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The Shannara Chronicles | 2.09/10 Review

The Shannara Chronicles - Wilderun / Blood

Paranor: written by Matt Lambert, directed by Toa Fraser Crimson: written by Evan Endicott & Josh Stoddard, directed by Brad Turner

In these two last episodes the second season of The Shannara Chronicles comes to an end. Most plotlines come to a conclusion here in a mix of cheesy lines, the well-known beautiful scenery, magical standard battles, traveling with plot speed, sweet moments and in general satisfying endings for the characters. And although there were a few irritating moments in it, I enjoyed watching both episodes.

“By its very nature true power can never be shared.”

In the penultimate Bandon’s story comes to an end. His life has been a tragic one and it’s sad that it found such an ending. I was confused when Bandon asked the Warlock Lord before to revive Catania, because since she died after Bandon started his quest that couldn’t have been the actual reason for Bandon to revive the Warlock Lord in the first place. Now we get to hear his true motives – he wants to learn from the Warlock Lord and get stronger so that no one can hurt him again.

It’s a bitter request since by mind-controlling the revived Catania the Warlock Lord has hurt Bandon, too. Until the end, Bandon is unable to find a place of peace for himself. He gets over-confident when the Warlock Lord hands him the codex, but in the end the Warlock Lord kills him without much of an effort.

Bandon’s story is the story of someone who was horribly wronged and lost his path as a result and couldn’t find a way back. And when Allanon finds Bandon’s dead body, his face shows regret and sadness, not anger or bitterness.

“Nothing can disguise the blackness of your soul.”

Since the Warlock Lord killed Riga at the end of the eighth episode and kills Bandon in the ninth episode, he’s the last antagonist left for the season finale. Unfortunately he’s not much of a villain. Sure, he has the power to keep our heroes busy, but he is not interesting at all. We aren’t given any information about him that could explain his character better, we aren’t given any real history and no real motives or intriguing relationships. His character consists of cheesy lines about destiny and darkness, weird make-up, no clear idea what he actually tries to achieve and the strange fact that he looks like Allanon, which never really pays-off in any way.

Especially compared to General Riga and The Crimson he’s a disappointing enemy. General Riga and his extremist Crimson guard had motives and goals that were understandable and can be found in our present lives in various forms, it was more than magic and Druid spells. But in these last two episodes The Crimson almost vanishes from the scenery. The underlying problem – the resentment of magic in society – isn’t solved at all, but with Riga’s death everybody focuses on the Warlock Lord and forgets that there are still many problems to solve even without Riga around. I think a showdown with The Crimson would have made for a better story in general for the season finale, but I also realise that Mareth and Wil needed more of a magical challenge than a political one.

“With this crown, we acknowledge a new Queen, Lyria of Leah.”

Lyria has been a strange figure in this season and even at the end I’m still struggling to understand her character. In general, it feels more like she’s there to give other characters a source of conflict: she opposed her mother Tamlin and gave Eretria a reason to come to Leah, and in the end she is carrying the McGuffin around and therefore has to be protected. She generally is a character that reacts; she doesn’t drive a plot by her own. It’s the same in the last two episodes: the people around her try to protect her until they fail at that and she gets kidnapped. After the door to Heaven’s well is opened, she’s of no use anymore but not particularly threatening, so the Warlock Lord doesn’t even bother to kill her. Ultimately she had no role in defending herself or in saving her kingdom. She gets a few lines about protecting her kingdom and its people, and I think that is one of the more prominent parts of her character development. She started out as a runaway princess who apparently didn’t care much about the Kingdom of Leah and its people, but now she feels protective of it and I suspect that her mother’s death to be part of the cause for that change. But that’s about all we get for Lyria. She proposes to Eretria, but Eretria is mostly busy with fighting her dark side, and I want to note that Lyria wasn’t part of the solution for this problem either. All in all she has a good plot ending with becoming the Queen of Leah, but her character didn’t really grown on me as much as I wished it had.

“Perfect congress of magic and science.”

Cogline is an irritating character. His appearance in the season premiere felt a bit forced, and all the history and explanations for his character were never given any space to actually unfold. He’s just there, sometimes doing important stuff and giving advice every now and then, but I’m always unsure how he’s supposed to fit into the picture. He mentions that he once was a Druid but apparently he left the order. Did I miss when the show explained why? There seems to be no real bad blood between him and Allanon, or any bitterness towards the Druid’s order, since in the end he wants to help Mareth rebuild it. I like that he uses science instead of magic though. His part of the fight against the Warlock Lord was quite (visually) impressive to watch, even though he didn’t accomplish much. And for the rest of these two episodes he’s mainly giving advice and supporting characters in little ways. He’s crucial in Eretria’s rescue, which is quite meaningful I believe.

