During my first watch, I truly disliked Keyleth once she reacted so harshly to Kima... until this moment in Episode 9:
Vax: [after doing an Insight check once Clarota and Keyleth expressed distrust of Kima's mental state] Hold on a second, that's unfair. Keyleth: Why? Vax: It has been a long road. Keyleth, I know you have had a hard time. We all have. I know we're miles below the surface of the world. But we're together. We are family. And everyone here is here for you as you have been for us. Now, I say we camp for the night inside this schmuck's tent. We stay here, we rest up, sleep on it, and see how we're all feeling in the morning. We're here for you, Keyleth, and we'll protect you as you have protected us. You've got a family with us. Keyleth: (crying) How do we know we are doing the right thing? We've killed a lot of people, you guys. We've killed a lot of people. Vax: Who in this world is without fault? Who hasn't made mistakes? We certainly all have. Vex: Keyleth, we're keeping him, K'Varn, from killing even more. Keyleth: How do we know we're not just interfering with issues that aren't our own? We didn't know any of this until we came down here, and look she wants to take the horn. She wants the horn, and she wants to take it back herself. Vax: The bottom line is, all of this insanity is going to bubble up to the surface if someone doesn't stop it. Vex: All those creatures that have been coming up, Keyleth? Vax: Remember, think back. It has already begun, and no one is here to stop it except for Vox Machina. Us. Percy: We promise, we will heed your warning, but we can't run. We will heed it, though. Vax: We've got your back. Clarota: We made a deal. Percy: And we made a deal. Vex: We did make a deal. Keyleth: I understand you, Clarota, and I'm on your side. I swear. But a lot of people-- there have been a lot of murderers who said they did the things that they did because their gods told them to do it. Right? Percy: We'll be cautious, and we'll have you to protect us. [...] Keyleth: I just have a bad feeling. [...] Vax: [...] That may be so, but the evil that is brewing beneath the surface of the world will stretch up to everything we know. And I know that you have made mistakes. I have certainly made mistakes. That is to live. There is more at stake right now, and we are the front line. We're the only ones who can stop it. Mistakes are all right. Percy: The god in darkness will blot out the light. Keyleth: I just hope we're not the darkness.
Keyleth then took the time to apologize to Kima for being overly harsh, and they reconciled.
Later, the audience learns that Keyleth's people were targeted by religious zealots, which left her with a powerful distrust of religion in general and of anyone claiming to fight for some intangible ideal. Thus, when Clarota (a mindflayer) told Vox Machina that he had been exiled from his people and that a dark god, K'varn, had taken over their civilization for his own purposes, Keyleth felt a strong pull to help Clarota rather than Kima, a paladin of Bahamut. From Keyleth's perspective, a religious force had subjugated an independent civilization, and even if they were aberrant by surface standards, they had otherwise kept to the Underdark. Clarota claimed that he wanted to free his people and that they had no interest in going to the surface; it was all K'varn's doing. Thus, Keyleth felt the best choice was to interfere as little as possible, which conflicted with Kima's insistence on destroying K'varn, as well as any mindflayers in the way, and taking the horn of Orcus back to her order. While Keyleth conceded that they needed to stop K'Varn, she insisted that Kima not be trusted with the horn, though the rest of the team stopped short of making a decision on that.
It started to seem reasonable... well, if you can trust a mindflayer not to change his mind. 😬
