Image from opening scene.  Credits to MTV.

The Shannara Chronicles, which aired on January 5th at 10 pm on MTV, started out strong with an epic two hour premiere named the Chosen.  The two hour premiere is considered episodes 1 and 2, so this recap will be for episodes 1 and 2.  The premiere started out with a race to determine the seven Chosen elves who will protect and take care of the sacred tree, the Ellcrys.  The Ellcrys is an ancient and sacred tree revered by the elves.  It is said to be the last line of defense and a sentry against the Forbidding, the other dimension which holds all the demons imprisoned in darkness.  Amberle (Poppy Drayton), the Elven Princess, decides to run the race despite the fact that, traditionally, women have never been selected to be one of the Chosen.  Amber breaks that tradition by being one of the first seven to cross the line with a little help from the Ellcrys herself, who calls out to her.  Coincidence?  Definitely not.  The race was a dramatic and exciting beginning to the show, and it set up Amberle up as a character you want to root for.

Lorin (Mattias Inwood), the man who is in love with Amberle, also wins a spot as the Chosen.  At the ceremony to officially announce the Chosen, Amberle’s Grandfather, King Eventine Elessedil (John Rhys-Davies), is surprised by the fact that his granddaughter is one of the Chosen, considering how dangerous the race was, and that he had no idea she was racing. There is tension between Amberle’s two uncles Ander (Aaron Jakubenko), who trained her and supported her breaking 1000 of years of tradition, and Arion (Daniel MacPherson), who is angry that she was put in danger in the first place.  Arion states that they had made a pact to protect Amberle after her father’s, their brother’s, death.  This is the first time that we see tension in between the Royal family members and not the last.

It is at this ceremony where each of the Chosen are asked to touch the Ellcrys to be accepted by it.  All the Chosen touch the tree, and nothing happens, which seems to be normal, but when Amberle touches the tree, the Ellcrys gives her a dire vision of a future.  In it, the Elven kingdom is under attacked by demons and her people are being slaughtered which, of course, shakes her to her core.  She collapses.

The scene jumps to the awakening of Allanon (Manu Bennett), an ancient druid who has been asleep for thirty years in an ice cave.  He is awakened by the Ellcrys or Amberle touching the tree or both.  He pulls out a cool sword and states “It has begun”.  A bit ominous and intriguing?  You bet, and another main character has been introduced.

In the very next scene, another important character is introduced.  Wil Ohmsford (Austin Butler), a halfling elf, is racing back to his dying mother with what he hopes has a cure to the disease that is killing her.  He is informed by his uncle when he arrives that he is too late, and that his mother can not be saved.  The last moment that Wil has with his mother is touching and heartbreaking.  It is in this moment that the mother gives Wil three blue stones, Elfstones, which are magical and belonged to his father.  Her last words is for Will to find the Druid.

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While burying his mother, Wil asks his uncle about his father and the elf stones.  His Uncle Flick gets very intense and tells Wil that the stones put his father in an early grave and tells Will to get rid of them. Will ignores this ominous advice, and keeps the stones.

Meanwhile, in the Elven capital Arbolon, Amberle who is in her room after her fainting spell, and she is sketching a dark drawing of the demon she saw in her vision.  Lorin finds her with the picture, but dismisses it as nothing.  He convinces her to go to a celebration being thrown for the Chosen despite her initial reluctance to go.

The scene jumps back to Wil, who decides that he is going to leave his home to go to Storlock, a town renowned for the best healers.  Despite his uncle initial misgivings of Wil leaving he agrees to let Wil go, but warns his nephew to keep his elven ancestry hidden (his pointed Elven ears) as there are creatures out there that don’t like Elves. Wil agrees and starts his journey on horseback to Storlock.

