I cannot even begin to tell you how much I liked this final crop of episodes. Holy shit. My heart was pounding the whole way through.
Cons:
All I can put here is the true nit-picky-est of nitpicks, just a few little things that I happened to notice.
We've had all of Percy's iconic one-liners from the campaign represented so far, and every single one has met and even surpassed my expectations. "Your soul is forfeit", "you were the one I was least looking forward to", "you're the face I saw when murder entered my heart." Like... you can't fucking beat this, man. However, and like I said this is a nitpick, the one I was looking forward to the most was in my opinion kind of awkward when executed in this version of the script. Percy says to Anna: "You are the luckiest person in Whitestone. 'Cause you're at the bottom of my list." In the campaign, Percy was a lot more level-headed at this point, where in the show his vengeance has ramped up to this really scary point and he's rapidly losing control. So this suave, bad-ass line, delivered with a lilting tone and a smug expression in the original, lost something here when it was said after a scene where all of his friends and his sister had to beg him not to shoot this woman in the head.
Okay and this is the smallest thing ever, but Pike called Grog "buddies" in this episode? As a plural? She did it a couple times over the course of these three episodes and I don't know why "buddy" suddenly became plural? It was distracting.
We do get the briefest glimpse of the revolution amassing on the doorsteps of the castle, but it didn't seem to build to much within this episode or even within the full three episode run. That's something I feel they could have changed more from the campaign, giving more weight to the actual revolutionary fighting going on outside, making it seem like it actually matters if they succeed or fail, that not everything is pinned entirely on Vox Machina. This is a casualty of the show being based on a D&D campaign, one of those times I noticed the adaptational weak points more than usual.
Pros:
God, where to even start?
I really liked the Percy flashback at the beginning. They've been using the flashback stuff to great effect, having these brief moments to show the true tragedy of Percy's backstory without lingering on it. This is smart, because the backstory of "evil people came and killed my whole family" isn't actually particularly layered or nuanced, it's more just the baseline thing that informs Percy's current vengeance quest. So we didn't need a ton, we just need to see the brutality of it. This was also an efficient way to explain Anna to us without having to belabor the point.
Percy shoots immediately at Anna, planning on just killing a defenseless prisoner, which I loved for the way his journey has been going in the animated series... he really is pretty far gone already. It's only Cass deflecting the shot that saves Anna's life. I love that Percy is convincible at this point, but he's very much teetering on the edge. Pike checks him out with her holy powers and basically sees that the smoke is some evil force blocking his soul, but Percy decides procrastinating on that is probably fine. This is such a great way of setting up the stakes for the endgame, because Percy isn't wrong, necessarily, that they're on a bit of a time crunch and they need to see this through, but also... is that really just Percy talking, or is someone else starting to steer?
As far as the group's collective stakes in the adventure, we get this quite important moment where Scanlan points out that they could just fuck off back to Emon and demonstrate what the Briarwoods have been up to, clear their name and avoid the fight to come. Keyleth immediately says that they can't abandon the revolution that they helped to spark. This moment was really lovely and I'm glad that line went to Keyleth, as that is so true to what Marisha was doing with her character at this point in the stream. She was the only player character thinking about the larger stakes at this point, and the moral depth of the group was defined by her insistence that they pay attention to the consequences of their actions. This was a great way of demonstrating that and we got the bonus humor of Scanlan trying to pin the suggestion of leaving on Keyleth, and Grog saying "I'm really disappointed in you." I love that with Grog you can't tell if he's actually confused at what's going on, or if he's in on the joke. Classic!
The twins in this episode... what this is building to in the next few... I'm having many emotions. I've seen some people complaining about a Certain Moment that we'll see in the next installment, saying that a moment of Vex's was stolen by another character, and that in fact Vex has been given a raw deal this season, that they've downplayed the twins' relationship so far... I hardcore disagree. With so much story to tell, I'm beyond thrilled by the level of nuance and attention given to so many of the relationships in the show. The setup for season one here is that Vex and Vax are devoted to one another, and that Vex is afraid of change. Early on in this episode we see her gently ribbing Vax for his feelings for Keyleth, basically saying "I told you so" about his bruised feelings. And then there's the exchange where Vax says "you don't trust anyone", and Vex says "Well, except you", and Vax says "funny way of showing it sometimes." Oof. It's not some huge fight, it's just a sticking point that we know is coming between them.
And then when we get the moment at the end where Sylas charms Vax and he turns to walk away... see, if that moment had been given to Keyleth, if it had been Keyleth who reacted massively and with fear to Vax being taken, I would understand people's complaints. But no, it was Vex as it should have been, and her anguish at Vax turning and leaving was exquisitely painful to behold! I will have more to say about these two in the next review for obvious reasons!
And speaking of sibling relationship dynamics... Cass's betrayal was so good that even though I knew exactly what was coming, I still gasped out loud. Percy seeing her name appear on the gun, turning to her, the absolute heartbreak on his face as he collapses, sobbing, on the other side of the barrier... Cass saying "I am a Briarwood"... CHILLS, let me tell you. God, I know I keep saying it, but Taliesin Jaffe is very fucking good at his job. The voice acting from him in this whole season has just been untouchably good.
It's the setup that murders me the most. Early on, we have Cass persuading Percy to let Anna live, literally saying the words "trust me". And then there's sibling banter, Cass saying to Percy: "your mind is unlike any I've come across... not a compliment." So funny, so adorable, Percy is just quietly delighted at having a member of his family back, and then all the more devastated to lose her once again. I also have to admit that until this episode, I wasn't 100% sold on the voice acting for Cass. I thought it was fine, but it wasn't completely how I'd pictured her. This episode persuaded me otherwise; I thought the performance was so perfect, that blend of vulnerability and pain and all the rest of it, when she declares herself a Briarwood all along. Gah. I cannot handle this.
