It’s been a strange journey for the latest Lucasfilm revival so far. As the season crosses the halfway point,Willowseems to be coming closer to finding its place in the market. The fifth episode dives into the world of everyone’s favorite rogue Boorman, taking the adventuring party into an entirely new world of fun.
Co-executive producer Hannah Friedman takes her first writing credit with “Chapter V: Wildwood.” Friedman most recently worked on the hit Disney Plus showObi-Wan Kenobi, whereshe wrote the thirdand fourth episodes. The show still feels like a bit of a mess, but her hand can be felt in the stronger dialogue.
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“Wildwood” opens with a pretty rough chase sequence. The music remains one of the strangest elements of this series, alternating wildlybetween beautiful orchestral scoreand bizarre “modern” rock. This change is jarring because the former is often perfect for the scene and the latter is somewhat embarrassing. Though the soundtrack is a bit off-putting, the action scene works. To escape their dangerous pursuers, the adventuring party runs off into the eponymous Wildwood. The unincorporated lands seem to be relatively peaceful as they enter, but Boorman quickly notices something amiss. Shortly thereafter, the gang is rounded up by the ominously named Bone Reavers. Despite the terminology, they seem to be a fairly reasonable gang of fun-loving freedom fighters.
This episodesplits the party once again. The Bone Reavers throw their new guests into cages in groups of two. Kit is stuck with Elora, Graydon is trapped with Willow, Jade is tied to a post, and Boorman gets some time with the gang’s leader. The structure of the episode is a bit sloppy. It’s split between cages as each duo tries to escape, Boorman has his own subplot as he unpacks the largely false tale of his new adventure, and Jade has her own story to explore. Four of the principal characters spend around half of the episode trying to get out of a cage, before a solid one-on-one action scene and a new revelation invalidates their efforts. Every individual element works on its own, but it struggles to transition between narrative tracks. Once everyone comes back together, the episode gives way to a lot of fun character interactions andanother decent action scene. Though it isn’t the most cohesive experience, this is the strongest episode overall. It’s almost less than the sum of its parts, but those parts are fun to watch.
One of the interesting things aboutfantasy stories with ensemble castsis that fans will often pick their favorite track to focus on. One viewer might be spellbound by Willow and Elora’s magic lesson narrative and bored whenever Boorman’s life of crime is in focus or vice versa. Some of the subplots will almost certainly grab the viewer, but a couple will also undoubtedly fall flat. This generally means that around 15% of every episode is dead air for any given audience member. If a viewer, for example, finds Graydon’s insipid quest to move past his cowardice and impress Elora to be completely unwatchable, they’ll be happy to discover that the show will move past it. There are two romance subplots,one mystical MacGuffin, countless magic lessons, and way too many details of lore to keep up with. The show is more enjoyable when the viewer identifies their favorite parts and tunes out the less effective bits.
Willow’s fifth episode is as close as it’s come so far to the pure fantasy adventure fun that it seems to be aiming for. This episode works primarily because it eschews the generic main quest. The Bone Reavers come across as a generic group of henchmen to be slain by the chosen heroes, but there’s a lot more going on with their society and goals. This may be the first time thatWillowhas shown the audience something that seems standard issue and subverted expectations with hidden complexity. The Bone Reavers and their leader Scorpia are interesting, the character interactions under duress work andthe action scenes fitwell into the episode. Though it stumbles when it tries to bring up old material,Willowfinally feels like a standalone fantasy story with a functioning world and a ton of possibilities.
There are still three episodes of the first season to go, but “Wildwood” is a good sign of things to come. There have always been entertaining elements, but they’ve always been mired in bizarre creative decisions that feel like studio notes. The callbacks to the original film aren’t too obtrusive, even if they’ll fall flat to new fans. IfWillowhad pitched a second seasonafter last week’s episode, they wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, but this episode reveals a great deal of potential. “Wildwood” is a new peak forWillow, and the most impressive thing about it is that it leaves the viewer wanting more.
