SKEVIKOR IS COMING: REVIEW FROM THE OUTPOST EP. 407

 

Season 4 (3b) of The Outpost reaches its perigee with the release of ep. 407, The Power of The Masters, an episode that, if it seemed too short to many of us, was undoubtedly due to its energetic narrative spirit. The plots advance rapidly without us hardly noticing and, when it seems that the series is going to reveal some momentous event, it stops to show us the credits, hooking us more and more, taking over our souls and claiming them in the same way as so called Gods do it with the kinjs they once possessed. The virtue of The Outpost is precisely that, to offer what is just and necessary for the viewer to come thirsty for action, romance and adventure next week. On this occasion, the chapter is galloping between several different scenarios.

We already knew Gallwood and The Capital very well, and we had even had the opportunity to visit Aegysfort a little, but to those three sites there is now a fourth, the town of Relman, to which Talon and Luna are forced to go in their search for the key Skevikor, while their friends Garret, Zed and Janzo try to preserve order in Gallwood in the absence of Tobin and Falista. Fateful is the innocent queen's fate, whose political career seems to culminate here, paradoxically, in the same way that circumstances claimed Gwynn's life. Falista had always called her weak, but deep down she was nothing but envy. She envied that Gwynn had been as respected and loved by her people as she was hated by all of her subjects. Falista wanted to open a new stage of peace through treaty and diplomacy, amending the mistake of her ancestors in expelling the Blackbloods from the kingdom ... in short, to be a better queen than Gwynn. However, sometimes fate has very cruel ways of teaching a lesson: be careful what you wish for. Falista has not only left this orbit as a legitimate usurper, but she has done so without hardly achieving any of her purposes, except for the will to return the kinjs to the gods. We have barely been given a moment to regret the farewell of Georgia May Foote's character, which many of us didn't even dislike. Perhaps it was because of the sweetness in her voice, because of her naivety, because of her innocence, or because of both at the same time. To me, personally, Falista always seemed like a girl who enjoyed playing with a scepter and a crown. I thought the series, in one way or another, would try to save this antagonist to give her a second chance as a protagonist. It doesn'tseem that she is going to be like that, at least for the moment, so, no matter how much it weighs us, goodbye, Falista; may we meet again...

Fortunately, Tobin used his only escape from certain death, his own kinj. However, the life of the 'new' and 'risen' Tobin was entirely linked to Falista. Both of them were up to ride into the sunset together once they had disposed of their kinjs. Tobin now finds himself alone on the throne for the first time and doubts hang over him after this unpredictable setback. There is always a rip for a ripped and every sheep has her match in The Outpost, so it's no small wonder who the writers would match Tobin with. We must admit that, although there are more understanding characters with this new humanoid and mortal race, who usually sleep in pupae like butterfly larvae awaiting the end of the metamorphosis, Tobin has all the ballots to become a staunch enemy of these beings, whom we get to know a little better every day thanks to Janzo's inquiries. Unfortunately, the death of the queen has also confirmed a doubt that had been floating in the air for weeks, the degree of influence and the power of mental subjugation of the gods. When Garret pressured Tobin to turn him against Falista, the knight always argued that his loyal wife was no longer a free spirit, which is somewhat true. Non-gods - what type of god is a god who can die - can establish collective telepathic communication with all those who possess kinjs and make them susceptible to their whims, something that is both an advantage and a disadvantage for Talon and Zed, since as long as they carry them, they will always be traceable, which will make it very difficult for them to hide their thoughts and hatch a plan to defeat them, when the time comes.

Yes, when time has come, because now the top priority is to find the key to the Skevikor before they do. And Talon and Luna have devoted themselves to that mission, who, in their journey through the woods, don't speak again about personal or sentimental matters. However, there is someone who is concerned - angry, rather - and who has shown us many times throughout the episode: Garret. With a ring and a promise to keep, nothing seems to stand in the way of the young captain, who the soldiers of Gallwood's guard don't trust when he explains that Tobin has appointed him provisional regent of the outpost. As it is, Garret chokes on speeches and draws his sword, because the edge of a weapon is worth more than the words of a man ... things are clear and chocolate is thick. His arrival doesn't contribute to maintaining the little order in the weaponyard. It's hard to see Garret in this state of unrestrained rage because, let's face it, it's not reason that rules him right now. Talon is the epicenter of his thoughts and any problem to be solved is an uncomfortable distraction.

