While last week’s episode of The Wheel of Time was my least favorite of the show so far, this week’s episode is in contention for favorite to date. Though a little bit hampered by the awkward pacing of the rest of the season, “Daes Dae’mar” flows much more seamlessly than previous episodes, which allows the audience to actually pick up on some of the themes that the show has been trying to tackle this season. But before we get into all that, let’s recap.
Recap
The episode opens with a flashback to Moiraine and Siuan twenty years ago, the day the Aiel war ended. They discuss their future together, then go to deliver the news of the end of the war to Gitara (Hayley Mills). The aged Aes Sedai has a Foretelling, apparently experiencing the Dragon’s birth as it happens. Gitara tells Siuan and Moiraine not to tell anyone that the Dragon has been born again, and that the two of them must find the Dragon Reborn and prepare the world to follow. Then she dies.
In the present day, Moiraine goes to her audience with Siuan in the Cairhienin royal palace. Siuan tells Moiraine that it is time for the Amyrlin to meet Rand al’Thor. Lan preps Rand for his interview with the Amyrlin, then Rand goes in to meet her. Siuan tells Rand that she has questions for him.
In the Foregate, Mat is attacked and knocked out. He wakes to find himself in a room in Falme, having been kidnapped by Lanfear. She declines to introduce herself.
Out in the streets, Elayne wonders why the people of Falme don’t fight back against the Seanchan. Nynaeve wants to go to Egwene, but Elayne insists that this time, she is in charge.
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A Power Unbound
Outside the city, Renna has taken Egwene to train, alongside other sul’dam and damane. Egwene is much more powerful than any of the other captive women.
While the Aes Sedai wait in the courtyard, Yasicca secretly brings Verin an old Ogier map of Cairhien. Ihvon is suspicious of them. Maksim notices that Liandrin has snuck away.
Lan confronts Moiraine, asking if she has ever wanted to take her own life after being stilled. Moiraine tells him that protecting and guiding Rand is the only thing that matters. Lan tells Moiraine she can’t do this alone, and that if she won’t trust him, then it should be Siuan.
Siuan tells Rand that Tower Law dictates that the Dragon Reborn must be shielded and held by the White Tower until the Last Battle, in which he will be their weapon, not their general. Rand tries to channel but is overpowered easily.
Elayne and Nynaeve manage to speak to Loial. He tells them that Perrin escaped the Seanchan, and warns them that only sul’dam are allowed anywhere near where the damane are kept. Nynaeve promises to rescue Loial.
Ishamael visits Mat. He offers Mat a tea that will let him see who he was in his past lives, and through that, his true self.
Aviendha takes Perrin to meet two other Aiel Maidens, Bain (Ragga Ragnars) and Chiad (Maja Simonsen). They have buried one of their companions, and Aviendha has toh for the woman’s death. She takes a beating from Bain and Chiad to meet that toh.
Left alone, Mat drinks the tea and has vivid hallucinations of his mother telling him that he will turn out just like his father. He sees himself hurting people, and sees himself being hanged, and begs for it to stop.
Moiraine and Lan demand Siuan release Rand. Moiraine does not believe that Siuan can protect Rand from the Red Ajah and Siuan’s enemies. Siuan tells Moiraine that she failed in her duty, that she has been stilled and so can neither guide nor protect Rand—and she can’t protect the world from him, either. Siuan intends to announce the Dragon Reborn the next day, to show the world that he is under Aes Sedai control.
Taken to a cell, Rand remains shielded by Leane, who guards him as Moiraine explains what shielding is. Rand tells Moiraine that he was going to Falme. Moiraine tells him that the Dragon is prophesied to proclaim himself in Falme. Rand realizes that the Forsaken want everyone to know who he is before they try to kill him.
Liandrin arrives at the Damodred household and Barthanes sends his mother away, claiming that this is royal business. Liandrin has an order from their master—to kill Moiraine. Barthanes must also kill his mother if she begins to suspect anything. Anvaere secretly eavesdrops on their conversation.
Ishamael tells Mat that being reborn over and over is pain, and that all he wants is to be able to die permanently. Mat asks how.
In the dream world, Rand asks Lanfear to help him escape. She comes to Cairhien, setting the Foregate on fire with the One Power and causing explosions.
Lan offers Logain the key to his cell in return for information. Logain can see weaves of the male power, and he tells Lan that there are weaves on Moiraine that appear to be held in place without anything being channeled into them, which should be impossible. Lan doesn’t follow through with his bribe.
Nynaeve puts on the a’dam bracelet and she and Elayne capture and collar a sul’dam.
Renna tells Egwene the reason the Seanchan have come to conquer everyone—to unite everyone on the planet under the Light so that they can stand together at the Last Battle. She thinks this will make Egwene stop fighting her, but Egwene tells Renna that she is going to kill her.
A guard takes Barthanes to Moiraine’s cell, but Barthanes finds it empty. Anvaere locks him in. Barthanes tells her he joined the Dark to help their House, and that Moiraine doesn’t care about them. Anvaere tells him that her sister understands two things better than anyone: the difference between right and wrong, and how much harder it can be to do what is right.
Verin tricks Leane into letting Verin take her place, then frees Rand. Verin has found a Waygate hidden in the city that they can use to escape. Verin and Tomas, Alanna, Maksim and Ihvon cover their escape.
Siuan links with eight Aes Sedai to put out the fires in the city. Leane arrives and they realize Verin’s trick. Siuan tells Leane to lead the Aes Sedai in Healing the injured and goes to find Rand.
