The Legend of Vox Machina: Season 5 Review and Recap

Buckle up, kiddos, we’ve got to save the world (again) . . .

The Legend of Vox Machina, an Amazon Prime original, just finished it’s fourth season since premiering in 2022! If you like Dungeons & Dragons, profanity, animation, and mysterious diseases, well, this is the show for you.

The Legend of Vox Machina is a show entirely based on a web-series called Critical Role. It’s a group of voice actors who all get together to play the tabletop roleplaying game, D&D. In their first campaign, the group debuted as ‘Vox Machina’, a rowdy group of adventurers who find themselves helping people and slaying dragons.

*From here on in, this post contains spoilers for TLoVM , and profane language will be used below!*

In the third season of the show, Vox Machina defeated the Chroma Conclave, a group of five dragons that were working to conquer Tal’Dorei. As their journey ended, the group decided to go their separate ways to finish the goals they left behind to help the greater good. Percy and Vex leave for Whitestone to continue aiding the city in restoring itself to it’s former glory, and helping their people recover from the multiple tragedies they’ve faced between the Briarwoods and the destruction from the conclave.

Keyleth needed to head back to traveling the kingdom to finish her Aramenté; the path to becoming the Voice of the Tempest, and leader of all Ashari tribes. With Vax by her side, they too decide to leave. Scanlan wants to focus his time with her daughter Kaylie, choosing to become a better man and a better father. Which left Grog and Pike to go back to the old days of going on tavern crawls, picking bar fights, and helping people where help can be given.

While the group splits, there is obviously trouble ahead as a mysterious being called “The Whispered One” begins gaining followers, and infiltrating towns across the land.

Vox Machina, it’s time to get the band back together, and fuck shit up!

I WOULD LIKE TO CAST PRELUDE

*This author would also like to address that this specific post is only going to focus on the animated show. While I have watched the web series and know the differences between what happens in the real D&D campaign vs. the show, I will not be addressing those creaative decisions for a few reasons. Firstly, I watched the campaign a long time ago, and while parts of me know what was first cannon and what they did differently in the show, I also can’t remember everything. That campaign was long as hell! Secondly, I want to focus on the show without having to jump and name every difference the creators made between the animated production and the web series. I am going to only write and recap what happened in season 5 of TLoVM. With that clarified, let’s get to it!*

EPISODES 1-3: LET’S PLAY SPIN THE ORB

It’s the introduction of Taryon Darrington! As we start the fourth season of the show, we find our characters grouped off in different places. Grog and Pike are telling tales of their adventures, without actively being on one. Pike is struggling being away from the group, with her time away only making her realize the harm Vox Machina called to the world. While saving people, Pike also sees the destruction Vox Machina left in their wake. Without someone to help and save, she questions her faith, herself, and her friends. Grog is just their for the ale, and the punching.

Meanwhile, Percy and Vex are living quite the life as nobles in Whitestone. But without the presence of adventure in her life, Vex’ahlia grows bored and seeks out to kill a monster she hears is haunting the woods of Whitestone. Percy is determined to figure out what the spinning black orb of death is that lives in the Whitestone basement, a remnant from Delilah Briarwood.

The group gets back together at the invitation for Keyleth’s coronation as she finally passed her water trials, not only becoming the voice of her people, but also succeeding where her mother wasn’t able too. As the group reunites, minus Scanlan, it’s awkward. One year made these people forget how to be friends. Well, except for the twins, whose banter is never-ending. At Keyleth’s coronation, all goes well until . . . Gojo shows up? Kidding, someone who looks a lot like Gojo in this authors eyes crashes the party in a show of spraying blood and murdered Ashari people.

With a mysterious elemental rock called ‘shadowstone’, these intruders decay the bodies of innocents within seconds. This group of people doesn’t believe in the gods and condemn those that do. Repeating the phrase ‘we are his blood’, fake Gojo wrecks chaos and cruelty on Keyleth’s people, rendering her father without eyes and laying waste to what was supposed to be a day of celebration.

