Wonderstorm’s Netflix series The Dragon Prince, Season 5 Episode 9, called “Infantis Sanguine,” 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, Rayla (Paula Burrows), Ezran (Sasha Rojen), Azymondias, and Soren (Jesse Inocalla), alongside Bait and Stella, arriving at the Sea of the Castout and working to locate Aaravos’ prison before Claudia and her group do. 

At the Storm Spire, Zubeia (Nicole Oliver) dreams of reuniting with her deceased husband, Avizandum (Chris Metzen), the former King of the Dragons. Zubeia tells “Avizandum” that she is dying or transforming into something heinous from the infection she got from a shadow monster at Lux Aurea. She believes she is about to die and hopes to reunite with her love in death. However, “Avizandum” encourages her to find the will to live by finding help to cure her infection because he knows Zubeia does not want to leave their son, Azymondias, an orphan. Thus, Zubeia wakes from her slumber and flies to find help until she crashes into a forest unconscious because the shadow infection attacks her mind. The Dragon Queen later finds her salvation when an Earthblood Elf, named the Mushroom Man, uses powerful Earth Primal Magic to heal Zubeia of her wounds and infection. 

At an unknown shore, Claudia heads out into the ocean to find Aaravos’ prison, leaving Terry and Sir Sparklepuff with Viren. When Viren is alone, he meets a holographic form of Aaravos (Erik Dellums). Aaravos wants to finish the deal he made with Claudia to save Viren once she located his prison. The Startouch Elf wants to teach Viren a dark spell called Infantis Sanguine to use Sir Sparklepuff as a sacrifice to save Viren from dying. After a long time realizing how Dark Magic destroyed his family and friends, Viren decides to reject Dark Magic and Aaravos’ attempt to resurrect him, to the Startouch Elf’s confusion. Viren runs away into a nearby forest to hide and ensure he dies naturally with no intervention. In the end, Viren lies helpless as he begins to accept his death despite Aaravos’ warning that he will die the next day.

At the Sea of the Castout, Team Zym found the location of Aaraovs’ prison, which takes the form of a magical pearl hidden in a giant clam. Callum uses Ocean Magic to help him, Ezran and Rayla breathe underwater while Soren watches guard on their boat. However, Rayla’s fear of water causes the Moonshadow Elf to stay afloat with Soren. Callum and Ezran swim underwater until they face Claudia, who becomes more evil and twisted due to the prolonged usage of powerful Dark Magic spells that affect her mind and soul. Claudia uses Dark Magic to transform into a squid-human hybrid and attacks the two princes until Rayla overcomes her fear of water and helps fight against the Dark Mage. Claudia faces defeat after losing a leg, and she retreats to Terry’s location and cries due to being unable to free Aaravos on time before Viren’s scheduled demise. On the other hand, Team Zym is victorious in finding and securing Aaravos’ Pearl Prison and will likely take it somewhere hidden where no one will free Aaravos. 

At the Sunfire Camp, Corvus (Omari Newton) and Gren (Adrian Petriw) tell the returning Janai (Rena Anakwe) and Amaya of a great betrayal. The betrayal was Sunfire General Miyana (Cecilly Day) defecting to Karim (Luc Roderique) and giving him both the Sun Seed and an army to “restore Lux Aurea to its glory.” Karim became overjoyed by Miyana’s trust, loyalty, and love for him, and the former Sunfire Prince plans to push forward his plan of healing Sol Regem’s eyes and overthrowing Janai as the ruler of the Sunfire Elves. Later, Janai dreams of Aaravos telling her the fate of former Sunfire Queen Aditi, “I swallowed her.” 

Aaravos’ Pearl Prison

In Season 5 of The Dragon Prince, the ninth episode gave a sad yet hopeful conclusion to the season. Season 5’s ending brought hope for the heroes as they managed to find victory against the villains and overcome the evil that sought to divide and destroy them. Team Zym managed to find and secure Aaravos’ Pearl Prison, and Zubeia recovered from her infection. However, even though Claudia faced defeat, the villains found victory when Karim managed to get his hands on a Sun Seed and win Miyana and an army of Sunfire Elves’ loyalty. The build-up to Season 6 will be exciting, where we will learn more about Aaravos and his possible escape from the Pearl Prison. 

There was an interview with Aaron Ehasz regarding Season 5, and he pointed out many fun things fans haven’t noticed from the season finale. First, the giant skeleton carcass found underwater at the Sea of the Castout was related to Aaravos “swallowing” Aditi, hinting that Aaravos had a draconic physical form and that the Aaravos we see trapped in his soul. Presumably, Aaravos’ soul was locked away in the Pearl Prison while his physical draconic form was left to rot and decay over the centuries. Second, the features and architecture of Aaravos’ prison are shaped like a pearl, showing there were always signs of Aaravos’ prison being a pearl since Season 2. 

On The Dragon Prince Twitter, there are updates regarding Season 6 that there will be an NYCC 2023 Official Empire on Saturday, October 14 at 4:45 PM EST at New York Comic Com (Room 406.2) for the view of the first episodes of Season 6. Also, there is an image of Callum, Rayla, and Stella traveling to the Starscraper, hinting that Aaravos broke free, forcing Team Zym to head to the presumed Star Nexus to retrieve the Corona of the Heavens and the Nova Blade before Aaravos does. Either that or Callum and Rayla are traveling to the Starscraper to use the Corona of the Heavens and its three Quasar Diamonds to perform a spell to free Rayla’s parents and Runaan from the coins Viren trapped them in. 

Rating: 9/10