The tavern scene is funny and very illustrative. Zed and Garret are not at their best as men: they are not quite up to scratch in love, because even Zed's flirting with Nedra ends up in a black bottomless pit as a result of what could have and was not avoided. Wren, Nedra and Talon are the last living blackbloods, but Wren is expecting a son from Janzo who is not going to be purebred and Talon has a crush on Garret, so Zed hopes to play a bigger role in the blackblood lineage so, unless Talon changes his mind, the warrior hopes to solve the ethnic problem of his people in this way. However, he will have to distill more intelligence to woo tough Nedra, which amuses Garret, who sarcastically reminds him of that question Zed asked him in the woods regarding Talon: "Is she your breathe?" 

The captain takes advantage of that conversation to elicit more details from Zed about Talon's strange and distant behavior in recent days, to which his friend responds bluntly. Talon has spent a lot of time serving others and now she's focused on her people, who need her more than ever to re-root themselves in a world that doesn't welcome them with open arms. Garret suspects, not without reason, that Zed has remarkably influenced her, trying to force her into blackblood affairs, causing her to hesitate between her heart and what is right, and perhaps he smile as they have a few drinks in the tavern, but in the outskirts of that casual atmosphere, Garret is a very different person.

Maybe we shouldn't take his fits of rage into account, because Spears is undoubtedly angry, not at anyone in particular, but at the world itself for conspiring to keep him away from Talon. On the other hand, it's true that Garret used to obey orders from him as a soldier, and that should have taught him to control his feelings when they come between him and his goals. Spears may not go down in history as the best of the regents, but at least he doesn't prove to be much more incompetent and inept than Tobin and Falista. He lacks the applied psychology and the patience of Janzo, who finally manages to add new notes to his book of discoveries: 3-1-3 communicated through his chrysalis, his naviaspore, with the Masters, the name with which his species designates the dominant hierarchy, that is, Vorta, Tera, Janya, Kultor ... those who were known as The Seven by other earthly cultures.

He and his sleeping friends are servants who simply obey their telepathic orders and, perhaps, both these and humans or blackbloods were used as vessels to store their souls. It's even possible that the souls stored by the Masters had been stolen from them and that these are the fifth essence of the kinjs, which in the blackblood language is translated as “soul”. Our question here is whether the kinjs, which are containers of the souls, power and wisdom of all who have possessed them, could be used to revive those former possessors in the same way  when Gwynn and Yavalla died their kinjs returned to their former owners. If there is such a possibility, the only way to check it would be by killing the gods. If there is magic, we can still hope to meet again with those beloved characters who left us.

And, as a river of discord floods Gallwood, amidst the creature's menacing presence and increasing disputes between Garret, Zed, Janzo, and Wren, Talon and Luna rush to find out the key's whereabouts, a quest that leads them to recruit a former character missing since Season 2. Naya (Amita Suman), who was then revealed to be Janzo's long-lost sister, whose farewell at the end of Season 2 added a touch of bitterness to the final victory against the Prime Order and the Plaguelings, reappears to support the two adventurers and lead them to the secret hiding place where Dred stored all kinds of mysterious artifacts of power and priceless value. It's worth highlighting here the expertise and thoroughness of The Outpost twriters, who have managed to weave together such an isolated and irrelevant plot seamlessly in previous seasons of the series. The Prime Order, the order of the dragman girls and the Masters, those creatures that could finally be nothing but aliens, seem to converge around the key of the Skevikor, as if the Prime Order, despite everything, has struggled to protect the secret of its location. So much interest in protecting such a contraption invites us to think that it can be a reservoir of energy powerful enough to unleash a great cataclysm, so what is the point of hiding something that is harmless or useless? That vortex of intrinsically related storylines could mean that the end of the series is coming...

LOVE AND RESPONSABILITY: REVIEW FROM EP. 4X06 OF THE OUTPOST

In this episode, directed by Imogen Waterhouse -our once great queen Gwynn-, our friends try to prevent the tough and mature Tobin and Falista from fulfilling the will of the so-called divine beings who flood their minds with visions with precise instructions to obtain the only thing that matters to them, their precious kinjs, while along the way they discover and learn more about these pale, horned creatures with black blood. All We Do is To Say Goodbye is a brilliant and eloquent episode, a chapter with a frenetic rhythm that leaves the viewer with honey on the lips and that, above all, is an episode of characters, fully focused on their concerns and in their decisions, which will mark them psychologically.

Some of them, as it often happens in the theme of this season, face constant dilemmas that force them to decide between what they themselves consider correct, and what their peers think should be the ideal according to their traditions or their culture, as is the case with Wren. Her last Blackblood companions pressure her to act as the High Priestess she should become as the sole heir of Yavalla, since the knowledge and history of her people are passed down from priestess to priestess and. If she refuses, not only her survivors life will be in danger, but also  their memory, which provides lessons for the future.

