Elena of Avalor S3 E6

## Plot

Starting with this episode, there's a new opening, but what's really important is that the final shot excludes Esteban. Speaking of which, Carnaval is in two days, and Esteban is walking Isabel, Luisa, and Francisco through the parade route. They're entering a samba enredo contest, and plan to sing Lucia's favorite song, Love Always. She used to sing it to Isabel and Elena every night. Also, Isabel has a slightly different design with new clothes. It makes her look older. Elena is supposed to be at the meeting, and Francisco leaves to find her. She, Naomi, Gabe, Mateo, and Zuzo are in the grand council room. Elena is using Farsight to try and find Ash, but she hasn't passed a landmark yet. Francisco and the others tell Elena to take a break, because she's been at it all day, and she agrees, but decides to take one more peek after they leave. Ash sees the jaquin constellation in the sky, and finally realizes that the puzzle map is of the stars in the constellation. The map finally opens to reveal that Takaína has been under Tepet Muul this whole time. Zuzo returns because he knew Elena wouldn't want to take a break, and tells her that Takaína is where the Maruvians built all their magical artifacts, like her scepter. If Ash gets her hands on even one crystal from their magic forge, *the whole world* could be in danger. Elena gets Mateo, and they fly to Tepet Muul to stop Ash. She inserts the puzzle into a door, which opens to reveal Takaína, and the glow it creates attracts Elena and Mateo's attention. Elena tells Skylar and Migs to head back to the palace to get backup. She's able to blast the chain holding up the crystals, which fall back down the well. She, Mateo, and Ash fight each other. Ash blasts Mateo far away, and Elena jumps when she tries to blast her… and falls down the well, which is buried by rubble. Mateo traps Ash under some rubble, with her tamborita just out of her reach. Before he can levitate the rubble off the well, it does so itself, and Elena's dress, accessories, and scepter changes. Ash reaches her tamborita and throws the rubble at them. Mateo is able to destroy it, but the remnants blast him back, and he drops his tamborita. Ash tries to blast them, but when the spell hits Elena's scepter, it's deflected back at her. It can deflect spells now, and Elena doesn't even feel tired. By the time Gabe gets there with Skylar and Migs, Elena and Mateo exit to reveal that they've captured Ash. While flying back, Elena expresses her happiness at Avalor finally being safe again, and her dress turns yellow. However, she and Mateo don't notice that it also summons yellow butterflies. Gabe is entering the samba enredo contest with Naomi, Marlena, and Doña Paloma. Doña wrote her own song for it that's all about how great she is. Esteban talks to Elena in the dungeon, and learns that it's true that she caught Ash. She still refuses to believe Victor's words about Esteban being the criminal, and after everyone else leaves, he rubs it in to them, but Victor tells him that the truth always has a way of coming out. This year's Carnaval floats are based on creatures from Vallestrella. The royal family will be riding in one that looks like an alpacamundi. Isabel made a model of it. While singing about how happy she is to be alive, Elena's dress turns yellow again and causes flowers to grow. It also causes all of the staff members to sing and dance with her, and brings the float model to life. She decides to be called Flo. Elena shows Mateo and Zuzo. She feels anxious, which causes her dress to turn purple, and it makes Mateo's orrery spin. That's a fancy word that I can't pronounce that basically means it's a mechanical model of the solar system. Elena's dress changes back to normal, and she wonders how this happened. The crystal well didn't just supercharge her scepter. It also boosted the magic inside her. Now something magical happens every time she feels a strong emotion. She's worried that she can't control it, and feels anxious again. Mateo tells her to think of things like baby jaquins, and she calms down. Zuzo points out that at least she has a built in warning light with her dress before the magic happens. At the park, Doña Paloma shows up with an impressive float… and appropriately gaudy costumes. However, there's a thief at the park that stole her feathers, Julio's tacos, and Esteban's castanets. When everyone asks Elena where their stuff is, she says she wishes she knew, which makes her scepter show them a flashback of Flo eating tacos, wearing feathers, and jumping on the castanets, since she's not even a day old yet, and is very hyperactive, like a pet. Isabel names the