"Crimson" almost feels like an episode that was partially stitched together, held only together by the show making a point of telling us in no uncertain terms in the final minutes that this is the second act of the season. There's a lot of talk about destiny and fate, but poorly executed. It's usually part and parcel in a genre like fantasy, especially when talking about the hero's journey style of adventure. Part of what makes it feel discomforting to me when I watch this theme being trotted out is that it is a theme that attempts to rob certain characters of their self-determination or progress, because it's down to simple "it was fate, nothing more", without exploring the facets of fate vs. free-will, or something in-between. "Fate waits for no man", as Wil puts it; more like a word we just repeat to sound deep, or in character because of the fantasy setting, unfortunately. It's in the execution of it that bothers me, especially in "Crimson", or perhaps everytime it's used in Shannara. Although it means that the inevitable will happen (which is not the problem itself), it leaves very little leeway for characters or the world at large to change or make something for themselves if mostly everything is predetermined. Again, this is a scripted TV show, so forgive the metaphysical crisis I'm having.
On the subject of "Crimson", it is struck by some fairly poor pacing and plotting. For instance, whereas Valcaa (Riga's lieutenant) is captured by Jax in the previous episode, the Crimson easily break him out, with only a word of dialogue from one of Tamlin's guards (I assume he is the captain of the guard, though either unnamed or uninteresting and uninvolved enough to remember). This development barely lasts a few scenes from the previous episode to the current to have much impact. It forces much of the Leigh storyline in this episode to have its big scenes, while the parts inbetween are filled in by exposition instead of visual storytelling, which is a shame. Although I don't particularly like the Leigh story this season, it was usually just a matter of the subject at hand, but now the poor pacing I found in Shannara season one seems to have reared its ugly head as well.
Jax is hired again by Tamlin to hunt down Valcaa and Riga, but there's no real substance or real subtext in the scenes where Tamlin acts on the Crimson. It's almost as if the show decides she has to be a complete cypher to see if she really has changed sides or not. Not that pissing off a homicidal warlord to crash your daughter's wedding is a good idea, even if you don't like your choice of groom any more. The fights with Jax, Valcaa, and Riga are serviceable but they exist almost to show action than anything else and give Jax something to do that he probably would've done already - which makes the scene where Jax and Tamlin speak on the subject feel particularly worthless.
The final scene in "Crimson" is clearly an homage to one of TV's more recent infamous scene by playing to the major beats. But the problem is the danger doesn't feel as insidious or calculated as the Red Wedding ever was. This is a bold, brash, and loud attempt at one. Riga reveals himself at the heart of the wedding, and then Crimson men just instantly spill out from the stands in full uniform, making the suspension of disbelief a little hard to bear. And as violent as it will get, it's Ander who probably gets murdered (of course the show leaves his fate uncertain for now), though the show hasn't put much work in making us care for Ander as much as say Wil, Eretria, Allanon, or even Mareth and Jax.
Wil and Mareth's journey to Shadyvale continue into this episode, though like last episode's review argued, having an episode devoted to this would have been better. The continual talk of fate, fate, and fate, really only affected this story, as it places the idea of fate against the fear of causality. But the show can't seem to confirm if the vault truly existed to take a Shannara and druid back in time as a hiding place for the skull, or just a pocket reality that exists solely as a prison of sorts. The show didn't have to dive into either subject in depth, but it never took a stance on the subject. Perhaps it's left vague enough to allow some leeway into how the world all connects in the case of Wil and his family. By the end, it's really just left to Flick to die because the show - through Allanon - implies it's his fate to be sacrificed, just like it was Shae's to become a hero. Unfortunately it leaves untouched the subject of whether or not Shae's madness later in life and death were also part of his fate, or because of his denial of it. That would at least provide for some interesting ideas to work from.
Of course, by the end of "Crimson", the show would prefer to just leave us with a world on the brink of true misery and despair as it shows all the heroes set on the backfoot - like any good end of a second act. Bandon has the skull and races away with it, Allanon is slowly dying probably because the prison affected his ties to magic, and Ander is likely dead along with any hopes for an alliance between Arborlon and Leigh. The only problem is for much of the latter, they didn't feel like earned defeats. Perhaps it was fate for much of the characters that the story just threw defeat at them because that's what was needed at this part of the story, instead of showing us their villains really are just that capable of tearing them down.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Not much to say about Eretria, who only really has a scene or two. It's unclear if she just sucked up the mordwraith or someone reached in while she was killing it - probably the latter though.
- Again, I really want to stress I wish the Leigh storyline was more interesting but it really feels like there's never really any depth there except possibly in the set and costume design. If it's trying to ape Game of Thrones' King's Landing kind of court intrigue, it's failing pretty badly.
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