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...

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.