We are back with Critical Role and Amazon Prime Video’s The Legend of Vox Machina and guys – I’m scared. In the last episode, Cassandra (Esmé Creed-Miles) and Vax (Liam O’Brien) turned to the dark side and left our heroes in the middle of an acid trap. It closed out as they followed the Briarwoods (Matthew Mercer and Grey Griffin) up the steps of the Ziggurat. In episode 11, “Whispers at the Ziggurat,” Vox Machina goes face to face against the Briarwoods and all hell hits the fan. What are you wasting time here for? Let’s dive in!
DISCLAIMER: This is a recap and, by nature, contains more spoilers than dice rogues roll for sneak attacks. If you haven’t gotten the chance to watch it yet, we suggest heading over to Amazon Prime and checking it out!
RELATED: Keep up with The Legend of Vox Machina with our recap for episode 10 – “Depth of Deceit!”
Whispers at the Ziggurat” opens as Lord and Lady Briarwood reach the top of the Ziggurat and begin their ritual, setting the entire structure ablaze in green light. Down below, Scanlan (Sam Riegel) realizes the book was an instruction manual for their whole plan and it is all tied to The Whispered One. Pike (Ashley Johnson) recognizes the name as a big bad who wants to return to their world. It would make sense why they needed to perform it during the solstice since that would be the time when the barriers between the planes are the weakest. Thanks for that lesson Keyleth (Marisha Ray). But who cares what the Briarwoods want? Vex (Laura Bailey) just wants her brother back.
It’s opening time! Get up and shake a leg before you are too emotionally damaged to move.
And we are back. The team sets up a plan on who is going to handle who. Grog (Travis Willingham) is a bit hurt that he can’t go against anyone until Pike puts him on Lord Briarwood duty. The idea is to sneak up the tower and get a surprise round before the real fight begins. Ripley (Kelly Hu) uses the moment to slip away, knowing that if Percy (Taliesin Jaffe) shoots her, it will blow their cover. Smart thinking, but I still can’t stand her for what she has done. The smoke demon within Percy isn’t happy about this, though.
Up top, Cassandra is about to let Sylas use her for lunch when Percy/smoke demon blows their cover. Scanlan tries to intimidate the Briarwoods into surrendering, but Delilah isn’t afraid of them and sends Grog flying with a spell. Let the battle begin. Percy manages to get past Vax and goes head to head with Cassandra while Vex draws Vax’s attention from Keyleth and the twins fight – as twins do. With both of their pawns out of the way, Keyelth tries to root Sylas in place only to find that she isn’t a match for him and gets sent flying. Pike decides it’s her turn.
Elsewhere, Scanlan is preparing to support the group when Delilah hits him with a silence spell. The battle continues as we watch the two sets of siblings face off against each other. Poor Percy is torn between the demon within and not wanting to actually hurt his sister. Pike’s fight with Sylas continues, but she catches Delilah’s shooting spells left and right at Scanlan. She musters enough strength to knock Sylas back before heading over to help Scanlan. Or better known as her gnome. We see you, Pike.
“Whispers at the Ziggurat” jumps back up to Percy and Cassandra just as he is about to shoot her. Except he really doesn’t want to. Sylas uses this weak moment to strike a blow that nearly snaps Cassandra out of her charm. She tries to get Sylas to leave Percy alone, but Sylas quickly replaces the charm and the two face off against Percy. Keyleth finally wakes up to find all of her friends struggling. Vex pleads with her to do something, but Keyleth is exhausted. She crashes into the ground, where she finds the roots of the Suntree. She introduces herself and pleads for its aid.
And boy, does she get it; as Keyleth hits the room with enough sunlight to blind even the darkness of sunglasses, the shift in the battle changes. Vex manages to punch Vax enough to knock him out of his charm; Pike pushes back Delilah’s spell long enough for Scanlan to break out of her silence spell and Grog is back up and ready to rumble! Things aren’t looking good for our favorite muscle head, but he does manage to stave off a charm spell by just closing his eyes. And in a reckless moment, Grog blindly starts swinging until he collides with Sylas.
With the vampire daddy (sorry) weakened, Grog holds him still long enough for Keyleth to unleash the sun on him. Delilah tries to save him, but Scanlan shushes her right up before the final blow. Vampire daddy (sorry) is not a pile of dust and it looks like the battle is over. Except that Percy’s smoke demon is just as angry as Delilah. She rushes off and locks herself in the Ziggurat in order to call the Whispered One home. Outside, Pike takes a moment to heal everyone up before they decide that they can’t wait for Delilah to just come out.
Vax manages to pick the lock of Percy’s smoke demon takes the wheel. Another small battle commences as they try and keep Delilah from completing the ritual. Vex takes a shot at Delilah’s back to draw her attention away and, in return, gets shot by the dark power emanating from her. Except she doesn’t get hit because Keyleth jumps in front of the blast. Delilah manages to finish the ritual and for a brief moment, we see the Whispered One appear at the gateway. But then he fades away, leaving behind a spinning orb and what I can only assume means death.
Percy uses this moment to take a few shots at Delilah while Pike rushes over to help a now unconscious Keyleth. But, before she can cast anything, her astral projection disappears. “Whispers at the Ziggurat” comes to a close as everyone realizes that if they don’t move quickly, Keyleth will be gone for good.
RELATED: Check out all of our recaps for The Legend of Vox Machina!
Cliffhangers like this should be illegal. There I said it. I-L-L-E-G-A-L. That red-headed half-elf druid had better be okay by the end of the season finale. It’s odd even to be saying “season finale.” I feel like we just started The Legend of Vox Machina and now we are talking about its ending? This has been one wild ride and this episode had the big battle scene that I needed. Though, I can only imagine that the finale is going to top it in every way. We still have a few things that need to be tied up, like getting Keyleth well, Percy’s smoke friend and the spinning ball of death.
I can’t wait any longer and I bet you can’t either! Let’s just dive in!
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Who I Am: A nerd by the strictest definition. I enjoy diving straight into my favorite fandoms without a care in the world. I live on video/board games, fantasy movies and TV, and all things geeky.
