The Whispers of Nockmaar
We’re met with a group of strangers at the most dangerous place on Earth. Willow warns them that they need to be careful, given that Bavmorda is the most brutal tyrant of her age. Apparently, this is Kit’s grandmother - which could explain why she’s so evil and despicable in this series.
The group hide out at this cursed castle, with Graydon becoming weaker by the minute. Willow warns that in the small hours of the night he’s going to lose control, while Kit suggests they do “what must be done.” In her words, killing him. Elora pleads with Willow to do something to prevent this. Well, he may have just the solution – the Malatrium. This happens to be a special book and as they look over it, they just so happen to uncover a spell that’s dangerous and could be just the alchemic solution needed. However, they need to be careful not to touch Graydon or get infected. Oh, and to stay out of the High Tower too.
Kit complains the whole time – about fetching the ingredients, about doing something for others, and potentially killing Graydon. When Kit eventually walks back down, with a jar in hand, she is distracted by The Crone’s voice, which echoes through her head. She ends up burning a banner up on the wall but eventually makes it back into the main chamber with what’s needed. ..
Jade is complaining about how hard it is being a knight and how her dream isn’t exactly how she expected it to be. Boorman gives some solid advice, and in fact it prompts Jade to hug him.
After all the characters are separated inside the castle, Jade sees frightening visions of her own, along with a skull-faced knight – General Kael – coming at her. Elora also sees visions, seeing ghostly apparitions depicting her mother being killed by a knight. ..
When she heads back into the main chamber, he finds a sickly Graydon up and about, claiming that he’s never been stronger but he’s still possessed. Willow shows and berates her for heading into the High Tower. However, a possessed Graydon points out that Willow didn’t defeat him alone, and as Kit and the others burst into the room, Boorman begins hitting Graydon after Willow blasts him with magic.
Elora decides to suck the evil out of Graydon, lying above the Prince and taking the evil energy out of him. It seems to pass through Elora and she sees a vision of Graydon becoming possessed and pushing his brother out of a tree. ..
As the group makes their way through the night, they come across a group of Crone’s minions waiting for them. The minions give the group instructions to stay away from them and move on. However, as they get closer, Kit can see that there are more of them and he begins to worry that they won’t make it to the city.
As the episode ends, we cut across to Airk, who’s very much alive. He heads out into a courtyard, with flakes of ash floating lazily in the wind, looking out at the desolate world before him.
The Episode Review
While the sub quest itself is interesting, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Kit and Jade complain almost the entire time and in fact, Kit’s go-to solution is to just outright kill Graydon rather than trying to help him.
The show struggles from a mish-mash of linguistic issues too. There’s a desire to try and throw modern language and colloquialisms in this, which completely contrasts some of the other characters, who are at least trying to adopt a more authentic fantasy idea closer to the first movie. As a result, we get a real hodgepodge of influences that lean closer to something more akin to a CW production.
Disney has had a rough week, with Willow not improving as the weeks go on. Hopefully the weeks ahead can improve this one.