Also, did anyone else notice that when Cogline tells Wil and Mareth goodbye under the trees, he awkwardly guides his horse backwards to avoid the tree in front of them, instead of just riding around it? I suspect the camera was too close, and that’s why he couldn’t ride straight on. Whatever it was, I thought it was hilarious.

“I think you're gonna make a great general.”

Garet Jax had a nice and round plot in this season. He started out as someone who seemed to care only for himself (and for money), and ends up fighting for his new friends and the Kingdom he now feels actually connected to. I am a bit confused about how and why he showed up in Storlock at the beginning of the penultimate episode, because Grandal asked Jax and Slanter to go after Lyria – and Lyria is in Wilderun, not in Storlock. I won’t complain about it too much though, because it gave us another few wonderful fights and a great demonstration of epic knife throwing skills.

He gets another nice moment when he confronts The Crimson, though I’m a bit sad that this is basically the only part that deals with what’s left of The Crimson. And we get a short but great fight against the possessed Eretria, and is together with Cogline responsible for exorcising the Wraith from Eretria. We see more of Jax the leader in these two episodes, and in the end he’s a general in the army of the Kingdom of Leah. It’s a good place for him to be in and I’m happy that this is the end to his plot. I enjoyed his character a lot.

“This world owes Allanon a great debt.”

Allanon has been a wonderful character in this show. He is a good man, skilled and wise, and he’s ready to do what’s necessary even if it’s the hard and painful thing to do. He believed that emotions would be a weakness that would prevent him from doing what he has to do, and there exist many stories where a protagonist hesitates because of their feelings, so it’s not that Allanon is necessarily wrong. But the importance of positive emotions can’t be denied, and Allanon isn’t blind to them even though he feared them. He resisted giving up the codex for Wil at the beginning of this season, but in the end he was willing to give it up for Mareth, and in the penultimate episode he admits to Wil that with Mareth the best part of him will continue to live.

Allanon knows he’s dying. He’s only alive because of his magic, and when he was in the magical prison in Paranor we already saw how he became weaker. Now his rune magic transfers to Mareth, and with this Allanon slowly loses his powers, including his mind-reading abilities. So I didn’t expect the fight between him and the Warlock Lord to go in his favour, but it was sad to see him get killed like that anyway. It’s a consolation that he wouldn’t have lived for very long now, anyway, and he surely has lived for a long time. In the end, he could accept that Mareth was his daughter and found joy in that fact, and also had a friendly last talk with Wil before the Warlock Lord attacked. To have his story end now feels right – if the story continues, I’m not sure what would be left to tell. However, I’m worried about the Warlock Lord’s words: that Allanon would suffer in the third ring of the Forbidding. If that’s the case and Allanon really is in a bad place after his death, I very much want our surviving heroes to find and rescue him.

“It's like a chill in my blood, spreading to my heart.”

Eretria spends large parts of the penultimate episode fighting the darkness within herself, and in the second episode she’s mostly not herself. When she comes back to Wilderun with Wil, I was wondering if it was smart to have her be around Lyria when she’S struggling not to be controlled by their current enemy – and as it turns out it really wasn’t the best idea. While Lyria proposes to her it’s apparent that Eretria has very different things to think about. When they’re finally confronted by a Wraith, she tries to resist but in the end she’s overwhelmed and starts attacking Wil and Lyria. Finally she lets the Wraith in and possesses her and brings Lyria to the Warlock Lord. It’s notable that both Wil and Lyria try the you-can-fight-this-talk and bring Eretria back just through words of encouragement and love alone. Lyria tries it again when Eretria gives her over to the Warlock Lord, but it doesn’t help.

I think it’s interesting that unlike in many other stories love didn’t break the control here. After Eretria opens the dam on the Warlock Lord’s orders it’s Cogline and Jax who save her, using a combination of science (electricity to keep the Wraith in check) and magic (to banish the Wraith) to save her. It fits with this development that in the end Eretria doesn’t stay with Lyria. Eretria wasn’t a part of the solution to the Warlock Lord but a danger to her friends herself. That’s a horrible experience to make, losing control like that and hurting the ones you love, so it’s understandable that she wants to do something about it or learn how to deal with it. Cogline, despite being unhelpful when they were under time pressure, is her best option since he first gave her information about this problem and also tried to help her fight it. And Mareth, being the last Druid now, could be of help in this, too. So Eretria leaves the Kingdom of Leah and its Queen behind and joins Cogline and Mareth.

I think going out there and facing whatever comes up next will make for a better story for Eretria than staying at Lyria’s side and watching her girlfriend run the kingdom. The character Eretria doesn’t feel for me like she has arrived at the end of her journey yet.

