With one quest over, the Nein are ready for another – one that seems destined to drag them right into the heart of war. That is, if they take the challenge.
This is another jampacked episode of The Mighty Nein. In "Belonging," we pick up directly after the last episode. Our team delivers Nydas’ Compass to the Gentleman (voiced exquisitely by Nathan Fillon of Firefly fame, and quite appropriately given the type of mercenary deal Mal used to engage with). Caleb gets a new amulet, protecting him from being seen by the Volstrucker, and the team gets offered a new quest: one targeting Trent Ikithon and the Beacon. Jester’s amusingly in favor, but overall team hems and haws and ultimately sort of disbands.
This leads to several touching and authentic moments. Nott really doesn’t want to let go of Caleb, and Jester has a deep pseudo-romantic connection with Fjord. Ultimately, however, everyone goes their separate ways – Beau is concerned about Dairon; Caleb leaves Nott behind to hunt for more magical ingredients; Fjord delivers Jester to the Pillow Trove, where Mama originally asked her to flee; Molly gives Jester a Tarot card and heads off to seek… something; and Nott, left alone by Caleb, gets completely trashed.
Breaking up, however, turns out to just mix up the team, and with some truly entertaining results.
Molly, all his brave words about leaving the past behind, seems intent on doing just the opposite. He follows Cree (voiced by the amazing Felicia Day) and finds a strange artifact his blood seems attracted to which seems to indicate that in Molly’s past (as Lucien?) Molly was a figure of great power, even evil. I love that Molly’s scenes end with his face practically thrust into a poster saying “Feeling alone? Make some friends!” The card reader has his cards read, learning only some portentiously scary things – and that he’s better off with a group than without one.
Nott, plastered after realizing she’s been abandoned by Caleb, nearly gets torches-and-pitchforked by the locals when she’s rescued by Jester, who’s just failed, once again, to summon the Traveller. Nott is drunkenly furious at no longer being able to forget she’s a goblin. Jester gives Nott a quick confidence boost and the two connect over being abandoned by Caleb and Fjord. Giving the Traveler one more shot, they decide to work together to destroy a temple. Jester and Nott are a dangerous team up - they seem able to fairly well destroy anything! Once they escape a bunch of angry priests (and Jester tells them haughtily to convert to the Traveler) Jester deflates, and it’s Nott’s turn to give her a confidence boost. Jester sees someone of true value in Nott, despite Nott’s appearance, and appreciates Nott’s ability to create mischief. Nott, on the other hand, doesn’t think Jester’s connection to the Traveler is crazy at all – or if it is, it’s not something crazier than anyone else. The two realize they look more sane in the midst of a bunch of crazies, and head off to reunite the Nein.
Fjord is trying to understand the source of his new powers, and the mysterious artifact he found while searching for Nydas’ Compass; he realizes that they have a connection with water; he takes a trip to a sauna, and goes on a spirit journey where he meets Uk’otoa of the many eyes. I think this trip was more disturbing for Fjord than helpful – all his mystical powers and questions are still not really answered, and Uk’otoa seems to want a rage and anger which Fjord doesn’t really feel. He’s rescued from imminent drowning in the sauna by Beau, and the two of them go on to have a much deeper conversation than I’ve come to expect from Beauregard. Both Beau and Fjord don’t have very high opinions of themselves. Fjord is struggling with what he hasn’t learned – but it’s Fjord whose counsel helps Beau move past her own identity issues. Both Beau and Fjord feel like they’re faking it – and Beau especially feels responsible for the war happening in the world of Wildemount. She’s been set up by the Cobalt Soul as some sort of secret weapon and throughout the whole season hasn’t got a handle on anything. Even the one artifact she got was opened by Dairon, and now she’s being told to lay low. Together, Beau and Fjord lift each other out of the doldrums, and find a connection in their mutual desires to help the world. I admit to liking Beau a lot more after this scene.
Caleb, separated from his friends, meets up with older friends – Eadwulf and Astrid, who manage to catch him in a dark alleyway. Astrid (Ivanna Sakhno, a Ukrainian actress you can see in Pacific Rim Uprising) shows some high level magic in the chase, and she and Eadwulf confront Caleb and his desire to go after Ikithon. I’m not 100% sure Eadwulf and Astrid are as behind Ikithon as they say they are – they let Caleb go, and it’s almost as if they want someone to stand up to their master, and are nearly as traumatized as Caleb. When Caleb reunites with Nott, the two realize they are very, very similar, and show why they’ve been my favorite pairing since the beginning: they both want to forget their lives – Caleb even changed his name. They both realize, in the end, that they are bigger – and better – together. And with this the entire team reunites.
Meanwhile, Essek’s mother finds out about his betrayal, and determines with the Kryn Queen that it’s time to die – and asks Essek to kill her. Essek’s story then takes a much darker turn; he betrays Verrat to the Kryn Queen and claims Verrat was the one who betrayed his own men by giving away the Beacon. This is beyond just being self-serving – he cruelly throws Verrat’s own words back at him in a mocking fashion and says nothing while the Queen beheads his best friend. I think that the Queen was a bit reactive in listening to Essek – Essek had far more motivation that Verrat did. I’m also still not sure, when comparing Ikithon to Essek, which of the two is darker – but I now predict Essek, traumatized by his mother’s death, is planning to destroy the entire Kryn culture. Watching Verrat’s spirit fade to nothing was a shock, and watching Essek parrot the words of his mother to Verrat as his head was cleaved from his shoulders left a bitter taste in my mouth. Regardless, he’s now the one responsible for attacking the Dwendalian Empire – and positioned to do whatever he wants to do.
These two, however, are no longer alone in evil. The episode bookends with scenes starring Vess DeRogna, one of the other Dwendalian counselors, the Archmage of Antiquities. She baits Ikithon, who threatens her – but it becomes clear she has plans of her own, a connection to the Gentleman, access to artifacts which give her powers that seem eerily parallel to Molly’s, and a personal hunt for a nation named Aeor. She’s also giving maniacal laughter, which is never a bad thing. And so the episode ends, except for me going:
Wait, where’s the Orphanmaker?
Mighty Funny
Deirta finding out about her son’s betrayal by listening and begging him to get the Beacon before her own death just makes his second betrayal at the end even harder to take.
Beau’s attempt to seduce another hottie – and being denied because of being slightly stinking – was hilarious. I liked, however, that this didn’t seem to figure much into her self-image issues – it’s just stink – compared to how she saw her role in the Kryn/Dwendalian War.
The Pumats!!! They seem slightly queer, which make me happy. I liked knowing that not all wizard types are bitter angry traumatized or psychotic people in this world. Give me a Gandalf or two any day.
Fjord has a great butt.
In the Pumat scene there’s a book with the name Scanlan on the cover. Scanlan Shorthalt is a hero in Critical Role’s other series, The Legend of Vox Machina.
Overall
I watched this episode twice, and while it doesn’t have as much action as some previous episodes, I realized on the second watching that I like the depth of character it revealed in the Nein. I’m looking forward to the final episode of the season.
Nine out of ten outraged temple priests.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love comments! Just note that we always moderate because of spam and trolls. It's never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.