Previously on The Shannara Chronicles, Eretria hit on Amberle but got shut down, the two threatened and saved each other too many times to count, Eretria’s ex-girlfriend Zora showed up and tried to kidnap Amberle, but Wil saved her. Unfortunately, Eretria was left behind with a woman scorned.
Zora and her people drag a wagon full of human stuff-gadgets and gizmos aplenty, whosits and whatsits galore-plus also a wounded Eretria down the road. Eretria can’t run or fight, but she can scowl and insist her friends will come save her soon. Zora scoffs and says her friends have long abandoned her, and leads the cart to a human settlement. Eretria is confused as to how there can be a human settlement in troll territory, but sure enough, there are children and goats a-frolicking. Zora leads the cart to a trading post and asks the trader, Tai, what he’ll pay for the thingamabobs, but he wants more. He wants the girl in their cart. Zora doesn’t want to trade her; she has other plans for the girl.
But Tai is insistent; in fact, it’s all or nothing. So Zora sells her like she’s an old locker, and she’s immediately taken to medical to get her wound treated. Eretria is given a gas mask and an order to relax; she’s in Utopia now.
Somewhere not too far away, Amberle is running frantically through the forest, Wil trying his darnedest to keep up. When he finally catches her, he begs her to slow down, but she’s desperate to find Eretria. She can’t leave her alone-she’s been alone her whole life! Amberle can’t abandon her fellow orphan now!
Wil tries to keep her on track; they have a destiny to fulfill. He tells her not to let her feelings for Eretria get in the way, but she doesn’t want his advice. She’s a determined little princess.
Though when she almost falls right into a troll trap, she agrees to rest and eat before they keep looking for Eretria-as long as they keep looking.
Eretria wakes up in her hospital bed, rips the IV out of her hand like some kind of vampire slayer, and collects her stuff. She’s getting the hell out of dodge. She sneaks quietly past a man in a wheelchair and through a house, weapon poised.
She runs into Tai, who is creepily eating pie the way Ian drank milk on Pretty Little Liars. He promises he didn’t buy Eretria to keep her here as a slave; he simply bought her freedom. She doesn’t believe him and insists again her friends will find her. She has to keep saying it, because maybe if she says it enough, she’ll believe it herself.
To ease her worries, he offers to send a search party to find her friends while she rests up and heal. Eretria squares her shoulders and says she’s strong, but Tai tells her that she’s in no condition to be stubborn.
In the woods, Wil tries to convince Amberle that their mission is to save everyone, not just the elves and that it’s a worthwhile mission. Amberle is losing faith in all beings (not just humanity or elfdom or trollness or gnomism-all of it) and isn’t sure it is. While they’re discussing things she’s unsure of, she also mentions how she kissed him back in the creepy castle. She says she just got caught up in the excitement of him not being dead, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, but that he was right and they shouldn’t let feelings muddy their view of their destiny. But he says it’s nothing to be sorry for, and when he said that thing about feelings, he was very specifically talking about her feelings for Eretria, because her feelings for HIM are obviously fine with him. So she kisses him again.
They start to strip and are well on their way to doing it when the ground rumbles from the sound of all the Princess Rover shippers shouting, “NOOOO” in unison. But they hear a sound in their world, too, and follow it to find Cephalo in a troll trap of his own.
They ask Cephalo where to find Eretria, and he says he knows where the elf hunters trade. They don’t believe him and are willing to leave him there but he antagonizes Wil enough to make them linger for a moment. He promises that he can help them find Eretria, and the slim chance that he’s telling the truth is enough for Amberle. She’ll risk it, for Eretria.
Wil is freaking out so she pulls him aside; she’s not stupid, she knows they can’t trust him. But he’s their best shot at finding their little rover, so they have to at least give him a chance.
In Utopia, Tai tells Eretria stories about the ancient humans-they built glass houses! They flew to the stars! She thinks it’s all myth and legend; she knows real life is grittier than apple pies and airplanes. She asks how Utopia came to be in a troll-infested land, and he admits it wasn’t easy. But he and his people stood their ground and worked out a truce. One helpful tool with that is a hunk of metal he pulls out to show her…something the ancient humans called a gun. He shoots it and hands it to her, and she’s a big fan-and a natural.
Eretria, starting to trust Tai, tells him about the map, tells him that all she’s ever wanted was to be free-but she really needs to find her friends. If he could see them, he’d understand. Besides, their destinies are intertwined, she has to go with them, for the greater good.
Meanwhile, Amberle promises Cephalo that she will gut him herself if he crosses them again, then lets him out of his cage. Papa Rover leads them to Utopia, where night has fallen and the humans are preparing for a celebration of sorts. Having fulfilled his end of the bargain, he gives Wil an awkward obviously-a-pickpocketing-move hug and moves on.
Tai leads Eretria to a switch and lets her pull it. When she does, electric lights come on. Eretria can hardly believe her eyes, and to make things better, two girls take her by the hand and lead her away.