To be Yavalla's first-born, Wren received neither great affection nor great support from her mother, perhaps precisely due to the fact that blackblood priestesses must avoid being mothers and the transfer of knowledge is carried out by other means than the blood. Nedra, a childhood friend of the brothers Zed and Corven, is against blackblood children receiving mixed education, which motivates Wren to carry out even more eagerly that position for which she doesn't feel at all prepared, because she doesn't believe in magic as much in the human science. But above all, Wren trusts Janzo, and knows that the mistakes made by the ancestors of the people who forced their people into exile in the Plain of Ashes cannot be blamed, because that implies misjudging innocent people who had nothing to do with those dark events. Basing the education of the later Blackblood children on the customs and traditions of the Blackbloods is meaningless in a shared world where they have to coexist with other races and which often severely punishes tribalism. Therefore, Wren is determined to find a balance between her spiritual responsibility and her duty as a mother, because she is not only the mother of Janzo's son, but also the alma mater of her people, in the most transcendental sense of the word. Education, dialogue and interculturality are the pillars on which Wren wants to support the future of Blackblood society.

We ignore most of the secrets of the Blackbloods, but with the help of Janzo, Wren and Luna, we have learned a little more, because if there is one thing that distinguishes this chapter from the previous ones, it is because of its high content of mysteries and findings. Janzo, determined to unravel the enigma of the Skevikor key, finds next to Luna a cavity that houses a colossal hive of dormant chrysalis that contain strange creatures very similar in appearance to the gods. Somehow, the jambs of the portal illustrate as vignettes what appears to be the story of the exile and origin of the Blackbloods, curiously linked to Luna's training in the Dragman Sanctuary. All this, together with the telepathic instructions issued by Tera, Janya and Vorta to bring Tobin and Falista to their presence in the capital, suggest that the Skevikor could be an artifact destined to awaken the beings that doze in the Gallwood crypt, whose souls seem to reside in the bodies of Tera and Vorta. The dragmans would have been in charge of hiding it or keeping the secret of its location, which invites us to think of a time of wisdom and cultural exchange between humans and blackbloods hundreds of years ago, long before the banishment of the pointed ears people.

All We Do is To Say Goodbye involves personal resignations and changes in the thinking of each character, even taking other directions that could separate them. A goodbye without going back. Until now, Zed had been silent and tolerated with more or less jealousy and reluctance the love affair between Talon and Garret. However, now the warrior questions many things, and one of them is Talon's responsibility towards his people. Zed has always been a loyal and obedient soldier who needs to put his finger on the wound to believe something foreign to his conscience. Not that of his is exactly a declaration of love in captivity, but in some way or another, he justifies the need to join Talon in perpetuating the blackblood bloodline. However, Talon is very clear about who he really loves and will not put the customs of his people before her own desires, but neither will the whim of a man over the well-being of those around her, which translates into a strong blow for both Zed and for Garret, the latter eager to finally rejoin her after once more outwitting the guards and the bars of Gallwood. Talon and Wren try to be understanding and understand other people's point of view. The difference is that Talon wants to find happiness and build a new future for herself regardless of her own past.

Each dawn implies a new dusk, and this in turn is the prelude to a new day. Shadows and lights dance in Tobin's heart. The light of his destiny as king of Gallwood and the shadow of his love for the indomitable Falista have prompted him to rebel against anyone who violates both wishes. Blinded by such sins, he has abandoned his most loyal friends and learned to believe what he would never have dreamed of as a child. The evolution of his character is noticeably palpable in this episode, especially in that face-to-face duel with Talon and Garret on the outskirts of the camp, a scene as dramatic as intense. Tobin has just made a critical decision: he leaves Gallwood's fate in the hands of Garret Spears by giving him the ring as a symbol of his commitment. Deep down, what Tobin wants most is to be by Falista's side and he is willing to take any risk in order to enjoy her company, even if that may mean his own death.

Even if he doesn't officially state himself, Tobin's gesture actually constitutes a personal resignation. It's an act of compassion and loyalty towards Garret as a good friend of him, and a goodbye, as his ways separate. But even that doesn't assure Garret a triumphant kiss from Talon, and it's hard to discern what their feelings are. The relationship between the two protagonists has turned cold, perhaps because Talon grudgingly acknowledges that Zed is right and her duty should be to take care of her people, or because accepting responsibility means choosing a different path than someone else wouldn't have choosen ... Who knows! The romantic swings between Talon and Garret are increasingly oscillating and there is no doubt that some behaviors of the Sir Knight have been reprehensible. It's as if Talon doesn't trust him anymore or prefers to distance him from her because she thinks that her obligations entail carrying banners of a different sign and color. 