Vox Machina, plus Taryon and Doty, swear to find who did this and why. And they have a lead to start with—tracing the shadowstone back to Taryon’s hometown.

EPISODES 4-6: WE ARE WHOSE BLOOD?

To Deastock the heroes go! Here, Vox Machina finds an empire of black market items, and the reason for Tary’s Daddy issues. Papa Darrington is a bad man who is selling bad things to cultists, a.k.a, he’s is directly supplying people with shadowstone. As Vox Machina figure out the best way to break the news to Tary that his dad is a shady shitbag, Pike begins to have mysterious visions of the champions from old. One of which looks exactly like her, but dressed in Cobalt Soul robes and holding mythcarver. Could this being be the answer to destroying the whispered one? Tary finally gets his shining moment as he not only shuts down his father’s black market business, but swears to make it his life’s goal of making the Darrington name one that inspires hope and trust.

Generational trauma, standing up to a deadbeat dad, causing massive property damage—welcome to Vox Machina, Taryon Darrington!

It’s ‘Percy’s Perfect Heist’, turned quickly too ‘the realm’s greatest heroes to the greatest zeroes’. VM (Vox Machina) wants to break into the vaults of the Cobalt Soul, one of the kingdom’s safest places with top security. There, they hope to find a recount of Pike’s visions—what champions fought against The Whispered One, does he have any weaknesses, and what is his end goal? We love a heist episode, and in typical fashion for a heisting quest, everything goes wrong in about two minutes. In going undercover as Cobalt Soul monks, Vax and Vex end up truth-bombing themselves on their own truth-telling-stone. And surprise, Vex and Percy had a secret wedding! Also, Vax is dying, what else is new.

Hiding in the vault below, Greg and Spike (so lovingly called by Tary) have goofed again. As Grog learns what reading is for the first time ever, he also learns the secrets of the whispered one. The group escapes with fights that could only be described as scrappy, and learn two things. First, Pike and Grog need to go back home to Westrunn so Pike can learn about this mysterious ancestor of hers. And two, that orb needs to be shut down.

Back in Westrunn, it’s Wilhand Trickfoot! Reunited with Pop-Pop, Spike and Greg finally feel a little more at peace since the group split up a year ago. Westrunn hasn’t recovered from the damage of the Chroma Conclave. People are at their weakest, succumbing to a disease called ‘dragon’s lung’ and barely getting by. But Pop-Pop’s small community has come together under the tutelage of a new ‘holy man’ . . . ’cause that doesn’t sound suspicious. This supposed holy man is actually a man just named Gideon, and he sympathizes with Pike and her ongoing confusion when it comes to following the demands Gods and Goddesses.

Pike and Grog, with horror, realize that this is no ordinary town anymore, but it’s townspeople who believe “we are his blood”. Trying to run away with Wilhand, he finally tells Pike that her ancestor Esreé was a champion of the Knowing Mistress and by her side she wielded Mythcarver, the vestige they left with Scanlan. As the townspeople kidnap Pop-Pop and tie up Pike and Grog to perform their own ceremony to save Wilhand’s life, they get a surprise visit from the same cultist baddies who dropped in on Keyleth’s coronation. It’s Gojo, uh oh! No, I mean it’s a really bad uh oh. After a fight that leaves Pike restless and unsatisfied, Pop-Pop tragically dies from his disease. Losing the last family they had left, Pike and Grog have to bring the news back to Vox Machina. Pike, who is really going through it all this season, can see that her ethical dilemma between following gods doesn’t matter anymore. What she wants now is the Whispered One’s head.

“It must be hard for a healer to fight against death, knowing it’s inevitable, but there are other ways to heal” (Gideon, The Legend of Vox Machina, Season 4, Episode 6).

EPISODES 7-8: GUYS, WHERE DID WE PUT THAT UBER-IMPORTANT SWORD?

