Season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina continues to put our heroes through the wringer. Episodes 7 through 9 force Percy to face his trauma from losing Whitestone, Scanlan returns on his own terms, followed by a death that will define the rest of the season. Here’s what happened.
Episode 7: The Ghosts of Whitestone
Percy can’t sleep. Even though he shut down the mysterious orb beneath the Whitestone lab, his obsession with it is starting to annoy his wife Vex. While wandering the castle at night, he finds a hidden passage that pulls the whole group into a secret chamber beneath Whitestone.
What they find down there is the old Briarwood laboratory, and it doesn’t take long for the episode to morph into a full-blown horror short film. Percy is attacked by a mutated clone of Sylas Briarwood, the vampire who killed most of his family. It’s a gut punch for him. He manages to destroy the creature, but the moment makes clear that Percy never truly moved past what the Briarwoods did to the de Rolo family and Whitestone.
Before Percy can mentally recover from his encounter with the Sylas clone, he’s both horrified and disgusted to learn that Delilah Briarwood is alive.
Despite getting stabbed in the throat by Percy’s sister Cassandra and dumped into a pit of acid at the end of season one, Delilah has been resurrected by Vecna the Whispered One. Now she’s a member of the Whispered One’s cult, the Children of Truth.
But her reason for being in the secret laboratory has nothing to do with Vecna or his ascension. For years, Delilah has been fueled by a need to resurrect her husband Sylas. When the Whispered One brought Sylas back as a vampire, his bloodlust was so strong he would feed on his wife. Keyleth finds notes where Delilah documented her efforts to cure Sylas from dark magic to cloning him, and the frustrations she encountered along the way. While investigating Delilah’s lab, Keyleth discovers a rare flower that might be able to cure Vax of the blight the Matron of Ravens, the Goddess of Death inflicted onto him and free him from his duty as the Matron’s champion.
That single-minded devotion is where Keyleth realizes she and Delilah have something in common. Her drive to save Vax mirrors Delilah’s own story a little too closely. Both women are pushing back against death itself for the person they love, and the show makes that parallel hard to miss. Keyleth even says she understands why Delilah did what she did. This shared pain doesn’t erase the fact that Delilah is a sadistic piece of shit who ruined countless lives. But it also doesn’t change the fact that the Briarwood love story is a tragic one.
Speaking of tragic stories, Vex is kidnapped by some creepy looking dolls which lead her to Laudna, a Hollow One or half-dead warlock/sorcerer. It turns out she’s one of Delilah’s victims she had hung from the Sun Tree back in season 1, only to come back as something caught between a ghost and a warlock. Vex bonds with her, and Laudna helps the half-elf ranger save her twin brother Vax from Delilah.
By the end of the episode, Delilah escapes, but not before offering Vax a tempting deal: join the Children of Truth, and his blight and obligation to the Matron disappears. He says no, but Delilah reminds him that the offer still stands.
Episode 8: The Bard’s Lament
After being absent all season, episode 8 finally brings Scanlan Shorthalt back to the fold. He left Vox Machina at the end of season 3 to spend time with his daughter, Kaylie. He’s since settled into a quiet life running his nightclub Chateau Shorthalt and touring Tal’Dorei.
When the team tracks him down to ask for his sword Mythcarver, he isn’t happy to see them. Scanlan makes it clear that he is done with adventuring and the near-death battles, which puts the group in an awkward spot. Pike takes this just as hard, maybe harder. She’s been hella resentful towards Vox Machina as a whole for not staying in touch for over a year. She’s particularly bitter towards Scanlan for cutting off all contact since he left, partly because she has feelings for him she’s never admitted to him. Her frustration leads her and Taryon Darrington to break into Scanlan’s room to steal Mythcarver for themselves. They’re caught by Scanlan’s daughter, Kaylie, who encourages Pike to be honest with her father.
When Vox Machina uses the drug Spice to loosen Scanlan up, it backfires when Grog lets it slip that they’re only interested in getting Mythcarver from him. To say Scanlan is furious about all of this is an understatement. He accuses Vox Machina of never caring about him as a friend, making him feel like the team only values him for what he can do for them.
“You only kept me around ’cause I make jokes, play songs, give you a fancy chateau, and feed you fսcking chicken,” Scanlan tells them. “The truth is, you don’t give a shit about me.”
“That’s not true,” Vax says.
“We love you, you asshоlе,” Vex adds.
“Love me?” Scanlan doesn’t even try to hide the incredulous tone in his voice. “You barely know me. Where do I come from? Huh? How old am I? What’s my mother’s name? You don’t know, do you? Some fսcking friends. Smartest move I ever made was leaving you behind.”
After Scanlan kicks the group out of his chateau, Kaylie gently chastises him by pointing out that he didn’t know her mother’s name when they first met. She reminds her father that Vox Machina will never learn to get to know him if he keeps pushing them away.
Things come to a head when Scanlan’s new guitarist reveals himself to be a member of the Children of Truth and steals Mythcarver during a performance. It turns into a wild musical battle, with Vox Machina providing backup vocals (acapella no less!) to give Scanlan the strength to defeat the Dark Bard.
Once Scanlan reclaims Mythcarver, he finally reconciles with the rest of Vox Machina. He isn’t ready to go back to life of questing as he admits he still needs to figure out who the real Scanlan is. The episode ends with Scanlan having a sweet moment with Pike. It’s clear the two gnomes aren’t ready for a relationship yet, but the bond they share is stronger than ever. He even gives her Mythcarver, as she’s the only person he trusts with the Vestige.
Episode 9: The Temple of Truth
During the group’s battle with Dark Bard, Tary was able to plant a tracking gem on their adversary. Vox Machina tracks Delilah and the cult (whom Tary nicknamed the “Unalive Five”) to a desert temple, where they’re gathering followers for the Whispered One’s ascension. The cult is using another orb similar to one in Whitestone to send the cultists through a portal to Thar Amphala, using enchanted amulets.
The team comes up with a plan: lure the Unalive Five into the orb’s magic-nullifying range where they’re stripped of their regenerative abilities, kill them and then blow up the temple. Taryon, Percy, and Keyleth sneak underground to plant explosives underneath the orb. Vax and Vex infiltrate the cult by posing as people seeking help.
The plan is working so far. They get several of the Unalive Five into the orb’s radius and start taking them out. But Pike is still angry over Wilhand’s death, and is determined to get revenge by trying to kill Delilah even as the group retreats after the bombs are lit. Grog tries to talk her down by reminding her that Wilhand wouldn’t want vengeance, but for his great-great-granddaughter to remember him instead.
Just when Grog’s words are starting to reach Pike, the Death Knight grabs Grog by the throat and throws him towards the orb. Because Grog isn’t wearing the special amulet, his body is destroyed on contact.
But Pike does have the amulet, which she took from Tary’s father earlier in the season. Broken and having nothing to lose, Pike walks through the portal alone, chasing Delilah and the others into Thar Amphala. Percy, who is very familiar with the corrupting allure of revenge, tries to go after her but it’s too late. The temple collapses as the rest of Vox Machina are forced to leave.
The episode ends with the team split up, Grog dead, and Pike alone in enemy territory, setting up the final episodes of the season.
Season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina is available to stream on Prime Video.
