One big step closer to Safehold.
The quest to save Eretria comes front and center in the latest episode of The Shannara Chronicles, in which the series mines some familiar dystopian tropes and explains why there’s been so much focus on Bandon (Marcus Vanco).
Full spoilers for “Utopia” continue below.
While Amberle (Poppy Drayton) and Wil (Austin Butler) track down Eretria to save her from the elf hunters — and start to consummate their budding romance in the process — the elf hunters sell Eretria to a group of humans living in a compound called Utopia (hence the episode’s title). There the lead human Tye (Josh McKenzie) tries to convince Eretria that her friends have abandoned her, thus convincing her to stay with them.
We want to hear it.
Aside: I love that it’s Amberle pushing the rescue mission, and think The Shannara Chronicles has done a wonderful job of evolving her and Eretria’s friendship instead of hinging their relationship on Wil. It was important to Drayton and Baquero that their characters’ journey be grounded in more than just reliance on a man, and the way that’s been executed has been really wonderful.
Obviously there’s an ulterior motive in Utopia, but it’s never quite clear what it is. Does it have something to do with Eretria’s “body being the vessel” like the melty faced man said? If so, viewers who have read The Eflstones of Shannara might have an idea of where the show is going with that, but for now it’s intentionally vague. The utopian-setting bait-and-switch is a familiar trope amongst dystopian storytelling, but one that works well, and The Shannara Chronicles executed it well here. The show would have nailed it even better if the audience had a better grasp of the threat Eretria and the rest faced instead of leaving that open to be resolved later.
Amberle and Wil end up finding Cephalo (James Remar) on their journey to save Eretria, and he does the same betrayal move that’s become a bit repetitive in the Rovers’ plot lines throughout this season. He ultimately sacrifices himself for the greater good and to save his adopted-ish daughter, but I doubt that he’s completely down for the count just yet. He’s almost died so many times before that I imagine we’ll see him again.
We want to hear it.
As the journey to find Safehold and rescue the Ellcrys becomes more grounded in present day society (like the fact the map is an old subway map) it’s somewhat jarring to return to the high fantasy world of Arborlon, so The Shannara Chronicles has been wise to keep the storylines there to a minimum. The two key sequences were Ander (Aaron Jakubenko) coming to terms with being king because the rest of his immediate family is dead, and the second — and more significant — is that Allanon (Manu Bennett) believes Bandon could be the next druid.
Bandon has been an interesting character from the start. He’s been clearly important from pretty early on, but the show hasn’t known what to do with him and has kept him very sidelined. It’s in the reveal that he could be the next druid that we see his ultimate role in the series begin to take form; this allows there to be a passing of the torch down the road should Allanon die (and considering how tangential his role has been so far, I wouldn’t put it past The Shannara Chronicles to off him this season or next).
The Shannara Chronicles was smart not to drag out the rescue of Eretria, and the show solidified her friendship with Amberle in the process. While some of the elements of “Utopia” felt familiar, both in the dystopian trope of the utopian town and in the series’ repeated use of Rover betrayals, overall this was a solid way to move the story forward and get us one step closer to the journey to Safehold and quest to save the Ellcrys.
