Listening as I type again. Spoilers ahead.

So you gave the spellbinders anti-magic collars. That's just not fair.

Fesmer's brother. Ah.

Okay, so this raises the question: Why didnt they take him along?

Fesmer's Brother, and his father went MIA during a routine river trip, and they didn’t take Fesmer along.

When they vanish, Fesmer immediately looks for ways to seek justice, and finds his way to Jareth's magic book, with the support of Arkhan, and summons help from afar. Summon's the help of someone the badguys now want.

So, the questions:

What did happen to Fesmer's father that night?

And was all this part of the plan?

#Unpauses playback#

Fesmer’s suddenly all alone in the world. He can’t go home. He can’t stay with his family, his best friend is an enemy spy, and his new friends are running away from the world.

The badguys don’t seem to be hurting for supply, but the place they’re keeping our heroes have no better arrangements than the box they put them in?

Interesting. This means that they were unwilling or unable to keep them unconscious for a long journey. If they don’t have better facilities for prisoners, even honoured prisoners, then they haven’t been taken far. Smart money says that this place is the local chapter of the Legion.

If the bad guys don’t want Shauna getting home, then they should have kept her asleep till after Silver Night.

Maybe Arkhan didn’t tell them that Shauna’s working with a deadline.

If she is an unwilling double agent, then she just has to wait for Jareth to do something disgustingly heroic. Hey, Mike and Katherine are waiting for that too.

#Unpauses playback#

Or not.

Still, I was right about them not being in the major enemy home base right?

Jareth knew Porec was alive? Like sands through the hour glass…

#Unpauses playback#

Arkhan. Ahhh, where do we go with this? I’d like to think she’s telling the truth, but as I said last episode, the only way to find out if she’s trustworthy is to trust her.

I know, I know, I’m a dummy, but I’m hoping she’ll turn out to be a reluctant villain after all.

#Unpauses playback#

The villains do love to hear themselves talk don’t they?

Well of course they think they can fix the world, of course they think it’s for the greater good, of course they don’t see themselves as evil. Nobody does. At the very least, they see themselves as desperate, at the best, they see themselves as justified.

#Unpauses playback#

Quote:

Porec: Oren may have his own…hidden purposes…but in one fashion or another you are to become an instrument of his will.

EndQuote.

Good, because that wasn’t vague or ominous at all.

Honestly though, could Porec sound ANY more like the Star Wars Emperor there?

Porec: Join us Shae-na, you don’t know the power of the dark side of the Odi…

#Unpauses playback#

Quote:

Arkhan: I wanted to speak with you…Shae-na would not, and…

EndQuote.

The unfinished thought in that sentence is of course: “Shae-na would not, and Katherine would eat me.”

Seriously Arkhan, Mike’s right. Make up your mind, and make it up fast. There are ways to get out of this. You said it yourself “I wish I could have done what Katherine did. Move across the country to get away from my parents.” Got nowhere else to go? Thanks to you, neither does Fesmer. Welcome to the other side.

We’re past the point of discretion and skulking in the shadows now. This isn’t a game any more, this isn’t a clean fight any more. Time to get the fencepole out of your butt and pick a side.

#Unpauses playback#

Yah Arkhan!

Shauna, don’t waste time here! Maybe it’s a trap, maybe it’s not. I’d rather find out on the outside of the door, wouldn’t you?

Of course, you could just zap her.

Once again, I’m with Mike, you cant leave her behind. Of course she betrayed you, she just betrayed the badguys too. It’s what she does. Give her grief about it once you’re OUT OF THE ENEMY DUNGEON!

#Unpauses playback#

Fesmer’s turn huh? Hope they do okay.

Mike gets another object lesson in how this isn’t a videogame. Badguys don’t fade away here. Well…maybe some do, but not these ones. Go Mike!

I would wager something expensive that the next time we see Porec, he’ll have a flaming magical hand to replace the one Mike just fed to Undying.

