Wonderstorm’s Netflix series The Dragon Prince, Season 5 Episode 2, called “Old Wounds,” continues the primary mission of Team Zym to stop Claudia (Racquel Belmonte), Terry (Benjamin Callins), and Viren (Jason Simpson) from releasing Archmage Aaravos (Erik Dellums), a powerful Startouch Elf, from his secret prison. The episode begins with Callum (Jack DeSena), Rayla (Paula Burrows), Bait, and Stella leaving Katolis for the Sunfire Elves’ camp near Lux Aurea. Before leaving, they have a quick morning breakfast by eating Minister Barius’ new food, “doughnuts.” At the Storm Spire, King Ezran (Sasha Rojen), supported by Soren (Jesse Inocalla) and Corvus (Omari Newton), practices his speech to ask the dragons of Xadia to help Team Zym find Claudia and her group.
Callum and Rayla’s journey to the Sunfire Elves’ camp is long. They stayed at a human inn and crossed the border. When crossing the border, Callum explains his point of view that the border pathway, although created by Dark Magic, is a bridge between the Human Kingdoms and Xadia. Rayla agrees that it is an old wound, the conflict between humans and elves, healing.
At night, Callum and Rayla took a break and did stargazing. Callum points out a constellation the humans called “The Big Spoon.” Rayla says “The Big Spoon” constellation is actually “Garlaath, the Annihilator” shaped into Garlaath’s bandolier of skulls. Later, Callum points to the brightest star in the sky, which humanity called “The South Star.” Humans used “The South Star” to navigate to find their way in the endless darkness of the night. Rayla replies the elves call the brightest star in the sky “Leola’s Last Wish.” Callum and Rayla do not know who Leola is, and Rayla jokes Leola could be Garlaath’s friend. After the stargazing, a Dark Magic-corrupted Xadian banther attacks and chase Rayla and Callum. The two fight off and stop the dark banther from pursuing them.
In the Drakewood Forest, Terry, Claudia, and Sir Sparklepuff continue their journey with a comatose Viren. Over time, the quartet’s travel to the Sea of the Castout becomes much slower, and Claudia becomes exhausted. Terry found a solution by building a raft so the group could travel to the Sea of the Castout without the fear of exhaustion. Claudia later thanks Terry for the help and is grateful for what her friend and love interest had done.
During the quartet’s journey, the comatose Viren goes through a dream journey, similar to the one Callum previously went through in Season 2 after his first use of Dark Magic. The dream journey is dark and scary as Viren faces his past sins. Viren’s past sins were Viren’s dark ambitions and his constant justification for using the darkest forms of Dark Magic to “solve” his problems. Viren follows the laughter of a young Soren and enters a door to confront his first vision. The first vision is his old mentor, the Dark Mage Kpp’ar (Greg Rogers).
Kpp’ar mocked and scolded Viren for taking Dark Magic to the darkest levels to become the cruel Dark Mage he became. Viren rebuts by saying he committed atrocities because he had no choice since he had to protect his family. Kpp’ar laughed that Viren always had a choice but chose to make many of them for power-hungry reasons. Viren firmly believes that he will do anything vile to protect his family. Before continuing, Kpp’ar disappears when Viren is distracted by a young Soren calling for his father.
Viren’s second vision is him being the King of Katolis with Kpp’ar and High Cleric Opeli (Paula Burrows) as his advisors. The strangest thing happening is Opeli rubbing a small piece of wood and Sir Sparklepuff doing a dance similar to The Arm’s in the series Twin Peaks. The second vision ends with Viren throwing his crown down on the ground.
The third vision is Viren confronting the former King of Katolis and Viren’s old deceased friend, King Harrow (Luc Roderique). Harrow apologizes for being a rude friend to Viren and states that Viren is always a brother to him, not a servant. However, the vision of Harrow becomes sinister and evil when Viren claims that he sees Harrow as family and would do anything dangerous and vile to protect him. The dark Harrow uses the relic staff to perform a Dark Magic spell Viren previously used to trap Tiadrin, Lain, Runaan, and Kpp’ar in golden coins, “Erasaert ym si luos ruoy. (Your Soul is My Treasure).” The Dark Magic spell imprisons Viren in one of Viren’s golden coins until his release in the fourth vision.
Viren’s fourth vision is a young Soren, who Viren embraces and loves. Viren plays with the young Soren and shows that he loves his son despite what happened between an older Soren and Viren in the events of Seasons 1 to 4. However, the young Soren becomes sick and gradually begins crumbling into ash to Viren’s distraught and sadness. In response to the devastating event, the emotionally distressed Viren declares he will do anything to change the young Soren’s fate.
Viren’s Dream Journey
In Season 5 of The Dragon Prince, the second episode had a lot of emotions in scenes with Viren and the other characters. Viren is the main character in the second episode because he takes up most of the scenes as he confronts his past sins, created by Viren’s justification of how he would do anything dangerous and vile with Dark Magic to protect his family. The visions in the dream journey likely would teach Viren that his use of Dark Magic and sometimes love for power will destroy his family in the long run.
Callum and Rayla had a lovely moment together during their travel to Xadia and their time stargazing. The stargazing event is essential to The Dragon Prince lore because there is a lot of meaning to why Xadians, such as elves and dragons, call the brightest star in the sky “Leola’s Last Wish.” Leola was a unicorn responsible for gifting humans the first Primal Stones and helping humanity with their plight thousands of years ago. Leola’s help, alongside Aaravos, transformed humans into people with the ability and skills to create powerful self-sufficient civilizations.
Over time, humans began thriving and built the first human city, Elarion, in Xadia. However, the wrath and the flames of the first Dragon King, Sol Regem, descended on Elarion. The reason was humanity’s constant reliance on Dark Magic: magic that steals the magical souls and essences of living beings to create powerful spells for humanity’s survival. Soon, during the reign of Dragon Queen Luna Tenebris, humanity was exiled from Xadia to the western continent called the Human Kingdoms. The Human Kingdoms are home to five kingdoms: Katolis, Duren, Neolandia, Del Bar, and Evenere. Since the brightest star is called Leola’s Last Wish, many believe the unicorn’s last wish is for humanity, elves, and dragons to coexist peacefully and for humans to live a life of happiness without needing to fear living a life without magic.
Rating: 9/10