Lan tells Moiraine that she isn’t stilled, but shielded, and urges Rand to look at her through the One Power. Rand cuts through the knot on Moiraine’s shield and she can channel again. She opens the Waygate but Siuan arrives, shielding Rand again and knocking Lan out.
When Moiraine refuses to close the Waygate, Siuan uses the oath of obedience that Moiraine swore to her on the Oath Rod to compel Moiraine to do so. Lanfear arrives and takes Siuan out, leaving her bleeding on the ground. Rand prevents Lanfear from killing Moiraine. Lanfear opens the Waygate and Rand and Lan follow her in. Moiraine hesitates, looking back at Siuan, then follows.
Analysis
Siuan Sanche and Moiraine Damodred have my sword, my axe, my bow, and my heart. I’ve been waiting all season to have Sophie Okonedo back on screen and oh boy, she did not disappoint. Her regal presence, dry humor, and the force of her eye acting alone was worth an entire season all by themselves. And Okonedo and Pike are just an absolute powerhouse together.
I was really impressed with the way Siuan and Moiraine’s backstory was revealed to us through the episode, and I’m so in love with the changes the show has made to their relationship. Though Moiraine and Siuan are not romantically involved in the books, most of the rest of the backstory we are given in episode seven fits the original canon. Like the Moiraine and Siuan of the show, they were best friends who planned to travel the world together. Being present for Gitara’s Foretelling put paid to those plans, however, and the Wheel set Siuan and Moiraine on a very different, very difficult path. The show tweaked the original story a little for expediency, and of course changed them from having been briefly lovers in their youth to being truly in love with each other. Which I see as a vindication, really, since they are two excellent characters who Jordan wrote really well except where their respective romances (with men of course) are concerned.
It’s so beautifully painful to be presented in this episode with the dream these two younger, more optimistic women had for their lives taken from them in one fateful moment. And it’s not just their dreams of being together that are dashed, either; we also learn in the flashback that Moiraine has been missing her family and is excited to be able to visit them. As we have seen in the past several episodes, Moiraine was never able to keep those connections she longed for, and no one has been able to know the real reason why. Because of the danger of Darkfriends, Moiraine and Siuan had to keep their search for the Dragon Reborn a secret, and so they both were forced to change into cold, aloof, seemingly uncaring people… when in reality they are anything but.
When Moiraine comes to Siuan in the throne room, Siuan claims that Moiraine has borne the entire burden of this plan alone, but that is not entirely true. We know from the flashback that Siuan never wanted to stay in the Tower, that she was uncomfortable with the dresses and the rings and the regal life of an Aes Sedai—she still dreamed of her little fishing hut by the river. The Siuan of the flashback is much more lively, and much more open, than the Siuan we see in the present day, whose elegant seriousness speaks of power, but also of a life marked by a very different kind of danger than the one Moiraine has faced. Moiraine alludes to this when she reminds Siuan that the Tower is filled with her enemies.
And so these two women, who love each other and who have been each other’s only allies (except for Lan of course) in the most important, and most secret, quest in the world, are set at odds. Because they both have the same goal, but have very different ideas of how to achieve it. And this, really, is the theme of episode seven, not just for Moiraine and Siuan but for everyone else who has been let in on their secret, for Rand, and in many ways for the entire world.
One of the fundamental questions Robert Jordan asks his characters, and thus his readers, in The Wheel of Time is the question of what it would be like to suddenly learn that you are the chosen one, the prophesied savior of the world, and to have your entire existence defined by that fact. But he also asks what it would be like for everyone else who lives in the world to know that this savior exists and that he is crucial to humanity surviving the war between Good and Evil. The show has not, perhaps, set up these stakes as clearly as it could have, but this episode really does a beautiful job of confronting that theme, and of showing us how confusing and painful it is to be any one of these characters, not just Rand al’Thor.
What may not be clear to viewers who haven’t read the books is that very little is actually known in Rand’s world about what the Dragon Reborn is supposed to do, other than fight and win at the Last Battle. The prophecies around him are hard to interpret, and many only say what he will do, not what is necessary to win the Last Battle. Now, in this episode, we learn that the White Tower believes the Dragon’s fate is to be kept under control and wielded as a weapon by the Aes Sedai. Of course, from Rand’s perspective, and ours, this is a horrible thing. But if we consider what these events look like from Siuan’s perspective, as I think the episode encourages us to do, we might understand why she feels the need to exert some control over the situation.
Siuan knows that Ishamael was set free at the Eye of the World, that Moiraine either has been stilled or has lied about being stilled, and that the Dragon has been reborn as a man, which means he is subject to the taint on the male half of the One Power, a taint which will eventually corrupt his mind. The Aes Sedai have been leaders of the world for thousands of years, and are the only people (as far as Siuan knows, at least) who know anything about channeling. Now she has the ability to take the Dragon Reborn into custody, even as she must face the fact that the original plan she and Moiraine came up with has apparently failed—not to mention that any misstep could literally doom the world.
Rand’s experience being interrogated and imprisoned by Siuan is contrasted in the episode with Egwene’s ongoing “training” as a damane. I really appreciated that the show didn’t feel the need to bring in more physical torture; what we were shown instead was highly effective. The revelation that the Seanchan are also preparing for the Last Battle, that they believe that they are the ones who are meant to unite and lead the world, adds another layer to the theme, and it is important to note that even some of the bad guys believe in fighting for the Light. The Seanchan are a culture of hierarchy and slavery, a people who believe in conquering others and building an empire. They are not a good society, and Renna is an abhorrent person—and yet she, and her people, believe that they are fighting for Good, with a capital G. Again, I have to praise Mendes-Jones’s performance, because when Renna speaks, you fully believe that Renna believes what she is saying to Egwene. That Renna genuinely experiences hurt when Egwene rejects her, and that Renna is fully committed to the idea that the sul’dam and damane will have an important place in fighting the Last Battle and saving the world.
