On Willow, a haunted fortress exposes secrets and conflicts

According to horror author Stephen Graham Jones, there are two kinds of haunted houses: “stay away houses” and “hungry houses.” The fortress of Nockmaar, where our group of intrepid adventurers is headed in the fourth episode of Willow, is definitely a hungry house. If you’ve seen the original Willow, you may remember that it was the castle of the wicked sorceress Queen Bavmorda. Even if you haven’t, you could probably guess that this is a very bad place based on the obsidian walls and swirling storm clouds overhead. The walls just ooze evil. Now it may be the only hope of finding a cure for the magic infection that threatens to turn Graydon to the dark side, just as it turned Commander Ballentine a few episodes ago.

As they approach the entrance, Kit hears her mother’s voice reminding her (and the audience) that Bavmorda was her grandmother and she carries that blood too. Sorsha stood against her mother and fought at Willow’s side in the high tower of this very castle as he tried to stop Bavmorda from completing a ritual that would have banished baby Elora Danan’s soul forever. Yet those hereditary blood ties remain. I’m actually more worried about Airk at this point, who comes from the same bloodline and is now in the clutches of the Crone, another servant of the same dark master. But more on him later.

We also find out early in the episode that Willow’s role in that confrontation has been greatly exaggerated over the years and is now the stuff of legend. That explains why everyone believed that he was a great sorcerer despite all evidence to the contrary. He’s still the best they’ve got, since Elora is progressing slowly and seems to be even worse at magic than he is. It’s up to the two of them to figure out how to help Graydon before it’s too late. Whatever faith the group once had in Willow seems to be dwindling, as they immediately start discussing who should be the one to kill Graydon when the time comes.

One of the things hungry houses tend to do is create dissent within a group, not by inventing conflict but heightening the rifts that are already there. There’s a lot to work with among this motley crew. Jade is still struggling with the fact that she had to kill her mentor (at his request) in the last episode, but rejects Kit’s attempts to comfort her. They’re still at odds over their unspoken feelings. Meanwhile, Kit blames Boorman for the fact that her father left home to join him in the search for a relic that probably doesn’t even exist. Boorman, in turn, is obsessed with a whispering door that looks like it might lead to a treasure vault and mistakenly believes someone has stolen the lux arcana from him. Willow is feeling the pressure of performing an exorcism, having still not fully recovered from the magic blasts he used to defeat Ballentine’s minions. And Elora lacks confidence in her magical abilities. It might have helped if Kit hadn’t waited so long to share that she found the fully grown ekleberry bush Elora was trying to magically sprout in episode two, but that would require Kit to think about someone besides herself for a minute.

Graydon, chained up but not completely turned yet, clearly has feelings for Elora. He sweetly coaches her through the magic spell she’s trying to recite. I’m not sure how that crush is going to go for him. Elora does seem to genuinely care about him, but remains devoted to Airk. I won’t deny that I’m with Graydon in hoping she’ll change her mind. Tony Revolori continues to be one of the most compelling actors on the show. And he gets a chance to really show off in this episode in particular, as Graydon goes through the different stages of transformation and back. I just wish there was more clarification on the true nature of his character. The flashback of him pushing his brother out of the tree was fairly ominous. Elora seemed rattled by it too. Still, I can’t help but hope they can find a way to work it out.

For such a large fortress, this one only seems to have a few rooms and corridors. Everyone keeps winding up running into each other, or suddenly popping up in the same room (in true horror fashion). I couldn’t say whether the confused layout is intentional or incidental. It’s part of a larger issue in the disjointed way this episode is put together. Besides sowing discord in general, there doesn’t seem to be any method or internal logic behind any of Nockmaar’s tricks. It gives Boorman an irresistible puzzle, but also makes him think someone has stolen his prized possession, forcing him to reveal to Kit that he lied when he said he didn’t find it. Jade has visions of her dead family, but there’s no real insight that gives us a deeper meaning of her character or history. Besides hearing the voice of her grandmother and setting a tapestry ablaze, Kit just kind of wanders around without purpose. Willow is the only one focused on what they’re there to do, and he leaves Graydon alone for Elora to find for some reason that’s never explained.

They all end up in the one place Willow expressly told them not to go: the high tower. It’s no surprise, really—from the moment he said it, it was obvious that’s where we were headed by the end of the episode. Elora takes the lead when Graydon, now fully possessed but hiding it, asks her how she knows the way. “I was born here,” she says, which doesn’t answer the question at all—but okay, sure. Once they get to the tower he reveals his true, monstrous face. There must be some bit of Graydon still in there, though, because he boasts that he finally has the strength and confidence of Airk. She says that’s not why she loves him. (If it’s because he was hot, Graydon doesn’t have much to offer in that department at the moment.) Unfortunately, she doesn’t elaborate, so it remains a mystery what exactly she sees in Airk.

Through a series of visions (which are basically projected scenes from the film), Elora starts to understand everything that happened in the tower back in the day. She sees her mother being killed and herself as a baby held captive by Bavmorda. She also sees the truth about how Willow defeated her, or more accurately how she defeated herself after Willow distracted her with his disappearing pig trick. In showing her these images, Evil Graydon hopes to shake Elora’s faith in her teacher—who’s just called her “the worst apprentice ever” for disobeying his orders about staying out of the high tower—and by extension herself. Just in time, the rest of the group arrive to give them all a boost of support and confidence. (Sometimes all it takes to defeat a haunted house is to show it that you’re united and unafraid.)

It’s ultimately Kit, of all people, who brings Elora back to reality. She tells her (finally!) that the sprouting spell worked and to just throw out the recipe (it wasn’t until this moment I put together that the reason that Elora is such a good baker is that it’s basically a form of alchemy). Letting instinct take over, Elora manages to suck the darkness right out of Graydon, getting a headful of his most unpleasant memories in the process. Bad energy vanquished, they leave the cursed fortress beneath a sunny sky. They’ve made it through the night with only a few physical and psychological wounds that aren’t likely to heal quickly.

As if summoned by all the mentions of him in this episode, Airk appears at the end to catch us up on what he’s been doing while in captivity in the immemorial city. He’s all alone in an ancient ruin surrounded by fallen statues in the middle of what’s left of a fallen civilization. As a slow, moody cover of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” plays over the end credits, it looks like I may be right to be worried about Airk and what he might have inherited from his evil grandmother.

Stray observations

• I loved the callback to the time Bavmorda turned the Galladoorn army into pigs. That was one of the disturbing moments in the original film that’s always stuck with me. The literal gag that followed as Boorman suddenly worried about what he might be eating was also great.
• There was another callback during the purification ritual, when Graydon channeled Madmartigan: “Give me some water peck or you die. Understand? Water.” I hope we get some explanation for that at some point. Unless it means that he’s dead. In which case, I don’t want to know.
• Of all the things the vault could hold, Boorman’s idea of a great treasure find would be a “giant gold statue of an eagle fighting a horse.” Amar Chadha-Patel’s delivery of that line is ace.
• Some more classic Boorman lines in this episode: “Everyone deserves one good cry per quest” and “I hate you, door!”
• Jade mentions a spiral staircase that tried to eat her, which I don’t think we saw. If a deleted scene of that exists, I hope we get to see it one day.
• The haunting “Black Hole Sun” cover that closes out the episode is performed by Nouela. Speaking of which, her stunning cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence” is also worth a listen.