Episode 9: The Crystal Calls
Obligatory Plot Summary: Having escaped the Darkening-tainted caves of Grot, Rian is about to go back in to search for the Dual Glaive when the Grottan Maudra Fara reveals that she's had half of it all along, disguised as a walking stick. Maudra Fara then mind melds... er, Dreamfasts with Rian, showing him that his father, Ordon, took up the Dual Glaive during the Arathim during the battle of Stone-In-The-Wood years before. After emerging victorious, Ordon separated the glaive into its parts, giving one to Maudra Fara for safekeeping, and hiding the other in the weapons forge at Stone-In-The-Wood. Rian and Deet head off on a landstrider to retrieve the other half of the magic sword. Back at the Castle of the Crystal, the Skeksis have Seladon and Brea and other Gelflings are prepped to be drained of their essence when Aughra arrives. After squabbling with the Skeksis, she makes a deal with the Emperor--if the Gelflings are freed, she will allow herself to be drained so that Hunter may be brought back from the bring of death. The Emperor agrees, but orders the General to kill the freed Gelflings before they can escape the castle. As the Gelflings are leaving, Arathim-possessed Tavra confides in her sisters that the Arathim and Gelflings have allied against the Skeksis, and the trade is Aughra's plan. The General and Collector ambush the Gelflings, but Tavra stabs him with her sword, giving him a grave wound as a Spitter surprises the Collector with a burst of venom to her face. Tavra pursues the General as the other Gelfling escape, but is attacked by the Chamberlain before she can finish the General off. The General expects Chamberlain to kill him, but instead the Chamberlain gives him Gelfling essence, healing his wound and saving his life. Aughra mocks the Skeksis as she is drained, saying she will return to Thra when she dies, but they will be nothing but dust. Aughra dissipates in a burst of light as she is drained, and the Skeksis give her essence to Hunter. Hunter trembles but does not revive and is given up for dead. Brea and Seladon find Tavra just as she dies, and reconcile. The General, Chamberlain and Collector return to the Emperor, warning of the Gelfling/Arathim alliance. The General advocates they pursue the Chamberlain's plan of having the Scientist build an army out of reanimated Arathim carcasses. The Emperor, emboldened, declares that Skeksis cannot die, and has Hunter's corpse propped up at the court table like a marionette, El Cid-style. Across Thra, Rian and Deet reach Stone-In-The-Wood and Rian retrieves the second part of the glaive. Magic happens when it's joined together, Rian experiences a cascade of visions, including Jen returning the jamming the shard back into the Crystal in the movie. All Gelfling fires on Thra turn blue, and allowing Rian to speak to all Gelflings across the world. The Crystal also responds, attracting the Skeksis, and the Emperor threatens all the Gelfling through the burning Facetime app, but Rian faces him down and announces that he'll meet the Skeksis in battle at Stone-In-The-Wood, calling on all the Gelfling clans to join him against their treacherous overlords. As the Skeksis prepare for battle, nobody notices Hunter's hand twitching.
Musings: This was an uneven episode, but quite strong in places. Aughra's warning that Skeksis "will only be dust" is an overt reference to the movie, and a clue that Hunter is not dead. That was heavy-handed, and a little frustrating as it telegraphs that the show really doesn't trust its audience to suss things out. Aughra's draining, however, was a shocking moment. It was unexpected and reinforces the notion that this series has shifted into a different timeline than the original movie. This, of course, is immediately undercut by Rian's vision when the Dual Glaive is joined, as Jen's appearance indicates they actually are still in the same timeline. But the loss of Aughra is still confounding. Seladon continues to be an irredeemable bitch throughout most of the episode, until she finally comes to her senses when Tavra dies. Her character is extremely problematic, as she seems to lust after power for power's sake. The previous episode, even after learning the truth about the Skeksis, she tried to bargain to keep her grip on power, offering to sacrifice seven innocent Gelflings for the Skeksis to do with as they please. Even the Skeksis were disgusted by this craven move. Yet following Tavra's death, Seladon suddenly does a 180 and is all about Team Gelfling after that. This character whiplash doesn't track, and feeds into my criticism of this series--the characters are often juvenile, acting in certain ways because the script demands it of them, not out of organic character development. Seladon, were she to stay true to character, may well turn against the Skeksis out of self-preservation, but she would still be haughty and high-handed with the other Gelflings to ensure her continued grip on power. I was troubled by the Arathim sending only one of their own to fight the General and Collector, a half-hearted move that seemed destined to fail, and it did. Finding the scattered pieces of the Dual Glaive is classic plot-coupon plotting, and left me unimpressed. The magic blue fire was a plot development of convenience. Magic only seems to exist in this world when the script writer needs it to make some narrative bridge, and this was no exception. Magic is somewhat rare in this universe, but spectacular when it manifests. Despite this, the Gelflings seem both ignorant and disinterested in it. The episode starts out fairly strong, but by the end, what is supposed to be a triumphant set-up for the season finale is thoroughly undercut by cliche and a forced sense of drama.
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