"Oh, my time has come. My return to this world is inevitable!"
Rushing back to the Storm Spire, Zubeia tells the heroes of Aaravos' history and the grave danger he poses.
In the sunfire camp, a ritual of mourning turns violent when a human takes issue with an open flame, vital to the ceremony, being amongst the tents.
Terry is still traumatized by his recent actions at the spire and in the morning that follows Claudia uses her father's staff to release the occupant of the cocoon, when Viren still won't take it back.
Tropes:
- Bait the Dog: Viren seems like he's about to share a heartfelt moment with Terry as the latter struggles with his guilt over killing Ibis, only to instead tell the young elf to get a grip in the bluntest way possible.
- Comical Nap Drool: We see Claudia drooling in her sleep while Terry tells Viren how perfect she looks.
- Curse Cut Short: When Claudia fully unfurls her dad's staff to perform the spell, surprising even Viren, Terry sounds like he's about to say something explicit, before she shushes them.Viren: I didn't even know it could do that.Terry: [chuckles] Claudia really knows her—Claudia: Shhh!
- Dismantled MacGuffin: Zubeia delivers an exposition about the whereabouts of Aaravos. The location of his prison was hidden so no one party would have the means to set him free. Each of the four arch dragons received a piece of the puzzle to his location, the mirror being the one given to her and Avizandium. The heroes are now tasked to piece it all together before Claudia beats them to it.
- Grand Theft Me: When Callum returns the enchanted looking glass to the Dragon Queen's lair and uses it to see Aaravos, the latter at first seems extremely displeased at this development. This quickly turns to mocking amusement as he proceeds to gesture at Callum through the glass to effortlessly take full possession of Callum's body, from whence he derisively taunts each of the heroes present in turn, including Callum himself. The fact that he was able to easily do this to a fellow magic user (even if only for a few minutes) while trapped in a magical prison is a terrifying reminder of just how dangerously powerful he is.
- Humans Are Special: It took a human to figure out that Aaravos was manipulating everyone, whereas the elves and dragons were nearly driven to war by him.
- Innocently Insensitive: The human who helped to create the tents for both humans and Sunfire elves, near what's left of Lux Aurea, panics when she sees one of them lighting a large "soul candle" so close to those tents. She means well when she tells the elf to put it out before the embers likely burn the tents, but she's not only unaware that the fire lit is part of their mourning ceremony, but that these particular elves likely have more control over fire than she thinks. She puts out the fire herself and the elf reflexively retaliates in turn, accidentally burning her hands.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Unspoken, but the grieving Sunfire elf is visibly horrified to see how badly he's burned the architect's hands.
- People Puppets: Aaravos possesses Callum as a mouthpiece to taunt the heroes. He does it disturbingly easily, too, with just a mere gesture the minute he can see Callum looking at him through the mirror, and Callum is completely unable to resist in any capacity, underscoring Aaravos' sheer magical might, despite his current imprisonment.
- Pstandard Psychic Pstance: When Zym goes missing at the ceremony, Ezran senses his presence telepathically by touching his temples.
- Psychotic Smirk: Aaravos has that crazy smirk on his face when he takes over Callum.
- The Reveal: Zubeia reveals that Aaravos was a Greater-Scope Villain responsible for a millennia of conflict in both Xadia and the Human Kingdoms, manipulating people from behind the scenes and especially preying upon mages.
- Reverse Arm-Fold: When speaking through Callum, Aaravos makes the boy's arms fold behind his back, signifying a change in personality.
- Sdrawkcab Speech: Claudia's spell read backwards from the subtitles is, "Chrysalis child, emerge from your cosmic ooze."
- Special Edition Title: While the opening shot for Book 4 usually shows Viren being turned to stone as one of Aaravos' pawns, the opening for this episode shows Callum with the Key to Aaravos in Viren's place, showing the Startouched Elf has plans for the young mage as much as he does with Viren.
- These Hands Have Killed: Terry looks at his hands while confiding in Viren about his killing of Ibis.
- Underestimating Badassery: Implied in Aaravos's backstory. He went to extensive lengths to set up conflicts between the Elves and Dragons, whilst hiding his direct involvement, only for his duplicity to be uncovered by a human girl, having apparently not considered them as capable enough to take such extensive precautions with. This leads to his eventual imprisonment and gives new context to his current plans now being enacted mainly by human pawns, implying Aaravos refuses to repeat his prior mistake.
- Unwitting Pawn: Aaravos declares that Callum will play right into his hands, even forcing Callum to give him a quick bow to underscore it.
- Villain Takes an Interest: The opening intro is changed to feature Callum rather than Viren as the chess piece that Aaravos is covetously examining In the show itself, Aaravos comments on how Callum is his favorite and will play directly into his hands.
- Voices Are Mental: Callum speaks with Aaravos's voice while possessed.
