Last week I opined that those complaining about Willow’s anachronistic feel and snarky dialogue should lighten up and go with it, but now I find myself thinking that this week’s episode did indeed go quite a bit too far in that direction.
Willow episode five, entitled “Wildwood,” starts in medias res, with our heroes once again doing their best to evade the Crone’s forces after having left Nockmaar. They decide to go through the titular Wildwood, though they know the dangers that may await there within (sounds a lot like their choice to enter Bavmorda’s castle in the previous installment, but I guess they gotta go somewhere).
There’s some more training between Willow (Warwick Davis) and Elora Danan (Ellie Bamber), though the latter really wants to use Cherlindrea’s wand– available now on shopDisney– and the former doesn’t think she’s quite ready for that yet. Meanwhile, Thraxus Boorman (Amar Chadha-Patel, who my wife observed is basically just doing a Jack Sparrow impression, and now I can’t unsee it) coaches poor Prince Graydon (Tony Revolori) in the ways of women. Then they all get captured by the Bone Reavers, a band of marauders whose skeleton armor recalls that of General Kael from the Willow film. The leader of the Bone Reavers is Scorpia (guest star Adwoa Aboah from Top Boy, who immediately bears a striking resemblance to actress Erin Kellyman, who plays Jade), who imprisons the protagonists in separate cells while keeping Boorman to herself. It seems she and Thraxus have a preexisting relationship that is soon rekindled by this chance meeting… and speaking of chance meetings, Willow and Graydon’s cave-like cage just so happens to be the home of Rool (Kevin Pollak), one of the pint-sized Brownies who joined the adventure in the movie. As welcome as it is, this spectacular coincidence is admittedly pretty difficult to get past, and ultimately it feels like Pollak’s cameo was shoehorned in at the last minute, though Rool is now given a similarly smart-mouthed daughter named Ganush (Amelia Vitale from Making It).
But Rool’s throwaway appearance fits right in tonally with the rest of the episode, which quickly transforms the Bone Reavers from a dangerous threat to a fun-loving, substance-partaking welcoming party after it’s revealed that Jade and Scorpia are indeed long-lost sisters– both daughters of General Kael. Elora, who swiped the wand from Willow’s satchel before their imprisonment, uses the magical implement to make stew– much to the Daikini’s chagrin– while the other characters are forced to finally be honest with each other after consuming “truth plums.” Graydon tries, and mostly fails, to make amends with Elora after nearly banishing her to the netherworld in the previous episode (he’s also falling in love with her, so that doesn’t help), and Jade and Kit (Ruby Cruz) are finally ready for a heart-to-heart when at the last minute trolls sweep in and wreak havoc on the Bone Reaver camp. It’s a fun cliffhanger with perilous implications, and I really hope it means that Willow will start to take itself a little more seriously next week, because “Wildwood” was too goofy for its own good. There are moments here that border on self-parody, and though I am more than willing to accept this series having fun with the franchise– the original film certainly did that as well– I would also love for it to remain at least somewhat grounded in its own fantasy universe’s rules. For now I’ll hope that “Wildwood” remains the low point of the show and that things improve from here on out.
New episodes of Willow are released Wednesdays, exclusively via Disney+.