The Witch and the Beast – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Episode 5

The evil necromancer looks at a burning building as firefighters extinguish the flames. The scene cuts, and we find out he is a coroner, and that his wife died in the fire. Then, he says he’ll bring her back with flawless beauty and smiles.

Back at the current time, Jeff thinks about how Phanora cares about Johan. They enter a dining room and meet the necromancer and some of his undead maids, all redheads like his wife. The officer accuses him of having accomplices, as reanimating so many undead would be impossible for a single person. However, that would only be true if he raised them with care and maintained them properly.

Phanora says the dead pay a heavy price for resurrection, one which the necromancer doesn’t care about. After someone dies, their soul prepares for reincarnation. When you revive a person, they get out of that process and are unable to join it once again. So, their soul will be stuck on Earth forever. They simply exist, unable to do anything, that’s called the Void. The officer gives a painful look to his undead wife.

The necromancer says his reason for reanimating so many people is to get Phanora’s beauty. Having his wife back would be easy, but because of the fire, he can’t replicate her charm. So he needs to obtain what she lacks from others. Jeff can’t believe that’s the only motive for doing so much harm.

As a purple aura rises from Phanora’s body, she says she’s not only a necromancer. Runes fill her body, which makes the evil man realize she’s also a witch. 

The villain tries to stop her, saying he has Johan. Still, Phanora tells him her friend won’t serve as a good hostage, so he can’t threaten her. To make her fearful, he brings a horde of stray undead, all bearing weapons and with highly altered bodies. However, the witch stays calm.

Phanora says few people decide to become undead after learning about the Void, and even fewer agree to put themselves in a necromancer’s control. With utmost respect, she calls the ones who do that Death Knights. At the same time, hooded and strong-looking undead appear behind her.

Her Death Knights kill all undead there, even Jeff’s wife, which shocks him. The necromancer manages to slip away and go to his wife’s coffin. However, Johan is waiting for him there. The boy says he has been dead all this time. As he is a witch’s undead, he doesn’t need her to reanimate him. While he tells him that, his neck fully heals itself.

Saying the necromancer crossed a line, Johan starts torturing him. When the other two arrive, Phanora tells Jeff she is going to break the law. The next moment, the necromancer opens his eyes again, but as her undead.

He gets insane, knowing he won’t be able to reincarnate, but Phanora says she won’t give him any rest. He’ll have to do maintenance for everyone he resurrected. She also tells Jeff she has ways to legitimize his wife’s resurrection. He feels torn, but still a bit happy with the result. He also apologizes to Johan for speaking ill of the undead before.

The Episode Review

Episode 5 is a nice conclusion to this mini-arc. Although the villain isn’t quite remarkable, we learn more about Phanora and Johan, who will probably keep being important characters. The boy being an undead was a bit predictable, but the revelation is nice and badass.

In contrast, the fact that Phanora is a witch is very surprising and changes a lot of things. The Order doesn’t only capture witches but also recruits them. Also, they can specialize in a different set of things, not just normal magic. Obviously, she doesn’t have anything to do with Guideau’s past, but it’d be great to see them interact. 

Also, Jeff keeps on being a great character here. The concept of the Void brings interesting new questions to his situation, making it more complex. Now that his wife is an undead, should he let her stay dead as it was intended or reanimate her again to delay her suffering? He settles for the last, which is understandable. 

Even though there’s a chance she’ll turn dangerous without her maintenance one day, he can’t let her experience the Void. However, that’s also just delaying the inevitable, so is it really worth it? During the battle against the Death Knights, you can see his pain upon seeing her “die” again. So, it’s believable he wouldn’t want that to happen again. The only sad thing is that this matter isn’t further explored. Maybe that’ll happen in the future, but, for now, this interesting question still lacks depth.