The Mighty Nein: Little Spark (1x05)

Caleb, the epitome of a poor little meow meow. A lot of stuff in this episode hurt my feelings in the best way.

Cons:

So, I did love this episode, but in a weird way I'm coming to the conclusion that this show is suffering from comparison with the stream more than TLOVM did. By that I don't mean it's worse than the other show, but that my preexisting knowledge of stuff is getting in the way of the experience in some moments, in a way I wasn't expecting. The main way I see this function is in how the "reveals" manifest. I complained already about the Essek thing in the show so far, how the big "holy shit" moment of revealing his treachery is blunted by following along with his story. Now, here, something a little different is going on. See, since we started off with SO much information and focus on Trent Ikithon and the Volstruckers, I thought, wow, this is going to be such an intense and interesting reveal when the other members of the group find out that Caleb is a Volstrucker. When the audience finds it out. I felt like I knew how it would go down. That in a combat moment when shit was going wild, some of the bandaging on Caleb's arm would slip, and we'd see it: scars in a telltale pattern, the same as what we see on Owelia, Astrid, and Eadwulf. Everyone will gasp, as the truth washes over them in a singular moment of understanding.

But... no. Instead we get this thing where we're already far into the flashback, we've already seen Trent Ikithon show up and recruit Caleb, before that moment when Beau tugs Caleb's bandages away and we see his arm. It felt like a much less thrilling way to impart this information. I also felt like how this season is structured, it kind of blunts the impact of Caleb confessing the story to his friends. I agree that it needs to be changed from how it happened in the campaign, but as it is, this reveal doesn't come after weeks of knowing each other, when the reveal would completely re-contextualize how the rest of the group sees Caleb. No, instead it's happening like, the day after they met each other. We go straight from the devil toad to the confrontation with Owelia, and then Caleb says "I haven't been honest with you, but that changes today." Like, the only person it makes sense for him to be saying this to is Nott. The rest of these people are still effectively strangers to him. It makes it much less impactful of a character beat, in my opinion.

In nitpick land, I also thought the romantic vibes between Astrid, Eadwulf, and Bren could have been done a little different; the one scene that sort of fades to black on them all turning towards each other in bed felt like the blocking of it was awkward, in some way? I don't know if that makes sense. I loved the flirting during the mission, though, with Caleb promising to give Eadwulf a turn later.

I also... because of the issues I'm mentioning above as to the overall pacing of the season, I feel like Nott's big "he's my boy, and I keep him safe" moment didn't quite hit as hard as I wanted it to. I just keep thinking, Beau saying they have a parent/child dynamic hits harder if Beau has known them longer than an extremely crowded and chaotic 48 hours. If that. Because of how much this show has slowed down the pacing, I feel like they could have afforded to space things out a bit more.

Pros:

I feel like all of the above is going to give the impression that I was unhappy with this one, but that is not the case at all. I love Caleb so much and his angsty angsty backstory is obviously a classic for a reason. I thought this was a really good adaptation of that backstory, even if the deployment of the "twist" wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be.

Seeing young Bren, happy with his parents and his cat Frumpkin back home, all the German - I mean Zemnian - conversations, his eagerness and pride in his magical ability, it worked so well as a contrast to the Caleb of the present moment. Every time they transitioned from his youthful, earnest face to the haggard, furious present-day Caleb, it underscored the themes of the episode so well. I also really liked how Trent's selfish and unscrupulous methods were demonstrated, how screwing over your fellow students was rewarded by his teaching method and led to our trio being singled out for special privileges. I'm eager for more Astrid and Eadwulf as we go further into the story, to see how they have been changed and shaped by Bren's absence, among other things.

In the present moment, I feel like this episode really emphasized how morally grey and dark and twisty this story is, in comparison with TLOVM. Because when Caleb starts torturing Owelia, you think this is going to be a low point for him, that he'll back off. And he doesn't back off. When we're cutting between him burning his parents alive in their home and him burning Owelia to an ashen skeleton in the woods, you think maybe he'll stop himself, or Nott will show up just in time to stop him, from really killing her. But nah, man. He murders her up good, and the visuals are not messing around. The flames, the burning body of Owelia, the shock of her actually dying as she maniacally laughs through her final moments, the wild and bloodshot eyes on Caleb... it was all so, so good. It makes me support the decision to add in this basically brand new Volstrucker character. She serves a very interesting function, here.

I also loved the tension between Beauregard and Caleb in this episode. I was talking last episode about how Beau has the leadership vibe because she's the one with some sort of institutional power behind her, but you see this moment here where she realizes that when it comes to the Volstruckers, she's in over her head. It's so juicy. She's an amateur when it comes to torturing someone for information, and... well, yeah, that's probably a good thing, on balance. It's not something you want to brag about being good at. Her mistrust of Caleb makes sense, and that moment when she hears Owelia say "Volstrucker" while speaking Zemnian and everything snaps together, was so satisfying.

In subplot news, Fjord gets injured by Owelia's poison attack, and Jester's healing doesn't help. It's up to Jester and Molly to find some flowers to brew into a tea, and it's up to Nott to keep Fjord alive in the meantime. Such juicy material here. I like that this subplot didn't take up too much of the time from the Caleb-centric main plot, but there were still a lot of fantastic character beats. Molly is trying to encourage Jester not to rely on the Traveler so much, since he pretty much believes that this "god" doesn't even exist. And we also see that amazing moment at the end where Molly is there when Caleb wakes up, and he congratulates him for being there for another day. He has the opportunity now to decide who he wants to be. We're seeing Molly as sort of the spiritual guide of the group.

And we're seeing Nott as the mom. God, the bickering between Fjord and Nott instantly transforming into Nott comforting him like he's a little child, singing to him and telling him he's okay and he didn't fail... and then the moment towards the end where Nott yells at Jester, Beau, and Molly for "leaving Caleb alone" even though she knows full well that Caleb magically froze them to stop them from following... that's giving such overprotective mom feels, I cannot. Nott cradling Caleb's unconscious body... ouch! Sam is killing it with this performance, I must say. I was a little nervous in the fist episode that the voice would wear on me, but it's evened out and hit a really good place that seems familiar from the campaign but also a bit more polished.

Not a ton of new development for Fjord and Jester this week, but I liked seeing poor baby Fjord all injured and feverish and calling out to his captain, that's the good shit. And Jester's reliance on the Traveler, the way she bounces back from disappointment so quick it feels like a way of avoiding deeper feeling but also still seems genuine at the same time, it's all very in line with who she is in the original stream!

From a world and story perspective, we are getting hints here that the war is brewing, and we see how Caleb's backstory emphasizes the idea of these secret spies of the Empire, who have been involved in stirring up tensions between Empire and Dynasty for a while now. I need to ask my friends who haven't watched the stream if they're understanding the larger political ramifications at this stage or not, but I think it's pretty well done! 

So yeah. We're getting to some of these plot and character reveals in a way that feels too early, even while the pacing has been very slow, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it all. But taking this episode on its own terms, I am extremely impressed with how horrifying and dark and twisty they've made the Caleb stuff. Not pulling any punches, seeing that poor cat claw at the window. Yikes.

8/10