The Legend of Vox Machina: The Poisoned Ear (4x10)

I feel rather mixed on this one.

Cons:

I said in last week's episode that I didn't approve of the Grog choice, and I stand by that here. No matter what direction they went in, it would feel odd and anti-climactic. Here, we get to see that Grog's body is intact, and that life might be able to return to it. So that basically tells me that for these last three episodes, Pike's arc is going to be about whether or not she should accept what the Whispered One is saying, if it means it might save Grog... or if she can find another way to bring him back without succumbing. And that's... I mean, I guess that's fine? But I just keep thinking that structurally, you could do this same story without Grog having been visually ripped to pieces at the end of the last episode. Like, okay, imagine a reality when Grog gets pulled into the portal and he's trapped over there, and then Pike follows him with the others trying to stop her and looking on in horror. Then Pike shows up and the cultists have Grog trapped or under a spell or poised to be the next great sacrifice, and the Whispered One uses that as leverage to have his lore-drop convo. Then, back in Whitestone, the rest of the gang can be determined to go rescue Grog and Pike together, believing there's a chance both of them might be alive. Taryon even says it as he sends them off, telling them to bring their "friends" back. Plural. What would be structurally different if Vex, Vax, Percy, and Keyleth didn't believe they knew Grog's fate already, and thought of this as a rescue mission to save them both? Tl;dr, I'm legitimately not sure what a Grog death does here, thematically, beyond just giving us that really dramatic moment at the end of episode nine.

I also gotta say, the blight actually being a boon from the Matron of Ravens and giving him his power-up... I really like this idea, but I thought the execution of it was rather odd? It's kind of anti-climactic, for her to show up in Vax's dream and be like "you're my Champion!" and then the minute they're in Thar Amphala, Vax just starts glowing all cool and powerful. Wouldn't it have been more effective for the glowy powers to happen in a moment of intense combat or desperate strife, as opposed to just kinda... tacked onto the end of an episode when they're just standing there? Like I said, I enjoy the "twist", I guess you could call it, that says the Matron isn't trying to kill Vax, but I just don't really understand why it's framed this way within the episode.

I think actually that complaint about the Matron is part of a larger structural issue that takes us back to the Pike stuff. Here, we have the Whispered One tell us about his sad backstory, and he implicates all the gods in the suffering that mortals have undergone, including the Everlight. It's Pike's great choice now, to decide where she lands in this ideological debate. So why is it that we only get to hear the villain's "side" of said debate? I kind of wish the Everlight had weighed in, in some substantial way, before now. Maybe it's her help that will restore Grog, that could be a fun inversion, but I just... I guess I think the Pike journey this season has been really messy and confusing. I get that she's having a really hard time, she's having these abandonment issues, Scanlan left, the group scattered. Then she loses Wilhand and Grog in short order? Of course she's at the end of her rope! I even think it would make sense that she'd be wavering in her faith because of all her hardships, but if that's what they were going for, I wish it had been a thing where we'd seen Pike try to connect with the Everlight and then fail, and then Pike could be like... why is it when I need her most, she can't turn up for me? And then Vax could maybe talk to her about it, and say... hey... you have your powers, right? She's giving you her strength even if she's quiet about it... and then Pike could struggle with whether or not she can worship her god when it feels like everything in her life is going wrong. I feel like the pieces of the story are all sitting right there and it would be easy enough to have done it that way. What we've gotten instead, all season, is Pike being resentful of the Everlight without a seeming cause; it feels disconnected from her other issues of abandonment and loss, and it's almost like they gave Pike this ambivalence just because they, the writers, know what the Whispered One conflict is about, and they wanted to prime Pike up for this choice. It doesn't quite gel for me.

Also, I know the group is in rescue mode trying to get to Pike, but I felt like the Grog-related grief was extremely perfunctory. Almost, again, like the writers know he's totally coming back in the finale so there's no need to make a big thing out of it. Like, did nobody say "holy shit we've gotta tell Scanlan"? The group is meant to be in denial about Pike's fate, but they all believe Grog is really dead, do they not? 

