With the final battle against Umbrasyl looming, Vax undertakes a personal journey to meet with the Matron of Ravens and learn what the goddess of death expects from him. At the same time, Scanlan's past catches up with him, and forces him to question his philandering ways and cowardly demeanor...
Tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Keyleth rattles off the horrible things the Matron's followers are said to do, including torture, flaying, and enemas.
- Ass Shove: In order to keep Umbrasyl from escaping, Scanlan uses his magic hand to shove himself and Vax up the beast's cloaca and into its stomach, where he uses Kaylie's enchanted sword to keep Umbrasyl from lifting off. It works for a while, but Umbrasyl ultimately powers through it.
- Blood Bath: There's a pool of blood in the Matron of Ravens' temple. To get to her, Vax has to drown himself in it, and he's still covered in blood when he leaves. Vex and Keyleth are both horrified when they see him emerge.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Scanlan rattles off a lot of his past lovers' names to try and remember Kaylie's mother. She finally snaps and tells him "It was Sybil!"
- Continuity Nod: Remembering Craven Edge, Grog talks to the Bloodaxe to make sure it's not sentient before he takes it. Everyone but Pike and Scanlan is confused.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Matron of Ravens is the goddess of death, but proves to be a benevolent force when she explains that she expects Vax, as her champion, to protect life.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Kaylie scathingly tears apart Scanlan's Horny Bard antics. Not only was he willing to sleep with a girl young enough to be, and who turned out to actually be his daughter, he's had so many lovers over the years he can't remember her mother at all. It's implied not even hearing her name was enough to jog his memory of her, which is part of why Scanlan agrees with Kaylie's assessment of himself as 'awful' and is willing to let her kill him to appease her. Furthermore, his Consummate Liar abilities and The Charmer persona means that nothing he says comes across as genuine or meaningful to Kaylie, even when he's filled with sincere regret and wants to atone.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: The Matron of Ravens tells Vax that they must protect the souls that die and reassures him that death is not something to fear. Despite her fearsome appearance, she is motherly and kind, even kissing him on the forehead to send him home.
- Dumb Muscle: The Herd, as a whole, seem to be lacking in their Intelligence scores, as Percy's long-winded explanation of the workings of his trap for Umbrasyl goes completely over their heads until Grog reduces it to terms they can understand: "You. Dig. There."
- Easter Egg: The tavern where Scanlan met Leah is identified in the background as "The Leaky Tap," a location which had some prominence in the early parts of Campaign 2. Doubles as Five-Second Foreshadowing: the tavern is located in Zadash, in the middle of the entirely separate and somewhat isolated continent of Wildemount. Unless Kaylie was deliberately tracking Scanlan, it's very unlikely she would have found her way to him if she was from that area.
- Fate Worse than Death: Though tempted to kill him for his (albeit unknowing) Parental Abandonment and utter failure to recollect her mother, Kaylie stays her hand, reasoning that it'd just be another form of allowing Scanlan to run away from his past. Instead, she considers leaving him alive, but aware that he has a daughter by a woman whom he can't recollect, one who utterly despises him and wants nothing to do with him, to be a fitting punishment. Scanlan is noticeably affected by this knowledge throughout the remainder of the season.
- Lured into a Trap: This is Vox Machina and the Herd's goal for Umbrasyl: lure him during his regular collection run and get him to trigger a pressure plate that activates a mechanism that grounds him. Umbrasyl manages to notice the pressure plate before triggering it, but he was still in a prime position for Vex to trigger the plate with a well-placed arrow and ground Umbrasyl.
- Mood Whiplash: Scanlan speaks glowingly of a woman he once knew and loved, and reassures Kaylie that he did love her mother. Cut to Kaylie looking very disappointed and say that wasn't her.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Once aware of their familial relationship, Scanlan claims to be able to recognise Kaylie's features enough to recall her mother, the episode showing his tryst with a gnome that does bare a great resemblance to her...only for Kaylie to bluntly tell him once he's done that that wasn't her mother. Scanlan has had too many lovers over the years, and Kaylie told him nothing about her or how they met for him to narrow it down, for him to be able to accurately recall her based on a Strong Family Resemblance and nothing else.
- Scanlan's stated wish to 'bed everybody in the realm' is subjected to this through Kaylie. Turns out that when you sleep around with a large number of women over the years before moving on, odds are you'll father a child without knowing about it. Furthermore, having had so many past lovers, Scanlan can't accurately recall which one was Kaylie's mother, furthering her disgust at him. And despite his courageous showing against the Herd of Storms before, that wasn't enough to show to Kaylie that there's more to Scanlan than being a charming seducer of women, especially when he was willing to sleep with her when she lead him on afterwards.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: After meeting with the Matron and truly accepting his role as her Champion, Vax starts smiling again, and tells Vex that they're on the right path.
- Unperson: Kaylie smacks Scanlan in the face with the fact he did this to her mother inside his own memories. It's implied not even hearing her name — Sybil — is enough to allow him to recall her at all. Highlighting this, she makes no appearance in the episode, even as a memory of Kaylie's, highlighting how much of a non-entity she was to Scanlan despite him seducing her.
