Elena of Avalor S1 E10

## Plot

There's a solar eclipse coming to Avalor. Isabel has invented a solar projector out of a telescope. It casts an image of the sun on a wall. This way, everyone can watch the eclipse without having to look directly at the sun and possibly hurt their eyes. Armando is scared of the eclipse because of an old story. There was a moth fairy named Orizaba. She wanted to bring total darkness to Avalor, but a Maruvian wizard stopped her and sent her to the spirit world. However, it's said that she found a way to escape every time there's a solar eclipse so she can fulfill her dark plans. However, everyone else thinks that it's just a story. Okay, by this point, they should really know better. Merpeople are real! The Yacalli is real! Ghosts are real! Is an evil moth fairy that hard to believe? Anyways, Elena is getting dressed up for the eclipse festival. When she picks up the royal scepter, it glows again. She's so curious about why it does this that she isn't paying attention to where she's going, and hurts her foot on a footstool. She cries out blazes, and a beam of yellow light suddenly shoots out of the scepter and blasts the footstool. Alarmed, Elena calls Zuzo and tells him what happened. The scepter always glows when she picks it up, which is already weird, since it never did that for her father when he was king. Zuzo deduces that every time she says blaze, a beam of light comes out of the scepter and hits something. It turns out that the scepter is a magical Maruvian object, but not on its own. It's channeling the magic Elena has inside her from being in the amulet so long, which is also why it glows whenever she picks it up. Zuzo says that since they don't understand how it all works yet, he's gonna go find out, but she shouldn't touch the scepter until then. She needs it for the eclipse festival, but if she says the wrong thing, something bad might happen. She gives a speech right before the eclipse is total. However, Armando gives her the scepter. Luckily, Elena is able to make it through the speech without blasting anything. When the eclipse is total though, a bunch of smoke comes from the sun stone. Orizaba is real, and she still wants to bring eternal darkness to Avalor. She wants to find a magical jewel, the Eye of Midnight, and place it in the sun stone so she can freeze the eclipse. On a side note, she happens to be voiced by the amazing Eden Espinosa. Anyways, the Maruvians hid the jewel in one of their temples. Armando tells them that if she can't place the jewel in the sun stone before the eclipse is over, she'll go back to the spirit world. This only gives her ten minutes. Gabe saw her heading north. Mateo notes that there are only two temples in that direction, and goes after her on Fuego. Elena has Gabe assemble more guards in case she comes back. Armando tells Elena that Orizaba is very powerful, and Mateo might not be able to beat her. Elena realizes that she can help by using the scepter, and sends Isabel and Armando back to the palace. She goes after Mateo. They meet up at the temple and hide in one of the chambers. He wants Elena to stay put, no matter what happens, while he tries to stop Orizaba. However, he misses, and Orizaba uses her powers on him so he can't cast any more spells. Elena tries to blast her, but Orizaba dodges that too. All it did was blast open the pillar that she was trying to open and scratch her wing. Using the scepter left Elena feeling weak and tired. A piece of Orizaba's wing falls on her dress, but it won't come off. Orizaba finds the jewel and heads back to the sun stone. Elena wants to go after her, but she's too tired and passes out in Mateo's arms. He decides to take her back to the palace. Orizaba easily defeats the guards and freezes the eclipse. Elena regained consciousness offscreen, and realizes that Orizaba has won. She rests in the secret chamber from episode 5, now Mateo's workshop, while he looks for information in the Codex. Elena's scepter is really old. It used to be called the titular Scepter of Light. It can control the powers of light, both the seen and unseen, with a single thought put into words. They don't know what that means though. There's also a warning: The more power you use, the more you lose. Mateo decides to summon Zuzo to talk to him. He informs them that the more you use the scepter, the more it drains your energy, and you could get hurt. They tell him about Orizaba. The only way to defeat her is to use the scepter. Elena picks it up, and it glows again. The light from the scepter does something to that piece of Orizaba's wing. It sends it back to the spirit world. Elena figures out that every time she says glow, the scepter glows brighter. If it can get rid of Orizaba's wing, it could get rid of the rest of her, but it would take a lot of energy out of Elena. That's just a risk she's willing to take to protect her kingdom. Gabe and Isabel are worried about her, and head after them in a coach. Elena uses the scepter to weaken Orizaba, but its continued use weakens her too. However, the coach is able to give Orizaba shade, and lets her recover and get her powers back, whereas Elena keeps getting weaker. When Orizaba attacks Isabel though, Elena uses all of her strength to send Orizaba back to the spirit world. This destroys the jewel, and the eclipse ends. Elena passes out, and wakes up in her bedroom. Francisco, Luisa, Isabel, Mateo, and Gabe are there. She was asleep for two days, but she's okay now. She tells her family about the magic she got from being in the amulet, which is how she can make the scepter glow. I love Sofia the First, but I admit that I never understood why Sofia never told her family and friends about her amulet and magical powers. I also never understood why no one visibly ages, despite some characters, especially Sofia and Amber, getting new designs via new clothes. The kids still look like eight or nine year olds when they should be tweens. Everyone leaves to give Elena more time to recover, but she asks Mateo to stay. She reaffirms that he's a good friend and thanks him for everything he did. They'll work together with Zuzo to figure out everything the scepter can do, and how Elena can use it without passing out for two days. The episode ends with Zuzo declaring them to be a magical dream team. I loved seeing Elena's hair down, and her nightgown is cute too. It was interesting that the offensive power Elena discovered in this episode, blaze, isn't used to save the day, but rather, the more passive power of glowing. Which makes sense. This is the kind of show that usually exceeds or subverts audience expectations, and also teaches good lessons. Of course Elena isn't going to win with brute force and violence. She needs to trick her opponents to defeat them, and never give up. Not to mention that a bright glow can be used to temporarily blind opponents, which she does in both the season 2 special and the series finale.