“You're a much better badass than you are a reluctant hero.”

Mareth’s story has started this season when we were first introduced to her, but with the end of this season her story isn’t finished yet. She has been trained by Allanon for a bit now, learned more about magic and sword fighting and got her own sword, and still has Cogline around to teach her more about the Druids. They also have the codex back where she can learn from.

When she’s reunited with Wil in Wilderun, he also tells her that aside from being the future of the Druids, she’s also the heir to the throne of Arborlon. That is a lot to take in, and it doesn’t get easier. When she finds Allanon and the Warlock Lord in a fight, she joins and actually seems to be able to hold her own against the Warlock Lord, but she hesitates – understandably, because despite everything they’ve been through, it’s difficult to actually kill a man you’re looking in the face, especially if he’s looking like your father. In the end, Allanon is killed when he tries to win some time for his daughter, and Mareth has to watch her father die.

Together with Wil she goes after the Warlock Lord to stop him from poisoning Heaven’s Well. Mareth is doubtful though that they can actually do anything to stop the Warlock Lord – having seen her father die on top of the burden of being the Last Druid and the heir to the Elven throne has made her reluctant. Wil manages to remind her of her strength, and his own confidence helps her to find the courage to go on.

The fight against the Warlock Lord itself isn’t very impressive – he’s a much better fighter than they are. In the end they manage to kill him together, but the Well is already poisoned. Wil’s plan to fix the poisoning means for Mareth to lose him. Before he goes to die, they share a bittersweet moment and a kiss.

After the coronation, Mareth travels with Cogline and Eretria, and a lot of her story basically begins now. She’S the last Druid – and while I understand that she needs more training I also keep wondering: is she going to the Elves now? They don’t have a king, someone needs to get her to Arborlon, right? I really want to see how that could turn out. However, I do like the twist in the end and that she has a new task on her hands now: finding Wil.

“Until you have lived with magic, you can't know its price.”

We can really see a change in Wil compared to the rest of the season. Talking to Amberle and finding closure helped him find confidence and it’s feels like he finally got to a place where he feels good about himself. It feels right and is a good continuation of his story. He’s able to admit his feelings to Mareth and give her emotional support whereas before she was more likely to be the one to do that. He has accepted what he has to do, and that whole attitude also helps him in his relationship with Allanon. Their little talk before the attack was nice to see, and I liked that in the end Wil finally got to have a conversation where Allanon couldn’t read his mind. I feel like Wil’s complains about that were always valid because it’s rude and intrusive to read someone’s mind without their consent – especially when it’s a friend that should be able to trust you.

He has a nice scene with Eretria, trying to comfort and encourage her about overcoming the darkness inside of her. He tries to remind her of it later again, but sadly he’s not much of a match against the possessed Eretria in the cage. And then follows what I suspect is a missing scene: Wil goes from lying unconscious on the ground in the cage to appearing near the battlefield of Allanon and the Warlock Lord. I suppose after Eretria opened the cage and took Lyria, Wil just woke up and tried to find his friends, but it’s really confusing if you have to explain that for yourself and not seeing it. Even though he skipped that scene, Wil comes too late to save Allanon, and despite them following the Warlock Lord as soon as they can, he and Mareth are too late to prevent the Warlock Lord from poisoning Heaven’s Well.

It was nice to see Wil using both the Elfstones and the Sword of Shannara. Of course neither his magic nor his sword fighting skills are enough to beat the Warlock Lord, and he is badly wounded. With Mareth’s help, he is able to finally kill the Warlock Lord. However the infection of the water doesn’t vanish with the Warlock Lord’s death, and Wil soon realises that his blood is able to purify the water. In a way, it mirrors Amberle’s sacrifice – she became a tree to save the Four Lands, while Wil sacrificed his life in the water with the same goal. That he’s able to accept it and go through with it also shows that he has grown, though I’d argue that being the one left behind and having no choice in what happens is difficult on its own way. This time that is Mareth part, but at least Wil and Mareth had a little bit of time to say goodbye. We then see Wil fall into the water, and his heroic sacrifice saves the Four Lands indeed – the water becomes clean again.

I was happy to see that Wil isn’t actually or completely dead in the end. I didn’t have much hope for such a plot twist in the end, but it’s a nice surprise! Of course Wil’s bad luck never disappoints him and he finds himself in an unfriendly environment – it’s a wasteland full of bones, and flying creatures that are about to attack him when this season ends with a black screen and shows us the words: to be continued.

I haven’t heard any news about a renewal, but surely they wouldn’t end the show with a cliffhanger and a promise like this if they didn’t know they’d get a third season, right?

I have enjoyed this season a lot and I can’t wait to see a possible third season!

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