Pros:

I'm sorry I'm being so complain-y this season. It's still a great show, it's just that because of how great a show it is, I'm invested to the point of interrogating it pretty rigorously, if that makes any sense...

I do like the lore drop stuff with the Whispered One; it gives me hope that maybe the gods will get to say their piece beyond just the cryptic messages from the Matron, so we get some sort of counter-narrative to the bad guys. It's really interesting because in Exandria writ-large, the villains are often extremely anti-god, or positioned against the Prime Deities in some way, at least. You've got Vecna of course, but then also Ludinus... And because these are the bad guys, of course the heroes are sort of de facto on the gods' side. But the gods don't really make a case for themselves. They are conspicuous in their absence. I think it's a complicated way to tell these stories, and it's one that I ultimately do enjoy, even if I do wish the Everlight would at least give a little nudge somewhere to remind us that she's cool or whatever. We'll have to see how that plays out. I loved the animation during the Whispered One's tale to Pike, and of course Andy Serkis's voice... so good.

Back in Whitestone, we've got our gang of NPCs hanging out, very sad to hear about Grog and Pike, and very unwilling to let Vox Machina re-activate the orb at the Ziggurat for a rescue mission. The Whispered One could emerge and destroy all of Whitestone! Setting aside the fact that I'm not sure why Allura, Kima, and Gilmore are all in Whitestone right now, I did enjoy seeing the gang all together, and I liked the clear-cut conflict between them and our core protagonists. Of course we can't risk the fate of the entire city for the sake of one friend! But also, of course we can't just leave Pike behind.

We've got the great conflict between Percy and Cassandra, where Percy is fighting vehemently to save Pike, citing the fact that he's left loved ones behind to die before, and he won't make that mistake again. That obviously hits Cassandra hard, but at the same time, she can't let Percy put Whitestone at risk. I loved how Vex validated Cassandra's role as the real ruler of Whitestone, the one who put it back together in Percy's absence. But of course, she's got no intention of leaving Pike to her fate either, and the gang sneak off to go through the orb that night. Cassandra discovers what's going on when she tries to bring Percy some wine as an apology for things getting heated, and we get Vox Machina vs. their own allies as they try and get to the orb.

I like that the conflict was quick, in part because I think nobody wants to hurt anybody, and also in part because Allura and Kima are retired adventurers, and Gilmore and Cassandra are not actually adventurers at all, no matter how powerful they are. It was a good demonstration of how powerful Vox Machina are, and I think there's a tension there, given that they're willing to use that power to override a group decision and put a bunch of people at risk for the sake of saving a friend. I liked Keyleth's little remark: "we'll apologize later!" as they zoom away.

Keyleth manages to make an elixir from the flower that Delilah had tried to use on Sylas, but Vax isn't ready to try it yet. Despite my many issues with how the Matron stuff has gone down this season, I do like the tension of Keyleth seeing the situation in a purely adversarial way: the Matron is a problem, she's hurting Vax, we have to combat that. And then Vax has a much more nuanced response, believing in the connection he has with this goddess and trying to have faith. I like that tension in their relationship, and I like that Keyleth tries to trust Vax to know his own mind while also still desperately trying to find solutions to save him.

And then there's Tary, who makes them the amulets that will get them through the orb safely. I loved how scared he was, and I loved Vex's pep talk, including referring to herself as "little elf girl." Taryon choosing to stay behind and hold off the NPC gang was a lovely moment of sacrifice too. He's so precious to me.

So... yeah. I feel like if I had been in the writer's room of this season, I would have had some serious objections on some larger structural things that they decided to do. So many of my issues wouldn't actually be a huge deal to change, I just need... a bit more, about what Pike's deal with the Everlight is. I just need... a bit more, with why we're just cool with Scanlan bailing on the team. I just need... a bit more, to explain why killing Grog and then dangling his resurrection in our faces was a good move for the story at this point. That said, there are still so many individual elements of every episode that I do enjoy! I wonder if I'll feel better about this season on a re-watch binge someday.

6.5/10