The Nelwyns welcome the outsiders to meet with their High Aldwin leader.
Willow begins his first attempts at training Elora Danan in the ways of magic. Meanwhile, agents of the Crone continue their quest to find the prophesied empress.
Story Gallery
In a flashback, Willow returns to Tir Asleen and reunites with Sorsha. He wants to train Elora Danan in the ways of magic, but the queen will not allow it. She reveals, however, that she sent Madmartigan in search of the Kymerian Cuirass, which could be the key to stopping the Crone. Her husband and his squire have yet to return.
In the present, Willow, High Aldwin of the Nelwyns, takes Elora underground to meet his people. While they’re overjoyed to see the girl’s return, she fails the traditional finger test. The Nelwyns leave in disappointment.
Elsewhere, the Lich — a dark being of the Gales — senses that Elora has revealed herself. At Tir Asleen, Sorsha sends Ballantine in search of Elora, but something has changed in the knight. A darkness courses through him following an injury in the battle against the Gales.
At dinner, Willow and Elora disagree over her training; he wants her to remain and develop her skills, and she demands to continue the search for Airk. “I’m going with them,” she says, refusing to stay.
Willow’s daughter, Mims, comes to console her father. She encourages him to go with Elora and the others, reminding him of his duty to protect Elora. “When she’s ready, you’ll give her this,” she says, opening a chest with a wand inside.
Willow finds Elora by the River Freen, the same place she was discovered so long ago. Elora’s troubled over her failure at the test, and implores Willow to come with them. He agrees, but only if she will learn the ways of magic. Shortly after, Willow bids goodbye to his daughter and the journey begins.
Sorsha’s knights come upon the travellers’ abandoned campsite. His face discolored and voice distorted, a possessed Ballantine attacks his fellow soldiers.
Kit and Boorman talk as they lead their horses. Thraxus tells the girl that he was her father’s squire, and aided in the search for the Kymerian Cuirass. “He found it,” Boorman says to a shocked Kit.
At night, Willow continues teaching Elora about the nature of magic. “There is an energy that flows through all living things,” he says. “What we call magic is the art of transforming that energy from one form to another.” He begins to teach her the incantation for a seed spell, which should create a sprout, but Elora struggles.
Willow remembers going to see Elora when she was a child, trying to convince her to come with him for training. The girl runs away, drawing the attention and anger of Sorsha. “She’s as much mine as she is yours!” Willow yells, as he’s driven from the kingdom. “I don’t care what happens to you or her!”
Ballantine and his men arrive at the Nelwyn camp. Sensing something is amiss, Mims says that Willow and the group have returned to Tir Asleen. When Ballantine realizes she was lying, the Nelwyns have already disappeared.
As she continues to struggle, Elora’s confidence wavers and Willow’s patience wears thin. “You have to focus!” he yells, and the girl runs off.
Alone in the woods, Elora practices the spell. Graydon comes to find her, offering to help her and providing a boost of confidence. “You seem to be the one person who can’t see how extraordinary you are,” he says before leaving. With a renewed sense of calm, she tries again.
In the camp, Willow confers with his friend, Silas. The sorcerer says they should leave; in his vision, he didn’t see Elora defeating the Crone. It was something much worse. “In the end, for our world to survive, Elora Danan has to die,” he says tearily. Meanwhile, Kit goes to Boorman, demanding to know what happened to her father and the Kymerian Cuirass.
At dawn, Elora wakes in the woods and sees that nothing has sprouted. She pounds the ground in anger before beginning again. But an unseen attacker — Ballantine — strikes from the side. Elora falls unconscious, and the lost knight drags her away…as a plant begins to grow.
Trivia Gallery
In the 1988 movie Willow, Mims Ufgood was played by Dawn Downing. In this story, she is played by Annabelle Davis, Warwick Davis’ real-life daughter.
The flashback that begins the episode originally appeared about 16 pages deep into the script, before it was bumped up in sequence in editing. The script points out that Willow wears a braided goatee that was “all the rage in Andowyne in the early ‘90s,” the timeline equivalent from the 1988 original in our world.
Though High Aldwin Ufgood’s hat and vestments are similar in style, they are unique from his predecessor, High Aldwin Junn, as seen in the 1988 movie played by Billy Barty.
With its return to the Nelwyn village, this episode has numerous callbacks to cultural details seen in Willow (1988) — from the Aldwin’s rituals of the finger test and consulting the bones, to the festive maypole dance that follows.
Willow’s private room is his herbarium, where he grows a variety of roots, herbs, and other plants used for medicinal purposes.
The river that Elora stands at when Willow finds her is the River Freen, where she first came into Willow’s life many years earlier.
In the 1988 movie, Willow managed to avoid being vomited on by Elora (Burglekutt was not so lucky). Now, somewhere, Burglekutt is laughing.
This episode reveals that the world of Andowyne has, at least, two moons.
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Explore more
Chapter 1: “The Gales” Episode Guide
A sudden attack by the mysterious Gales prompts Queen Sorsha to seek help from an old friend.
Chapter 2: “The High Aldwin” Episode Guide
The Nelwyns welcome the outsiders to meet with their High Aldwin leader.
Chapter 3: “The Battle of the Slaughtered Lamb” Episode Guide
The young heroes led by Willow are pursued by assassins who have been infected by dark magic.
Chapter 4: “The Whispers of Nockmaar” Episode Guide
The journey leads the adventurers to seek refuge in the haunted castle of Nockmaar.
Chapter 5: “Wildwood” Episode Guide
The enchanted fairy forest beckons, but is home to dangerous Bone Reavers.
Chapter 6: “Prisoners of Skellin” Episode Guide
Taken prisoner by Trolls, Kit and Willow meet a new companion.
Chapter 7: “Beyond the Shattered Sea” Episode Guide
Our heroes finally reach the place where all maps end: the infinite expanse of the Shattered Sea.
Chapter 8: “Children of the Wyrm” Episode Guide
The Immemorial City awaits -- Refuge of the Wicked Crone and her dark designs.