THE SHANNARA CHRONICLES Reap Betrayals and Deceptions

Episode 5, “Reaper”

[images: MTV]

After three episodes of the royal family bemoaning the loss of Prince Aine, we finally see said Noble Prince (Roy Snow) in a flashback to the time, ten years ago, when young Amberle and Loren were racing through the halls of the castle to see who could get to the Ellcrys Tree first. As it so happens, Amberle touched the tree and got a vision back then, too, before the two youngsters were caught by Went (Gary Young).

So, Prince Aine, showing just how slick a father he can be, chastises Amberle right before encouraging her to keep being contrary. Who knows? Maybe someday she’ll run the Gauntlet and become one of the Chosen — oh, wait. See what the show did?

All this going on while Prince Ander (Aaron Jakubenko) is playing kissy-face with Tilton (Emilia Burns)outside the secret back entrance to the palace, which Ander uses after the tryst. Which is observed by the gnomes, who use said secret entrance to attack the palace.

The gnomes, led by Slanter (Jared Turner), make it all the way to the throne room, where King Aventine (John Rhys-Davies) stands his ground as Aine and Prince Arion (Daniel MacPherson) lead a counter-attack, which leaves all the gnomes but Slanter dead. And Slanter manages to kill Aine.

So I’m assuming this feeds into the sense of guilt that’s been hovering over Ander this whole time. If he hadn’t been so reckless with that back entrance, the gnomes wouldn’t have gotten in and killed the Best Prince Ever.

 

Flash forward to present day, with Eggspedition on its way to Safehold to immerse the Ellcrys Tree Seedling in the Bloodfire to restore the tree to its full strength so as to maintain the lock on the demons trapped within. The fact that the group has gotten this far is quite the irritant to the Dagda Mor (Jed Brophy), who’s ready to slay the Changeling (Shushila Takao), but she says, “Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” or something — blaming her failure on the skills of the Druid, Allanon (Manu Bennett). She convinces Evil Boss that she can still work from the inside to turn the royal family against Allanon and divide the leadership of the Elven Army from within.

Evil Boss likes this plan.

Back at the castle, the royals receive a report that a demon raiding party is out burning villages and cutting the heads off villagers. And it appears the demons are living near the Break Line near the northern part of the land. Arion wants to launch a full-scale attack, but Eventine refuses, instead choosing for the army to secure the land from further attack.

Jealous Prince does not like this plan.

Meanwhile, Amberle (Poppy Drayton) is still seething with all sorts of conflicting tween emotions — rage, jealousy, anguish, depression, anger, rage, jealousy — because the Ellcrys Tree told her (she thinks) not to let her emotions get in the way of her mission. Which she’s taking to mean that she needs to avoid any relationship, especially with Will (Austin Butler). Will’s just trying to get along, and he doesn’t understand Amberle’s cold shoulder, except when it comes to Eretria (Ivana Baquero), because — well, sleeping with someone has a tendency to throw a lot of emotions into the blender, doesn’t it?

So, Amberle is jealous of Eretria, but she can’t let on that she’s jealous, and Eretria knows she’s jealous, only Eretria is trying to be tough and everything, which is difficult to do while being dragged from a horse with your wrists locked up, right?

But these women, they’ve gotta save face. Which leaves Will just shaking his head in bewilderment and befuddlement.

Trust me, kid. It never gets any easier…

But then! And attack! By Wolverines Rovers! Cephalo (James Remar) has his people buried in the ground, and they pop up to surround the Emotion Train and capture Amberle and the Elf Stones, leaving everyone else to die at the hands of the Things That Go Bump In The Night.

Eretria, working her deal with Cephalo, rides off from the Rover camp, leaving Amberle to Cephalo’s … ahem … tender mercies, shall we say? Only they’re not so tender, and Eretria isn’t so self-centered as she lets on, even though her rescue of Amberle is supposedly because the Princess offers an even bigger reward than Cephalo gave her.

Taking Cephalo prisoner, the Eggspedition journeys around a toxic waste dump and makes it to their destination — a fort where they can stop for the night. Except it’s been overrun by the Reaper, a demon beast unleashed by the Dagda Mor. And what an ugly creature it is…

Drawn to the scent of blood, the Reaper chases after new targets, and Cephalo comes up with a plan to draw the beast away from Amberle. Using Will as bloody bait, he takes the half-elf back through the toxic waste dump, with the Reaper giving chase. Just as it seems all is lost, Cephalo throws a lighter into the mix, blasting the Reaper to bits and saving everyone.

Is Cephalo a newfound ally? Will has said when the demons come, there won’t be any more “Elf this” and “Human that” but instead just “us” against “them”.  Cephalo clearly is working out of a sense of self-preservation. His motives are never much further beyond what benefits he’ll get out of the circumstances. I doubt very much that he had any altruistic tendencies here. He’s looking to score some points so he’s not treated that badly as a prisoner. Saving Amberle’s life will undoubtedly work in his favor.

Now, back at the castle, we’ve got our other other two story threads playing out. Allanon has decided that Bandon (Marcus Banco), after using his power to save Catainia (Brooke Williams), needs to learn how to control his power and really use it. The Druid has lost his sense of Amberle’s presence, and suspects that Bandon might be able to make contact with her through the Force Ellcrys Tree.

Of course, there’s no explanation as to how Bandon’s power would work like that, as it’s not been established that he has any ability to communicate with anyone. His power is to see someone’s possible future death. But let’s go with it, because it gives Bandon the opportunity to somehow have a face-to-face with the Dagda Mor, and when his eyes go all black and fiery, that’s not a bad thing, is it?

Remember, Bandon is a character unique to the television adaptation, so there’s no telling where his story will lead.

Prince Ander offers Gnome King Slanter a deal: freedom in exchange for guiding a small task force into the Break Line to scout and hopefully destroy the band of demons raiding the outlying villages. Slanter agrees, and off they go, but Arion still thinks it’s a bad idea. In the end, he agrees, and tells Ander he’ll work on getting King Eventine to change his mind about battle.

Plenty of deception going on in the episode already, with Eretria “deceiving” Amberle, then returning for her rescue. Ander working behind Eventine’s back to find the demon raiding party and put an end to them. And then there’s our last scene, with Arion confronting Eventine in the throne room. The dog is missing. The dog is smarter than most.

Because it’s not Arion. It’s the Changeling! With a dagger!

And alas, King Eventine is dead and the Changeling now sits on the throne.

You can bet the dog will play into the unmasking.

 

The Shannara Chronicles airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on MTV.