he shocks her by answering her by name, which she didn't give, saying he knows all about her. They take off before he can explain, and he happily tells the horse that, because its laughter makes him happy, he'll eat its head last. The group heads to the Edge of the World, and after some referential jokes, Bean buys a rope from a shop that sells things for people to throw over the edge. Bean loses her footing on the way down, causing the knights to lose the rope, which drags Sorcerio down with her and Luci, who jumped. They fortunately land on a Griffin, who flies them to her next and explains she's a griffin and, despite seemingly male, is a woman, saying that gender is a spectrum. She reveals she traded the pendant long ago to a king from the Lost City of Cremorrah, which Big Jo overhears from the Edge. He takes a jab at typical and recent villains, and the griffin flies the group after him. Bean for some reason has the griffin try dropping an egg on Jo's carriage, but when that fails, she and Luci jump into the back. Jo gets the drop on her, however, knocking her out with a powder and getting the willing Luci in a jar. Bean wakes in a ship's cargo hold and finds Elfo, and Jo takes them to a desert he says covers Cremorrah. Explaining that the pendant lets off a noise when an elf is near, he forces Elfo so go searching. They fall into the city, where Jo explains the kingdom built its wealth on snakes, and the neighboring kingdom, Maru, were constantly jealous and in peril because their economy was based on snakes. Without a great army, Maru used magic to create a potion that turned everyone in Cremorrah to stone. He realizes this must be why the king wanted the pendant, and Luci silences everyone by knocking down the statues like dominoes. The groups spends the remainder of the episode attempting to escape from the city with the pendant, and get a surprise visitor. I'm honestly not quite sure how to feel about this episode, as the focus seemed away from Bean and the others, and it felt like a larger amount of the jokes were references.
Bean and the others, despite being there for basically everything, don't do much in this episode aside from occasionally talking. The focus instead switches more, oddly to Sorcerio, as he tries his hardest to crack the solution to the elixir of life. Some of the referential jokes in this episode just felt odd, like Bean saying she'll play the world's "smallest lute" for Sorcerio like the "smallest violin" from Spongebob. Others work, like when Elfo asks if Jo expects him to really crawl through this desert, and the latter replies that no, he expects him to fry. The jokes that weren't references didn't always hit home, like when Sorcerio and Odval tell Zøg about the pendant and he goes back and forth on whether or not Stan will smack them with a chair, depending on if the news is good or bad. One I know for sure will be decisive came from the griffin, as the whole character for her seemed to be talking about current views of gender. I've had and expressed my own opinions on representation matters before, like when the character LeFou being gay in the live action Beauty and the Beast. Whenever I did, however, I tried to keep in mind that I can't have a full opinion on how good or bad a particular representation is, as I'm not gay or transgender. This sequence did leave a bad taste in my mouth, however, and I could see it being a moment that transgender viewers might be okay with, or one they dislike, and I've already seen some dislike online. I did like the double return this episode gave, though, bringing back the witch and her house, and making Big Jo a returning villain to even Sorcerio. It was nice to see some simple characters get more to who they were, and I liked that the special magic book appeared before, as a cookbook. I can't really think of too much else to say about the episode, honestly. The jokes were hit-and-miss, the introduced husband was okay with a typical lesson about immortality, and the main characters didn't really get much attention. Now that a source of immortality is on the horizon, though, and with the Enchantress and the male character, who also reveals a bit more this episode, doing more, there'll probably be some kind of encounter finally for them and the characters of Dreamland.
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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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