I’ve been pretty harsh on In the Land of Leadale for the majority of its run, and a lot of that comes down to the show’s identity crisis. Leadale can’t seem to decide if it wants to be a compelling mystery or just a really basic escapist power fantasy; it’s hard to tell whether the plot is hinting at darker implications or just having everything sort of be up in the air, and Cayna is a protagonist that comes across as stubbornly unlikable in one moment and compassionate and understanding in the next. When Leadale tries to juggle more than one of these elements, everything clashes in a way that I don’t think the show necessarily means them to. However, I would argue that this episode is one of the few that handles the transition from light to heavy rather well.
While it probably could’ve been condensed, the first half of the episode where Cayna revisits the town that she…
