Disney+’s TV series Willow has been pretty terrible for the most part, consistently missing the mark and never improving as the episodes go on. This being said, episode 6, “Prisoners of Skellin,” serves as a turning point of sorts (hopefully), and the cheesy dialogue gets toned down a bit and we get some Goonies-esque adventure full of evil trolls, a menacing riddle-giver, and the one and only Christian Slater (Heathers, Doctor Death), playing Allagash, a former friend to Madmartigan.
I actually didn’t hate this episode.
In “Prisoners of Skellin,” the trolls that captured Kit, played by Ruby Cruz, and Willow, played by Warwick Davis (The Harry Potter Movies, Leprechaun) to their underground city of Skellin. Here, they’re locked in a cage and encounter another prisoner, Allagash, a knight of Madmartigan who participated in a quest to obtain a Kymerian cuirass from the vaults under the troll city. It was thought that this mythical armor could save Elora from any sort of harm.
Allagash claims he was betrayed by Boorman, but after reuniting with Kit, Willow, and Allagash, Boorman, played by Amar Chadha-Patel (The Third Day, The Wheel of Time), claims that Allagash instead betrayed Madmartigan and stole the lux arcana.
After some adventures and challenges, the group retrieves the coveted Kymerian cuirass from a vault owned by the late Nelwyn sorcerer Wiggleheim. Kit also learns that her father went into a gateway in the vault to confront some unknown threat – she hears a voice coming from the same void, the voice of her father. Fortunately, just as she’s about to walk into the light, Jade and Elora pull her back.
In order to escape the underground, Elora and friends fight a plethora of trolls with a remorseful Allagash buying them time so that they can escape. They reach the base of the troll city only to discover that Elora, played by Ellie Bamber (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Les Miserables), liquified the ground using a spell – a liquid that kit falls into.
To make sure that we haven’t forgotten about Airk (the whole reason everyone is on this journey to begin with), the episode concludes with Airk, played by Dempsey Bryk (The Birch, The Fight Machine), finding himself back at the Immemorial City, where he meets a young woman in her cell.
Was this episode perfect? No. But it felt more high energy and whimsical compared to the precedent that other episodes in the series have set. At the very least, “Prisoners of Skellin” was entertaining and nothing extremely stupid occurred.
Rating: 6.5/10.0