This is no time for punning.
But hey, remember in the pilot when Allanon warned Wil that magic comes with a price?
The bill came due last night, and Amberle paid it.
Credit: MTV
So what I really want to know is, have your tear ducts recovered yet?
We begin this week with Amberle in the Bloodfire, conversing with her dream self.
Dreamberle tells her that fate has chosen them both.
You are the seed, Amberle, she says.
In the physical plane, Wil cradles a non-responsive Eretria.
Eretria shakily stands and realizes she needs to bleed a little more to get Amberle out of the Bloodfire.
Amberle says absolutely not.
She cant do that.
The Wambertrio charge back through the tunnels, but this time the trolls give pursuit.
They wrestle open a portcullis, which they cant close once theyre on the other side.
We all have a part to play, she says, ordering them to run.
Wil swears hell come back for her; she kisses him goodbye and turns to face the trolls.
We hear the sounds of a fight as the elves escape the tunnels while more trolls race in.
Wils ready to turn back and help, but Amberle reminds him, She wants us to go.
They steal two of the trolls horses and vamoose.
In Arborlon, Diana encourages King Ander to go motivate his troops.
Without a word, he kisses her.
Neither of them discuss the dead brother elephant in the room, which is probably for the best.
Meanwhile, in one of the palaces dungeons, Catania pays a visit to Bandon.
Hes in chains, just as he was when we first met him.
She says yes, but seriously, lady, why?
He grabs her and hollers to the guard that hell snap her neck if he isnt released.
The guard frees him, then pushes Catania out of the way.
He shouldnt have touched you, he grits.
I … dont know whats happening here.
Are we still rooting for Bandon?
I feel like maybe were not anymore?
But it feels like it takes them just a couple of hours to arrive, which is weird.
Havent they been wandering all over creation for the last few weeks?
How is Safehold only a short horseback ride away from home?
Knowing in retrospect the choice Amberle has to make, its not entirely surprising what happens next.
She doesnt respond to this, instead saying, Im not afraid anymore.
Eretria was right; this is my part.
I know what I have to do, and its okay.
And Im not ready to let you go, not yet.
Wil leans forward and kisses her as the rays of the setting sun slant across their faces.
I love you, too, he says.
Then were treated to elven sexy times, featuring quick camera cuts and a cozy afterglow.
As she snuggles in Wils arms, Amberle wistfully tells him everythings perfect, then says, Im ready.
But were not, Amberle!
Then Ander addresses his cheering troops.
If we die tonight, let us fall so the Ellcrys can rise again!
So that every race in the Four Lands may have a future to call its own!
Outside the city, the Dagda Mors rallying cry is simpler: Kill the elves for banishing us!
Leave no ruins to remember them by!
Those are very different methods of motivating troops, but both seem effective.
He lands amid the elven front line, and all hell breaks loose.
Gotta say, the showrunners did a solid job with the battle scenes here.
Its hand-to-hand warfare, brutal and intense.
Wil dispatches demons with the Elfstones, looking ever more confident with the magic.
Allanon stumbles across them mid-battle, but nothings ever good enough for grumpy Druid daddy.
The idea was to get herebeforethe demons arrived!
See, I told you hed be happy to see us, Wil quips.
Oh, Wil, always so glib in a tense situation.
Holy wow, did I not expect that.And thendemonic undead Arion turns and kills their shared love, Diana.
It … how … UNDEAD DEMONIC FORMER LOVER MURDER!
Anders awash in horror and grief.
Ander runs him through, and Arion dies (again) as he lived: rocking a man bun.
Good-bye, brother, Ander chokes.
I did not expect Arion to turn up as the Four Lands version of a White Walker.
What a nasty little surprise this show had for us here.Man, Anders had a bad couple of weeks.
The demon blasts him over and over with bolts of magic, but Allanon keeps rallying.
And then, theres poor, sweet Wil, so happy they made it to the Ellcrys sanctuary.
He eagerly turns to Amberle.
All right, wheres the seed?
Oh, just dont say you dropped it.
I dont think I could take that right now.
Amberle explains thatshesthe seed.
I have to become the Ellcrys.
Thats how we save it.
How we save everyone, she says, trying to smile through her tears.
Wil speaks for all of us.
You cant just become a tree.
She begs him to support her because otherwise she wont be able to go through with her sacrifice.
Wil begs her to wait, but of course, she cant.
She touches the Ellcrys, and the door in the trunk opens.
She enters sadly, resolutely, as Allanon unsheathes his sword and beheads the Dagda Mor.
Suck it, baldy.
Inside the Ellcrys, Amberles softly smiling as a blinding white light envelops her.
The demons vaporize into ash all over the Four Lands as the tree comes back to life.
The Forbidding is back in place.
The Ellcrysis is over.
The elves have won.
I cant hear her.
Wil then turns on Allanon, furious that he knew what would happen and didnt warn them.
Allanon calmly tells Wil that Amberle understood the decision and paid the price.
But all Wil sees is that he couldnt save another person that he loved.
The Druids not done life-coaching.
(Um, that actually is kind of on you.)
Allanon assures her that they both failed him.
Um, thank you?
Pep talk the third: Allanon approaches Ander, whos looking broodingly over his kingdom.
I guess Diana really is dead?
I was hoping shed be recuperating in a royal hospital.
The king thanks Allanon for everything.
It was my duty, Allanon replies.
Thats Druid for, Youre totes welcome, my liege.
Anders still processing the reappearance of his brother and the loss of Amberle.
She is watching over us all, Allanon soothes.
A mysterious figure trudging through the wastelands in a shredded cloak.
Finally, the time comes for Wil to leave Arborlon.
For what its worth, Im grateful to you for showing me who I am.
Im sure well meet again one day, Wil says as he clasps Allanons hand.
But hes cool with it.
Then let them come, he says.
Im not going to lose her, too, Wil says.
Allanon looks quietly proud as Wil rides off into the now-demon free Four Lands.
Thank you, New Zealand, for the gorgeous scenery this season!
Someday, I will vacation in you.
And finally, we cut to the girl in question.
The minister of trollery?
The troll czar removes his/her/its mask to reveal … something we cant see!
But Eretria sure does.
The Brooks Nook
Well.
They kept the ending.
I quite liked watching Amberle struggle with her decision; book Amberles internal doubts didnt factor much at all.
But the one thing the show did was add dimensions to characters who were often flat on the page.
Book Wil is benignly competent.
Book Eretria mainly says, You are for me, Wil Ohmsford.
Book Allanon and book Amberle are total opaque and unknowable.
(Okay, I did like book Ander better than show Ander.)
How did you think the characters stacked up in the end?
Season 2, if there is one, seems to be entering uncharted waters.
Will it borrow from other books while keeping Wil, Eretria, and Allanon at the center of it?
What story lines would you like to see next?
For me, its all about a Stee Jans/Ander relationship.
Stander in season 2!
