Night of the Hunters, Part 1

Night of the Hunters, Part 1 is the second episode of Season 2 of Dragons: Race to the Edge. It was released on Netflix on January 8, 2016.

Overview
A new enemy named Ryker Grimborn captures Stormfly, sending Hiccup, Toothless and the team off to rescue her before it's too late.

Plot
The episode starts very early in the morning, as the dragons groggily wake up and fall back asleep, all except for Stormfly who is not in her stable. It's revealed that she and Astrid had gotten up early for a morning flight, as they fly at top speed doing acrobatic tricks along the way. While they are taking a break, they spot a flock of Terrible Terrors flying away in fear as well as hearing roaring in the distance. They land on a cliff where Astrid sees strange ships, and recognizing the insignia on the sail as the same one from the Reaper. Astrid realizes that the men are Dragon Hunters and decides to get a closer look. Astrid witnesses the Dragon Hunters being cruel to dragon and sees their leader, Ryker who smells Stormfly and commands his men to capture her. Astrid and Stormfly take off trying to escape but one of the hunters arrows hit Stormfly and she flies out of control. Astrid falls off of the saddle and lands in the ocean as Stormfly is snatched by the Dragon Hunters. Ryker decides to leave Astrid since they have the dragon. Astrid can only watch in horror as her dragon is taken away and vows to find her.

Meanwhile back at Dragon's Edge, Hiccup is seen waiting at the stables for Astrid to come back, and begins to worry since she has been gone all day. Fishlegs tries to calm Hiccup down stating that Astrid is skilled to survive on her own, but Hiccup believes that there is something wrong and decides to find her.

As they head out it begins to storm, Hiccup tells the others to split up to find Astrid, with Hiccup heading south. Having spent hours stranded in the ocean, Astrid is beginning to feel weak and exhausted and is soon beginning to drown. Just as she starts to sink to the bottom, Hiccup spots her and immediately dives down to save her. Hiccup begins to panic with Astrid unconscious in his arms and shouts her name. He is then relieved when she opens her eyes to him, thankful she's alright and holds her close.

Astrid wakes up back at Dragon's Edge with everyone standing around her. Hiccup tries tell her to relax since she's had a tough night, but Astrid tells them about what she saw with the Dragon Hunters and how they have Stormfly. In a rush Astrid calls for Stormfly, briefly forgetting that she's not here, Hiccup offers to let her ride with him and Toothless. They head back to the beach where Stormfly was captured, hoping to find clues to find the Dragon Hunters, when Snotlout steps on the tip of one of the Hunters' broken arrows. Taking a closer look at it, Fishlegs discovers that the arrow's tip was dipped in Dragon Root, explaining why Stormfly went so out of control when she was hit. They decide to check out the Reaper to find some more clues. Hiccup and Astrid look below deck as Astrid expresses her anger and fear at having seen Ryker and him taking her dragon, and not knowing what'll happen to Stormfly. They find a hidden lens in one of the shields and try to use it but none of their dragons can light up the Dragon Eye with it. When Tuffnut discovers that the dragon in the shield where they found the lens is a Changewing.

They go to Changewing Island to find a Changewing and use its acid to see the new lens. So they wait quietly and patiently by a river, waiting for a Changewing to come get a drink. When one shows up, they try to sneak up on it when Tuffnut blows their cover, it turns out he already snuck up on the dragon and tied a rope around its neck so it wouldn't escape. The Changewing then spits acid at them one shot landing on Snotlout's helmet, it then breaks free of the rope and flies off. Hiccup tells Snotlout to hold still so they can use the Dragon Eye, Snotlout complains as the acid it starting to burn his head (if they take off his helmet the acid will spill). The Dragon Eye shows a map to the Dragon Hunters' port. Fishlegs asks how will they be able to get close enough without getting shot by the dragon root arrows, Hiccup replies that for his plan to work someone will need to be shot down; meaning Meatlug as she is the only dragon immune to Dragon Root.

They find Ryker's ships and attack. As part of the plan, Meatlug is hit by the dragon root arrow and "flies" out of control landing on the ship, both she and Fishlegs are taken to cells where Fishlegs sees Stormfly alive but in a cell and winks at her. Meanwhile, Hiccup, Astrid, and Toothless are trying to avoid the arrows when Astrid falls off of Toothles' back. They try to fly down and save her when the hunters shoot a chain that wraps around her and pulls her in. Meatlug pretends to act like she's dying and Fishlegs pleads the guards to help her, insisting that their boss won't want a dead dragon. The guard opens the cell to have a look at Meatlug, who then whacks him with her tail. Stormfly shoots spines at another guard coming and pins him against the wall, Fishlegs warns him not to make another sound and he frees Stormfly.

Back on deck, two of the hunters begin to reel Astrid in and pull her on deck. Ryker comments on how feisty she is when she tries to attack him. He knocks her over and tells his men to throw her in a cell, just as Fishlegs, Meatlug, and Stormfly arrive. Astrid breaks free from the men holding her and rushes to Stormfly. Hiccup decides now to fire back when two bolas catch Meatlug and Stormfly preventing the four of them from escaping. Hiccup then realizes that his plan didn't work and Ryker had his own plan all along, pointing out that he knew that Gronckles aren't affected by Dragon Root and he was using their escape plan to trap the rest of them. Hiccup tries evasive action and arrows are being shot, one hits the twins and they are caught, another hits Hookfang but Hiccup and Toothless catch them in time. Snotlout tells Hiccup that they are obviously outnumbered and must retreat, Hiccup gives one look back worried about what'll happen to the others.

Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut are taken to a cell and Astrid demands to know where their dragons are. Ryker tells her to worry about herself, as Heather walks in following the hunters. Thinking she's been captured too, Astrid tells Heather to run, when Dagur walks in too. It's revealed that Heather has joined Dagur's side, and they have formed an alliance with Ryker and the Dragon Hunters, stating that family is family. The riders are shocked that Heather has betrayed them again. Heather sarcastically tells Astrid to enjoy her new home as they are going to be there awhile.

Transcript
The transcript for this episode is here.

Trivia

 * The episode introduces one of the new villians in the series, Ryker Grimborn.
 * This is the first time a wild dragon is used to illuminate the Dragon Eye. Namely a Changewing.
 * There is an island on the Race to the Edge map that is named Dragon Hunter Island. This could possibly indicate the base lair of the new villains.
 * Both Dagur and Heather appear at the end of this episode and are in the next one.