When Luna asks for an explanation for her refusal to have Garret accompany them to the sanctuary, Talon paradoxically uses the excuse that both of them have more in common and that Luna seemed uncomfortable having to relive bitter memories in that place. Talon insists that she is her friend, but what friendship can be formed if there is no mutual trust? Talon is not even able to being honest to herself and despite everything she demands trust from others. 

Talon's reaction in the woods, much to Zed's amusement, perplexes Garret, who will rightly wonder what fly has bitten his girlfriend. We don't know how it will affect him from now on, but one thing is for sure: if Garret had put right before duty, and even love before right, perhaps now, love evaporated, he will focus more on his duties  regarding the kingdom Tobin has given him in his absence. Maybe Garret should say goodbye to Talon...

GOODBYE TO THE ALLIANCE: CHANGE OF COURSE IN THE OUTPOST. REVIEW FROM EPISODE 4X05

The mystery surrounding the kinjs and the gods who claim them grows and the unstoppable snowball rushes rapidly down the narrative line of The Outpost. Talon failed to return with the blackblood troops promised to consolidate Falista's reign, Luna has been discovered by Tobin himself, and partly Garret's fault Janzo has seen the Prime Order soldiers shut down their underground business again. For his part, Tobin is suspicious of his partner's unusual religiosity and urges Garret to free Luna before she is executed, behind the queen's back, a moment that the teenager takes the opportunity to join Talon and Zed in their search for Two and the Lu Qiri.

Talon and Zed's adventure of discovery allows us to better understand the figure of the gods, those beings with pointed ears that vaguely resemble the blackblood and that, coincidentally, like them, bleed black blood when seriously injured. Zed reserves a moment of personal glory as he tries to save Talon and Luna from the clutches of monsters, something that must have weighed on his will, since Corven's death and the genocide that occurred on the Plain of Ashes have hurt his pride and his sense of belonging to the world. In just a few hours, the warrior has lost almost his entire family, a feeling that he can only share with Talon and Wren. The future of the blackblood race now rests with the surviving children and, in a way, also with the hybrid baby of Janzo and Wren. If Zed has always been drawn to Talon's exotic beauty and his fighting prowess, at no time have the two been so close. However, Zed is reserved and a man of few words, someone who tends not to speak his mind or to speak lightly. Time will tell if, finally, something more than a simple friendship is forged between them, but the truth is that the current circumstances have reconciled Talon with his own people and that they have opened a small gap between her and her bond with Gallwood, aka Garret Spears. The disagreements between the two protagonists of the show have even caused Garret to become fond of the fugitive Luna.

Janzo's academic slumber is over and we finally get to see him investigating the mystery of the Skevikor, doomsday according to the blackblood tradition, which has a lot to do with the divine voices Falista has heard lately. The chapter reveals the existence of seven deities that possessed kinjs, who strangely disappeared without a trace. There's some reason to believe that the creators of the show were inspired by the myth of Prometheus and the fire of the gods, since the supposed goddess Vorta refers to the Asterkinj that Talon carries as the traitor. Aster would be the possessor of the blue kinj that opens portals to other worlds, and if he betrayed the Seven perhaps it was to steal their kinjs, their powers, and grant them to the blackbloods. However, there is also the possibility that she refers to Talon as a traitor to her own people. What if obtaining all the kinjs and their proper placement on the symbol ring unlocked the Skevikor? Impossible to confirm, but no less plausible, perhaps the blackblood are hybrids between the race of gods and humans, an answer that we will only get, unfortunately, when Wren gives birth to Janzo's son. 

Mythology and religion are aspects that the universe of The Outpost has only just begun to explore this season. We are barely talking about the origin of the blackbloods, actually, the tip of the iceberg of this medieval fantasy, because the secrets of the dragman women and the grayskins are still hidden, which would provide enough fuel for two more seasons.