Sylas, Sylas, and even more Sylas Briarwood. Episode 7, titled “The Ghosts of Whitestone” brings the past of our favorite gunslinger back into the present. The lovers are back—turns out that Gojo is Delilah Briarwood, and the master she was serving all that time ago has been and always was, the Whispered One. Underneath Whitestone, Delilah has built her own replica laboratory of the Whitestone that Percy lived in. His parents bedroom turned into a booby-trapped haunted house leads Vex, Vax, Keyleth, and Percy towards secret tunnels and even worse, deformed versions of Sylas Briarwood. Delilah was always up to more than she let on, doing anything and everything in her power to help restore Sylas back to life. Even, as Keyleth finds, hoping to make a cure to a divine curse, something that could save Vax from the blight the Matron gave him.

Delilah takes a special interest in Vax’ildan, Champion of the Matron of Ravens. As the chosen, Vax believes in his Matron and still stays beside her, despite the blight that is slowing causing his death. Delilah shows Vax that his fate doesn’t have to be that way. When the Whispered One ascends and becomes a god, there is no need for champions of death. This episode also shows us a special appearance from a character not all may see the significance of—a sneak peak of Critical Role’s third campaign. Laudna, the creepy ghost girl who hears Delilah’s voice in her head, helps VM get out of this death trap and destroy the tunnels beneath Whitestone. Grog and Pike reunite with the group, learning that the inner workings of this cult has been growing weeds in the kingdom for a long, long time.

Scanlan’s hand! The Meat Man is back baby, and he’s been busy traveling the world with his daughter. Scanlan, finally happy and himself, knows the second that he sees Vox Machina, they need him for another suicide mission. Pike, who is obviously not handling anything well, finds a drinking buddy in Tary. The two plot a secret mission to just steal Mythcarver, while the rest of the group guilty plays along like they’re only here to hear Scanlan and his group perform. Throughout all of the tragedy this group has been facing, being with Scanlan again gives them all a bit of an reprieve, along with some loose lips after smoking some Spice. Grog let’s loose that they are only visiting to get Mythcarver, leading Scanlan to tears as he realizes this group never knew him.

Things change, however, when one of Gideon’s goons steals Mythcarver and runs away on a guitar solo. To be honest, this episode was very fun and brought back the goofiness that surrounds Vox Machina, but it also was a pain to my ears. It’s giving ‘dance off to save the universe’ but ‘let’s use our divine vestiges as instruments and sing as a group to defeat the darkness’. Oh-kay. . . at least the evil guy stopped screeching. My ears can only take so much. That is to say though, the musicality in this season is off the charts!

Seeing Scanlan again really brought me back to the old days when our Vox Machina crew was just trying to earn some coin and not sacrifice themselves every minute for the greater good. While Tary is a great addition to the crew, I miss Scanlan too! Every member of the team is struggling, and while some of their connections are stronger than ever (Vex and Percy, Keyleth and Vax) other members like Pike feel left to the dust. Splitting up was bound to happen, but in season 4, we’re really seeing the communication mistakes and self-destructive tendencies come back into play. The show is certainly setting us up for something, and I don’t think Vox Machina is going to like the ending results. The Whispered One, who is really Vecna in Dungeons & Dragon lore, is truly the worst of the worst that this group has faced.

EPISODE 9: ANOTHER ORB???

It’s a doozy. Episode 9 of this season is where we really start to see the repercussions of the cults that have slowly taken over the kingdoms of Exandria. Using Tary’s tracking gem, Vox Machina (minus Scanlan) find where the cult is hiding out as they begin the ritual to bring back The Whispered One. Infiltrating the ceremony, Vex and Vax disguise themselves as hooded cultists, blending in with the ‘we are his blood’ crowd. Keyleth, Tary, and Percy head underground to set off a bomb system that could potentially kill Delilah and her fellow un-dead goons for good. Pike and Grog hide out on the outskirts, waiting for a signal that surely will come on time and without flaws . . . right.