The show also tackles this theme from the other side. Barthanes’s actions and choices aren’t about the Dragon Reborn, but in learning that he swore himself to the Dark in order to help his family, we are presented with an evil choice that was made for what must have seemed to Barthanes to be a good, perhaps even noble reason. All the Darkfriends and Forsaken we have met so far have reasons that go beyond just a lust for power (though they all have that, too). Liandrin didn’t want to lose her son; Lanfear had a broken heart; Ishamael believes that the cyclical nature of Time and reincarnation perpetuates endless suffering on the human race and wishes to end that suffering (mostly for himself, of course, but still).
I found myself wondering if Anvaere always believed those two things about her sister, or whether learning what her son had become made Anvaere view Moiraine in a different light. Certainly it can be true that someone can be both cold and unfeeling and capable of doing the right thing when it really counts. And of course, Barthanes is right about Moiraine, in a way—although she does care deeply for her family, she is well aware that she can’t put her personal feelings above her need to serve the greater good. She is willing to walk away from her family and never see them again, if that is what her path requires. And Anvaere’s strength, I think, is that she can understand both truths at the same time, and differentiate between them.
Lan makes the same point to Rand before he has his audience with the Amyrlin: that it is selfish for Rand to only think about protecting the people he loves when he is meant to be the savior of all the people in the world. We can see that Moiraine has been carrying a burden that she will now share with Rand, that will become increasingly his burden as he steps into the role he was born to fill.
And speaking of Lan, where was this all season? I think the show could have had detective Lan emerge a little bit earlier—a lot of the philosophical questions he and Ihvon and Maksim were debating were great, but the show lingered there too long, I think. We needed to get Lan’s story moving along more quickly—or the show could have just left some of that traveling out for an episode or two and replaced it with Mat and Min’s story. Thematically I think that both Mat and Min’s struggles would have fit better in the first half of the season, contrasted with Egwene and Nynaeve and Rand and Perrin all trying to figure out who they are, and what their relationship to their abilities and to their place in the world should be. Finn’s portrayal of Matt continues to be perfect, and I would be interested to actually see more interactions between him and Ishamael, whose “the world is suffering” shtick is pretty boring without anyone to play it off of.
I was excited to see Bain and Chiad in this episode, as I really like them in the books. But I thought the scene where Aviendha meets her toh was out of place, not to mention badly executed. It doesn’t add anything to the story at this point, or do a good job at explaining to the audience how ji’e’toh works; it just seems like Aviendha was unable to save her friend and as a result has to take a beating. I also thought that the use of Maiden handtalk, as it is called in the books, should probably have been explained somehow to the viewer, as it seems to come out of nowhere.
The scene between Lan and Logain was very good, but it brought up another problem with the world building and what the show doesn’t make clear to the audience. Because of the need to show channeling to the audience, we have always been able to see the flows of both male and female channeling, but it has never been clear whether or not non-channeling characters can see the One Power being wielded.
Siuan appears to be able to tell Rand is channeling. She could have guessed, but there is no reason for the audience to think that’s what happened. Then we find out that Logain can see the male weaves on Moiraine, which implies that non-channelers and women can’t see male weaves—otherwise Alanna and Verin would have known that Moiraine was shielded. But Logain has also been gentled, and lost his ability to channel, so how would he still be able to see weaves?
In the books only men who can channel can see the male half of the One Power being used, and only women channelers can see the female half being wielded. Non-channelers, including those who have been stilled/gentled, can’t see either. And while it is perfectly fine for the show to adjust the mechanics of the One Power to fit its needs, it does need to be clearer about what those mechanics are. At this point it’s just confusing for everybody, book fans and new viewers alike. The signing Aviendha, Bain, and Chiad do is not subtitled, presumably because the audience is supposed to experience it through Perrin’s point of view—except one time we do get subtitles, because that time the show needs us to know what was being said. The lack of congruity in these things makes for a frustrating viewing experience at times.
I really like most of the costumes in the show, and in this episode in particular—shout out to everything Siuan wears, but especially her Blue Ajah outfit—but some of the choices do stand out in an awkward way. I find it particularly interesting that Ishamael and Lanfear are often dressed in clothing that looks more modern, like his oxford shirt or the fantastic jumpsuit she is wearing when she kidnaps Mat, but I’m not sure how well that plays for the audience. Book fans know that the Age the Forsaken come from was very technologically and socially advanced, and the costuming choice is clearly trying to show that they stand out a little bit in this comparatively archaic time period, but I’m not sure it plays as intended, even if fans remember the outfits and flying cars that we saw in the season one flashback with Lews Therin. I am, however, absolutely obsessed with Lanfear’s cape-dress situation that she wears when she storms Cairhien.
Also, those metal pacifiers the damane wear are so, so distracting.
There were a few other moments that stood out to me in this episode. One was Egwene putting her fishtail braid back in while back in her cell. This is a perfect harkening back to her introduction in the premiere, when Nynaeve told her that her braid connects her to her home, and all the Two Rivers women who came before her. It’s a great way of symbolically communicating Egwene’s internal strength and determination in a moment where she can’t really display it outwardly. Madden’s delivery of the line about killing Renna was also just perfect, and I’m impressed with how much she is able to convey despite having few lines and having to mostly do lots of “I’m being tortured” acting.