Crossing the Gallwood gate again, we observe how the trust, or what is the same, the tug of war between Garret Spears, Tobin and Falista, is hopelessly frayed. Tobin only acts as sovereign because Falista and others praise him as such, but nothing could be further from the truth: the king feels like a foreigner in a foreign country. His loyalty swings more than a pendulum. He may give Munt courtship lessons to enchant Warlita, but no one in all of Gallwood hates luxury, formal praise, and gastronomic refinements more than he does, which he would gladly trade for simplicity and mundane. He loves Falista but differs greatly from her in opinions of her, so much so that Garret Spears clings to him like a burning nail. The gate marshall insists that he bend her to his will, because it's not her, but the red kinj, who decides instead of her and who perpetrates the most heinous crimes, but Tobin, trying to follow his advice, realizes that it's actually his wife who orders and commands. He is only a mere king consort to hers, which is why he is ultimately inclined to obey her, as her hand wouldn't shake in decreeing his execution. Spears ends at the end of the episode again behind bars, although yeah, with the possibility that Luna helps him  in a clear exchange of favors since she is the only one of the group who has been banned from going to the outpost.

The newly resurrected gods head to the capital to reclaim the remaining kinjs, with Falista leading the retinue carrying Talon and Zed, now reduced to hostages, and with Janzo and Wren condemned to solve the mystery of the Skevikor and the crypt key from the underground city if they want to meet their son alive one day. Neither Janzo nor Wren have managed to unravel the cache of the key, but the series has opened the door to more questions, such as what the capital that The Three dominated has to do with the ruins of Gallwood. For the first time in The Outpost, the enemy we most feared has perished. We are talking about Two, whose blind faith plunged her forever into the darkness of death. With the fall of Two and Three, the main threat to which the kingdom had been subjected since the first season disappears from the chessboard, and that makes us fear for the lives of Falista and Tobin. Episode 4 × 05, which has put the spotlight on the action and mystery surrounding supernatural creatures, suddenly turns the tide of the series.

PRAISE OF LOYALTY: REVIEW OF 'A THRONE OF OUR OWN' (THE OUTPOST, EP. 402)

A Throne of Our Own owes its prominence to the new reigning couple in Gallwood, since to a large extent this episode focuses on them and their personal setbacks when establishing an effective government tailored to their needs. Falista tries to maintain her composure and present herself as a non-bloody but firm queen, while Tobin, whose brain hasn't been sucked into death, doubts the position of power they occupy and the means used to sit on the throne. So we have a queen who wants to rule at all costs, and a king who would rather give her place to someone more capable. Understanding is not guaranteed, much less if we consider who the real advisers are. Tobin refuses to accept the co-governance of Two and Three with Falista, insofar as they are inferior in rank, although equal in possession of their kinjs. Thus, Tobin and Falista must not only deal with themselves in making decisions, but also with the two theocrats who discreetly try to manipulate them, as well as with a mob that only kneels out of fear and is actually loyal to Talon and Garret.

For those who have been brought up in the culture of honor, loyalty, and service to the greater good, magic and the supernatural belong to another world, so Falista and Tobin's ascension to the throne is more than illegitimate in the eyes of Garret, who, unable to contain himself, decides to take advantage of the physical proximity to the newly crowned sovereign to rise up and incite rebellion, although he fails trying to put the sword around her neck, since the powerful red kinj almost causes her vital organs to explode. Falista takes the opportunity to illustrate how insubordination is punished and the impulsive and naive captain soon kisses the cell bars again.

But the story doesn't end there. Tobin and Falista's new dilemma is now called Garret Spears, since the poor prisoner is recriminated even more faults than those actually he committed and even Two and Three try to convince Falista of how beneficial it would be for all of them to execute him. From there, king and queen trembl on a tightrope, given that the power of one kinj doesn't affect others who already have one. Falista is unable to coerce her magicians and, although her plans haven't been revealed for now, it's likely that in subsequent chapters we will know more about what these two are up to since, obviously, they're aware that the queen is very fickle. The interests of the four highest authorities of Gallwood don't pursue the same objectives and this will have consequences later.

What is clear is that this episode the central theme is loyalty. Who is loyal to whom, for what reasons and if loyalty means agreeing that the good justifies the means, questions on which many of the thoughts of our protagonists spin over. For Garret everything is summed up in that concept, in loyalty. Loyalty brings power, and he relies on Tobin's former loyalty to the late Gwynn and all that she symbolized to him, so he believes Falista and Tobin would never order his execution, and for that very reason he also advises Talon she gathers those who are still faithful to both of them. However, Talon is much more pessimistic, as she knows from experience that loyalty is a fragile glass vase, very easy to break when subjected to continuous external pressure. If she hasn't been arrested, it's just because she had no intention of claiming the crown herself, but a single misstep would mean facing the gallows again. Her friends are in serious danger too, and given the situation, she tries not to visit Garret too often who, on the other hand, seems comfortable with Luna as a fellow roommate, at least until this troublesome girlie is forgiven and released due to the unlikely fact she was sent precisely by Garret in order to kill Falista. 

