Eretria comes front and center.
The Shannara Chronicles is making it clear that Wil Ohmsford (Austin Butler) isn’t the only main character on the new MTV fantasy series. In episode 5, “Reaper,” Wil’s storyline falls into the background as the show shines a light on previously supporting characters Eretria (Ivana Baquero), Ander (Aaron Jakubenko) and Bandon (Marcus Vanco).
Full spoilers for “Reaper” continue below.
Though the episode was called “Reaper,” it didn’t focus singularly on the Dagda Mor’s underling in the same way last week’s “Changeling” did. The Reaper did cause yet another delay in Amberle and Wil’s quest to find the Bloodfire, as they were sent scrambling once they realized it had impeded their advancement. But more importantly the episode offered some much needed character development for some key players who had been more or less sidelined in earlier episodes.
We want to hear it.
Chief among them was Eretria, the Rover girl with a soft spot for Wil. Though she was treated poorly while Amberle and the Elves held her captive, she had a chance to develop into less of a one-note side character when she came back to save the Elvish princess because it was the right thing to do. (Added bonus: she’s getting a lot of money.) Baquero is an actress most people know for her work in Pan’s Labyrinth, and she hasn’t had a chance to showcase her acting skills this season. We saw her stretch some of those muscles in “Reaper,” and overall her performance was a lot more appealing than what we’ve seen so far.
The episode ended on several cliffhangers, so it’s not entirely clear where Eretria stands with Wil and Amberle, but it was nice to see some mutual respect grow between her and the other lead characters that didn’t specifically relate to her relationship with Wil. I’m eager to see the show further explore her relationship with Cephelo (James Remar), who also got to be more than a one-note villain — though he did try to rape Amberle, which felt a bit played out.
We want to hear it.
“Reaper” opened with a flashback to the night Amberle’s father died, offering some more insight into the complicated relationships within the Elessedil family. The flashback also introduced the series’ first Gnome, for better or worse. The creature design for this creature was pretty terrible, and is just one of several moments in this episode when The Shannara Chronicles came off looking cheap, but there are some really interesting story elements to mine from this plot line that I hope the show delves into. Also, the world of this show has been hard to navigate since the sweeping first episode. It could improve its execution of relaying where the various characters are heading and why.
Ander got a significantly expanded role in this section, and thank goodness we’ve left behind his partying days. The relationship between him and his brother Arion (Daniel MacPherson) is extremely fraught, and both MacPherson and Jakubenko did a great job of shading in their brotherly issues without hitting the audience over the head with them. Both of these characters have key roles to play down the road, so it was welcome to see them get something interesting and dynamic to do finally.
We want to hear it.
Meanwhile Allanon (Manu Bennett) was trying to teach Bandon how to use his powers, which seems to have backfired as the Dagda Mor might have trapped him in some sort of mind prison (maybe?). This entire storyline felt tacked on to this episode and would have been better served in one that had more time to devote to it. Yes, there’s no complaining about having Bennett in every episode, but this felt like a distraction from the main story — all the more frustrating because it seemed like what was going on with Allanon and Bandon is going to be significant.
As for the cliffhangery-est cliffhanger of “Reaper,” the Changeling seems to have killed King Eventine (John Rhys-Davies) in something that would be a huge deviation from Terry Brooks’ book, The Elfstones of Shannara. That being said, I’m sort of OK with it. This dual role gives Rhys-Davies more to do than he’s had so far, and for a person who is clearly having so much fun in this part, why not let him go hog wild?
The Shannara Chronicles continues to improve, and it made the smart decision to let hero Wil Ohmsford take the back seat in this week’s episode for the sake of expanding upon some of its other key characters. Unfortunately some of these storylines felt tacked on, but overall the decision to focus on the likes of Eretria and Ander was a successful one. There are still some elements of the MTV series that don’t work, like the shoddy creature work for the Gnomes and the fact that it’s hard to get a sense of scope in the series, but fortunately the core of the story is strong and gets more engaging every week.