It comes back to Amberle who comes to the party for the Chosen reticently as she is still shaken by the earlier vision.  She, once again, begins to hear the Ellcrys calling to her.  After distracting the persistent Lorin, Amberle slips away from the party to visit the Ellcrys.  She goes and touches the tree. Once more the Ellcrys gives her a horrible vision, and this time she sees herself holding a bloody knife after stabbing Lorin.  Lorin followed her from the party, and finds her with the Ellcrys.  Amberle is terrified.  She tells Lorin that the Ellcrys is giving her horrible visions of the future and she tells him that she is going to kill him.  Freaked out, Amberle decides to leave Arbolon, and when Lauren goes to stop her, she knocks him out.

Meanwhile, Wil is attacked on the road by a troll, but is saved by a beautiful human girl named Eretria (Ivana Baquero), and another important character has been introduced.  With no horse, and no where to go, Wil follows Eretria.

In Arbolon, Lorin is confronted by Prince Ander after Amberle has gone missing, and he forces Lorin to tell him what Amberle told him about how she was getting visions from the Ellcrys.  Ander doesn’t believe Lorin right away and storms off.

In the garden of the Ellcrys, the royal gardener notices that the Ellcrys has wounds and sores, which the tree has never had before.  The gardener realizes that the Ellcrys is sick and goes to tell the king.  While doing so, Allanon barges into the meeting after taking out the guards.  The king knows Allanon, and calls him the last druid of Paranor.  He allows the druid to stay despite Arion’s deep distrust of Allanon.  Allanon requests to see the Ellcrys, and is allowed access.

Back to Wil and Eretria, Eretria leads Wil to a wood house, which she claims is her house.  She makes him strip down and take a bath, and gives him wine which is drugged.  He asks her whether she is afraid of Rovers, which are gypsy like humans who steal for a living.  She laughs and calls him naive and says he doesn’t know the first thing about rovers.  She then apologizes for the epic headache he is going to have, and then Wil passes out.  As it turns out, Eretria is a rover, and robbed Wil of everything (except his clothes) including the Elfstones.

The scene comes back to Allanon who is studying the wounds on the Ellcrys, and declares that the Ellcrys is dying, and will soon start shedding leaves.  As each leaf falls, another demon is let loose into their world, and the barrier that holds the demons in the Forbidding gets weaker.  He tells the king to mobilize and prepare his army.  Prince Arion is once again skeptical of Allanon.  It is in this scene that the very first leave falls and withers away.

With the fall of the leaf, the first demon, Dagda Mor, is released into the world.  He uses very similar magic as Allanon, and, in an epic cinematic scene, forms a barrier that cloaks his existence.  The Dagda Mor is a former Elven druid who turned evil.  He is very powerful and dangerous.

The scene comes back to Wil being woken up in the bath by Allanon who tells Will that Eretrea is long gone with his elf stones, and tells Wil that she was a rover.  He tells Wil that the world is in danger, and he calls Wil a Shannara, as in he is of the famous Shannara bloodline that once saved the world.  Wil tells him he has the wrong man, that he is an Ohmsford, but Allanon tells him that he and his father before him are Shannara, and that his father was a great man who saved the world.  Wil doesn’t believe it as his father died alone and a drunk, but Allanon tells him the truth that his father had magic as does Wil, and Allanon promises to show Wil how to use magic.  Wil reluctantly begins his journey with Allanon to the Druid keep of Paranor.

Meanwhile, another leaf falls and another demon is released.  The creature is a Changeling, a creature than can change it’s shape to whatever it wants.  The Dagda Mor (Jed Brophy) sends the Changeling to Arbolon.

Meanwhile, it’s night, and Amberle comes across a fire, and the Rover Eretria.  Eretria gives Amberle a cup of wine, but Amberle is not as naive as Wil, and sees through Eretria’s trick of drugging and stealing.  Amberle turns the table on Eretria.  It is in this moment that Amberle hears the Ellcrys calling to her to come back to her.  Amberle steals Eretria’s horse and stolen haul.

In Arbolon, Prince Ander finds the picture of the demon that Amberle had been drawing.  Added to the information that Lorin told him about Amberle, Ander is troubled, and tells the king his findings.  The king also finds it troublesome, and orders that the Chosen be moved into protected custody.

