In and around Paranor
Outside Paranor, Wil, Allanon, and Mareth squabble about how to confront Bandon.
Disgusted, she gallops away, leaving Willanon to seek out Bandon and Flick in a ruined cavern.
Flick tells Wil he shouldnt have come, while Bandon negs Allanon with, You look tired.
Credit: Spike
(It involves touching a series of runes that light up like a Simon Says.)
This leads them to a concrete chamber containing a podium with slots for both their hands.
From his cell, Allanon warns that if Mareths not his daughter, theyll both die.
But she trusts Wil and sticks her hand in anyway.
Its painful, and Flick is spitting black-looking blood as a bright light blots everything out.
Mareth and Wil wake near Shady Vale, Wils childhood home, where Allanon presumably hid the skull.
The young man they saved introduces himself as Shea.
(Although if Sheas a half-breed, doesnt that make Wil only a quarter elf?
I swear, I thought he was introduced as a half elf last season.)
Mareth badly lies that theyre from out of town, so Shea offers to feed them.
Aww, hes a nice guy!
I agree with Mareths comment that this must be where Wil gets niceness.
Wil and Mareth quietly freak out about traveling back to a time before everything hit the fan.
After the meal, they split up.
Hes caught red-handed by a blonde who was eyeing him earlier.
She thanks Wil for rescuing Shea from her brother, which makes this Heady, Wils mother.
I cant handle it!
Heady was right; Shea has been having visions of mord wraiths and not telling her about them.
Wil says hes seen them, too, and theyre visions of the future.
Then Shea gets a vision of Heady in danger and takes off through a cornfield to find her.
Wil catches up with him just as a mord wraith appears and hisses, Shannara.
Wil destroys it with the Elfstones, and Shea demands to know what a Shannara is.
You are, Wil says.
Shea says he never told anybody that story.
Not yet, you havent, Wil replies.
When Shea wont stop stressing about the scarecrow competition, Wil snaps, You do win, okay?
You win the damn competition, and Heady tells her father that shes in love with you.
Wil says hes heard this story his whole life because, surprise, hes Sheas son!
Hooray for this irritated declaration of kinship!
What kind of messed-up competition is this?
Wil finally asks Heady for help, and she tells him their scarecrows sitting in the cornfield.
Wil realizes that this scarecrow marks the spot where Allanon buried the skull.
They had to travel back to a time when it was accessible.
Wil and Mareth bring the skull back to the cave and find Shea gone.
Like youd listen to two time travelers from the future rather than your heart, Mareth says.
Truly, this is advice for the ages.
Wil worries that Shea doesnt have the Elfstones yet and could run into trouble with the mord wraiths.
Youd think Wil wouldve heard about Shea fighting wraiths without the Elfstones.
So doesnt this potentially alter the future?
Does Wil telling Shea that hes destined to be a hero affect how Shea approaches the tasks ahead?
Wont Allanon be surprised to find Shea all, Man, those mord wraiths are jerks?
Wil shows up to blast them with the Stones, but not before one of them injures Shea.
They carry him into the barn, where Wil does his Elfstones healing trick.
(Heady calls it a miracle, but Mareth snips, Try magic.)
(Does she, though?
Life with her broken, alcoholic husband and her subsequent early death seem pretty grim.)
She calls Wil special, and he tells her its thanks to his amazing mom.
I AM HERE FOR IT ALL, PEOPLE.
They hug, and it isheartbreakingto consider how much of their grim future Wils keeping from them.
Mareth checks to see if Wils all right, and their eyes linger a bit.
(Mareths got a crush, remember.)
And so it begins, Wil murmurs.
Then theyre transported back to the present in Paranor, where Words Have Been Exchanged in their absence.
Dont you dare kill our stern Druid daddy,Shannara!
Allanon says that was Sheas destiny, just like Flick was destined for sacrifice.
Allanons bedside manner is terrible, but…is he wrong?
Flicks life in exchange for preventing the return of the Warlock Lord is a tragic but necessary price.
Ditto Shea and Bandon and Amberle.
By the time Wil and Mareth return, Flicks barely hanging on.
Bandon pulls a Kylo Ren and offers to teach her, but shes a hard pass.
Mareth frees Allanon just before Bandon knocks her out and destroys her illusions.
Bandon escapes with the skull, nicking Allanon with his poisoned sword on his way out.
Welp, Flicks dead, Allanons poisoned, and Bandon has what he needs to resurrect the Warlock Lord.
Its safe to say that this rescue attempt did not go well.
The trio bury Flick, and Wils overwhelmed with self-loathing for repaying his uncles kindness in this fashion.
Before that fight can escalate, though, Allanon collapses from the Warlock Blade poison.
In and around Leah
Now lets check in with the rest of the crew.
But hes just arrived when a contingent of Crimson soldiers appear and BRUTALLY MURDER THE KID.
She fights them off quite capably, but in the end, shes outnumbered.
Thankfully the ex-Druid Cogline appears to finish the rest of them off.
the source of the magical Silver River, the lifeblood of the Four Lands.
Once theyre alone, Cogline fills in some big gaps in Eretrias history.
(Its also why the Ellcryschose her to bring up the Bloodfire in season 1.)
Eretrias frustrated to find herself once again controlled by outside forces after trying to live independently all her life.
In the end, she forces it to bow to her and remarks that this wasnt terribly challenging.
Cogline warns her that this was a black wraith; the red wraiths are the ones with therealpower.
Yep, Eretria kissed the dark side, and she liked it.
Im sure that wontat allbecome a problem for her in future episodes.
(Allanon would totes approve of this self-sacrificing commitment to the greater good.)
These are good monarchs, in other words.
Jax ambushes Riga in the woods with the news that Tamlins done with him.
Unfortunately, Valcaa ambushes Jax right back.
Riga leaves to make Tamlin pay for her betrayal, allowing his right-hand man to finish off Jax.
Its a fantastic fight, and Valcaa more than deserves the killin that Jax delivers.
Say yes to that dress, lady!
In the heat of the battle, Riga stabs Ander and knocks the crown off his head (symbolic!
), but Anders still able to drag himself across the room as Rigas about to kill Lyria.
NOOOOO, NOT ANDER!!
He was a good guy doing his best under atrocious circumstances, and this outcome ismost distressing!