Tai’s blonde buddy comes to tell him that he seems to be getting rather attached and he cryptically says they need to find someone else; it seems whatever he had planned for Eretria, he’s developed cold feet.
The girls who led Eretria away had put her in a dress, unfortunately, all off-screen, and now lead her into the party, much to Tai’s delight. He gives a speech about how humans are awesome, and Blondie is looking extra agitated.
Tai tells the group that humans were great once, and can be great again. For inspiration, he plays an old reel video of Star Trek, and Eretria is pretty sure it’s magic. (I really wish they had played like Buffy or something but whatever.)
After the clip, Tai plays a record and declares it time to dance. Eretria is fascinated by all of this as the humans around her truly inhabit the spirit of a 21st-century club, complete with girls making out.
Amberle and Wil have made their way pretty close to the party when they run into a girl who yells at them…for not being dressed to party. So they start to get dressed, which is when Amberle notices Wil’s elfstones pouch is gone. He knows already and tells her not to worry about it.
Outside, Cephalos finds Zora dead (RIP queer woman of color, we hardly knew ye) and then gets snatched himself.
Amberle and Wil, dressed in what can only be described as cowdorable outfits, enter the dance.
Eretria gets a feeling like maybe her friends are nearby, almost like their spirits are all intertwined, and it inspires her to ask Tai if his search party found her friends yet. When he suggests that it’s possible her friends aren’t coming for her after all, she says they wouldn’t do that; they share a destiny. But he tells her that she’s not tied to a destiny, not tied to anything anymore. She spent her life as a slave, but she doesn’t have to live like that anymore. She gets to decide what she wants now. No one has ever asked her what she wanted before, though, so she’s a little overwhelmed. For now, Tai suggests she just dance.
Wil and Amberle split up, and Amberle overhears Tai’s blonde friend, who we now learn is called Francis, say that she’s going to kill “the rover bitch” herself if Tai won’t do it. Francis heads right to Tai to pull him away to tell him just that, and Tai kisses Eretria so she’ll stay put while she’s gone.
As soon as he’s out of sight, a girl cuts in to dance with Eretria, and Eretria doesn’t mind one bit.
But she doesn’t get to dance with her long because Wil appears. Wil gets irrationally angry that she’s dancing instead of helping, having no idea about her injury, caring not to ask what she’s doing. His immediately going on the offensive, plus Tai’s speech about her finally being free has Eretria feeling empowered. She tells Wil she makes her own choices, destiny schmestiny. Amberle finds them and is excited to see Eretria, but disappointed when she hears Eretria wants to stay in Utopia.
But it doesn’t matter much to Amberle, she’ll stay. She’s not leaving without Eretria. Eretria tells Amberle she’s sure the princess only came to save the map, not the rover, and will get the map for her if it means she’ll get her perfect face out of here. Amberle asks what will happen if they refuse to leave even then, and Eretria threatens to out them as elves.
After Eretria leaves, Wil asks if the rover was right; was Amberle only so desperate to find Eretria because she knew she had the map? Amberle is quite offended by this suggestion.
But before she can give him a piece of her mind, a drunk girl stumbles in, sooooo excited about HUMANITY that she rips off Amberle’s hat and reveals her perfectly pointed ears.
Tai materializes and greets the elves he knows must be Eretria’s friends.
Eretria goes back to her hospital room and shoves the map in her boot before sneaking back out. On her way, she hears a creepy voice talking to her-it’s the man in the wheelchair she saw earlier. He tells her that her friends are in danger and that Tai isn’t to be trusted. He tells her that her body is the vessel and her blood is the key; she can’t let her friends leave without her. They need her.
Eretria leaves for real, but, this time, she runs into Tai. She turns up the sexy to 200, which obviously works to distract him long enough until she can get her gun out.
Tai reveals that the reason Utopia exists in a land of trolls is because they pay a toll each month. The toll is human lives. He originally bought her as troll food, but he likes her so much he’s going to sacrifice her friends instead. But she knocks him out with the butt of her gun and runs off to save her friends.
Francis is busy tying up Amberle and Wil next to Cephalo. Cephalo starts to bargain for his life, of course, saying he has elfstones to offer in exchange for his freedom. Francis is suspicious but intrigued.
Francis takes the pouch but is pissed to see it’s only dice inside. Cephalo is bamboozled, and Amberle is impressed; Wil might just be capable of learning after all. The three prisoners come dangerously close to getting gobbled up, but are saved at the last minute by Eretria and her new pistol.
Tai and his cronies show up, pissed that they ruined the troll buffet, and fighting ensues. Cephalo is hit, so he offers to hold the Utopians back while the trio escapes. Eretria is hesitant; this man is the closest thing she’s had to a father, despite his pure terribleness, but he begs her to let him redeem himself in his final hours, and she allows it.
More trolls come and the toll is paid, but the food ends up being Tai and his buddies.
The trio is quite relieved to have made it out of Utopia alive and to be reunited once again.
Off to Safehold!
What did you think of “Utopia”? Only two episodes left in the first season-do you think our Princess Rover ship has a shot?