As I said above, detective Lan is great, and should have been utilized earlier. I was really touched by the reminder of his dedication to protecting Moiraine, the way Ihvon reminded him that a Warder is supposed to. Lan’s line about how Moiraine must trust someone, that she can’t do everything on her own, and the reminder that Lan and Siuan are the closest people to her in the world was really moving—and more than that, was reminiscent of an important journey Rand has in the books. I liked that this episode illustrated how much Moiraine’s burden as the one responsible for finding and preparing the Dragon Reborn is very similar to the burden Rand himself must face.
Although Alanna is the Aes Sedai and ultimately in charge, I noticed that when Ihvon was suspicious of Verin, she and Ihvon and Maksim appeared to vote on whether or not Ihvon should follow Tomas. This aspect of democracy in their relationship is really interesting. Also the exchange between Alanna and Maksim about the dangers they will face was incredibly touching. I love this trio, and if anything happens to them I will be very, very upset.
Loial! More Loial, please! He is in many ways a tertiary character in the books, but I think the show is making a mistake in not using him more. Even though Animashaun hasn’t been given that much to do, he has such an incredible presence anytime he’s on screen, and he brings Loial’s kindness and warmth to light in such a beautiful way.
Easter Eggs and Fun Facts
- Daes Dae’mar means “the Great Game” in the Old Tongue. More commonly called the Game of Houses, this tradition of social and political moving is played by the nobility of most countries in The Wheel of Time, but most heavily and expertly in Cairhien. The Aes Sedai also have their own complicated system of social maneuvering which Moiraine finds very similar to the Game of Houses. “Daes Dae’mar” is also the title of Chapter 30 of The Great Hunt.
- In the books, Lan spends the time between the events of The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt teaching Rand swordsmanship, including “sword forms.” These all have names like “The Boar Rushes Down the Mountain,” and “Leopard in High Grass.” In the second scene of this episode, Rand uses “Heron Dips the Wing,” and Lan advises him to use “Cat Crosses the Courtyard” when he goes to face the Amyrlin.
- Favorite Quote: We would have been so much better off if you were a girl.
- Runner up: Did you expect we would fight the Last Battle against an army of kittens.
- Second Runner up: If you have ever loved me, don’t do this.
Next week is the eighth and final episode of the season, and I am looking forward to, hopefully, seeing all of our Two Rivers friends reunited. Will they rescue Egwene? What choices will Mat make? And will Rand declare himself as the Dragon Reborn?
Well, we’ll have to come back next Friday to find out.
Sylas K Barrett is only a little embarrassed to admit that this is the first episode of the show that made him cry. Twice, actually.
So, this line from Sylas caught my eye:
“Which I see as a vindication, really, since they are two excellent characters who Jordan wrote really well except where their respective romances (with men of course) are concerned.”
Not because I disagree or anything, but my understanding is that Sylas is reading the Wheel of Time for the first time…? And all indications are that Sylas is just finishing up with The Path of Daggers and therefore shouldn’t know anything about any romance of Moiraine with any man…?
Gitara Moroso and Gitara Moroso in The Parent Trap!
So is Ishamael’s “magic tea” a MacGuffin to get around depicting the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn, or the Portal Stones? Or both? Just askin’ …
@3 That’s my guess, yeah – the scene in tGH where they flicker…flicker..flicker.flickerflickerflicker and when they get done several months have passed and Mat looks panicked at Rand says he’d never betray him, specifically. And it might be where Mat gains his military knowledge (if they give him that ability).
I thought this episode was worse than the last one, which was my favorite this season. I thought the pacing was odd and this show really loves to take the melodrama route when it can.
Some nitpicks:
– if it was that easy to get Mat to Falme, why did Ishamael decided to put an elaborate plot involving Min? Wasn’t it important that he left Cairhien with Rand? It’s not like Mat wasn’t in a prison cell held by a Black Ajah sister and no one knew whether he was alive or dead. So why only now, in episode 7, do the forsaken decide to randomly bash his head against a wall and use magic to transport him across the continent to make him drink some magic tea?
– how did Siuan know where Moiraine, Lan and Rand went? Did Verin get caught off screen? Because only Verin knew where the hidden waygate was. No one even bothered to research that before. So how did Siuan knew where to go?
The brilliant and infuriating thing about the Moiraine/Siuan plot is how it illustrated one of the series’ major themes: the importance of communication. Things may have gone differently if Moiraine had actually talked to Siuan, whose actions here were basically reasonable given everything she knew. The only real mistake she made was trying to fight Lanfear unaided.
I wish that Lan’s plotline had shown his detective work. As it was, too much of it was pointless. We still could have had the tension with Alanna, Ihvon, and Maksim because he was looking into some very unusual things without explaining why.
Lanfear remains perfect. Natasha O’Keeffe nails everything she’s given and looks fantastic doing it.
I’m very interested in seeing where Mat’s story goes. Donal Finn is great, and I loved the bisexual hint.
Everything with Nynaeve, Elayne, and Loial was brilliant. Of course he knows Elayne on sight, of course Elayne is just a little smug about it, and of course Nynaeve has no time for any of it. Hopefully we get more members of their entourage, because theirs is one of my favourite double acts and I’d love to see it develop more.
KalvinKingsley @1: While Sylas has attempted to be mostly unspoiled, it’s inevitable that he would find out certain things even if he were trying assiduously to avoid spoilers, and there have been other instances in the Read and reviews for the show where he displayed knowledge that could not have possibly come from the text he’d read to that point. I personally trust him to not try to impress us by making “predictions” based on this outside knowledge without disclosing it—there have been a few examples where he’s told us he was spoiled on a certain plot point—but YMMV.
