The Shannara Chronicles - 'The Chosen: Part 2'

The first iteration of elvish Rorschach tests were deemed 'too evil.'

Picking up where we left off, Allanon finds the post-rufie Wil and takes him to Druid's Keep to retrieve the Codex of Palanon, which is the only source of the knowledge of how to save the Elcrys, because that is that kind of shit that you want to keep hush hush, right? Allanon kicks loose with his magic and draws the attention of the Dagda Mor, who turns out to be no demon, but an elf druid gone bad.

As well as taunting Allanon, the Dagda Mor calls on the next demon to be released, a shapeshifting ninja called the Changeling, and sends it to kill the Chosen. It does, which kind of scotches the back-up plan - one of the Chosen takes a flower from the tree to a place no-one has heard of and then brings it back to restore the Elcrys - until they notice that Amberlie is missing.

Earning his keep for the first time, Wil - who is destined to be a part of this quest, along with the Elfstones which have already been nicked - finds a stash of letters from Amberlie's great-aunt, who went into self-imposed exile when she was denied her brother's blessing to pursue her doomed love with Allanon. If this didn't prove that the Four Lands was a tiny place, Amberlie herself runs into Eretria, swipes her horse and leaves her a jeweled bangle to pay for it. Eretria then reports back to her father and his lunkish henchling, giving him the Elfstones and promising to help find Wil (because... he might be magical?) in exchange for not being sold off in marriage.

Allanon explains to Wil that his father was a great hero of the War of the Races (and I confess, this leaves me completely lost on chronology, since the elves of this world are not apparently immortal, or even long-lived, and yet Amberlie's grandfather and Will's dad were contemporaries?) becoming a deadbeat drunk was the result of his use of powerful magic at the end of the War.

Wil assumes he's here to protect Amberlie, but he's a healer and she is at least
an athlete, if not a warrior.

Auntie puts up Amberlie, but Allanon and Wil drop in and while Wil interrupts Amberlie filming a shampoo commercial under a waterfall, Allanon assures Pyria that she has always had a place in his heart, even when he was in the Druid Sleep, recharging his magic (the ultimate power nap.) It's not clear whether Pyria believes him or not; it's hard to get any real indication from her expression as the Fury drops in, knocks Allanon out and tears her to pieces.

'The Chosen: Part 2' brings home a lot of The Shannara Chronicles' problems; in particular that for all its aspirations of Tolkienian grandeur, the plot is driven by chance as much as legwork. It also presents us with a pretty bleak outlook for female characters: Everyone assumes that Amberlie is on the run because she's been knocked up, Eretria is under the thumb of her father and threatened with being sold into marriage, and Pyria gets glommed as soon as she's done her part to further the plot. It's also a pretty white series (apart from Allanon and the black female guard captain who stands out as a minority twofer,) which contributes to a kind of... early nineties look and feel to the series, but without the excuse of being made in the early nineties.