Willow (Season 1), Episode 4: After the last episode’s events where Willow, Jade, Graydon, and Silas take on the Capella Pastures, the fourth episode of “Willow” titled “The Whispers of Nockmaar” sees the team finally reach Nockmaar. We also saw Kit and Boorman visit the Pitiless Pass. Because of that, the first four of the team had actually reached the cursed Ballantine earlier before his platoon could banish Elora in order to trap her soul. During the battle that transpired after that, the cursed soldiers- Silas and Ballantine had died. On their way, Graydon had gotten infected, thereby forcing them all to seek refuge in the castle nearby to treat him. What happens, then?
Willow (Season 1) Episode 4 Recap
How do Willow and his team help Graydon?
For Graydon’s safety and everyone else’s, everyone chains him up near the fireplace until the curse is finally lifted off of him. Willow then reminds Elora that she was in a place where Bavmorda had planned to banish her soul so that she couldn’t ruin her parade. However, she was stopped by Willow, Raziel, and Sorsha. But now, Graydon is cursed by the Gales, who in turn are working for the Crone. They all have basically walked into the same trap once again, and the only way out this time is by getting the curse out of Graydon. Kit wonders if they all could use the energy blast he performed on Ballantine and his team in order to cure Graydon. Willow says that the process will kill him when Kit starts to wonder if the best possible option would be to murder Graydon before seeing him turn into a full-on monster.
Later, as the group begins to gather ingredients, Willow gives them two rules: 1- Don’t eat any of Graydon’s evil goo. 2- not to go into the high tower where Bavmorda had earlier tried to banish Elora’s soul. Boorman meanwhile begins drinking very old booze while becoming enthralled by a mysterious locked door. Jade here finally admits how she’s confused because this isn’t the life she thought she’d have as a knight. She also mourns that she had to kill her own mentor, Ballentine.
Meanwhile, Elora still doesn’t believe in her true magic powers and even gets pronunciation advice from the possessed Graydon. One of the most crucial pieces of information revealed then is how Graydon has very bad scarring around his chest from something he’s too embarrassed to talk about. He even sees a vision of his father yelling at him to make him an heir with Kit, which he believes will redeem his son from his mysterious past. Elora, however, doesn’t agree with Kit and asks Willow to come up with a plan to save him. After giving a little history lesson on Bavmorda’s past, Willow tells everyone how the Order of the Wyrm used to practice taboo magic against nature and converted Bavmorda with their warped beliefs. The ingredients required for the ceremony to undo Graydon’s curse still remain in the castle. He then pulls out a book called ‘The Malatrium’ and lists a bunch of items that needed to be acquired in order to perform an, um, exorcism successfully. But this could only happen if Elora herself performs the ritual since Willow hasn’t recharged his power after the last episode’s events. This also adds to the overall dynamic between the two attempting to expand upon the two’s romance.
What happens at Nockmaar?
With Willow helping Graydon, everyone goes back to doing their own thing. Jade is forced to face the ghost of her mother and fight a huge adversary, while Boorman is tricked into wondering who took away his precious Lux Arcana. Kit begins to see visions of her grandmother, Bavmorda, and starts realizing a few things. And at last, Elora seemingly travels back to the moment she was born and how she was smuggled out of the castle as a baby. It forms one of the most poignant moments of the show thus far, playing into the film’s nostalgia. Basically, everyone comes to face their own troubling realities at Nockmaar.
When Kit and Jade finally run back into each other, Boorman finds them. In a funny moment, when he’s asked to tell them something only he would know, Boorman says they have the hots for each other. The tension is, however, broken when Boorman violently accuses Kit of stealing his magical key, only to have both the women dominate him. But in that very moment, we see the light rising in the tower Willow had suggested they not be in.
Elora, after her encounter with her mother, goes back to check on Willow, only to find out that Graydon is fine. He claims how the spell worked, and he’s doing better, but Willow was infected with it and, thus, left. They then go off to find him and together come up with the idea that maybe he went to the high tower, but would that have been possible? Elora, of course, trusts him, and the two head to the tower. It’s precisely their light that Kit, Jade, and Boorman had earlier seen from across the castle.
Willow (Season 1) Episode 4: Ending Explained
Graydon, upon reaching the tower, reveals himself to be the demon still and decides he’s going to finish the ritual that Bavmorda had since started to get rid of Elora for good. Willow arrives on time (again), and although he first scolds Elora for breaking his main rule, she believes he will save her. Graydon then shows Elora the events from the movie and how what Willow pulled off was not a huge complex spell but a simple magic trick that had distracted Bavmorda. Willow, however, says he will win again the same way he did the first time because of his friends. As he says that, the dreamy shadows of young Sorsha and Raziel from the original film enter the room just as they did before, only this time, the rest of the team subsequently replaces them, Willow’s newly found friends: Jade, Kit, and Boorman. They all have once again arrived to save the day just in time. Their trio manages to stop Graydon, but only momentarily, with Willow stuck there. Now, Elora is the only hope to defeat the demon, but she still lacks that confidence. What happens now?
Does Elora cure Graydon’s curse?
Well, thankfully, after going through a contemplative realization, Kit finally tells Elora that she did grow that bush in the woods before she was taken away. She does, indeed, have magic in her and now has to do something. She improvises and sucks the demon out of Graydon’s body, and as it happens, the truth about Graydon’s past is finally revealed.
As a young boy, Graydon had an older brother, but somehow, the former was possessed – much as he is now – and killed his brother as a response. Graydon’s parents had forever blamed him for that. Elora left shocked, standing there, overwhelmed with what had just happened. After saving him, the group finally leaves Nockmaar for good, with everyone believing in Elora Danan more than ever.
What does Elora’s hair turning red denote?
But as they all leave, the evil Gales watch, ready to pounce. As the group walks under dense sunlight, we notice how Elora’s blonde hair is slowly turning red. What can this allude to? Well, it can be associated with her control over her own magical powers and her place in the journey toward becoming the most powerful. Because if you remember from earlier, in Willow’s apocalyptic vision, we had seen Elora’s hair as being completely red. Are they really heading closer and closer to the great war?
When you think the episode’s ended, we get another scene with the score gradually bursting in the background. Ultimately, we see Arik wake up in a grand, desolate city. As it’s revealed, it’s the Immemorial City beyond the Shattered Sea. Crone is clearly trying to unite the siblings and turn them all into the main villains. We know that our heroes still have a long way to go and many more obstacles to face.