As for the episode itself, I thought it was a little odd that Lan was the one who thought of tied-off weaves—it seems like that idea should have come from Verin or another Brown—but I loved that he realized from interacting with her that Moiraine had never been remotely suicidal, and therefore might not actually be stilled.
I share Sylas’s frustration with the mechanics of channeling and seeing weaves not being explained clearly—I don’t have a huge problem with them being different than in the books, but they need to be explained. Maybe that’s waiting for next season?
Elayne is being played brilliantly and the relationship between her and Nynaeve is being developed absolutely wonderfully. I’m really looking forward to their adventures together.
Oh, wow, I thought this was a terrible episode. The first episode where I really hated some of the changes they’ve made from the books – not because they were changes, but because it all felt terribly ill-conceived and so clunky. I honestly had figured this episode probably wouldn’t live up to last episode’s greatness, mostly because I had figured it would feel very much like a setup for the finale. But it was way worse than that. So many plotlines wrapped up in such a way that felt rushed or too convenient. Which makes me question why they even decided to introduce the conflict with Siuan, when they clearly had so much else to do in this episode. But I’ll start with what little I liked:
THE GOOD: (1) Egwene’s performance with that air weave. That was super cool. Her “I’m going to kill you” to Renna was a little on-the-nose after the fantastic, more subtle performance from her and Mendes-Jones last week, but I think they needed to show us that Egwene isn’t quite broken yet. I did love her braiding, which was a more subtle nod to her asserting her identity.
(2) I also enjoyed the little we saw of Nynaeve and Elayne. I was really worried they were going to put the collar on one of themselves, so I was happy to see them capture a sul’dam instead. I don’t remember when it’s discovered in the books that sul’dam are also women who can channel, but I am eager to see the show tackle that.
THE OKAY: (1) Perrin and the Maidens. Mostly I’m just happy to see Bain and Chiad; I did not think we were going to get those characters. I saw someone complaining elsewhere that their display of ji’e’toh didn’t really fit with how it’s defined in the books, but I honestly don’t remember the specifics of it, so it didn’t bother me. I hated their final scene of arriving to Falme, though, because it was so dark. I’ve heard others complaining about how dark the show is sometimes, and I actually haven’t had an issue with it on my TV so far (I think because I have adjusted the brightness quite a bit). But when one of them said “All that water” I didn’t even realize what she meant until Perrin said “Falme” because I literally couldn’t see the water.
(2) The Barthanes reveal: On the one hand, I loved how Anvaere handled it. No hesitation, even though it was her own son. On the other hand, it felt a little sudden and pointless. I’ve been wondering why we really needed Barthanes this season and this reveal didn’t do anything to clear that up for me. In hindsight, I can only say it was another attempt to beef up Moiraine’s storyline, but since she wasn’t even around for this reveal, his whole character feels unnecessary.
THE BAD: Whew. Here we go.
(1) Mat. Just everything about his plot this episode. He’s so easily transported to Falme, after all the manipulations to get him there? Ishy serves him a freaking magical tea? The visions he saw were vague and dumb as hell, doing nothing but perpetuating the idea that he’s one big loser. Look, I haven’t been too worried about Mat’s slow storylines so far. The fact is, his “coolness” doesn’t really pick up until Shadow Rising anyway, and he is sometimes kind of a jerk before that. Heck, when he finds out Rand is the Dragon in TGH, he just wants to stay away from him.
But the show has done enough to drive this home. I’ve heard some speculation that this was a replacement for the Finns, and I really hope not. I wouldn’t have minded if it had been done well, but aside from the hanging, he didn’t see much of anything at all. All his scenes were just pointless in an already overcrowded episode. Better if he hadn’t been in it at all.
(2) Gitara’s vision: I’m not sure what it was, but this scene was just so lacking for me. I enjoyed the prelude to it, showing Moiraine and Siuan making their plans for the future, but Gitara’s vision itself just felt lackluster. The dialogue was very clunky too, very obvious in trying to explain everything quickly. Compared to last season’s flashback of Rand’s birth, this one just fell flat.
(3) Unlike a lot of other viewers, I have enjoyed the tension between Moiraine and Lan this season. I’ve seen people complain it was out of character, but I don’t think so. In the little we see of them in The Great Hunt, Moiraine is starting to consider passing Lan’s bond on and brings it up with him, and he is of course opposed. (I may be misremembering this…someone please correct me if so.) I also haven’t hated this storyline of Moiraine being stilled, as it’s provided some good character work for her, and I’m not opposed to the solution that it turns out she was just shielded and no one realized it because only a male channeler could see it.
But…wow, was that possibility just brought up out of nowhere and handled so quickly in this episode. It felt clunky and dumb. I really would have liked to hear Lan’s theory about this, or seen him researching it, earlier in the season, because as it played out, it felt like a deus ex machina. Lan suddenly has this knowledge? Rand can just “cut” it? Not to mention, it was explained so quickly, I wouldn’t be surprised if some viewers were left confused. I also agree that who can see what weaves has not been addressed clearly at all in the show.
What was also clunky about this was how Moiraine seemed to “forgive” Lan when he figured this out, even though I don’t see how her being stilled/shielded was in any way a failure on his part as a Warder, since Moiraine deliberately left him behind to go to the Eye of the World. Like, after all the dissention between them this season, his figuring this out magically makes everything okay between them again. And even Pike’s acting seemed off when she got her power back? It seemed like it should have been a bigger moment, but again, it was rushed, and it felt like even the actors knew it.
