The Legend of Vox Machina – Season 2 Episode 5 “Pass Through Fire” Recap & Review

Pass Through Fire

In The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2 Episode 5, a young Keyleth cries as her mother leaves her. Before she goes, she tells her to listen to her power: wind, fire, earth, and water. She advises her to never pull back from fire. It needs air to live, and as they are Air Ashari, it will only hurt her if she lets it. One day, she tells Keyleth, she will be ready for her own journey. But now she has to go on hers.

Keyleth grows pensive as Vox Machina gets closer to Pyrah, where the Fire Ashari live, and one of the last places Keyleth’s mom was seen alive during her Aramente. They wish they could stop at Pyrah for her, but there’s no time if they want to save Tal’Dorei.

When Grog goes off on his own, his blade talks to him, telling him that blood feeds him. When he receives the blood of Grog’s enemies, his strength becomes Grog’s. But he will always hunger.

Staring into their campfire, Vax receives a vision from the Raven Queen of the Chroma Conclave’s vast destruction. He screams for her to leave him alone, waking everyone up. Keyleth follows him outside to find him struggling to take off the Deathwalker’s Ward, to no avail.

Vex and Scanlan discover Vex’s broom is magical, and Scanlan takes it for a ride. Soaring high, he sees a volcano about to erupt. This shocks Keyleth. The volcano is supposed to be dormant. If it erupts, then the Fire Ashari are in trouble.

Vax insists they must be on their way, but Keyleth isn’t having it. She turns into a bird and makes her way to Pyrah alone. Vex tells Vax that Keyleth would drop anything to help them. Now, they must do the same for her.

When Keyleth gets there, she finds fiery, dragon-like creatures ravaging the city. She also reunites with her dad, Korrin, who believes she’s come for her Aramente. He tells her the rift to the fire plane has been torn open by a dragon, who destroyed many of their people.

Cerkonos, the headmaster of the Fire Ashari, says they have to close the rift soon, or their city will be consumed. The flying beasts have been coming through the rift and attacking them.

Since Korrin thinks Keyleth has been on her Aramente, he believes she should be able to help them with her mastery of fire. He brings her to the rift, where they find Kima and Allura.

Suddenly, they hear Scanlan far off. Kima and Allura agree to fetch Vox Machina for Keyleth if she can buy them some time with the rift. Allura tells Vox Machina that Thordak came through the rift; in fact, they are the reason he escaped. She and Kima once battled Thordak with another group, but they were defeated. They were able to get ahold of an artifact called the soul anchor. It imprisoned Thordak in the fire plane, but apparently didn’t keep him there.

Grog continues to slay the fiery beasts, but his blade cries out for blood, which none of the creatures have. He tells Grog to find him blood immediately.

Keyleth helps her father close the rift, but their attempt doesn’t hold and the rift only widens. She finally admits to her dad she hasn’t finished her trials, that she hasn’t been ready. Suddenly, she hears her mother’s voice telling her to listen to her power.

She walks up to the rift and puts her hands through it. She then walks through it to the fire plane. It starts to burn her, until she remembers her mother’s words to her when she was young. Instead of letting it hurt her, she takes the power inside of her and turns into a fire elemental that unleashes the fire on the creatures that have been attacking. She closes the rift from inside. From the outside, it seems as if she’s been lost–until she reappears and falls into her father’s arms.

Later, Cerkonos gives Keyleth the blessing of Pyrah. She has passed her fire trial. He then warns them that Thordak escaped with help from one posing as one of them. He tells her to make sure she trusts her friends. And she does–with her life.

She tells Vax that, in the fire plane, she could feel the connection between the different planes. Vax wonders if she could travel between planes again.

Allura and Kima plan on staying to help Pyrah before heading to Whitestone to heal Kima. Meanwhile, the dragons continue their pillaging of Tal’Dorei. Anna Ripley approaches Thordak, telling him his reign will be short-lived unless he hears what she has to say.

The Episode Review

Though not the main event in this episode, I appreciate the strength of Grog’s cursed weapon escalating little by little each episode. I’m ready for Grog to snap at any moment. With his blade out for blood, everyone around him is in danger without even knowing it.

And aside from just an overall exciting character arc for Keyleth, I like the juxtaposition of the druid and Vax coming into different powers. With one gaining in self-confidence and the other in self-loathing, how will this all resolve? 

Vox Machina is juggling so much already. The heroic party may have been able to help Pyrah–but can they save all of Tal’Dorei?