Willow – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Children of the Wyrm

Episode 8 of Willow starts with Airk showing up, happy to see Kit and Elora. Airk encourages them to head off and meet the Crone, pointing out that she’s not as bad as they’ve been led to believe. In order for Airk to come back, he tells them they need to meet her. However, they soon learn that Airk has been drinking that strange liquid and seemingly brainwashed into this line of thinking.

What does Willow’s group decide to do?

Meanwhile, Graydon and the others each decide to jump down the waterfall too, heading inside the city. Graydon attempts to use his magic to open the door but it’s no good, the sandstorm rages through the city and turns Boorman into stone.

Eventually Kit and Elora take a bold step forward, heading through a portal the Crone has and finding themselves in a paradisiac world holding none other than Kit’s mother. She admits that she was wrong to deny Kit her freedom. At the same time, Airk attempts to convince Elora to see the dark side, offering her a goblet of that yellow water.

Does Madmartigan return?

Suddenly, the whole landscape changes as Madmartigan’s voice bleeds through. He admits he’s always with Kit and leaving was the hardest thing he’s ever done. He reveals that love is sacrifice and one has to be willing to give up what you want for what you believe in. This is the only way to save Elora. He claims Kit is better than he is and tells her she’s the shield that needs to protect Elora.

When Kit heads through the vision further, she finds Elora gone and the Crone in her place, claiming that the Great Awakening has begun. And just like that, Kit turns to stone!

We then cut to Elora and Airk getting married with the Crone serving as the witness. The Crone tells Elora that with this action, including the sacred kiss to bind them together, she can help save everything. However, just before kissing Elora chooses not to marry Airk and that she’s “not really into him” anymore. Suddenly, Willow shows up and begins using his magic, shattering the vision and freeing everyone from stone.

What happens during the big fight?

A big fight breaks out between the Crone’s minions and our big group, while Elora and the Crone square off. However, Graydon gets involved and attempts to use his magic but despite the passion and anger put into the spell, she destroys his wand and throws Graydon deep into a world outside that looks like Mordor. We’re led to believe he’s dead but hold that note.

Elora’s anger wells up and she no longer needs a wand, using her own hands to conjure spells… somehow. Heading into the courtyard, she comes face to face with the Crone, who both square off by using their hands for spells. What happened to wands? Why doesn’t Willow just use his hands? Anyway, Airk is in this and Kit tries to convince Airk to turn back to the light side. When he claims to be the King, Jade and Kit both start fighting against him.

How does Elora save the day?

Willow throws some words of encouragement telepathically to Elora as she uses her willpower and magic to destroy the Crone, making swift work of this foe and besting her. When the Crone collapses and tunes back into her previous form, Airk shows up and begins kissing her, which seemingly transfers the power to him.

Meanwhile, Jade uses the Lux on Kit which gives her a full suit of armour. Despite Jade being the better fighter and far more capable of using these skills, Kit instead serves as the shield and begins attacking her brother. The pair of them square off and now Kit is inexplicably better at fighting. Anyway, Kit manages to talk Airk around, promising never to leave him again and managing to awaken him again.

How does Willow end?

With Graydon dead, the others realize the fight is far from over. The Wyrm is still under and will be massing their forces. As the others walk away, they’ve seemingly saved the day. Or have they?

It turns out Graydon is still alive and he wakes up on the battlefield, that same vision that Willow has been seeing all season long. Elora is there and she reveals that this is the dawn of the next age. Her age. She needs someone to help her and sit beside her to lead the world into the light. She wants Graydon to be that guy. With a whole army behind her, including an Eborsisk, the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

So Willow bows out its final episode with a perfunctory ending, one that completely undermines the lore and ideas presented earlier in the season. Kit is apparently a shield but she’s now a better fighter than Jade and the others? I thought it had been established already that Jade is the better fighter and was training to be a knight? Wouldn’t it make more sense for her to fulfill her destiny and show how capable she is of protecting royalty?

As for the magic, it had been established this season that magic can be wielded through using a wand and they even spent a whole episode trying to get Elora’s wand back to cast a spell. But yet, in this episode she can just craft green force lightning like the Emperor from Star Wars like it was nothing? These sort of inconsistencies are frustrating from a worldbuilding perspective, and even worse the story just… ends.

We don’t see how anyone got back home, how they’re going to escape this City (which has been established in episode 7 to be nigh on impossible given Airk tried and ended up back where he started from). Furthermore, no one even bothers to go into that portal and check where Graydon is, despite literally walking through there 10 minutes before and ending up in a vision. They just write it off that he’s dead and walk away.

Willow has been a really poor series, with cheap production design and an even cheaper writing team at the helm for this. Whether there will be a second season is anyone’s guess but based on this showing, it definitely doesn’t deserve it.