(4) Which brings me to Siuan in this episode, which I just…hated. So much. Look, here is what I thought would happen after last episode: I thought we’d get a cool little scene of Rand and Lan working on swordwork. I thought Rand would have his audience with Siuan like he does at the beginning of TGH, and I thought, like in TGH, she would decide to let him go (but to Falme, of course). He and Lan and Moiraine would go, and Mat would end up accompanying them after all. You could even still have Verin finding the Waygate so they can get there quickly.
Instead, I watched as they slowly assassinated Siuan’s character. I think “character assassination” is a term that is thrown around too liberally these days, but when Siuan forced Moiraine to obey her, that’s what that was. That was an awful violation; she may as well have compelled her. I don’t give a crap what happens to Siuan from here on out, and up until this episode, she was one of my favorite characters in the show. Sophie Okonedo’s performance has been amazing.
And I really just don’t get this decision. Initially deciding to lock Rand up, well, okay, I didn’t expect that, but I could buy it. But it would have been so much better if, after she tracked them down at the Waygate, she let them go. Which would set up her downfall just fine – whether they use Liandrin or Elaida, any Red Sister could use her letting the Dragon Reborn go free as fodder for taking her down. I don’t get how this sets up her downfall at all, unless her detractors just point out her incompetence at being able to hold him.
And while I didn’t mind Rand using Lanfear to help him escape, having them travel with her through the Ways is just…ugh. Icky. Sure, I don’t see what choice they had at this point, given the corner the writers wrote them into, but seeing Moiraine and Lan following her is just so wrong on so many levels.
So…yeah. I thought this was probably the worst episode of the entire show thus far. A major disappointment after the last episode. I still have hope for the finale – they’ve set everything up for it, but, that was part of the problem with this episode. Too much to wrap up, and it all felt so rushed and dumb. I laughed out loud at several parts of this episode that were not meant to be remotely funny because it was just so ridiculous.
@1. I don’t know what Sylas has or hsn’t read, but I can’t argue with their assessment. Siuan’s relationship was painfully written and Moiraine’s was just out of the blue. Of course, I’m of the opinion that one or both of the same could be said of most of Jordan’s romances.
Rafe Judkins wanted Egwene as the Dragon Reborn, if I remember well
I never understood the problem with Moiraine’s relationship in the books as I thought their feelings for one another was nicely hinted at early and then made clear in Tear. I read this as a teenager and had no issues with it. Then we had the various scenes with the letter and the rescue mission and it was all so obvious. But I like what they’ve done with Moiraine and Siuan’s relationship in the show. Until this episode. Completely agree with #9, character assasination and I hated it.
Another thing I just don’t get and hoping someone can explain it to me.. if i remember correctly, in the books Moiraine and Siuan arrives at the Tower when they’re around 16, take about 6 years till full sisters and Gitara’s foretelling takes place just days (or maybe couple of weeks at most?) before they are raised. Putting Moiraine and Siuan’s age somewhere between 40-45 in the books? Im sure some one can correct me if off :) but in the show Moiraine is clearly much older as we see her younger sister being somewhere like 70ish? Sorry im terrible at judging someone’s age, but clearly older than what Moiraine’s ’little sister’ viuld have been in the book. Still the flasbacks to Siuan and Moiraine in the scenes in the Tower feel like they were the newly raised 20something of the books? What am i missing here?
So now we’re having a Siuan/Elaida Composite Character? Dear Gawd in Heaven!
The revelation of Moiraine not being stilled comes across as being akin to That Scene in the reviled live action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. You know, the one in the earthbender prison. In the original TV series, it was in a metal ship with no earth for them to manipulate. In the movie, it’s a regular prison with plenty of earth for them to manipulate. And apparently housing the most thickheaded earthbenders, as they needed someone else to explain to them that they could use their powers to bust out. For both scenes, it would be appropriate to cap them with a wah-wah-waaaaah, or at least a “D’oh!”
@9 I’m not sure they would even make Elaida rebellion in the show. Why would they? Siuan can play the role of bad Amerlin well enough. And I think that it would be right call to make in the constrains they are working with.
Ugh, I thought this was one of the worst episodes to date – not quite as bad as the Season 1 finale (which was just shoddy/lazy storytelling) but due to the character assassination going on.
The good stuff:
-I’ve really enoyed the arc with Egwene and the Seanchan. That moment where you think Egwene might be buying in and then just responds, “I’m going to kill you” is amazing.
-I enjoy Nyneave and Elayne together too.
-While I’m not entirely sure how it will relate to the book arcs, I’m glad to see Bain and Chiad.
-I did enjoy seeing some of the background on Moirane and Siuan. Seems like they’ve aged them up for the Foretelling, and we’re dispensing with the main elements of the search/Black Ajah killing the Amyrlin but it was good to see. I think it does serve to show how they have changed.
-I was very sad that they did make Barthanes a DF after all, but thought the scenes with him and his mother were quite good, and again, it helps show what Moiraine has given up. We see her eager to see her family earlier, and even though she and her sister are estranged, the love is still there.
-While I don’t love most of the arcs they are involved in, I really enjoy Ishamael and Lanfear as characters. We’re watching Ahsoka right now and it’s kinda fun how both Ishy and Baylan have similar motivations.
-Love how they are subtly sowing the seeds for Purple Ajah Verin :)
-I did like Moiraine realizing she does have allies in Lan (which never should have been in doubt) and Alanna.
