On Willow, a haunted fortress exposes secrets and conflicts
Our adventurers have to spend a dark and stormy night in the ever-so-creepy Nockmaar
TV Reviews Willow
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.
45 Comments
The haunting “Black Hole Sun” cover that closes out the episode is performed by Nouela and can be found on her debut solo album Chants. The album also features a stunning cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence” that’s definitely worth a listen.Wow, just completely wrong… Chants was released in 2012 and doesn’t feature those songs. She released both “Black Hole Sun” and “The Sound Of Silence” as separate singles in 2014.That said, they’re not great covers. Her minimalistic piano usage (which often plays some off-key / conflicting notes) with the droll slowness and heavily somber style—they’re snoozefests compared to the originals. She’s literally playing mostly single or double piano notes with like a really slow 3 second interval between them. If you want a good cover, check out Dan Avidan (of Game Grumps and Ninja Sex Party) with The Super Guitar Bros. They teamed up to make a really good acoustic rendition of “Black Hole Sun” back in 2020. I also heavily recommend the “Black Hole Sun” cover done by Vella, which was also released as a single. And hey, while you’re at it, the Stella Starlight Trio made a pretty jazzy cover of “Black Hole Sun” that’s well worth checking out.And I do still feel the need to call out the show for using these modern songs… It was terrible decision directionally, especially since the original music in the show is pretty good. Anyone remember in Game of Thrones Season 3 when Jaime Lannister loses his hand, and when it immediately cuts to credits we get a punk/rock rendition of “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” by The Hold Steady? That kinda sucked, right? Bringing in modern music often takes away from the fantasy atmosphere, and in Willow’s case, it rings eerily similar to Westworld’s usage of modern songs (which obviously makes more sense in their world). Oh, and Westworld also used a piano cover of “Black Hole Sun” in the first season.
This show is fucking awful. It’s a betrayal to everything interesting and unique about the original. The acting isn’t even amateurish it’s baffling. Where did they dredge up these so called performers? Is it part of a Ukrainian refugee rescue operation? Poor Warwick Davis and Joanne Whaley. You can literally see them blinking out Morse code SOS’s. The writing is like listening to an English as a third language person reading mad libs. The set and costuming choices were clearly just scrounged from those that survived an 1990’s Spirit Halloween fire. The effects must’ve been rendered on a 1992 Apple Centris. It’s a show made by craven opportunists for drooling idiots.And I cannot for the life of me figure out why there is an entire cottage industry dedicated to pretending it isn’t.
I agree that the acting is bad, but I don’t know why you’re giving Davis a pass. He’s by far the worst of the bunch, it’s like he’s reading those lines off a cue card.
It goes without saying being entertained is subjective. Try remembering that next time you can’t figure this out for the life of you.
Nope. Some people are entertained by child porn and animal killing. And those are objectively bad. Willow the TV show is objectively bad for other reasons.See. Standards exist. This unoriginal cynical cash grab fails at almost every film making and creative quality standard. Are there people entertained by that? I’d say refer to paragraph four of my original comment.
Your “other reasons” is the false equivalency in your argument. We obviously hold tv shows to different standards than activities that actually harm others. Your original comment is just an opinion, an arguably hyperbolic one at that, and not any proof or evidence of objectivity. If you haven’t enjoyed these first four episodes, then you’re under no obligation to continue watching. You can even feel disappointed, but it’ll be for your subjective reasons.
The whole ‘Willow never actually got good at magic’ thing is such a weird decision for the show to make. He’s clearly well on his way by the end of first movie, even doing the whole ‘transmute an object into a bird’ spell that the High Aldwyn does by the time he returns to his village.
He can clearly perform some powerful magic. It’s just that his deeds have been exaggerated.
But there are also the flashbacks in the second episode where Sorsha straight up tells him that he’s not a great sorcerer and he never will be, and in the later flashback makes fun of him like she doesn’t believe he can do anything other than sleight of hand.
That did bug me. I guess if I were to go down the path of hypotheticals, I’d say: “Geez that Bavmorda clan can turn bitchy from time to time.”As for Willow’s powers, there’s something left to be told about what happened to his wife and son … and why the tribe went into hiding. He blames himself for Something To Be Revealed Later. So hopefully a decent explanation is coming – maybe something to tie together both Sorsha being chippy and Willow’s career ups and downs.
I see two possibilities: either Sorsha is trying to protect everyone from keeping them from doing what they will inevitably do, or Sorsha is the actual Crone.
It’s already demonstrated that Willow really is a powerful wizard. He explained that there’s a limited amount of magic that one can do in their lifetime, so he’s saving it as much as possible for the big final battle that he knows is coming.
I think the show is being very slow about a LOT of its reveals, way slower than it needs to be, and it leads to a lot of things being overly confusing. I think we can clearly see that Willow is a powerful sorcerer. However, it also clearly takes a toll, and doing powerful magic leaves him weak for extended periods of time. But I don’t think we needed to wait 3 episodes to see that.Likewise, there will probably be an explanation of what is going on with his sorcery limitations and how it relates to the Nelwyn’s current situation of being driven undergronud.Seeds have been planted for more reveals, but with the pace of this show I imagine we won’t get them for several more episodes.
I wish they would explain this is-Willow-good-at-magic-or-not sooner rather than later, because at the moment it’s making his character strange to watch.
Perhaps I’m alone in this, but I find the other actors portraying credible characters, while Warwick Davis is giving an almost monotone reading of his lines everytime. I’m really hoping it’s something to do with his character, but the more they don’t explain it the more I’m losing hope.