new power truth vision. At dinner that night, Francisco, Luisa, Elena, and Isabel reminisce about Lucia and Raul and how much they loved Carnaval. They were working on their float before Shuriki attacked, so the others never got to see what it looked like. Flo asks who Shuriki is, and Elena tears up and cries while trying to explain it to her. Isabel says that Esteban knew what the float looked like, because he was supposed to be with them that day, but he insists that he doesn't remember and had to leave. Flo innocently suggests that Elena help him remember by using her scepter's truth vision. Esteban, desperate to keep his secret, tries to dive across the table to stop her. Suspicious of his behavior, Elena asks where he was while Lucia and Raul were working on the float, and the scepter shows them a flashback of a young Victor and Esteban taking Shuriki to Avalor and sneaking her past the sentries in exchange for them ruling Avalor by her side. The others are shocked and horrified. Elena's fury at his betrayal activates her new magic and makes her dress turn orange. She causes everything to levitate, and orders the guards to take Esteban to the dungeon. Damn. Aimee Carrero and Christian Lanz are great voice actors, but scenes like this… They take things to another level, and Julia Vera and Emiliano Díez are great here too. The next day, Naomi bluntly tells Doña Paloma that her song is terrible. Marlena tells her that a song has to make the audience feel something in their heart. Gabe refuses to wear a hat to go with the costumes. Doña Paloma tells them to enjoy losing without her. Higgins tells Naomi and Gabe that Elena needs them right away for an emergency grand council meeting. Esteban is convinced that when he tells everyone why he did it, they'll forgive him. He explains that after his parents died, he felt like an outcast, like he didn't have a place in the palace. He felt like he didn't matter anymore. No one ever listened to him like they listened to Elena. He felt invisible. He needed to be seen and heard, and because he was young, foolish, and angry, he agreed to help Shuriki in exchange for the power he always wanted. No one was supposed to get hurt though, and by the time he realized his mistake, it was already too late. Francisco doesn't understand how he could've done this to them, but he does believe him. They have to weigh the wrongs of his past against the man he's become in the present. Francisco forgives him. However, Luisa tells him that he's wrong. Esteban brought harm to their family. She lost her daughter and son-in-law, Avalor lost its king and queen, and nothing can bring them back. She can't forgive that, and Naomi sadly agrees with her. Elena tells Esteban that she loved him like a brother, but now she thinks she never knew the real him at all. She could never be happy living here knowing he's locked away in the dungeon, so she, Naomi, and Luisa vote to exile him to a deserted island, and plan to carry out his sentence after the parade. Elena arrives on the alpacamundi float to commence Carnaval. She's still upset about everything, but puts on a fake smile anyways. Isabel is wearing a costume. Esteban uses his sad story about his parents to get Higgins to bring him a statue of a sunbird by claiming that it was the last thing his mother gave him. Marlena, Naomi, and Gabe perform Marlena's song, and invite Doña Paloma to join them. Also, Naomi and Gabe dance with each other. Higgins gives Esteban the statue, and leaves again when Esteban asks him to get him his father's pocket watch. It's revealed that the statue is hollow, and contains a master key. Esteban kept it during Shuriki's rule in case she ever double crossed him. Ash gets him to let them out too, saying that he needs magic on his side to get past all of the guards, Mateo, and Elena. When he gives them their tamboritas though, Victor plans to betray him, but he says he can get them out of the palace undetected, he knows the countryside better than anyone, and he knows all of the royal guard tactics, so they leave together. Before Elena, Isabel, Luisa, and Francisco can sing Love Always for the contest, Gabe and Higgins tell Elena about the Delgados and Esteban escaping. Her anger is so powerful that it brings the floats to life, and they start rampaging everywhere. Mateo tries to freeze one, but his spell is deflected away. Elena's magic is too powerful. Mateo tells her to think calming thoughts, which makes her dress glow light blue, and causes the butterfrog to stop and go to sleep. Elena goes after the alpacamundi to save her family. It runs up a mountain… right at Esteban and the Delgados. Ash casts a spell that sends it down