A Terrible Silence

Beastmaster Episode Review

In which demons can do just about anything.

What Happened

Upset when Dar turns down her advances, Iara sees him rescue Voden's general Yaomar from an injured tiger. Accusing Dar of caring more for humans than for her animals, Iara removes his power to talk to the animals.

The Ancient One realizes that the balance of their world has been jeopardized. On their way to talk to Dar, the Ancient One and the Sorceress peek in on Voden, who is sending Yaomar in search of ivory from the fabled elephant's graveyard. The Ancient One is concerned that the memory of how to make worlds will be lost if he succeeds.

Dar and the Ancient One have a little confab. If he passes three tasks, dedication, sacrifice and word of honor, Dar can have his powers back. Continuing on, they spot the tracks of the injured tiger and guess that this may be one of his tests.

Dar and Tao rescue a wildebeast from quicksand, passing the task of dedication. When they run across the rogue tiger again, Dar recalls that Curupira fed his body to the animals and guesses that it may have to happen again. Afterwards, he lies near death, but the Ancient One appears and uses the last of his strength to heal Dar's wounds.

Yaomar finds the elephant graveyard and starts loading up on styrofoam that is shaped like ivory. Dar leads the tiger into the graveyard, where it drives the Nords off. The tiger can spend the rest of its life feeding off the elephants who come there to die as the graveyard's protector.

His promise to the tiger kept, Dar regains his powers. "Seeking self preservation," the Ancient One goes in search of stronger magic so that he can avoid a repeat of the day's events, making Iara and the Sorceress promise not to cause any more mischief while he's gone.

The Cliche

Making an Unsympathetic Character Sympathetic. Giving Iara some depth by making her face the consequences of her actions.

Hero Loses His Powers. Something takes away the hero's powers. He plays normal for a while. Big trouble looms and hero seemingly can't stop it. The hero makes some kind of sacrifice and gets his powers back. He defeats the threat and moves on.

What We Learned

• There's more to life than water, Dar.
• Demons can do just about anything, except possibly think what could happen when they do just about anything.
• Iara has never changed her mind before.
• It must be wonderful to be the one person in the world who matters.
• If Tao dies, Dar is in trouble.

What Did I Think?

Throughout this, Dar really just becomes even more Dar than ever, insisting that he's going to continue his mission to help the animals even without his powers. He is so accepting of what's happening to him, he even leaves it to Tao to ask whether there is a way for Dar to get his powers back.

Iara is the one who gets some character development as she moves from petulant anger, trying to force Dar to love her, then furiously taking away his gifts while claiming that she's doing it because he's failed to protect her animals. Her shifting attitudes while facing down the Ancient One eventually settle on very real fear when her powers fail.

Then, she has to do the unthinkable: apologize for her actions. Iara makes a persuasive case for her attitudes, explaining that her decision to take Curupira's place has had unexpected consequences. She doesn't know how to act and react in this world and mistakes the consideration Dar extends to all as a special interest in her.

In order to get his powers back, Dar has to undergo a trial. Typically, there's a body test (the wildebeast in the quicksand), a heart test (keeping his promise to the tiger), and a soul test which involves being willing to die (allowing the tiger to feed on him). The last two are far more interesting than the whole saving the wildebeest thing, which sucks up precious time.

I do wish Dar had a least one scene where he expressed just a little resentment over what Iara had done. Even though Tao is technically the big talker, Dar can and should say something here.