But the power of the new queen shouldn't be underrated, since the closure of the Nightshade tavern where Janzo, Munt and Warlita work means the prelude to the persecution of Talon's allies, who decides to concentrate on solving another of the season riddles: the strange behavior of the Lu Qiri and the divine visions of the newly awakened gods, as Wren reveals to Janzo that they are going to be parents.

Both plots become fleeting compared to the political goings-on and the Garret Spears affair. Janzo, who in the previous seasons lived his golden age as a doctor and scientist in charge of investigating the plaguelings and the contagious kinjs of the blackblood priestess, is now relegated to a very background, with fatherhood as a possible final horizon. Both he and Talon, who had always been such good friends, are now fighting on separate frontiers. Janzo has lost prominence and although he continues to be an essential character as Talon's support and continues to give us funny scenes and humorous moments, these lack of special importance for the main storylines, which now slide more towards Garret, Tobin, Falista, Talon and Zed , in that order. The first episode emphasized Talon's problem with the crown and Gallwood's interregnum, showing us the weaknesses of the stubborn warrior, who is no longer as unbeatable as she was presented to us. The series strives now more than ever to reflect her more human side and hints that her Asterkinj's powers aren't infinite when she tries to help her friends and do the right thing, which in the current situation consists of staying away from Garret to don't hint at a hypothetical conspiracy. Her position relative to Luna is identical. She can act as her supervisor and check out she doesn't get into trouble, but in secret.

Luna is an interesting character who is destined both to justify the existence of the order of the dragman women and to fit loose pieces of the puzzle of The Outpost. Luna is very much like Talon. The two girls have much in common, especially to the extent that Luna has traveled to the outpost for the same reasons that brought Talon to that place: revenge for the death of her sister Ilyin. However, Ilyin's murder was a blackblood, Rebb, while the ones who killed Talon's family were humans. What unites them is as different as what separates them, and although the two of them get along, their perspective of Gallwood society and culture is quite different. Luna is also a survivor, but, unlike Talon, she's willing to lie, steal, and kill.

Luna's idiosyncrasy fascinates Garret, who finds the tricky tavern girl amusing but lacking in honor and scruples. She doesn't care at all what others think about her, even if they misjudge her. Spears is a knight who has sworn vows of fidelity and loyalty, whose life has revolved around honor, the defense of truth and justice. Lying is for him a sin as ignominious as a crime against the majesty. 

That's why Luna is such a curious character, because she's emerged to challenge the ideals of other important characters such as Garret, Tobin or Falista, who represent the nobility of the realm. Words or loyalty are worthless to Luna. It's just that, words. Even to Tobin Spears' mere oath of allegiance would be nothing more than a formalism, but to Garret the words must always have meaning.

The beginnings of the new dynastic stage in Gallwood begin between doubts and political ups and downs, with Garret Spears as the turning point between Tobin and Falista. The scene in which he goes to the dungeon to beg him to pledge allegiance to them is one of the most powerful and outstanding of this second episode, because to understand the relationship between them you have to go back two seasons. Garret cannot swear allegiance to a friend who is being manipulated by the traitors who murdered the royal family he had served, who were also responsible for kidnapping him and forcing him to being brainwashed, and murder his own father as a means of break all his family ties with the outpost.

Garret was once the Sword of the Three and he, better than anyone, is aware of the extent of the subtle manipulative tactics employed by The Three. Garret's story, his youth and his childhood, are intrinsically linked to the dictatorship of The Three. For his part, Tobin still owes his life to Spears, since if he and Talon hadn't infiltrated the capital, he would never have gotten rid of Yavalla's control. However, he also feels committed to Falista, since it is by her will that he's managed to return from hell. His dialogue with Spears affects him, and it shows in his doubts when he and Falista sit down for the first time in the new royal seatings she ordered. That may help ward off Gwynn's ghost, but the cloud of her memory is harder to eradicate. For Tobin, Garret and Gwynn are a lukewarm reflection of the past, echoing a memorable page of their existence, and that explains why he harbors doubts, doubts that Captain Spears has known how to sow and drive like tares into his guts: who is actually ruling Gallwood? Who is loyal to whom? Is his life really worth that of twenty servants loyal to his person? Is it legitimate to get the throne through magic and maintain it by instilling fear and imposing military force in the streets? Did Gwynn need to resort to such tricks to become a queen loved by her people?