Things go askew almost immediately as Vax draws attention to himself through the pain of his blight. It’s spreading fast, and Vex, thinking on her feet, claims that only the ‘oh so powerful’ Whispered One can save him. Picked as the chosen to enter the gate of Thar Amphala, the two begin to make their way into the cultists lair. When needed to remove their hoods though in front of Gojo, I mean, Delilah Briarwood, shit hits the fan. Vex, Vax, Pike, and Grog lay into their attacks while Percy, Keyleth, and Tary silently fight off a goon who caught their scent. And by caught their scent, I mean very obviously heard them throwing barrels around in the cultists basement.

The ongoing fight results in devastation, as the ‘Unalive Five” (coined by Tary) escape to Thar Amphala as the temple crumbles around Vox Machina. Pike, who only has revenge on her mind, is determined to kill Delilah, despite the risks. She is only stopped by Grog, who at the last second, convinces her that this is not what Pop-Pop would want. About to leave, absolute horror strikes as Grog blocks a hit meant for Pike, and is thrown into the Orb. With no protection, Grog is immediately killed in front of Pike, and the rest of Vox Machina who watches just outside the temple. With nothing left holding her back, Pike follows the cultists into the home of the Whispered One—into Thar Amphala.

EPISODES 10-11: SPIKE IS GOING OFF THE RAILS

Vox Machina has lost—big time. Vax, Vex, Percy, and Keyleth know that Grog is gone, but that there is still a chance to save Pike. Back at Whitestone, Keyleth’s magical flower has bloomed, and could give Vax a chance to live and be cured from his blight. While thankful for this, Vax wants to focus on getting Pike back first before losing more of their friends to the Whispered One. The group tells the council about what happened at the temple, and while they mourn those they lost, they decide that this has to be for the best, for the Whispered One is now gone.

Umm . . . he definitely isn’t just gone, guys. It’s honestly a little shocking to me that these very powerful mages, nobles, and sorcerers are just assuming that the man who waited 500 years to ascend is just dead because the orb is gone. Despite the refusal from the council, Vox Machina decides that they’re going to Thar Amphala through the Whitestone orb.

Pike, who has entered Thar Ampaha, meets Gideon, who to no one’s shock, is the Whispered One behind this entire mess. He explains to Pike that his hatred isn’t with the people of Exandria—it’s with the gods who control everyone like pawns. Sending champions and sacrificing them like pigs for slaughter, just to stop someone who wants to control their own fate. Gideon weaves a tale for Pike that is as persuading as it is dangerous. He wants to control death, and convinces Pike that it’s not a bad thing to strike the gods back. The Whispered One needs Pike because she is special; she comes from a celestial bloodline. It’s Pike’s blood that can either raise Gideon from Thar Amphala, or keep him locked away there forever. The choice is hers.

Episode 11 begins with an absolute diabolical montage of Grog with his best buddies. To see things from Pike’s perspective, she really has lost everything since the year of not being with Vox Machina. What she is going through puts her really at the forefront of the season, which I do like, because Pike deserves the spotlight. Like she tells Vox Machina, she provides for her team, heals them, but who is left to heal her? Without Scanlan, Pike feels rejected by everyone around her, and with all the loss she has faced, can only see the things that has vanished from her life as a consequence of being a member of Vox Machina. Gideon has persuaded her, and Pike is angry at the gods. Angry about her life. What she wants now, more than ever, is just to have her people back, like Pop-Pop and Grog.

As he finds Pike, Vax realizes what she has done. What the Matron has given Vax is a gift, a way to stop the Whispered One, at the cost of his own life. Vax vs. Pike is a very interesting dynamic. We have one character who has always chosen the Everlight; who started on the religious path and worked hard to even make her connection stronger back in season one. Versus Vax, who unwillingly became a Champion in a desperate plea to save his sister. What he offered was a sacrifice, him for Vex’ahlia, and what he got was a lifetime debt to the Matron of Ravens. Yet, he is the one defending the gods and fate, and Pike is the one who refuses to live this way anymore.

