Can an elf princess, a cranky Druid, and a naive farm boy stop a demon army?
Welcome to the Four Lands!
On the whole, this episode gets the job done.
Credit: MTV
Whats the Ellcrys, you ask?
You dont have one of those in your backyard?
(They also greet her with their bare chests, in case youve forgotten that youre watching MTV.)
Im definitely sensing a lot of sweaty elf-boy hate.
Are you sure you want to do this?
murmurs Amberles handmaiden, Catania (Brooke Williams).
Honestly, this process seems unnecessarily dangerous.
Cant they draw names from a hat or something?
She knocks him over right back and literally steps on him to finish in the top seven.
Awww, girl elf power!
Well, thats inauspicious.
Theyre called Elfstones; theyre magic, and they belonged to his father.
Wils mother gasps out that he must go find the Druid, and then she croaks.
Wil assures Flick that hes got this.
That night, the Chosen are honored with a party.
You have chosen poorly, lady.
The episode never circles back to this, but lets assume its planting seeds for future angst.
When he doesnt, she knocks him out with his sword and decides to leave Arborlon.
She also calls his halfling ears short-tips.
Her name is Eretria (Ivana Baquero), and I like her already.
As they leave together, the camera pans past an ominous-looking sigil on a post.
Anyway, Eretria takes Wil back to her place and tells him to strip and get into the bathtub.
Wil asks Eretria if shes worried about Rovers and then spills his guts about the Elfstones being magic.
Sweet, simple, Wil.
Youve obviously been drugged, player.
And, surprise, surprise, Eretria steals the stones and leaves him knocked out in the tub.
And its not even her house!
Shes been tasked to rob the dickens out of it as her first solo Rover mission.
Both men think thats crazy.
The Ellcrys keeper discovers that the great tree is sick, which last happened exactly never.
Hes the Druid Allanon (Manu Bennett), and he greets King Eventine as my old friend.
Anyway, Allanon touches the Ellcrys and declares that shes dying.
You tell that to your people when the fairy tales are ripping out their throats, Allanon growls.
Can we all just agree right now that Allanon is fantastic?
Hes angry and brawny and basically the anti-Gandalf no offense to Gandalf, of course.
Oh, and as it turns out, Allanon is right.
Wil is surprised to learn that his ancestors were great kings and warriors.
(The Ellcrysis?)
Your destiny awaits, Allanon booms, turning his horse and riding off.
Damn, thats a cool exit line.
She pours Amberle some wine, but Amberles far smarter than Wil and immediately pegs Eretria as a Rover.
Eretria in turn calls Amberle princess, having glimpsed the royal seal on Amberles cuff.
Why dont you just call it a book of magic?
Is it a Druid requirement that everything has to sound so mysterious?
Wil asks, speaking for us all.
At this startling realization, Wil tries to bug out for Storlock.
But Allanon says Wil cant walk away from his destiny.
But uncovering the Codex leaves Allanon with a burned, damaged hand.
Magic always comes with a price, Wil.
Never forget that, he advises.
Theres the plot for the rest of the season.
That doesnt sound so bad, Wil says brightly.
Its not like you need a human sacrifice or something.
Problem is, nobody knows where Safehold is.
But, you know, details.
Hes basically an elf Darth Vader with funky face jewelry instead of a helmet.
When Allanon emerges from the vision, he tells Wil they need to get back to Arborlon, post-haste.
In Arborlon, Ander finds Amberles demon sketch.
Eventine realizes that the Chosen might be in danger and orders them to the palace for safety.
But when Lorins hanging out at the Ellcrys, Amberle suddenly appears.
She asks where the Chosen are, and when he tells her, she stabs him in the gut.
Poor Lorin dies thinking the woman he loved killed him.
Then Amberles eyes flash silver-red because, duh, its the Changeling.
Its bad, man: blood and broken bodies everywhere.
Allanon says the DM wont be truly free to walk the Earth until the last magical leaf has fallen.
Until then, hell dispatch demons to do his dirty work.
But Eventine barks that a true leader doesnt run at the beginning of a crisis.
Man, Arion sucks.
So, you know, no pressure.
Plus, Allanon thinks theres a demon spy in the castle.
We, of course, know its the Changeling, but we dont know who its impersonating.
This knocks the wind out of the long-lived, slow-to-age Allanon becausegasp,Aunt Pyria was in love withhim.
I thought she understood that there was no future for us, he murmurs.
Tragic, long-denied elf/Druid love?
Allanon stresses that nobody outside of that room can known Amberles location to keep her safe until they arrive.
Manx, the kings beloved dog, perks up at this news, and his eyes flash silver/red.
You guys, this means that the real Manx is dead, which is terribly sad.
As, um, are the six dead Chosen.
Amberle is, in fact, with her aunt.
Oh, kitten, its not your fault.
Sometimes ancient magical trees just die.
Ah, but she does have the Elfstones.
However, theyre useless without someone to unlock their magic.
Otherwise, hell sell her into a marriage that she presumably will not enjoy.
Looks like Eretrias off to track down ol Short Tips.
On their road trip, Wil tries to get Allanon to talk about his relationship with the kings sister.
Im sure the age difference mustve been kind of weird.
How old are you, 350?
Stop talking, Allanon snaps.
Your father is the only reason this world didnt fall into darkness 30 years ago.
His courage and fortitude inspire me still, Allanon says.
Wils confused by this because Shea died a sad, lonely drunk.
But, he adds, magic affects each person differently.
Wil doesnt love this answer.
I liked it better when we didnt talk.
(Sidenote for non-book readers: Season 1 ofTheShannaraChroniclesis based onTheElfstonesofShannara,book 2 of Terry Brooks first trilogy.
Just go with it, okay?)
Wil runs off to fetch Amberle, leaving the Druid alone with his ex.
And now you return, young and strong as a spring stag.
Allanon tells her that he didnt have any choice but to go into Druid hibernation after the war.
You will never know how sorry I am, or how much you still mean to me.
Gah, theHighlanderof it all is killing me!
Too bad the show didnt useWho Wants to Live Foreverhere, instead of the Queen-lite song they chose.
You wouldve seen so many fans shedding a solitary tear.
Once again, you are the puppet master, manipulating innocent lives as you see fit.
Does Allanon ever get tired of being the living embodiment of a bad-news harbinger, I wonder?
She glimpses his ears, and he explains that hes a half-elf.
Speaking of, in Arborlon, another leaf falls, and a new demon is released.
They arrive on the scene at a run, and the Fury abandons Pyrias body to menace them.
Wil shoves Amberle behind him and faces down the enormous monster with only a tiny dagger to protect them.
So what do we think, gang?
Im definitely eager for the rest of the story to unfold.
After all, who knows what scraps of the old world would be retained over the centuries?
Its a fresh twist on the old sword-and-sorcery tropes; heres hoping it catches on with audiences.
Finally, the Brooks Nook:
Welp, big changes abound here, for sure.
The Chosen selection is more aggressive, and Amberle has far more agency in pursuing it.
Then theres the way Wil meets Eretria.
Plus, Ivana Baquero brings an intriguing fierceness to the role.
And then theres Wil.
Oh, sweet Wil.
Hes far less competent in the show, no?
to pull that off yet.
And how about Wil saying that saving the Ellcrys isnt going to require a human sacrifice?
They put that in to troll book readers, didnt they?
At least we can all agree that Arion is still the worst.
