Disenchantment mid-season 1 premiere recap: The Disenchantress‬

In episode 11 of Netflix series Disenchantment, Bean learns the dark truth about Dagmar and eventually begins a literal descent into Hell.

In season 1 of Disenchantment, Princess Bean (Abbi Jacobson) only wanted to be married for true love but ended up in a bizarre series of adventures.  Unbeknownst to her, Queen Dagmar (Sharon Horgan) tried to magically poison her father, King Zøg (John DiMaggio), but accidentally poisoned herself instead, turning herself into stone. This is why Zøg sought after magic elf blood, to create the elixir of life.

Also, one of Bean’s pals, Elfo (Nat Faxon) had died, but Bean had to decide between reviving him or Queen Dagmar. Unfortunately, not long after Dagmar was revitalized, she froze the kingdom of Dreamland into stone, leaving a distressed and saddened King Zøg with no one to rule (or talk to). It’s a pretty sad scene for Disenchantment, really, though lightly tinged with dark humor.

As “The Disenchantress‬” begins, we see that Dagmar secretly kidnapped Zøg’s 2nd wife, Queen Oona (Tress MacNeille), throwing her off a ship attached to anchor to an indefinite fate. Now Dagmar and a very unaware Bean head off to Maru. It doesn’t take long to get there, where Bean meets her uncle Cloyd (Rich Fulcher), aunt Becky the Enchantress (Lucy Montgomery) and their brother Jerry (David Herman) and his pet hammer.

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Bean wants to enjoy Maru but feels guilty about Elfo. She also isn’t aware of these strange people, including that Cloyd and Becky have her other personal demon, Luci (Eric Andre), inside a jar. Maru is also weirder than expected, especially when freaky townsfolk in the “crone zone” see Bean as a prophetic figure. Later, when Jerry innocently shows Princess Bean her aunt and uncle’s magic fire oracle, they beat him for it when Bean’s away.

Prophecy fulfillment center

As she bonds with her daughter, Dagmar mentions their family curse of insanity, which alarms Bean that she may have it. Later, with considerable help from Jerry, Bean finds a secret passage and discovers plans and a map. When she realizes her mom froze Dreamland, Dagmar locks her in a room. In fact, they have a bizarre plan to use Bean in a satanic ritual, involving screwing a weird crown into her head (to which she remarks, “You screwed with my head enough!). After seeing Jerry apparently killed, she reunites with Luci and they fight with Dagmar, who at first seems to die in an eventual explosion.

Then, in a hopeful moment for Disenchantment, Bean accidentally contacts Elfo through the fire oracle. Luci mentions a way to get Elfo back, telling him to literally go to Hell, where they will try to find him. Though Dagmar makes a slight return, Jerry ends up using his pet hammer on her (though it’s not known if she’s totally deceased, especially in light of what’s happening with Elfo). To meet Elfo, Luci opens a stairway portal to Hell, warning her that it’s perilous. Interestingly, there’s no mention of the unknown people who grabbed Elfo during the mid-season finale. Oh, well! This was still a good mid-season premiere.  It will be interesting to see Bean in Hell.

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