Season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina finally gave us some answers on Pike Trickfoot’s lineage. Does she descend from a celestial? What really happened to her ancestor Esreé? And why is Vecna the Whispered One so interested in Pike?
First, a Quick Refresher
Before we dive into what season 4 reveals about Pike’s bloodline, we need to travel back all the way to season 3.
In season 3 episode 4 “Hell To Pay,” Vox Machina travels to the realm of Dis in the Hells of Despath to retrieve a powerful set of armor called the Plate of the Dawnmartyr. The Everlight warns Pike that she has no power in Hell as souls can’t be redeemed there.
Eventually, Pike meets Zerxus Ilerez, the most powerful demon in the Hells of Despath. Pike beats him in a card game called Five Skulls and wins the Plate of the Dawnmartyr. After Vox Machina leaves, Zerxus tells his servant Yenk that Pike has “no idea what courses through her veins.” What follows is a very interesting conversation….
“No matter. The seed of doubt has been planted and will fill her heart with vengeance, as we watch it grow.”
“Your orders?” Yenk asks Zerxus.
“Leave her, kill the rest [of Vox Machina]. We are his blood. The time for his ascension draws near.”
Those last couple of lines are some very important foreshadowing that we’ll discuss later.
Then during the fight against Anna Ripley on the Isle of Glintshore in the episode “Cloak & Dagger,” Pike tries to free Keyleth from an illusion using her holy symbol and her faith in the Everlight. It fails, which reminds her of what Zerxus said about how the Everlight won’t always be there when Pike needs her. So she uses her own blood instead, which actually works. This is the first sign that Pike has her own special power separate from her connection to her goddess.
Learning About Esreé
Season 4 revisits this plot point when Pike has a vision of a gnome who looks exactly like her, wielding what looks like the sword Mythcarver during an ancient battle. Her great-great-grandfather Wilhand tells her the gnome’s name was Esreé, a Champion of the Knowing Mistress who wielded a divine weapon strong enough to kill the most powerful lich in existence.
When Esreé failed to return from a secret mission, monks showed up and took her weapon as well as erased nearly every trace of her existence. All that’s left is one sketch that proves she’s the mysterious ancestor Pike saw in her vision. But why would someone go out of their way to remove all traces of Esreé?
Gideon Fills In the Blanks
In season 4 episode 10 “The Poisoned Ear,” Pike gets the full version of Esreé’s story, but it comes from an unlikely source: Gideon.
You see, Gideon is actually the mortal form of Vecna the Whispered One. He tells Pike that her blood is the literal key to his fate. Gideon says her bloodline traces back to celestial origins, the same general well of power tied to the Everlight herself. It can either seal him away forever or help him ascend beyond his current limits. He claims the old gods sent warriors like Esreé to imprison him centuries ago, then tossed those warriors aside once they’d done the job.
When Pike calls Gideon out for killing Esreé, he says he never wanted war. He wanted to give people freedom and remove pain from the world, and the gods shut him down because they didn’t want to share power. He even shows Pike a vision of his past life as a grieving scholar who lost the love of his life to the gods’ cruelty. It’s a sympathetic story designed to pull at Pike’s grief over losing Wilhand and Grog.
Can We Trust Gideon’s Version of the Story?
Almost everything we know about Esreé’s fate and Pike’s blood comes from an arch-lich desperate to complete his ascension to good. Gideon/The Whispered One is a master manipulator who needs Pike’s trust to get what he wants. He’s already shown he’ll twist facts and play on her emotions to do it.
The finale backs up this suspicion when the Whispered One mocks her for willingly giving up her blood and accepting his version of Esreé’s fate without question.
Now that he’s not even trying to deny he used Pike as his puppet, what does this say about his account of the gods, the war, and even Esreé’s sacrifice?
So season 4 does explain why Pike’s blood is so special. Her celestial lineage connects her to one of the oldest conflicts in Exandria’s history. Hopefully, season 5 will give us a more honest look into Pike’s family history, shared by someone a little more trustworthy than the lich god.
All four seasons of The Legend of Vox Machina are available to stream on Prime Video.
