The Great Gates

One thing I appreciated about this episode was getting to see more of Zubeia's personality and protectiveness. In the first three seasons she's more of a plot beat / end goal than a character, but these early episodes of s4 do a great job at establishing her as someone who can be protective, motherly, kind and good natured, and also fierce and impatient while still always making her feel like a dragon

The new locations particularly the forest we go to here is beautiful, and I loved seeing more of Rayla-Soren interact as well as Callum-Ezran. The former in particular are quite comedic (even if we get a good look at how they've changed!) and seeing Ezran be more able to emotionally support Callum rather than the other way around is a nice change.

Team Zym makes a funeral for Ibis, which is honorable and mournful. Rayla references the time Callum leapt off the Storm Spire to rescue her. In fact, this whole moment is a reference to "The Final Battle." "Lizard in a hat" is quotable. We get to see a bit of Soren and Zubeia's relationship, which will come in handy in season 5 & 6. Chert and Terbium are a comedic duo. We get to see Soren and Rayla's "sibling" relationship. Soren tells Rayla that she has hurt Callum pretty badly. So, Rayla leaving Callum behind is clearly percieved as a bad thing. N'Than! I also adopted him. Rayla telling Soren they can't save everyone is shocking but shows how much she has changed. Soren's mini-fight with Warlon is great. Callum is still struggling to forgive Rayla, which is valid and again relatable.

About the title of this review, all I'll say is "if you know you know".

But anyway, this was a great episode, as per usual. I really like that we get to see Soren being a part of the main group now; I love him, he's my fav, and I'm really glad he's getting to be "one of the good guys" now and join them on their grand adventure! I also really like how Callum and Rayla's *situation* is being handled. I think it adds to their whole dynamic a lot!

Meanwhile, our new homunculus friend is wonderful and I love Viren being dragged along on this quest by probably two of the silliest people alive. It's honestly wonderful that the villains of this show are also comedic relief a lot of the time. Such a balance that I really respect.