Coming as it does from an era in which the “lore” of a fantasy film generally wasn’t considered that important, I can look past the general chaotic mélange of names and costumes from a bunch of different pre-modern cultures that make up Willow’s world most of the time. But things are different today, and when you name a magic spell the “Fibonacci inversion” (or whatever it was) without some kind of setup, you’re telling me both that you don’t care about your own lore and that you think it’s silly for anyone else to care about it either. And I don’t like that.
Maybe there’s more coming about the spell later in the series.
We don’t know the whole story yet so it’s arguably too early to judge.
One can hope.
The spell never happened. I suppose it’s a question of whether there’s a real spell that Willow never cast or if Fibonacci Hex was simply the name given to a thing that wasn’t understood, and beyond that if Graydon even remembered the name he’d learned correctly.
But if you want to nitpick wording (and I don’t see the upside, personally), that’s mentioned only a minute before Boorman refers to Graydon as Grayoncé, which is the sort of thing that if we find out later is a joke about the Ed Sheeran GoT cameo might be hilarious, but at the time felt… puzzling.
‘when you name a magic spell the “Fibonacci inversion”’That wasn’t the actual name of the spell, that was someone who didn’t remember the actual name trying to fake it.
also definitely a touch of Dr. Who: inversion = reverse the polarities
What followed “I hate you, door” was even funnier.
“I was born here” left me v confused as an answer to the question.
Nouela’s cover of “Black Hole Sun” had me watching the credits.
Graydon says during the episode that he’s been through something like this before, and the way his face suddenly changed during the flashback implies it was when he was a kid and got his brother killed.
It looked like he was possessed or something as a kid, during which time he killed his brother.
That’s my guess, too.
The biggest laugh of the episode wasn’t so much the “I hate you door!” line, but Boorman’s follow-up apology… to said door. “I’m sorry. I’m fine. We’re fine.”
Yep, I’m pretty much just watching for Boorman at this point. I really couldn’t care less about the rest of the fellowship.
Han Solo: Uh… Uh, everything’s under control. Situation normal.
Imperial officer: What happened?Han Solo: Had a slight weapons malfunction… but, uh, everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine… We’re all fine here now. Thank you. How are you?
Is it just me who finds a lot of the names from the original film difficult to understand. Elora Danan, Bavmorda and Madmartigan hardly trip off the tongue.
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.
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.
Both these lines tell a different story.
She either changed her mind or had character growth over the course of the journey.
Not that weird.
I can’t believe how bad this show is choosing to be. Grayoncé? Are you kidding? The plot holes are larger than the damned plot. I get that I’m not the target demo; I saw the movie when it came out. But shilling this almost exclusively for sullen teen views seems unnecessary. Anyway, Boorman drank a love potion and fell in love with a door, which was nice.
Is no one going to mention the comment about ‘Grayoncé’? Whether Boorman knows what that reference means or not it’s still totally bizarre.
It’s a portmanteau of “Graydon” (his name) and “fiancé” (his role), right?
There’s a lot of weird modern dialogue and such in this show.
I usually love anachronistic pop songs in genre media. Westworld killed it every time. But I kind of hate it here.Not because the covers are bad, but it feels so inorganic to what the general vibe is of the show. I suppose there’s a modern self-awareness to the dialogue, but otherwise it’s normal generic fantasy narrative stuff. A lot of conventional orchestral scoring, “big sweeping vista” cinematography, loosely-medieval period costuming, etc.99% of the episode will stay in conventional D&D LotR fantasy mode, and then the last 30 seconds of the episode throws in a pop song cover and smashes to credits. It feels inconsistent, a suddenly cooler and edgier style that simply wasn’t there for the 45 minutes preceding. And I wish it’d commit to that approach throughout, or not do it at all. Pick a lane.
I assume they’re going for an 80s fantasy movie vibe like Highlander, Neverending Story, Labyrinth, etc.
But since it wasn’t in the original Willow movie they’re just putting the song at the end. I think it’s cool and it’s fine if you don’t.
It was one thing when they were just over the credits, but they keep starting the song earlier and earlier.
If you look at the credits for this show you’ll see that Warwick Davis’ real life daughter is also in this series. I think you see her briefly in episodes 2 and 3. I think she plays his daughter in the series but not the movie.
“I think she plays his daughter in the series but not the movie.”She couldn’t have been in the movie: it was made before she was born.
‘”She couldn’t have been in the movie: it was made before she was born.”’I know that’s why I said what I said. Also before I posted I checked her filmography.
Not sure: did the original specifically reference the Lovecraft mythos? Yug Shuggoth etc.? Or…well…Evil Dead with the demon voices to mock people? Or…well…hellraiser with the demon with the cage on his head? Is that ALL new? I know they are spinning a mythology mostly out of old rags here but this seems like a lot to steal from at once.The main thing I can’t understand with this, and it has been the same in several of these Disney+ series, is about things like Willow leaving Graydon alone with Elora and them never explaining it. There are plotlines and characters and whole things brought up and left in these shows, and in Rings of Power etc. I just don’t understand how they leave big plot holes in things this expensive…or just can’t find a less stupid way to get her up into the tower. I mean…despite how good Andor was they still couldn’t bother to come up with a good reason for Cassian to return to his home planet where he was only going to be hunted and put others in danger…that’s only one of SEVERAL examples.
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.
This confused the hell out of me too, and made me think I had fallen asleep for a minute and missed a section (I was watching after putting the kids to bed, so I was pretty tired). It definitely feels like each episode has had some parts that ended up on the cutting room floor that would have helped to tie together some plot threads. I’m wondering if they have an ultimatum to keep the episode lengths down in the 45 minute range and they’re having to cut too much. I’d definitely rather have slightly longer, more cohesive episodes if that’s the case.
Has no one noticed that the whispering door that Boorman wants to open looks like a swastika?!?