Tobin frowns: the murder attempt last night reveals a possible conspiracy hatching in the recesses of Gallwood against the monarchy, but his architect cannot be Garret. His discussion has taken a toll on him and somehow protects him. For the first time, he realizes that Falista ends up giving ground to his two advisers. She complies with their proposals, and not the other way around, which makes him wonder if Garret was right. The red kinj has strengthened Falista morally but hasn't worked a miraculous transformation, as she's still an indecisive young woman, used to being dressed, served and escorted. It was always others who made the important decisions, and her inability means that, with each passing day, it's the magicians who gain more power for themselves. The matter takes an unexpected turn when Tobin is already in possession of Three's kinj, as his narrative evolution becomes unpredictable ... what will Tobin do? Will he remain loyal to Falista or will he think about the words Spears spoke to him? How will yellow kinj affect him as king? Only the time can answer that question.

THE HEAVY CROWN: REVIEW FROM 'SOMEONE HAS TO RULE' (THE OUTPOST)

No one could have imagined that The Outpost would remain on our televisions for so long as to prosper and achieve in three successive seasons what the first one didn't do: capture half a million viewers and beat its own audience record in a context as unfavorable for TV shows as the summer holidays are, something which usually pushes the chains to reserve the best of their grills for the fall. But here is this medium production, which never intended much less to overshadow the giants Game of Thrones, Vikings or The Last Kingdom, conquering hearts year after year, and all thanks to some endearing characters and easily recognizable plots and which the public feels identified with now more than ever, centered on a middle age halfway between the fantastic and the apocalyptic, plagued by plagues and diseases caused by supernatural beings, which seems like a whole reinvention of the classic genre of heroes and adventures.

If Season 3 anticipated the covid age, Season 4 begins with themes that, although closer to the European Middle Ages, raise contemporary issues of vital importance, such as the skills that define a ruler, the irrelevance of blood to politically direct the destiny of the peoples, the convenience of banishing the old habits to choose more just and effective political systems, and everything related to family and bloodline. To sum up, The Outpost  is reviewing aspects of medieval everyday life with a current look, and it does so with such magical solvency that this season promises to be more realistic than the previous ones and exceed all our expectations.

The first episode, which The CW premiered this Thursday, July 15, made its way through an atmosphere of solemn nostalgia, melancholy and uncertainty after the sacrifice made by Queen Rosmund to save the outpost inhabitants  from a fate worse than death. Now, they pay homage to her absent, in a funeral ceremony officiated by Captain Spears, commander of the military guard of the outpost, who, after giving a speech of encouragement, hopes that Talon assumes her duty as a new sovereign since, otherwise, a new conflict would break out between Gallwood and the Blackbloods, unwilling to accept human leaders. Her imminent public rejection of the crown exasperates her friends, all of them, in another hand, scattered in their own affairs, as Wren is undergoing the physical changes corresponding to pregnancy for his race, Zed insists on doing with her what Garret with Talon, forcing her to occupy the religious throne that Yavalla left, Janzo continues to busy examining files and Falista mourning in loneliness Tobin's death in palace.

Everyone has been affected by Gwynn's death, but to a different degree and form. Zed, Janzo and Wren, who didn't maintain such close contact with the queen, aren't as sorry as Talon and Garret, and this is noticeable in the interpretations of the two leading actors, barely unable to catch the humor acid from Janzo and Zed when the brewer confirms Falista's royal ancestry and the dilemma of hiding this information in order to delegitimize it and have someone else take his place on the throne is faced on tab. Janzo makes laugh of Garret at the possibility that he might fancy himself an elected candidate. Jokes aside, the character of Falista is, at this point, crucial for the development of the plot, because her connection with the royal family confronts her with Talon, divides her allies and also encourages the theocrats of the Prime Order, Two and Three, take advantage of the political problem to bribe her.

Falista was introduced as a vehicular minor character in S3 that served to steer Gwynn away from Tobin and have Tobin marry her to her at Aegisfort in exchange for an army for Gallwood. The smug baroness, accustomed to gold and silk, didn't quite fit into this military base, especially when Gwynn declined Tobin's proposal for commander of the guard. However, accidentally obtaining her red kinj  has made her evolve round the clock in just a few episodes. She is insecure and afraid of the world, she has a power with which to subdue those who disobey her and that makes her feel stronger and more independent. If previously Falista was aware that she needed a man by her side to handle it and obtain favor and influence through him, now she no longer needs anyone to achieve her purposes, which makes her an important character and, above all, as ambiguous as unpredictable.

