Willow - Episode 2 - Review

After venturing forth to locate Willow, in the hopes of saving her brother, Kit and the rest of the group discover that the unassuming kitchen hand, known as Dove or Muffin Girl is in fact Elora Danan. Now Willow has the task of actually convincing her that she is who he claims, whilst also providing assistance on the quest.

The quest to find Willow seemed like it may have taken more than one episode, but after finding him at the end of the last one, it seems that there is more to be done, before he is on board with the quest to save Airk. Bringing the crew below ground to the new home of the Nelwyn, Willow can’t help himself and immediately explains the at Elora Danan has returned, which excites his fellow Nelwyns. The problem is that no one truly believes it, given the hardships they have gone through, hope it seems is easy to offer, proof is a bit harder. With the questers sitting down amongst the Nelwyn, Willow is then carried in on a grand chair, giving us a sense that he is in charge. Sadly that effect is ruined almost immediately when he goes on and on about the rebirth of Elora and what it means, channel a life-coach sort of vibe. Given his claims, many are not convinced and demand proof, so Willow brings Elora to the front and tells her to do the finger test, which even with prompting she gets wrong, this shatters the hope that was built.

With people not believing in Elora, Willow is disheartened and for good reason, his purpose as a sorcerer was to train Elora Danan and if she has no magic, what is his life’s purpose now. A new purpose is provided by his daughter Mims, who convinces him to help on the quest and along the way find the Elora Danan within. The decision to help couldn’t have come at a better time with Kit deciding she wasn’t going to hold back in the hopes that something might happen. After catching up with Kit, the group travel together for a bit, before coming to a stop and letting Willow begin to teach Elora. Where things take a turn is when we leave the heroes and head back to the castle, where the Queen has discovered that Elora is gone. With only herself and the old lady that was taking care of her, aware of who she was, she requests the captain of the guard head out to find her, the problem is that he is possessed by dark magic.

The episode ends with Elora getting captured by the captain and his now converted guards, after they tracked down the group, but that was no the interesting part. No one really believes that Elora is Elora, not even Elora and when she fails the most basic spell for the umpteenth time, she gives up. Her giving up and storming off, gives the others a chance to vent their frustrations at the quest being delayed for the teaching of someone that most believe is not the queen of all. The reason why I liked it, was that it gave them all a chance to become more rounded people, Boorman is a riot but one that is clearly only interested in his own interests. Jade has potential to be a kick ass warrior, but seems to want to stick around Kit and Grayson, well there is more to him than we got to see before.

With each of these reveals, the actors playing the roles bring some great moments to the screen, with Jade being a standout of the lot. There is clearly something between Kit and herself and while neither one wants to admit it, they both can’t help but dance around it, so seeing the pair have these moments is fun. Boorman is again proving to be a delight and while there is clearly something shifty about him, it is hard to look away and while Grayson gets more screen time his secret knowledge is perhaps a little too on point, which could lead to disaster down the line, or a last minute save, who knows.

What the second episode did is expand on the mystery of Elora, is she the one destined to save them all, or just someone who might have magic. The flashbacks to Willow trying to get Sorsha to allow her training were nice, but really didn’t do much story wise, a single line about how he tried would have been enough. Elora being captured could lead to them chasing her down, which doesn’t leave much room for Airk, but hopefully the chase won’t last long. The second chapter of Willow gave us more of a look into what the ritual character has been doing and while some of it was fun, there does appear to be cracks in the foundation.

The Score

7.5

Review access provided by Disney

The Pros

+The scenes with Elora were interesting, as it doesn’t confirm much in any one singular way

+Willow getting a chance to be the almighty knowing one was fun…

The Cons

-… even if the entire bit came off as a forced and felt more like a life coach bit

-Kit is still being weird and given she is the leader of the quest, it is hard to like her