Review: The Mighty Nein “Belonging”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

With their task complete, The Mighty Nein go their separate ways, but find themselves changed by their new bonds. Meanwhile, Essek must make a decision about what to do next when his mother takes her life into her own hands.

OUR TAKE

We’re down to our second to last episode of the season (a shame they didn’t get NINE episodes in the Mighty NEIN series, but perhaps that’s next season), and I have to say it doesn’t really feel like the season is almost over. Like yes, we do have some considerable developments from both the Mighty Nein and the plots going on with Issek and Trent, but the end of the episode doesn’t make things feel very urgent leading into the finale next week. Our heroes do find their way back to each other and have recommitted efforts to get the Beacon back, but it only feels like Beau and Caleb really have much reason to do so, while Jester, Fjord, Molly, and Nott seem to just be along for the ride. And then on the other end, there’s Trent, who seems rather confident with his newly restored status and vanquished enemies, and no clear plans aside from just continue what he was doing, while Issek does at least seem to have started making up for things by directing the Kryn forces to take the Beacon back as well. Obviously I’m going to see how this all wraps up, but I feel a distinct lack of hype going into the finale. That’s not to say I’m not interested to see what happens, but I feel like I should be more interested than I actually am.

But with the vague nitpicks aside, this episode had a lot of strengths, as we see the party face some of their own demons (in Fjord’s case, literal ones) before finding their way back to each other in a pretty wholesome manner. It DOES feel a bit undercooked given that it just seems to go from “part ways, sad, talk, and now we’re together again”, which do kinda seem like the steps for that, but not as satisfying as I’ve seen done in other cases. Issek definitely gets the highlight of the episode though, mainly through how he makes tragic choices that will likely only serve to seal his fate. He had the Beacon stolen so that he could save his mother’s life by helping her to reincarnate again, but it was only when she regained her senses that she decided to have him end it for her, meaning he betrayed his country and started a war for basically nothing. And yet he’s still enough of a shit person to frame a friend of his (who is immediately executed with no trial or chance to explain things so maybe this civilization isn’t the most advanced), so I don’t feel too bad for him. Just one more episode to go, so let’s see if they can stick the landing. Unless something terrible happens, we’re likely to get at least a couple more seasons of this, but it’ll be nice to have a full season to look at.