Wil and Allanon have arrived at Paranor.  Allanon shows Wil the power of magic as he seeks out the codex of Paranor.  He finds it, but there is a price for using magic as Wil sees with Allanon’s burnt hand.  He tells him that there is always a price for using magic.  In the codex, the find the story of the Ellcrys.  The story goes that when the Ellcrys is nearing the end of its days, it will bear a single seed and a member of the Chosen will carry the seed to a place called Safehold, and submerge it in bloodfire.  The problem is Allanon, nor anyone, knows where this Safehold place is.  While in the keep, the Dagda Mor attacks Allanon’s mind, and it is revealed that the Dagda Mor has sent an agent to Arbolon to attack the Chosen.  Allanon and Wil rush back to Arborlon.

In Arborlon, Lorin is in the sacred chamber with the Ellcrys.  He turns to see Amberle.  He is so happy to see her.  She warns him that the Chosen are in danger from a demon and asks Lorin where the rest of the Chosen are hidden.  He tells her, and then Amberle, or shall I say the Changeling, stabs Lorin, and kills him just as Amberle saw in her vision.

Allanon gets back to Arbolon with Wil to warn the king to protect the Chosen.  When they go to check on the Chosen, they find that the rest of the Chosen have been brutally slaughtered.  Allanon warns him that Dagda Mor is going to kill all the Chosen.  Only one Chosen now lives, which means Amberle’s life is in great danger, and she is the last hope because only now she can save the Ellcrys.

Arion does not believe a word that Allanon is saying about the Dagda Mor, and tries blaming the slaughter on Gnomes.  He asks his father to step down and allow him to take over since the people are beginning to doubt their king.  The king tells him that a good king does not step down in a time of a crisis, and that his experience will be needed.

Meanwhile, as Amberle is on her way back to Arborlon, she falls into what she thinks is a Troll trap, but is really trap laid by her Aunt Piria, which she was on the way to find.  She went to her aunt because she needed advice as to what to do next. Her aunt takes her in.

On the road, Eretria is attacked by another Rover.  She gets the better of the man.  In this scene, we meet her “father” Cephelo, the leader of the Rover  clan she is a part of.  He’s angry that she lost her haul to an Elf, and threatens to sell her to another Rover as a wife.  She convinces him not to when she gives Cephelo the Elfstones.  He becomes entranced by them, and wants to hear her story as to how she got the stones, which she does.  Cephelo then makes her a deal: find Wil and bring him to him, and Cephelo will grant her her freedom.

Meanwhile in Arborlon, Wil, under Allanon’s instruction, searches Amberle’s room to find out where she could have gone.  He’s found out by the commander Tilt, and brought to the king where he tells the king and Alannon that Amberle is with the King’s sister Piria, not knowing that the Changeling is in the room in the form of the king’s dog.  We find out that Piria fell in love with Allanon, and was exiled to Wing Hove for it.  Allanon and Will set off for Wing Hove.

On the way to Wing Hove, Allanon tells Will about his past with Piria, and how it ended badly.  He also tells him that the magic destroyed Wil’s father, and that magic has a different effect on different people.  Wil now knows what is in store for him.  They reach Wing Hove, and Allanon and Piria have a tearful and painful reunion.

Wil finds Amberle bathing at a waterfall, and after an awkward first meeting, Wil tells Amberle about the dying Ellcrys, and how she needs to go back to Arborlon. Meanwhile, another leaf falls from the Ellcrys, and a Fury is let loose.  The Fury comes straight to Wing Hove, and attacks Piria and Allanon.  It kills Piria.  The premiere ends with the Fury coming after Will and Amberle with Will having only one little sword to protect Amberle.

This premiere really impressed me with, not only its epic story telling, but incredible landscapes and sets as well as excellent acting.  What are your impressions of the two hour premiere?  Comment below.

The Shannara Chronicles airs every Tuesday at 10pm at MTV, and you can watch the premiere on MTV, the MTV app, iTunes and google play store.