This episode delves into Caleb’s tragic backstory and the effects of his former wizardry.

Be warned: spoilers ahead.

The previous episode ended with the Volstruker, Owelia, entering the prison where the Mighty Nein were. Beau realizes that Caleb recognizes Owelia and immediately gets suspicious. This episode starts with a flashback to Caleb’s younger years, where he goes by the name “Bren.” He lives humbly, on a farm with his parents, where he is one day recognized for his excellence in magic by Trent. Trent tests Caleb’s strengths and offers him a spot at the country’s top magic school. When the flashback ends, Caleb appears shaken as the group prepares to take on their next foe.

After the credits roll, Fjord launches the first attack, but is poisoned by Owelia before he can do any real damage. As Jester tries to heal Fjord, Mollymauk, Beau, and Caleb attack Owelia. Beau can get the best of Owelia and paralyze her. Beau insists on keeping Owelia alive, holding back Caleb’s fatal attack. Owelia crushes a pendant that used to belong to Caleb as we move into another flashback.

Now, Caleb is training at the school. Trent creates a competition for his new students, including Caleb and Owelia, who are in the same class. When the test comes down to Owelia and Caleb, Caleb conjures a spell that freezes Owelia, allowing Caleb to win the competition. Again, Caleb looks shaken after this flashback ends.

Now, on the way out of town, Beau questions Caleb on what the pendant meant to him, and how he knows this volstruker. Caleb doesn’t give Beau any information. Caleb and Beau bring Owelia into a cabin to question her while Nott, Mollymauk, and Jester try to find more solutions to heal Fjord. Nott suggests finding a natural remedy to Fjord’s poisoning instead of praying to the fictitious “Traveler”, sending Jester and Molly set out to gather flower petals and roots to heal Fjord. Owelia is tortured by Caleb and Beau, but refuses to give up any information.

In another flashback, we see the day Caleb becomes a volstruker. Along with two other students, his wrists are painfully injected with green crystals. Caleb uses the pain he felt this day to question Owelia. He asks her what her master stole from the other kingdom, but Owelia still doesn’t let on. Instead, Owelia taunts Caleb, asking them to work together to take down Beau. Beau gets angrier as she realizes how much of a history Caleb and Owelia have together. Nott continues to tend to Fjord as Jester and Mollymauk look for petals. In Fjords writhing, he says aloud that he’s sorry to his captain, letting slip that he was not the captain of his ship. This, however, goes unnoticed by Nott.

Owelia reveals to Beau that Caleb is still a volstruker as we’re thrown into another flashback. This is Caleb in his hayday as a volstruker. He is suave and dangerous, dancing with a beautiful woman and smoothly attacking enemies of the state. In the present day, Caleb has had enough of Owelia’s taunts as he throws her against a wall. At the same time, Beau attacks Caleb, forcing him to tell her what he was in the past. While Beau and Caleb have this exchange Owelia escapes. Caleb freezes Molly, Beau, and Jester as he goes into the woods to chase after Owelia.

There is one final flashback this episode. Caleb’s first task as an official Volstruker is to return to his hometown and burn his parents alive in his childhood home. Though he doesn’t want to do this, he obliges, sobbing as his parents burn alive. Finally, Caleb catches up with Owelia, he’s full of rage. He conjures a hand made of stone and pins Owelia against a wall, engulfing her in a storm of flames. Before she burns away, Owelia casts one last mysterious spell without the knowledge of Caleb.

Nott finds out that Caleb ran into the woods and runs after him, leaving Fjord in the care of Jester and Molly. After Caleb kills Owelia, he falls to the ground and is tended to by Nott. Molly sits by Caleb’s bed the next morning, waiting for him to wake up. Molly pulls a tarot card that reads “death.” Fjord is almost fully rejuvinated, and Nott tells Beau that she thinks of Caleb as a child. Caleb finally comes downstairs to confront his group. He sits down to tell them his entire backstory, and the episode ends.

This episode is an epic display of the extent of the magic in this world. Caleb’s fire storm is awesome and gruesome and everything we’ve wanted from him since his introduction. The dialogue is still corny, as it sounds like a teenager inserted curse words into every possible sentence.

Still, each episode amazes the viewer with the lore, beauty of the land, and its expansiveness.

Rating: 8/10.