Willow (Season 1), Episode 3: After its two-episode premiere, Disney’s latest continuation of an 80s IP project – “Willow” – returned this weekend with its third episode. As we already learned, years have elapsed within the story’s timeline, and the first two episodes took a while to warrant the franchise’s revival as the story needed to be continued in a way that felt logical and true to the world George Lucas and Ron Howard had put together way back in 1988. While the return of charismatically familiar faces such as Warwick Davis and Joanne Whalley certainly added some necessary connective tissue to the storytelling, the show surely hasn’t been perfect in all aspects. Does episode 3, titled “The Battle of the Slaughtered Lamb,” change any of that?
Willow (Season 1), Episode 3
The Battle of the Slaughtered Lamb Recap
The last episode ended with the capture of Elora Danan by the servants of the Crone – an unspeakable evil that threatens to destroy the world. Their purpose, as we learn through Willow, is to banish Elora’s soul for all eternity, thus completing the task of the evil queen. In episode 3, we learn that Madmartigan actually had a kind of swash-buckling relationship with Boorman, the latter of whom is convinced of his own demise despite not having experienced it firsthand. Meanwhile, Willow and his friends venture on the journey to find Elora.
After being kidnapped, Elora wakes up and finds herself alone in the middle of the woods. However, she soon (very conveniently) ends up making a couple of allies in Annie and Hubert – ladies of the forest that she bumps into that eventually act as comic relief. Well, at least for a while. But it’s also here that we learn of what the name Elora Danan, our fish-out-of-water protagonist’s very identity, means to the ordinary folks of Tir Asleen. As soon as the ladies learn who Elora is, they immediately pledge their unswerving allegiance to her, addressing her as the true empress. Thus, both Annie and Hubert enlist to serve Elora in the collective fight against darkness. The situation soon turns somber, though, when one of them gets killed off by Ballantine and his goons who show up there, raising the show’s stakes further whilst giving our young protagonist something more to keep fighting for.
Why does the team split up? Why does Boorman want the Lux Arcana?
Willow, after having a minor disagreement with everyone, tries to calm the team and makes them realize there’s an interdimensional portal opening that the Gales (or the Crone) were going to use to banish Elora’s soul. On top of that, he even sees a vision of Elora being possessed and tortured badly. Boorman, meanwhile, suggests they all split up and find the best path to find Elora. While Kit and Boorman take the Pitiless Pass, the rest embark through the Capella Pastures. But what’s really going on with Boorman? Well, here he makes yet another extremely vague insinuation of how Madmartigan probably died trying to find the Cuirass. According to him, things would’ve been different if he did make it out alive.
What’s at the Slaughtered Lamb? What are Were-Rats?
The episode also continues to expand on Kit’s emotional insecurities, starting off with her learning about how Jade would only willingly let her win because of an oath she had kept for her mother. After this, Boorman and Kit finally reach the Slaughtered Lamb, which resembles a gloomy graveyard. But as we learn from him after Kit insists on him to answer, this was actually where he and Madmartigan had hidden Lux Arcana. Boorman’s intention truly was just to retrieve it, which he indeed manages to do without Kit’s knowledge. However, while he sneaks it in, Kit comes across a bunch of wererats (rats with werewolf powers), forcing the two to escape.
Meanwhile, the soldiers carry Elora to the base of a mountain, which would supposedly take them to a place where they plan on banishing her soul for eternity. Elora decides fulfilling the wishes of the Crone is not something she wants. She finally casts her first spell against someone, burning one of the possessed knights simply by touching it. It’s here that we finally get to learn that Elora’s touch is dangerous to whoever is poisoned by dark magic. At the same time, Willow, Silas, Jade, and Graydon arrive on the spot at the exact moment. Did her magic spell work? Does it really matter? As Boorman and Kit escape from the werewolf-like rats, they run into their friends as the battle commences.
Where does Willow’s arc take him? What happens to Ballantine?
As we had learned through a flashback earlier of Sorsha telling Willow how he would never be a great sorcerer, in this episode, we see him silently accept his shortcomings. He deliberately tries not to use magic for long, for the reasonable fear of running out before he needs that skill the most. It’s only by the end of this episode that Willow finds himself in the midst of a losing fight and sees his best friend, Silas, take a fatal blow when he chooses to weaken Ballantine’s entire squad with one almighty spell. Silas, unfortunately, dies in Willow’s arms, and she tells him to make sure his wooden dog toys reach Libby, knowing that he died proudly protecting his best friend. The spell, on the other hand, works like a charm, as the evil gets wrenched from the army of soldiers, leaving Ballantine with the hard choice of asking Jade to bid farewell to him by putting him out of his misery in an emotional scene.
Willow (Season 1), Episode 3 Ending Explained
At the end of the episode, we see the team go up the ‘scary steps’ that the cursed Ballantine was earlier forcing Elora to take. Willow advises against it, and when Boorman asks why, he doesn’t give a straight answer like always. It’s only when Graydon falls down at the back due to being cursed of bad magic that Willow mentions the place they’re at – Nockmaar. This is significant because even earlier, we’ve seen that the Gales’ curse doesn’t just allow them to take control of people but also rots them from the inside out. This means even when the curse is lifted, and the victims sometimes continue to wither and eventually die. This also explains Ballantine willingly choosing to die at Jade’s hand. Will Graydon meet the same fate? How will Elora help the team in this new location? We shall find out in the next episode.
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