Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Cons:
This is a small thing, because once again perfect episode is perfect, but I will say that Scanlan's "realization" at the start didn't quite hit right. They have him do a gasp and a flashback to him looking at the creepy book, and the star chart, and putting together the pieces, but I don't feel that we actually learned anything new here. It was basically: "ohhh that creepy book about a ritual and a Ziggurat means they're going to do a ritual at a Ziggurat?" I don't know, maybe they wanted to make sure the stakes were clear so we wouldn't be confused about the visuals of what Delilah does later, but for me it seemed like they were treating an obvious escalation as if it were brand new information, some sort of plot twist or reveal.
Could have done without the "you're their light now" callback during Keyleth's big moment, simply because it didn't quite hit for me right the first time, I felt the stakes weren't set up for why Keyleth getting that validation from Pike specifically would be important. It was fine, but didn't add to the epic-ness for me much. This is such a small quibble, though. Seriously.
Pros:
Fucking hell, this episode was everything to me. How to even talk about it?
We start off with some sinister setup with our villains as they prepare to do their creepy ritual. Cassandra calling Delilah "mother" really punched me right in the solar plexus, and then Delilah being so worried about Sylas keeping his strength up, offering Cass as a snack to munch on... yeesh. They give me the creeps in the absolute best way.
We then have a brief comedic interlude with Grog raring to fight Vax, and Vex saying no, then raring to fight Cass, and Percy saying no... and then Pike suggesting that perhaps he should have a rematch with Sylas...
We see our good guys approaching the Ziggurat and all the evil that's going to happen there, and then we have Anna running off, and the next ratcheting up of intensity with Percy and... Orthax, I'm just going to say Orthax, I mean, the subtitles do, so I figure that counts as not a spoiler anymore, even though his name is never said aloud on the show. The visuals of this scene, with Percy fighting against Orthax over whether or not to shoot Anna as she runs off... they're trying to sneak up on the Briarwoods, so a gunshot would give them away, but on the other hand Percy and Orthax really want that motherfucking revenge, y'all... god, it's so deliciously intense and this is only the start of the intensity ramping up and up and up.
And then of course Percy calls out: "Sylas! We have debts to settle." And we go into the action sequence, and that's the whole rest of the episode.
This whole thing was just... the action was so fucking stellar, it never stopped, my breath was caught in my throat the whole time, I couldn't look away... it's almost going to be hard to talk about, because my only thought the whole time is like... Keyleth vs. Sylas: amazing! Pike vs. Sylas: amazing! Scanlan running from Delilah: amazing! Pike vs. Delilah, saving Scanlan: amazing! Vex vs. Vax: amazing! Percy vs. Cassandra: amazing! Grog vs. Sylas: amazing! The whole way through, I was just intensely impressed by how dynamic and quick and impactful every bit of the combat felt to me. There are a lot of characters on the board, here. The seven members of Vox Machina, plus the Briarwoods, plus Cass, and yet I never lost track of anyone and who they were fighting, the pacing never faltered, I was gripped and completely anxious every second, even though I know how it all shakes out!
I guess I'll just talk about aspects I liked in no particular order...
First off, I like how overpowered Pike feels, because the literal glowing aura around her is a constant reminder that she's being projected here by her literal goddess. She has this artificial glow-up (sorry) that is so powerful but also so tenuous, as we see at the end of the episode. So we get moments like Pike withstanding Delilah's attack and then the "MY TURN" moment, and it's so fucking good and also doesn't feel like it's breaking the balance in any way, because there's this constant sense that Pike won't be this strong forever, and we don't know how long we'll get to have her with us.
The Pike and Scanlan stuff was particularly excellent. I loved "get away from my gnome!" and then Scanlan's literal heart eyes, and Pike's "probably a good thing I can't hear you right now." In my opinion, their hints of romance have been adapted so well from the stream. It's much better here, when instead of Scanlan just constantly pursuing Pike and her constantly rejecting him, it's just Scanlan simping so hard for this entirely bad-ass woman, and Pike sort of laughingly indulging him without full reciprocation. Maybe a small distinction in the scheme of things, but it's really working for me.
And then there's all the sibling angst! Give it to meeee. Vex and Vax's fight made me wince, every time the blood spray came I was horrified. I loved the "it's me", "I know", exchange because you do get the sense that Vax very much does know it's his sister he's fighting, he just can't cut through the charm to remember that he would never hurt her. And Vex screwing up her face and horrified with herself as she punches him again and again, and Vax waking up and breaking through because of Keyleth's timely Sun Tree intervention... the sob and the hug... I am so happy with how this went. Oof. So freaking intense.
Then Cass and Percy! Percy is literally having to fight off Orthax and his sister at the same time. He doesn't want to give in and hurt her, but she has no such reservations with him, and her name is on the List... god, the horror and tension of this. Again, even knowing how it's all going to turn out, I'm in the most intense suspense watching this stuff, wondering what's going to happen next. Of course there's the moment when Cass briefly flickers out of Sylas's control, and remembers Percy protecting and comforting her during their imprisonment, remembers them playing together as kids... I like the way Cass's betrayal is played because it's clear that it's not just Sylas using his mind tricks on her the way he did on Vax, there's the interplay of years going on here, the supposed abandonment by her brother, the indoctrination and brainwashing by her tormentors. It's not as simple as what's happened to Vax, and you can really see that playing out.
Keyleth gets some cool moments fighting Sylas before Pike takes over that fight; I love seeing her using all the elements like the Avatar she is most certainly based on... but of course she gets her big Sun Tree moment right when everything is at its lowest point, lying there weakened as all her friends are suffering and barely holding on around her... and then there are the tree roots. "I'm Keyleth of the Air Ashari. I know you're there. And holy shit do I need your help." The music. The light. It's so FREAKING COOL that Keyleth gets to have this intense moment, and it only builds from the first moment that the sun breaks Sylas's concentration and allows Cass and Vax to wake up.
But first you've got Grog and Sylas. A bad-ass rematch, but also some moments of levity, too: "No, I know what you're doing. Don't try and seduce me" and Sylas replies: "What? I'm not trying to..." that was so great, and I love that it worked, that Grog got a solid hit on Sylas and then was able to pin him down for Keyleth to take that final shot.
As I'm continually praising, the small moments that help establish character during fights are just everything to me. I love that you've got Grog holding Sylas down, and Keyleth ready with the strength of the Sun Tree behind her, but she stops to say: "Grog, I don't want to hit you..." and Grog tells her to do it anyway. Just such a great moment.
Scanlan gets his revenge on Delilah by silencing her the same way she silenced him earlier in the fight, meaning she's hopeless as she watches Keyleth burn Sylas to death. It's brutal, it's intense, it's everything I wanted it to be. Such an epic villain kill, that good ol' Grog and Keyleth combo, with Delilah screaming in her silenced condition, desperately reaching out for the man she loves. Brutal! Amazing!
Delilah's derangement here is excellent and there's so much setup happening in this scene where she tries to complete the ritual. "Sylas, I broke the world for us!" She said the thing! Ahhh. Honestly at first I was disappointed she didn't scream it like Matt did in the original version, but this worked for me too. Her creepy magic, the way the orb appears, The Whispered One standing there and then flickering away...
Meanwhile you've got the rest of the gang trapped outside of a door. Of course. I love that after Sylas's death, you've got Cassandra immediately snapping out of it, and Percy has this brief moment of relief that his sister is okay, but then it's right back into revenge mode. "That kill was mine!" he says after Sylas dies, and then "Delilah!" as he charges after his remaining foe. At this point not only do we have the creepy orange eyes and the smoke, we have the voice, layering over Percy's. How much of him is Orthax now? It's so fucking good and creepy and delightful, and for those who thought Delilah was the big bad of the season more so than Sylas, it's now becoming increasingly clear that there's an even bigger big bad waiting in the wings, hiding in plain sight.
Okay and let's talk about the cliffhanger now. Vex manages to get a shot off on Delilah, and we get one of my favorite line deliveries in the whole show as Delilah screams: "I'll see you suffer for what you have taken from me!" And then she tries to go for Vex, and...
Keyleth sacrifices herself for Vex. When I tell you I screamed, y'all. Now, I have some stuff to say about this in the next review, because I kind of don't think it works as an episode cliffhanger for various reasons. But honestly, I fucking love this change. Jesus Christ. First off, I have been totally gripped by this show all the way through, but I did in fact already know all the big things that were going to happen. Cass getting slashed in the throat by Anders? Later turning out to be a traitor? I knew it. Percy having a demon inside him? I knew it. Everything that happened, all the big shockers, I knew they were coming. And I was excited to see Vex get super mortally wounded and close to death in this fight, because I knew that was coming too. So when it was Keyleth instead, I was seriously so shook. I didn't expect it at all. And in my opinion, this is a great change.
This is the moment I mentioned before, where some people were having a hard time, and thought this moment stole something from Vex and gave it to Keyleth. But come on, y'all. If you're a fan of campaign one, you know exactly why Vex isn't the one to get a super scary "omg is she dead" moment here. You know. You don't need me to tell you why narratively we don't need Vex going down right here. Come on. And this is still a Vex character beat! This is about a season-long buildup of Vex and Keyleth's friendship, Keyleth willing to throw herself in front of Vex, Vex looking on in shock, asking "why did you do that?" I loved it. I loved it for Keyleth, and for Vex, and for Vax, and it completely threw me for a loop in the best way. I think they knew what they were doing, twisting this dramatic moment in a way older Critters wouldn't expect. As shocked as I was, and as upset as I knew some people were bound to be, I really took this moment as a gift, this rare chance to be as flabbergasted and thrown for a loop as anyone else watching.
And of course the true cliffhanger is Pike vanishing before she can heal Keyleth. This is what I meant when I said it's okay that Pike is the most bad-ass overpowered member of the party in these episodes, because at the drop of a hat she's gone and she can't come back and now Keyleth is dying.
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