I like the storyline, but, even I think turning Pike into Vox Machina’s enemy can only have repercussions for the upcoming final season. It will be interesting to see where this goes after (spoilers) you-know-who dies at the hand of the god Pike chose to raise.

“I am not your friend. I am his blood” (Pike, The Legend of Vox Machina, Season 4, Episode 11).

Guys, I also must admit that I am so glad that Dark-Bard-Australian-Screecher is finally dead. Good riddance.

EPISODE 12: ‘HOLEY’ IS A PRETTY ACCURATE WORD FOR WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN

It’s Pike vs. Vox Machina. She has given the Whispered One her blood, and is ready to fuck the gods. Vox Machina can’t let her do this. With no choice, what’s left of Vox Machina chooses to fight Pike and face the Whispered One, determined death and all.

With Gideon transforming into a God above their heads, Vox Machina and Pike duke it out in a battle of vestiges. Intensely, the group spares off back and forth, but Pike only stops fighting when she sees that Grog’s body might be in danger. In her final stance, she forces Keyleth, Percy, Vex, and Vex into a prison made of necrotic magic; magic that she shares with the Whispered One. As he comes back to life, Grog doesn’t understand what Pike is doing. Learning more from the group and his surroundings, he finds that Pike is the source of what is holding his friends hostage. Rather than lean on the past, Grog tell Pike that she needs to let go of the people they’ve lost because they didn’t die for nothing. Everyone she has lost has died to save her—just like he did, just like Vox Machina is doing, and just like Vax knows he’s prophesied to do. Just because the Whispered One can bring people back doesn’t mean they can forget all of the pain he has caused.

Without Pike, Vox Machina goes to fight the Whispered One face-to-face, blades in hand. His transformation was only just cut short, as Vax finally kills Delilah Briarwood with his divine gifts, for good this time. It’s another full-blown battle that Gideon is winning, until, Pike appears with Mythcarver, fighting the Whispered One on her own. She decides to chose her friends over the world. It finally comes to blows when Vax decides to submit to his fate, choosing to kill Gideon and himself in a divine smiting. Except . . . fucking “fuck fate” Keyleth comes in hot and ready with Mythcarver!! Holy shit. She delivers the killing blow to the Whispered One, ending his rein. Absolute epic moment in the show. Vax was ready to die to save the world, but Keyleth has other ideas. As Thar Amphala begins to fall, Vox Machina makes it out through the Whitestone portal just in time.

As the team enters the mortal realm, back underneath Whitestone, Keyleth saves Vax once again from his returning blight. She gives him the elixir she made with the knowledge that came from Delilah, and he returns to life. Just in time too for the reveal that the Whispered One is also alive! Damn, that guy is mad scary. It’s absolute horrifying watching this ancient skeleton approach Vox Machina right as they thought the threat was gone.

This entire time, Vox Machina has been playing right into his hands. You don’t try to become a god for 500 years without some patience, and contingency plans. What the Whispered One wanted, and needed, was for his old body to be killed so that a new divine form could take it’s place. He has ascended—and he thanks Vox Machina with a ceremony, and a choice. All of Exandria watches, on their knees, as the realm’s heroes can either submit to the Whispered One, or watch the Champion of the Raven Queen die. He used them just like pawns; just like the gods.

One by one, with the world watching, they fall to their knees. Keyleth begs the Whispered One to let Vax live. Always defiant, and the only one left to submit, Vax’ildan spits in his face. “Get fucked.” I would except nothing less from the one who has led the charge to save the people he loves. Without hesitation, the Whispered One kills Vax. Fallen at their feet, and right in front of Keyleth, he disintigrates.

Oh lord, that so did not go well at all. I knew what was coming, and still wasn’t fully prepared. I think the ladies of Vox Machina will not be doing so well next season, to say the least.

As the Whispered One ascends, the world has been changed. There’s a new God watching.

What a season of Vox Machina! So many questions: was Scanlan witnessing all of this? How the hell do we fight a god? Will we ever see Doty again? Damn you, Matt Mercer.

The Legend of Vox Machina and all of it’s seasons are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video