Y’know the more I listen to this, the more I think Arkhan’s coming with them.

Also, I think if the bad guys want to keep Shauna, then they wouldn’t take her, they’d take her family. Miss Everything to Everyone would immediately come back with a vengeance.

#Unpauses playback, listens to the end#

Oh boy.

Well, I could have told you Arkhan’s coming along, and given the choice between tossing her into Boston with Katherine or leaving her to get eaten by undying…I’d flip a coin.

That is of course a sadistic place to leave it you demented child-god writers you. But that kind of full on lamenting doesn’t do us much good.

Shauna’s alive. The only question now is where she is.

The badguys wanted Shauna, now they’ve got her. The only thing they don’t have is leverage.

Shauna by default puts everybody before herself, you’ve done a lot of wortk explaining that point. Porec knows this too. He knows that she’d never fgive him what he wants, but if Porec put a gun to Mike’s head, then she would. Reluctantly, but she would. But with them gone, there is no longer any leverage against her, her friends have gone home. Well, except for Zana and Fesmer and Jareth of course.

Mike and Katherine and Arkhan will return to Laundi sooner or later, whether they find a way back themselves, or the Oren has to pull them back for his own purposes, they’ll be back. Our invincible superstars wont take this lying down.

Hey, if Odi skill is genetic, then maybe Tyler is magi-capable too!

Now then, as for what happens next, well…

Home is other people. If Shauna could have brought her family through, then she would work extra-hard at Zana’s to support her little brothers University-tuition-fund, and that would do nothing more than essentially transplant her life to another universe. So what? The phrase “Last home you will ever know” could mean any number of things. Say she pulled it off and went backl. Then what? You go back to Antonio’s for a living? Drayenmer said, that Laundi would be the last home Shauna would ever know, but the fact of the matter is, Mike and Katherine weren’t too thrilled at the prospect of going back either.

Nah. Frodo was bored out of his skull at the Shire, same issue here.

Arkhan is essentially stuck here. If the translation pendants don’t work any more, then either they were drained by the trip, or Odi has no place in our world, meaning anybody who can get them back is still in Laundi. I think Arkhan can be trusted. I know, I know, I’m a dummy, but she cannot go back, and if she did, what would she return to? Fesmer and Jareth have promised a swift and painful death the next time she shows, and her parents, Porec, and Oren will now what she’s done.

Plus, she is at the mercy of Mike and Katherine now, (god help her) and of course, is going to have a long learning curve ahead. Maybe Katherine’s ex could get her a fake ID? You can’t get far in our world without a drivers licence, or for that matter, a birth certificate, library card, ability to read the English language. Being shifted from farmer town to Modern Boston? Brace yourself Arkhan. Word of advice? Don’t touch anything with buttons.

Plus the biggest wildcard: Tyler. He saw them arrive. He knows. But nobody’s going to believe any of them, particularly since Arkhan cant cast magic anymore.

Final interesting point is the time difference. They’ve been gone a couple months their time, but more than three months Earth time. That’s why there’s such a lag between arrivals of Katherine and Arkhan.

Shauna’s alive. The bad guys have put too much work into getting her, to say nothing of the fact that the Winged Herald was desperately teaching the girl new tricks right up until the last second. I think Shauna just moved on to the next level now. Mantra? We don’t need no stinkin’ Mantra!

And if you suddenly got hold of that kind of power, to say nothing of the fact that you’ve already succeeded in sending your pals home as you’ve promised to do, then what’s left but to see how far it goes? Tyler will get his answers, and Shauna will no doubt plan to go back sooner or later. Probably more to the side of later.

So we are left with four simple questions:

What happened to Fesmer and Jareth?

Will Porec, or for that matter Oren simply ignore Mike Katherine and his turncoat spy Arkhan now that they’ve left?

What happened in the moments between Katherine leaving, and Arkhan arriving?

And where is Shauna Brown?

Welcome to the point of no return.

You can read more of Matt's work at mattstephens.me