The bad –
-Everything with Mat in this show is just awful, imo. Replacing the portal stones/Finn realm with psychedelic tea COULD be a useful short cut but it still feels so unsatisfying, ESPECIALLY if they are just doubling down on the whole ‘Mat is and always has been a horrible person and so are his ancestors’ arc. I don’t know if maybe the tea is fake and Ishamael is just making it all up but Mat going full nihilist along with Ishamael is just perplexing to me.
-Rand asking Lanfear for help was honestly a near deal breaker for me (especially as it ended up being pointless and just got a ton of people killed). What did he thinik she was going to do? And then Ran AND MOIRAINE AND LAN just heading off with Lanfear was so ridiculous.
-I wouldn’t have minded the Siuan/Moiraine relationship taking focus (instead of bothering with their book-counterparts which I agree is not as well drawn in the books) but I don’t really like where they are taking it anyway – Siuan immediately goes to berating her for failing and then essentially compels her into obedience? I get that part of it is that Moiraine wasn’t communicating and she felt brushed off or like their plan had started to go off the rails, but I also don’t love how she was like, ‘we failed, we’ll just do it the White Tower’s way’. Like, I get that you love their dynamic but I just don’t see how it’s enough to save this episode, especially as a Wheel of Time episode and not a romantic melodrama (which I feel is similar to what they did in the first season by trying to create YA drama between the Two Rivers kids).
Oh yeah, one other thing – I also have been a bit let down by the loose mechanics they are using. As Sylas says, it’s one thing if they want to change it (even I admit that would irritate me) but they aren’t even defining it – I have a feeling it’s so they can continue to use it as the plot needs without having to be consistent. But why should Logain still be able to see the weaves? And why is Lan the one who knows about cutting and untying and shields and all that? I agree they should at least have shown him researching it or taking with the Browns or something.
As others have pointed out too – yeah, I didn’t think of this at first, but if Ishamael could just yoink him to Cairhien, why even have the Min plot? I mean, I get from a meta perspective it’s so that he and Min can interact, so we can learn more about Min, develop her character, etc. But from a storytelling perspective the arcs don’t go together naturally or make logical sense.
Oof. What a doozy of an episode. Following a great one last week, we’re stuck with another original piece full of head scratchers. It seems like they’re bent on making all the ‘good’ characters unlikeable. I really don’t care about Mat at all in the show, and his chapters were some of my favorites. Now they’re either merging Siuan and Elaida, or at least setting it up so Elaida doesn’t do anything Siuan wouldn’t have, so why have a rebellion?
I didn’t like that they made Lanfear’s ‘rescue’ of Rand so base. Like, she has so many more tools at her disposal. Something like this should have been child’s play for her, but instead it becomes a showy, drawn out brute force assault that takes her entirely too long and alerts everyone to her presence. But that’s fine, I guess, because we’re all just going to decide to follow her anyway because why not? She went back on her promise to kill Moiraine without much convincing, so it’s cool, we’ll all just casually trot after one of the Forsaken into the Ways.
Season two had been pretty good so far, and I’d been thinking that if they could keep the momentum up through the end, I might actually be excited for season 3. They might still have a chance to save it for the finale, but the preview wasn’t that promising. I’m terribly afraid from the shots we saw that Turak is not going to fight Rand with a sword as a blademaster, but rather with his fingernails.
I do appreciate that since they aged Moiraine up for all the family stuff, that they at least made them full sisters during the Foretelling instead of really really old Accepted. And I hadn’t spotted that Gitara was Hayley Mills!
I do really like the Anvaere actress though.
It’s been announced that Shoreh Aghdashloo has been tapped to play Elaida in future seasons, so I’m pretty sure we’re gonna get the tower split in the show.
Not pacifiers, sheesh. They are ball gags, straight out of S&M practice. Right along with the sex trafficking ‘breaking in’ of kidnapped, seduced, scammed and bought sexual merchandise — also used a great deal by slave owners in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in North America, the Caribbean and South America.
Beyond that, as per usual, tune into the new episode and get the sense that and episode took place between the previous one and this one. Never know what’s going on or who anybody is. I read the names you all stick into these recaps, and with very few exceptions, cannot match the name to any character. Also, so many of the characters look alike, and they look like they’re out of Games.
I will defend the pacifiers. They do look ridiculous, which hammers home the humiliation of being a damane. You are not cool being a magic slave. None of them want this thing in their mouths and holding it is visible proof they’ve been broken and are not fighting back. Not saying I like it being there, but I can see and approve of the show’s reasoning.
I did not like the magic tea. It feels like setting up for later stuff, but Shadow Rising is perfect as it is on all fronts. This season has given me trust they can make it work, but I’ll be watching most suspiciously.
I’ve said this previously, but wouldn’t she be a better fit as Cadsuane?
Lisamarie @16:
The only thing I can offer is that it would have been preferable to get him there willingly, but when that failed, he resorted to kidnapping. After all, is there really any question that Ishy could easily get him to Falme at this point?
I forgot to say that when the person dashing Mat’s head against the wall was Lanfear, my hopes that they’d bring Thom Merrilin back on schedule were similarly dashed.
I liked this episode a lot despite the changes.
I really don’t understand people being upset over Mat – he didn’t even _have_ any PoVs before TDR and was also a massive jerk in the first 2 books. Nor did we ever learn what he saw in the Portal Stone, just that it was unpleasant and that he betrayed Rand in his alternative lives. So, what difference does it actually make if it is Ishamael screwing around with him to the same effect instead? This is not replacing the Finn – though something else in the future might – and if it is done well enough, why not?
Nor do changes in the minutiae of channeling deserve such oversized reaction – a lot of such rules in the books were arbitrary, illogical and also ignored at author’s convenience.
