The penultimate episode of this season shows many characters at the lowest points in their arcs. The episode is reminiscent of earlier ones in the season, as most of the cast is split up throughout the city, completing small adventures on their own.
Be warned: spoilers ahead.
The episode opens with the public execution of the head of the Cobalt Soul, Tasha. Trent and Vess watch the event next to the king. Vess pledges her allegiance to Trent, though Trent warns her not to cross him again.
After the credits roll we return to the Mighty Nein gang giving the compass they attained in the previous episode over to a merchant in exchange for money and Caleb’s pendant. The merchant offers another quest to the group —highly dangerous —the retrieval of the beacon from Trent. Though enticing, the group denies the quest and split up. Beau departs to fight for the Cobalt Soul, Fjord leaves with Jester to deliver her to Zadash, and Molly leaves to join another travelling circus. Though Caleb wants to go off alone, Nott insists on staying with him, revealing that he’s her only friend. Caleb sends Nott out to get some magical items and secretly abandons her to spare her the danger of hunting down Trent. Nott returns to Caleb’s hideout to find him completely gone. She begins to drink heavily to cope with another abandonment.
Verrat interrogates Essek, asking what the empire offered Essek to commit treason and Essek reveals that he only became a traitor to save his mother’s life. Now that Essek’s mother’s illness is public knowledge, she is sentenced to death. Essek is forced to kill his mother. He tells the queen that Verrat is the one who gave the beacon to Trent, and the queen executes Verrat instead of Essek.
At Zadash, Fjord drops Jester off and gives a heartfelt goodbye. Heartbroken, Jester prays to the Traveler, desperately hoping that this deity is real and not some figment of her imagination. When the traveler does not answer her calls, Jester destroys her room in tears, convinced she’s crazy. She leaves Zadash and walks through the streets where she find Nott. Nott is drunk, yelling at passersby. Jester calms Nott down and the two decide to work together and summon the traveler by destroying a local temple and redecorating it to honor the Traveler. When the Traveler still does not answer Jester’s call, she breaks down in tears. Nott consoles Jester and the two decide that they work best with the rest of the group.
After leaving the group, Beau visits her mentor, who tells her that she cannot return to the Cobalt Soul and to lay low. As a parting gift, Beau’s mentor gives Beau a staff. Defeated, Beau finds herself at a bar where she gets hit on by a patron. They begin to make out but the patron stops because Beau smells too bad.
Molly’s storyline in this episode is the most mysterious out of any of the main gang. After departing Nott and Caleb, Molly find himself in a slum, following an old friend into an abandoned house. He sneaks into the house and uses his tiefling hemomancer abilities to find a mysterious shrine with an etching of him at its center.
After leaving Jester at Zadash, Fjord decides he has to figure out more information about the origins of his powers. Fjord visits a cleric who helps him understand his newfound divine powers. The cleric tells Fjord that certain gods will call upon mortals to defend their followers. To get intouch with the god, the cleric tells Fjord that he should go to the element where he first recieved his abilities. Fjord makes his way to a bathhouse where he sits underwater and has an intense vision of his old captain. In the vision the captain is possessed by Fjord’s god and tells Fjord to consume. Just before Fjord drowns, he is pulled out of the water by Beau. Fjord and Beau clean themselves and relax in the bathhouse. Fjord and Beau devise a plan to kill Trent and prove to the world that neither of them is useless.
Caleb makes his way to a wizard shop where he purchases items necessary to hunt down Trent. Before he is even able to get near Trent, his two former Volstruker friends stop him. Instead of executing him on the spot, they let him go, giving him one last chance at life. Caleb returns to Nott, hat in hand, asking for forgiveness. Nott accepts his apology and tells Caleb that she wants to attack Trent, despite his Volstruker friends. Caleb doesn’t know how they will do that on their own when Nott reveals that she rallied their former teammates for one last mission.
This episode’s tag includes the merchant from the beginning of the episode delivering the compass to Vess. Unknowingly, the Mighty Nein helped their enemy.
A thrilling setup to the finale of this epic campaign. The episode really pinpointed the motivations and low-points for each of our main characters. For Nott, the fear of abandonment. For Jester, the realization that the Traveler is not real. For Beau, a feeling of uselessness. Fjord, Molly, and Caleb were all confronted with their pasts. These major fears all motivated the crew one last time, a perfect way to remind the audience of why this team works so well together. They’re all misfits.
Rating: 8/10