Before we get to the climactic action sequence, I will say I liked the little nod to the tomb fight. Obviously it was a more drawn out combat in the original, but here we still get the blend of the disturbing, with de Rolo ancestors breaking out of their tombs to accost our heroes, and the absurdist comedy of Grog laughing in a rain of shattered bones, or Cassandra's voice as one of the undead comes lumbering towards her: "Uncle Nathaniel?!" It also served as a good escalation of the Anna Ripley through-line in this episode, where she tries to arm herself after this combat and Percy stops her.
And let's talk a bit more about Anna Ripley. God, she's hot. Knowing what is to come with this character makes every moment with her drip with tension and irony. Something that's definitely touched on in the campaign but which seems to be distilled even more in the show is the strange intellectual affinity that Percy and Anna have for one another. We see in flashback that she tortured Percy without a hint of remorse in order to get the information she wanted. But we've seen Percy be truly ruthless so far in this show. Sure, most of the people he's hurt have been his sworn enemies who murdered his family, but the very first time we see him put on the mask, he's shooting a more or less innocent young man in the hand. We know what he's willing to do to achieve his goals. His ruthlessness and Anna's are not so dissimilar. We see that she's lost a hand in her own tinkering, and she mocks Percy's friends for their lack of intelligence, while trying to talk shop with him. And then during the climax, she helps out to save the day... I mean, I know she would have been killed in the acid too if she hadn't helped out, but I still loved seeing Percy and Anna forced to work together in that fateful moment. So intense and charged and UGH I can't wait to see it all unfold as we go along.
And jeepers, let's talk about that final action sequence. Given what we're going to see in the next two episodes, I love that we have an action set piece that isn't about people vs. people, but instead is a group effort to open a door and save themselves from acid. Everyone gets a part to play, and the show continues to blow me away with its ability to cram in all these important character beats in the midst of carrying very intense action. Grog saying "Oh great, Percy's broken. Come here, you limp noodle" as he picks him up and deposits him on Scanlan's Hand. Scanlan's "heavy metal" version of his spell, showing what a bad-ass he is as he saves everyone's life, and also providing an amazing soundtrack for this whole sequence. Grog in the acid! Pike hanging off Percy's foot to cast healing magic through the acid to keep him alive long enough to pull the lever! That aforementioned moment of Percy and Anna working together!
And... Vex... holy shit I loved what they did with Vex in this fight. See, in the moment of first desperation, the group turns to Vex as a leader. She tries to pass the buck on to Percy, but he's in the midst of a "my sister betrayed me" catatonia and doesn't react. So she does her best to come up with a plan. Then, in the moment when they're all on the floating hand and they have to think fast to survive, she gives Percy one hell of a speech. "We will never abandon you. You want your sister back, and I want my brother. But if we're to have a chance of saving them, you have to save us first!" That's what makes Vex a great somewhat de facto leader of Vox Machina. Not only does she often have great ideas, she's also in tune with her team and their strengths, their weaknesses. Here in this moment, Percy needs her encouragement, and he gets it, and then Percy is able to save the day. My Perc'ahlia heart is living for it.
I also want to mention Keyleth here, in particular the way the show has been demonstrating Keyleth's magic all season. She's undoubtedly got the most raw power of any of them, but we see again and again that the strength of her magic isn't necessarily going to come in and save the day all on its own. She can pull vines through the underground ceiling and wrap it around the acid feed tube, but the pressure builds up and the acid breaks through and rushes out all the faster. It's moments like this that make her triumph later on feel all the more earned and intense and beautiful, when she can harness her strength and compassion to save the day.
This episode also marks the first time the Briarwoods appear in a scene with Vox Machina since episode three, and I loved how it plays out. It's a delay of the showdown we're about to see in episode 11, while still upping the stakes in this really personal way. Percy already had this immediate reason to hate them, but then we have the whammy of Cass's betrayal, stacked immediately by Vax being charmed and controlled, so we know that as we rush into the next episode, it's Delilah, Sylas, Cass, and Vax that our other six heroes will be fighting. Sylas and Delilah are still as sinister as ever. I love their smugness here, and how we end on them basically saying they need a sacrificial victim for their big evil ritual, and they're going to choose between Vax and Cassandra in the moment of truth. So evil! So deliciously evil!
Some other rapid-fire moments I want to mention: Scanlan and Percy get a moment early on that I liked, with Scanlan saying: "love ya pal... but you are legit fucked up!" This is a good setup for a thing that's going to happen in the finale, and it was just a great small moment. We also had Pike and Grog having a friendship check-in where Grog asks how Pike's apology to the Everlight went. They're the cutest. Also Pike reassuring Grog that his dick is still there after his acid dive... lol. And of course the Vax and Grog rivalry continues, with Grog making Vax beg for his help with opening a door, and then later when Vax is charmed and leaving, Scanlan calls after him: "wait, don't you at least want to see Grog die?" I also liked that Vax is ordered by Sylas to push the button that starts the acid flood. That was a great way of adapting something from the campaign in a way that made sense and streamlined the sequence of events.
But god, y'all, this episode was so good. Anna Ripley is so good. The relationship stuff is so good. The soundtrack and the action and the animation, so good. And things only get more intense from here. Onward to episode 11!
9/10
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