another path. However, Elena's fear when she sees that makes her dress turn purple, which causes a rockslide that endangers her family, and sends Carla and Esteban over a cliff. Victor's tamborita broke, and Ash lost hers, so she has to go get it to save Carla. The guards go after them. Elena worries that she'll make things worse. Her emotions just create disasters. Mateo points out that her happiness brought Flo to life. In order to make good things happen and fix things, Elena has to feel love. It's the strongest emotion there is. She wonders how she's supposed to feel love at a time like this, and Flo sings her mother's song to her. She sends Mateo after the guards to help them. She and Naomi go after the alpacamundi, and Elena's love from singing the song gets it and the other floats under control. Naomi leads them back, and the floats return to normal. Carla can't reach Victor's hand. She falls, but Ash gets her tamborita back and saves her at the last second. Esteban was able to climb up by himself. Ash wants to go back to Takaína, but Victor refuses. Their evil pursuits almost cost them their daughter today, and she's all that matters. Ash responds rather politely… and turns him to stone, which devastates Carla, who refuses to leave with her mother. Esteban does, but only out of fear, just like he did 44 years ago. Elena reaches the scene a little while later. Ash cast a stop spell on the guards, and by the time Mateo undid it, she and Esteban were long gone. Elena asks what happened to Victor. Carla tells her that her mother happened. She thought she loved them, but she was wrong. Elena tells her that she knows what it's like to be wrong about family. Carla begs her to undo the spell, saying that she'll do anything. Elena tells the guards to take Victor and Carla away. She'll deal with them later. And she means *way later*. She tells her family that Ash and Esteban escaped, but they'll get through this the same way they've gotten through everything else: Together. Back at the Carnaval, the crowd is singing Love Always, and Elena's joy turns her dress yellow and causes yellow butterflies to appear as the special ends.

## Review

Wow. Okay, so the status quo has been completely destroyed. The animation was stunning, and Christian Lanz, Aimee Carrero, Julia Vera, and Emiliano Díez's voice acting after they find out about Esteban's betrayal and during his trial is absolutely amazing and heartbreaking. It's too bad we didn't get to see Isabel's initial reaction, especially since she was sad during her first Día de los Muertos out of the enchanted painting because she really missed her parents. Then again, she might not even know how to feel about it. Speaking of which, even though the production code indicates that it was the fourteenth episode to be made, the season 3 Day of the Dead episode is the next one to air. We didn't get to see Mateo, Gabe, or Naomi's reactions to Esteban's betrayal, but they were clearly told about it sometime offscreen before the trial, along with Higgins. I was kind of hoping that we'd learn more about Gabe and Naomi's new relationship after what happened in the previous episode, but other than the two briefly dancing with each other, there's nothing different about their behavior. All of these changes are going to impact the series for the rest of its run. It's not going to be all doom and gloom from now on though. I think Flo was created for the sole purpose of comic relief, even when there are times where, quite frankly, the tension shouldn't be broken, and the audience *should* be in suspense and anticipation, like during Esteban's trial. We *should* feel sadness at all of these events. I, along with many other older fans, didn't like Flo, at least when she first made her debut. Kether Donohue's performance is great though, and Flo is much more tolerable in later episodes, due to giving her more emotional moments, actually making her funny without the mood whiplash, etc. She also doesn't appear as much as you would think. It's not like she replaces Esteban in the cast and becomes a main character. In total, I think she only appears in eight episodes, and sometimes it's just for a scene or two. I can't wait to find out what other things Elena can do with her new powers. A series of new shorts also accompanies this special. They're not even two minutes apiece and are really comedic, but Elena does get to use the crystal tamborita again, Mateo officially meets Quita Moz, Elena discovers what her emotion powers can do, we learn that the scepter can create fire, and one of the final shots during one of the shorts of a sunset is absolutely *gorgeous*. And yes, I still ship Elena and Mateo.