Good penultimate episode, although it’s woefully light on Diego Luna/Krel. Even though a big part of the draw of 3Below is the wildness of introducing aliens to an urban fantasy, I feel like the 3Below characters aren’t very well incorporated into the franchise outside of their own show. Characters like Douxie and Archie, one a magic user and one a magical creature, fit in easily amid the trolls and prophecies and spells. The Akiridion tech wiz? He’s kind of the odd one out, and Wizards doesn’t quite know what to do with him.
After a hard blow from the Arcane Order in the last episode, Douxie is at his lowest point. He’s not sure he can press forward, but his friends encourage him to keep going. A notorious dragon might hold the keys to a clue about the all-important Genesis Seals, and Claire has a surprising encounter with Morgana in the Shadow Realm.
Our character of the week is Morgana, voiced by Lena Headey (who’s playing rather according to type—Morgana’s no Cersei, but she has some definite Cersei qualities.) Morgana first appeared in season 3 of Trollhunters, as the biggest of Big Bads, and Wizards gave our heroes the chance to see her in a different light when they traveled back to Arthurian times. Claire’s interactions with Morgana have always been complicated, in part because they’re both wielders of shadow magic, and her recent experiences in the past have left her more conflicted than ever. It’s interesting to see these two meet one another in the Shadow Realm, warily circling one another but not quite fully being on opposite sides.
Like I said, this is a hard episode for Douxie, and he really has to dig deep to reckon with his losses and keep fighting. The episode nicely balances the emotional content with action and lighter moments, giving space for the serious scenes but not being unrelentingly sad for the whole episode. We also get fun scenes with a dragon and a nice flashback.
Side note: this version of Merlin will never be half the being that Gandalf is, but he does admittedly know his way around a pithy declaration. I love, “A wizard does not make mistakes. He makes unexpected possibilities!”
As I said, very little Krel here—I’m pretty sure Diego Luna only has one line, and a short one at that. With Douxie-Archie in one major plot and Claire-Morgana in the other, most of the other characters are just hanging out in hiding, which is where Krel spends the episode. He does, however, spend pretty much all of his screentime clutching Ricky Blank’s head like a security blanket, which is super cute and makes me smile.
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