Amac Productions

Anna Ripley.

A smoke demon.

An acid bath.

Betrayal.

More betrayal.

Percy loses his marbles for a moment.

You know, for a moment I thought it would be a slow episode filled with a lot of exposition or something when it opened up and we learn of Ripley’s back story.

I also do not buy her story at all.

Not even a little.

In fact, you couldn’t give it to me for free.

Nope.

She helped torture children. I simply do not believe nor care that she just had a falling out with the Briarwoods because she wanted to ‘leave.’ Nope. No way.

I’m not really surprised that Cassandra isn’t what she claims. It fits right in with how the Briarwoods like to do business. Also, the fact that they’ve kept her alive and enthralled just to sacrifice her at the precise moment is cold.

I knew they were monsters, but they like upping their game often.

Yeesh.

I don’t blame Percy for losing her marbles over the revelation about his sister. Not at all. She implored him to trust her when Ripley wanted to ‘help.’ Invoking their relationship as siblings only for her to tear it all away and reveal she doesn’t even view herself as a De Rolo anymore.

Which, I’m fairly certain, is because of Sylas’s thrall over her and less with how she really feels.

Although, she could have formed a bond with them over the years they’ve had in her captivity as well. It’s not like that’s completely unfounded. Maybe it holds a grain of truth.

Maybe that’s why it hurt Percy so much.

Because – maybe – he sensed some piece of honesty in her when she spoke.

That after all their years separated while she lived with their enemy, she formed some type of bond to protect herself against them. I wouldn’t blame her either if she had. If it’s more than just magic. She had no way of knowing anyone would ever save her.

Percy must feel an unimaginable amount of guilt over leaving her behind.

But also, he couldn’t have known either. He saw her back full of arrows. He tried to save her by taking her with him when they escaped. But she was shot. By all accounts, she appeared dead. And he didn’t know if the Briarwoods would show mercy after they had tried to escape.

They were children.

Caught in an impossible situation.

There’s no right or wrong here, just survival.

Which they have and they have the wounds and scars to prove it.

Lots of betrayal. Not by Ripley, at least not yet.

But we did lose Vax. Not entirely his fault. He was the only one who managed to race under the closing doors in time to try and stop Cassandra. Probably didn’t think that Sylas and Deliah would be able to control him or take him away as a sacrificial lamb.

Then he tried to kill them by pushing a button.

Yeesh.

Vex pretty much swore murder on anyone who hurt her brother and I cannot blame her.

I also love that she managed to appeal to Percy out of everyone else. The two of them have such a weird bond to each other, I don’t even know how to explain it.

I’m pretty sure there’s feelings there.

But also, I think they see something in each other they don’t see with the others. Maybe it’s a cold darkness. A willingness to do whatever is necessary from time to time. They have similar viewpoints and don’t seem to mind each other’s company.

It’s an odd bond to be certain.

Also, I’m truly glad someone finally decided to get to the bottom of the smoke emitting from Percy every so often when he gets super pissed.

It’s a demon.

Seemed to shake up Pike a little.

However, Percy doesn’t want to deal with it right now. Which is also fair. I doubt they can find an expert on the matter of smoke demons in the middle of Whitestone what with the zombies and crazed ritual about to start.

Seriously, when do they get to sleep?

Or even a library as Beau and Caleb so often did when they needed information. I don’t think we’ll find a working library amidst this chaos right now.

On the other hand, it is a little terrifying to know a demon is just hanging out with one of your friends. Specifically, when he gets all vengeful.

I think that’s a thing we ought to consider might be a bad thing.

Like you know, if he were to turn on us.

After all, we saw the demon knew something was up before Percy even did. He added Cassandra’s name to the gun before anyone even noticed what she was up to. What if one of Vox Machina does something the demon doesn’t like?

What if even the suggestion of getting rid of it puts Pike on the list?

Would Percy be forced to follow through?

What does it mean that the names are etched onto the gun? Does the demon get something? Does Percy gain extra power or something every time he kills someone with his gun?

Clearly, the gun and the demon are connected. I’m just not entirely sure why or how or even what the demon gets out of the arrangement here. Percy clearly didn’t make a conscious deal since he doesn’t appear to know much more about the smoke than anyone else does.

Is the demon feeding on his hatred or something?

You know what? I’m sure it’s going to be good regardless. I love Jaffe and Mercer as storytellers, so I’m sure they’ve cooked up something great here.

Now, the acid bath.

A literal one, might I add.

Because a freaking nut built this weird acid room where you can pour acid in at the push of a button outside. But if you’re inside and need to shut it off, well, I hope you don’t like your skin.

Not only are there three levers to turn off the acid and drain it back out that are nowhere near each other, but one of them is on the floor. Which if you spend any amount of time in there, acid will be sitting right atop the lever you need.

Understanding this, Vox Machina attempts to come up with a solution.

But Grog takes it amongst himself to get naked and dive headfirst into the acid. It was designed by a nut and defeated by one too.

Because despite the blood pouring from him as the acid burns him alive, he carries right on and turns his lever with everyone else. Grog may be dumb, but he’s got a lot of heart in him too.

I do love that Vex snapped Percy out of his stupor with a slap. Scanlan managed to make a little life raft for them to escape long enough to buy Percy time to figure out a solution and work together to achieve it.

When they set their minds to it, Vox Machina is actually an incredible team. I wish they would remember to utilize each other more often rather than act as individuals. I think that’s their greatest strength.

I also love that Grog was more worried about ‘little Grog’ than anything else. Even putting his clothes back on or that he had been bleeding from his eyes.

Grog is a unique soul.

Onto to next week’s! Thanks for reading! Drop a like, comment, and subscribe!

Spread the love and read on!