The interest that Falista now arouses perhaps makes Talon pale slightly, since her story is that of an exiled woman who doesn't know her place in the world and who is not sure who she is or who she wants to become. Talon has gained confidence, but that doesn't mean that, deep down inside of her, she has stopped running away and shirking any kind of responsibility. Her friendship with Gwynn allowed her to serve her and set goals of her own but, once queen is died, she doesn't really know to whom she owes loyalty, because her heart is still divided among the survivors of  her nation and the Gallwood citizens. Humans were the ones who condemned and persecuted the Blackbloods, so whatever her decisions, there will always be one side that may consider her a betrayer, which explains why she always prefers to stay out of politics. Unlike her friends, she knows the rules of the octor better than those that govern her world and she doesn't know how to use them in her favor. 

Garret Spears, on the other hand, is the opposite of Talon in many respects. They both have feelings for each other, but for Garret duty has always come before love, which is embodied in that first divergence of opinions at the beginning of the chapter. Garret believes that the right thing to do is to do what Gwynn would have ordered, but Talon argues that she lacks that cultural and educational immersion that enables a king to decide on economy, law and order. Sadly, her stubbornness takes a toll on him, because if she declines, he is the only man in authority in Gallwood and while Garret was always a selfless man, more concerned with protecting the outcast and the vulnerable, Someone Has to Rule drift suggests  the captain is also trying to tip the scales in his favor. In this world, people must put honor and family before love and personal desires, something Garret was born with but Talon doesn't understand. Gwynn was the connecting link between Garret and Talon, since they weren't just friends. Previously the captain and the queen had been lovers, and later circumstances prompted them and Talon to unite against the Prime Order for the good of the realm. Now that she is gone, the convergence of interests of both has timidly vanished. In a way, both Talon and Garret are in need of a greater purpose to entrust their lives to, but it remains to be seen whether such a prolonged absence of leadership doesn't position them on opposing sides in the long run.

Garret would be willing to lie about the legitimacy of Falista's throne to prevent a subsequent conflict within the village, but he wouldn't only do so for sheer convenience, but because of how much he loves and respects her. However, Talon observes the panorama from a very different perspective: he senses that the fascination for her person dominates the environment because, after all, one of the aspects of her that most captivated Garret was her impressive fighting skills. Then, Talon has the feeling that people only use her or ask for her help when they need it. She believes that the distance between herself and Gwynn is like a bottomless abyss, and only Wren, with whom she shares that circumstantial parallelism, is the one who makes her see during the walk along the river that she, as her father and as the queen, were people more concerned about others than about themselves, who on multiple occasions risked their lives in exchange for nothing. That intimate conversation is what motivates her to finally accept the crown, just when Two and Three are ahead of them.

Two hasn't given up in her efforts to conquer Gallwood, to which is now added another even more coveted incentive: the powerful Falista's red kinj. The naive baroness bows to her speech because her obsession with realm crown blinds her in such a way that she isn't aware that the theocrats are going to turn her into a mere puppet at the service of her whims. Two offers her without hesitation the resurrection of Tobin and the throne, and Falista is crowned by a hieratic and unrecognizable Tobin to the astonishment of those present, who wonder in amazement what kind of magic can work such a macabre miracle.

And, without magic, The Outpost doesn't exist. The series begins little by little to tie up loose ends in this episode, intertwining fuzzy and unexplained plots from previous seasons, such as the origin of the kinjs and the role of the dragman, or of the dragmans, to put it better, since the murderer who seeks revenge by mistake on Talon is nothing but the older sister of Ilyin, the dragman girl who originally accompanied Everit Dredd and who later fell victim to Rebb, Talon's blackblood nemesis. Apparently, the dragmans are women with supernatural powers (for example, reading minds) trained by monks in shrines like the one that was on the border with the grayskins and there's no doubt  both the appearance of the new dragman and the awakening of the gods are bonded phenomena. We don't know what the dragmans protected, or what their secret is, but we do know that it must be something quite evil and terrible. 

About the so-called "gods" we have found out or, at least, elaborated some hypotheses during the course of the chapter: if the Terakinj is the kinj of death and the reborn god who  had it is Tera, it means that Vorta, Kurta, and the the rest of the kinjs that possess Two and Three, receive their name from the god to which they once belonged, which means that these omnipotent ancestral beings could be the creators of the kinjs and that the blackbloods who lived in the heyday of the city that lies under the walls of Gallwood, they were taken from them to prevent them from being used for evil purposes because of their uncompromising power. In fact, it's quite possible that these gods were the ancestors of the blackbloods and that the fact that the Lu Qiri no longer obey them is due to their power preventing them. This circumstance is something that will end up taking its toll on Talon, his allies and also Two and her henchmen, because at the first time in the series all the factions will find themselves defenseless against an enemy that exceeds their expectations. If we are correct, that would mean our friends would have to work together with the Prime Order to end this threat.