Willow | Chapter 6: “Prisoners of Skellin” Episode Guide

Airk remains trapped in the Immemorial City, where strange voices tempt him to enter a foreboding temple. Resisting at first, he sets out across the desert landscape.

Elsewhere, the fearsome Trolls have captured Kit and Willow, taking them to the mines of Skellin. Locked inside a crow’s cage, they meet another prisoner, a gruff and cynical man who claims to be none other than Madmartigan (though he doesn’t resemble him). Kit reveals her identity to the Trolls Sarris and Falken. They warn Kit and Willow that escape or rescue are impossible.

Meanwhile, Boorman, Scorpia, Elora, Jade, and Graydon plan just such an impossible rescue. Having escaped once before, Boorman leads them through the Troll sewers and into the mine tunnels. Graydon then attempts to reconnect with Elora, who is uneasy.

They approach an open vat of elixir, a liquid substance refined from the vermiscus within the mine. Boorman explains that by drinking the elixir, the servants of the Crone improve their strength and agility. When the liquid starts to bubble, Elora notices the tip of Cherlindrea’s wand is mysteriously glowing. After failing to quell the bubbling with a spell, she sneezes and a magic pulse erupts through the mine.

Allied with the Withered Crone, the Trolls attempt to force Kit to reveal the whereabouts of Elora, but when news arrives that the others have infiltrated the mines, they realize that she is already nearby. If they capture her, the Crone will offer a rich reward.

Willow identifies the man in the crow’s cage as Allagash, a former knight of Galladoorn who once fought alongside Madmartigan. Allagash claims to know where Kit’s father is. But earlier, Boorman had told Kit that someone betrayed Madmartigan during their search for the Kymerian Cuirass. According to Allagash, the traitor was Boorman himself.

While Boorman, Jade, and Graydon disguise themselves as mineworkers, Scorpia decides to help rescue as many of the imprisoned laborers as she can. As they part, Scorpia tells Jade she will have to choose between her family and Kit when the time comes, and reminds Boorman that this quest might be his one chance at redemption.

Left unguarded in a torture chair, Kit manages to slip her hand loose and pass a tool to Allagash. Free of their cages, Allagash offers to take them deep below the mines to a place where they might just find Madmartigan.

Moving in their disguises, the group realizes Boorman has forgotten the way through the tunnels. A passing Troll asks Graydon to accompany him on a job, leaving them separated. When Boorman, Jade, and Elora make their way along the edge of a deep precipice, the latter drops Cherlindrea’s wand.

Making their own escape, Allagash explains to Kit and Willow that he resented Madmartigan after his friend deserted their army and “ran off to chase fortune and glory” without inviting him. But years later, Madmartigan did reunite with Allagash, and took him and Boorman on the quest for the Cuirass.

The search had led Madmartigan and friends to the tomb of Wiggleheim, a Nelwyn adventurer. The Cuirass might have been inside, but they were unable to find out after Boorman betrayed the group and stole the Lux Arcana. When Trolls attacked the rest of them, Allagash gave Madmartigan’s name as his own to give his friend a chance to escape. Madmartigan disappeared behind the door of the tomb, and 10 years have now passed.

When Jade and Elora question where they’re going, Boorman reveals they’re in fact headed for Wiggleheim’s tomb. He assures them that the only way they’ll manage to rescue their friends is if he’s wearing the Cuirass.

Deep below the mines, Elora feels unable to connect with her magical powers. She’s convinced something’s wrong with her abilities. As Elora and Jade plan to leave Boorman, the exasperated warrior promises them that he can fix “the biggest mistake of my life.”

The groups reunite. Allagash calls Boorman a traitor and they start to fight. Elora tells Willow she lost the wand. At least Graydon has Willow’s staff, except no one knows what happened to him.

Kit breaks up the fight, and Boorman tries to accuse Allagash of being the traitor. But when Kit says he left her father to die, Boorman admits that he did. “I would’ve stayed with him to the end. I should’ve, I’m sorry.” With Trolls approaching, Allagash shows them how to enter a secret door to a hidden chamber.

Inside is the entrance to Wiggleheim’s tomb, where a voice explains that they must solve two riddles to gain entry, or die trapped inside. Jade solves the first and Elora the second, revealing an entrance to the tomb filled with treasure. Boorman and Allagash soon fight over the Cuirass.

Kit discovers her father’s sword, and hears his voice behind a strange doorway, asking for her help. Elora and Jade plead with her not to go, but Kit tries to enter. As the tomb begins to collapse, they pull her away. Allagash is gone, and he’s taken the Cuirass and Lux Arcana.

When they meet the Trolls outside, Graydon reveals himself, giving Willow his staff. Allagash arrives wearing the Cuirass and they fight the Trolls. They defeat them, but Allagash is wounded, and Boorman takes the Cuirass. Staying behind to hold off the Trolls, Allagash tells Kit that her father had left because “he believed one of you would protect what matters most” — Elora Danan.

As they escape across an encrusted lake of vermiscus, a resentful Kit doesn’t understand why her father had put guarding Elora before his own family. Elora feels guilty and laments her inability to control her powers. When Kit is trapped below the surface, Elora rediscovers the wand and must free her, but it’s unclear if her spell will work.

Meanwhile, Airk has continued his escape across the barren landscape, only to find himself right back where he started at the Immemorial City. Exhausted, he drinks an unknown liquid from a small pool, and soon hears a voice nearby. Airk finds a beautiful young woman locked in a cell, asking him to let her out.

Inspiration points for the look and feel of the Immemorial City included Babylonian imagery, Blade Runner, the works of H.R. Giger, and the archaeological city of Petra.

Some of the first concepts of this episode would have showcased baby Trolls, but the practicalities of realizing such a thing in an already large-scale episode meant that idea fell by the wayside early on.

Another early out-of-scope concept was an elaborate gondola system moving passengers up and down the mountain within cages that resembled a less cramped version of the crow’s cage prison from the movie. Though not featured in an action set piece, they are still in the background of the Skellin mine environment.

The final environment with the vermiscus crust was realized by shooting on a set made of a perspex floor lit underneath, with a pattern depicting the molten vermiscus.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen actor Christian Slater in a Lucasfilm production. He appeared as the young Preston Tucker, Jr. in 1988’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream, and before that, we saw a young Slater in a 1980 television commercial for Kenner’s new Darth Vader action figure case. (Slater’s co-star in the advertisment was the younger Peter Billingsley, who would soon appear as Ralphie in 1983’s A Christmas Story). Most recently, he voiced Ren in 2021’s LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales.