The Dragon Prince Rewatch 1.8, "Cursed Caldera"

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Matters are made to look all the poorer in the penultimate episode of the season.

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1.8, "Cursed Caldera"

Written by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

Not the homiest view, no.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Rayla, Ezran, and Callum race up the side of the mountain, fleeing pursuit and seeking the healer whose skills have been reported to them. It is a treacherous path, to be sure, though they soon find guides in Ellis and Ava and proceed up the mountain after awkward introductions.

At the castle of Katolis, Viren returns to interrogating the captive Runaan. The Elf is loathe to talk, and Viren promises horrors to come.

As night falls, Ezran, Ellis, Rayla, Callum, and Ava begin to be beset by monsters and apparitions. A fracas ensues, with the group taking refuge on high after becoming separated. They confer in their smaller groups, various members admitting weaknesses to one another and finding some adjustments to their ideas in the wake of the discussions.

Pragmatic, yes.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Viren presents the mirror to Runaan, who remains taciturn. Viren also presents strange coins to Runaan, to Runaan's dismay. The Elf continues to resist, only to be subjected to an unholy ritual that imprisons him more fully than any chains.

Ezran, Ellis, Rayla, Callum, and Ava reconvene after a time, thinking themselves safe. They are wrong and are attacked again; a fracas ensues, but the group handles it better on the second occasion, defeating the monster attacking them, as well as the young that creep from its corpse. After, they find that there is, in fact, no healer to be found.

Discussion

There are once again shades of Orientalism to be found in the episode. The description of Xadian fruits as "exotic" is one such; the descriptor is a commonplace in Orientalist figurations, not least in Victorian works from which much lingering inaccuracy in ideas of the medieval descend (as the inimitable Kavita Mudan Finn attests). So, too, is the assumption that peoples in the east are able to set aside fear of death readily and adroitly, which assumption tends to dehumanize them. ("If they don't care whether they die, why should we?" might be one way to put it.) While Elves and humans are more distinct than groups of humans--though the extent of the distinctness is not entirely clear--the figuration does not excuse the matter in the series any more than in its medievalist antecedents, about which Christina Warmbrunn and others write eloquently and at great length. The only potentially mitigating factor is that the attitudes are linked solidly to Viren, who is decidedly not a figure to be emulated--but that is not much of a mitigation, if any.