The Shannara Chronicle is back with another two parter, and episode 8, named Amberle, was an episode of emotional journeys and self discoveries.  Here are my thoughts on the episode named Amberle.

The Shannara Chronicles has definitely ramped up the action and violence this season, but this episode was a nice change for the viewers.  I thought the pacing was slower in this episode, but that was a good thing.  I think it felt more organic and cohesive and scenes flowed better in this episode.  And I loved that they focused more on the characters in this episode.  The emotional development in this episode was key and well done as well as the pacing.

As I said before, this episode should really be called the episode where everyone reaches  either a crisis or an epiphany in their own journey.  The most prominent arc of soul searching was centered around Wil Ohmsford and rightly so as he is our protagonist.  He and Eretria make it to Arbolon to find that the Crimson are already there and have taken it over.  The sanctuary of the Ellcrys has been defiled and some of the Chosen have been killed. While Eretria tries to go after and save the remaining Chosen, Wil goes to the Ellcrys where he is admitted inside the tree, and he gets to see Amberle again.  He confronts her on leaving him without telling him, but she is not the only person he confronts.

The Sword of Shannara was broken by the Warlock blade in the last episode.  The Sword is the only thing that can stop the Warlock Lord.  In order to get the sword back in action, Wil has to confront what is truly haunting him which is the belief he has that he is not good enough to save the world.  He confronts his father and himself, but the person he has the hardest time facing is Amberle.  In the end, his heartbreaking goodbye to Amberle moved me and I thought was a good resolution for fans who may not have been satisfied with Amberle’s fate.  I loved their scenes together and I felt that his journey in the Ellcrys was necessary and a really good moment to develop his character.  And once more Austin Butler delivered a stellar performance.

But he is not the only one facing his fate and discovering who he really is.  Eretria and Bandon also have similar moments in this episode. Eretria is the sadder of the two as her character takes a dark turn this episode.  Fans see her find the remaining Chosen and save them from members of the Crimson who are about to kill them.  Eretria shows true courage and quick thinking all of which are traits we as fans have come to love about her.  But unfortunately, she is in a situation where she leaps from the frying pan and into the fire.  The Crimson chase down her group as she tries to get the Chosen to safety in the sewers under Arborlon.  They surround her group and things do not look good for our heroine.

And then she gets help from the least likely of sources.  Cogline said that once the Warlock Lord was resurrected he would send his minions to capture Eretria.  That is exactly what happens. A cloud of smoke, which could have been a Mord Wraith, kills off all the Crimson, but instead of leaving it takes over Eretria’s body.  The last we see of Eretria is at night and she wakes up outside the Ellcrys’s sanctuary covered in blood that is not her own.  Wil finds her as he is leaving and when he asks her about the blood, a very confused Eretria has no idea what happened.  She hugs him and we see her eyes go dark and then we get a shot of a dead member of the Chosen hidden in a bush nearby.  What will the future hold with Wil and Eretria now that she has been corrupted?

Bandon also goes on a path of dark discovery as well. This seemed a little forced to me.  It was already discovered earlier in the season that Bandon had gone down a path beyond redemption when he killed a pre-teen boy in front of his parents.  So it seemed a bit odd that he suddenly had a heart when he asks the Warlock Lord his one request which was returning Catania back to life in exchange for Bandon’s loyalty.  The Warlock Lord seems too powerful to really need Bandon, and it seemed like an outcome that was too good to be true when the Warlock Lord does indeed bring Catania back.

But magic always has a price as we quickly see.  The Warlock Lord turns Catania into his mindless slave that does only his bidding.  He then tells Bandon that the only way Bandon will truly be his follower is if he truly goes to the dark side and kills Catania.  In the space of five minutes we see Catania revived and then dead again.  I felt like there should have been more of a struggle for Bandon and maybe have a moment when Catania breaks from the mind control that the Warlock Lord has her in to give that one last painful stab of regret to Bandon.  I just feel that this scene could have been more impactful if it was not as rush.  I didn’t fully dislike it, but I did wish there was more to it.  And how did Bandon know where to find Catania’s body if even Ander had no clue where it was?

Now a scene that I really enjoyed was the moment of bonding that we got with Mareth and Allanon.  I think that one of the best scenes that really stuck with me in this episode was the moment where Mareth asks Allanon if he ever loved her mother.  I really want to give props to the actors in this scene (Manu Bennett as Allanon and Malese Jow as Mareth) and  as they both really delivered a touching scene.

And how can I not also talk about General Riga’s gruesome and satisfying death scene in Graymark at the hands of the Warlock Lord?  General Riga was really beginning to get on my nerves and I was really glad to see him go, and his death was thoroughly gruesome and could rival something seen in Game of Thrones.  I do wish that there was more development for his character and felt that there was room for it.  He mentions one time about the death of his pregnant wife at the hands of demons, but if this was his driving motivation, why didn’t we see or hear more about it?  I think this pain and loss, which was driving his hatred, could have been explored and would have made him a villain that fans both hated and understood.  Even a flashback of him finding his dead pregnant wife could have gone a long way and had a more visceral impact on the fans.  I was glad to see him go because of all the pain he was causing, but that was about it.

But overall I did like this episode quite a bit.  I found that really there were only a few things that I could really nitpick over.  I can’t wait to see what is to come next as the next two episodes will be the last for the season.  How will all this conclude?  I guess I will have to watch episode 9 and 10 to find out!