Disenchantment season 1, episode 19 recap: The Electric Princess

In episode 19 of the Netflix series Disenchantment, Bean discovers the high-tech city of Steamland, but all roads to adventure also lead to danger.

Previously on Disenchantment, Princess Bean (Abbi Jacobson) wrote a play only to have it credited to Prince Merkimer (Matt Berry), a literal male pig. Episode 19 focuses a little less on Bean and more on a new stranger in town. It all begins with Bean, Luci (Eric Andre), and Elfo (Nat Faxon) eating at the fanciest (and only) restaurant in Elf Alley, where the food is only candy.

However, their delightful, unhealthful meal is interrupted by an apparent dragon attack which sets much of Elf Alley on fire. As soon as possible, Bean and King Rulo (Billy West) head out to visit King Zøg (John DiMaggio) for assistance in putting out the blaze. As Odval (Maurice LaMarche) get the “necessary” fire brigade request forms, Bean and some royal knights head out to slay the dragon beast.

Though Pendergast (Andre) seeks credit for everything, Bean hits the offending creature with an arrow and it crash lands. It is revealed to not be a dragon at all, but a motorized sky ship flown by a man named Skybert Gunderson from the nearby (yet strangely unknown) land of Steamland. It seems the fire in Elf Alley is put out, although Combusto is dead.

Now Bean gets to learn about the mysterious airship, which the citizens of Dreamland falsely still consider a magical dragon. Also, they regularly mistake Gunderson’s gun for a magic whistle.  As Bean speaks with the now-jailed Skybert, she wants to learn about science (though she cutely calls it “stience”).

Another daring escape

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What would Disenchantment be without the occasional brave escape? After demonstrating to Bean the magic of using potatoes as an electric battery, Skybert pulls a trick on the guards with a magnifying glass and gunpowder.

As they scope out the scene, Gunderson escapes after hiding in a sack. Bean joins him and they both escape in a submarine (though he calls it an electrofish).

Sky addresses Bean’s cut with some antibiotic goop, demonstrating the value of medicine when magic’s in short supply. Bean is impressed by the technology, though she’s not so quick to understand every aspect of it.

Steamland is an interesting place, and Disenchantment even provides a nod to Futurama with the name of Farnsworth Boulevard. While Bean gets along with Skybert at first, things go downhill fast when she learns that he and a woman named Harriett are plotting to assassinate King Zøg — Bean’s dad!

Ultimately, she and Sky end up fighting in a blimp, and he ends up falling from a great height, presumably to die upon impacting some street below. Bean barely survives, too, as she is left dangling from the blimp’s door hatch, precariously close to her own doom.

The Bean assassin?

Though this episode has its cuter moments — like Luci trashing Elfo’s home, then Elfo throwing a messy pancake party with some birds —, things do get more dramatic. Bean gets back to Dreamland to warn Zøg about an impending assassination attempt.

However, in an odd turn of events, Bean herself accidentally shoots Zøg with the so-called “dragon whistle”! While it doesn’t seem this was planned at all, it does demonstrate that life is as unpredictable in Dreamland as it is anywhere else. The question is, what will happen to Bean now if this deemed as treachery as opposed to a bizarre accident?

What are your thoughts on Disenchantment? Let us know in the comments!