It makes no material difference in the books that severed channelers can no longer see the weaves. They are still being tormented by sensing the source, but being unable to touch it. So why not change it in the show so that they still can, to facilitate earlier interactions between Rand and Logain, etc.
Ditto tying off the weaves – in TGH it is actually introduced as a rare ability among modern AS, which becomes unbiquitious by the middle books. Making it into a forgotten art if it suits the show narrative is perfectly OK, IMHO. By the late books, it was rather incomprehensible how some of the “forgotten arts” could have possibly become forgotten, since everyone learned them so easily.
It also never made any sense to me that the modern AS didn’t know even the rough theory behind male channeling, nor could they detect the use of saidin until that one late discovery in… WH? CoT? Which only served to relieve Egwene of her headaches. I mean, they were supposed to prepare for the Dragon’s Rebirth and to hunt male channelers, neither of which should have been achievable without this. Moiraine and Verin in the books should have been able to explain the basics to Rand and suggest some avenues for self-training instead of bringing up fish and birds and expecting him to learn wholly on his own.
Anyway, yes, what they did with Siuan here was a choice. To be fair, she was shown to be wavering in TGH and Moiraine had to convince her to stay the course. I always had a lot of sympathy for both of them , because they have born such a heavy responsibility for such a long time and rationally speaking, they should have known better what had to be done than some hayseed kids. Ta’veren are so difficult to predict and account for – on the one hand, they succeed at impossible things defying all odds, on the other they still can make mistakes and get subverted by the Shadow. Completely nerve-wracking.
And in this episode it seems to Siuan that Moiraine has also lost the plot at best and perhaps even became a Darkfriend at worst? I don’t think that her reaction was implausible.
OTOH, it is perfectly in character for Moiraine to follow Rand, even if it means traveling in Lanfears’s company. She does it on the down-low in the books already. What else was she going to do? She coldn’t stop Rand from leaving – should she have let him go with a Forsaken alone?
Lan finding out about tied-off weaves didn’t bother me that much – Verin’s house in the show should have provided him with plenty of research materials and a good warder is more than just muscle. She may have even sneakily steered him to the relevant stuff, if she suspected the truth. And it is believable to me that the subject was so painful to Moiraine, and she was so sure that her situation was hopeless, that she chose to concentrate on the things she knew she could still do instead. I feel that Lan’s plot was still clunky, but whatever. I liked Moiraine’s plots and her family drama and IMHO it serves to set-up the future Cahirien situation better than TGH did.
Rand being unable(?) to free himself and calling Lanfear for help – I really hope that some thought went into it. Maybe he is purposefully pretending to be weaker than he is to surprise Ishy? Maybe he was afraid that he couldn’t control his power, and if he truly pushed against Siuan/Leanne, massive destruction and loss of life might have resulted?
Lanfear causing destruction in Cahirien makes sense to me, since she is destabilizing a country, undermining the White Tower and making Rand feel guilty in one fell swoop. It is an improvement on book Lanfear that she is actually doing something for the Shadow on the show. Ditto bringing Mat to Falme – in the books the FS always had the ability to just nab characters other than Rand if they knew their location, yet have never done so.
Alanna and Verin being so supportive and sympathetic makes sure that their future plots hit hard.
Of course, ultimately much depends on how season finale builds up on all this set-up. It can retroactively affect my opinion on this episode.
@20: I feel kind of the opposite way about the mouthpieces. In the books, damane weren’t just “broken,” they had Stockholm Syndrome. They were all like “Pura is a good damane,” or whatever, and accepted their place as pets. Being gagged is a forced silence, rather than a willing one. It actually serves less to show how broken they are. Having the established damane and sul’dam smiling at each other after a job well done, with maybe the sul’dam stroking her hair, would be a much more effective visual of the state these women are in, IMO. At least for the established pairs. If they want muzzles or something for the dessert training scene to show these are new damane from Randland being broken in, that can still work. But the ones who came from Seanchan shouldn’t need to be gagged.
@22, and @24: I feel like they need to show character motivations in these instances rather than have the audience try to bend over backwards to guess. Show one scene with Ishy telling Lanfear it’s taking too long to get Mat to Falme–just do something about it. SHOW a scene with Verin slipping Lan a book at the house and Lan bringing it back up at the waygate. If you have a reason for characters knowing something it doesn’t make sense for them to know, or doing something incongruent with their past actions, take one second to show it. In some ways, the show runners take the “show don’t tell” adage to ridiculous extremes, but at other times they neither show nor tell when they need to.
I think this is why we’re critical of the writing in the show–not because what Jordan had was always perfect, but because they are throwing in so much stuff that is so slap dash. You can cut, merge, and shuffle things for time and simplicity. You can even change things that didn’t work or make sense in the books. But when you have the story in front of you, you should focus on adapting that in a way that works for the screen. Instead, they are forcibly inserting their own original work into the narrative, and it’s less thought out than the books were.
Give Natasha O’Keefe more to do than Lanfear in the books, yes please! Give her all the screen times, thankyouverymuch. But make those scenes make sense. Lan hardly reacts to her the first time he meets one of the FORSAKEN. Then we’re all going to follow her through the Waygate and smirk like it’s just another fun adventure full of scrappy shenanigans. One of the FORSAKEN.
@25 100% agreed that it’s great to see the Forsaken actually on screen being more actively involved, but the lack of fear or shock by so many characters at their first time seeing these legendary monsters that have been locked away for 3000 years is just… odd. There’s a lot of strange downplaying of how much the myth around AOL characters should be built up. At this point it seems almost all but forgotten how divisive and feared the legend of the Dragon even is.
On a different note, I know Thom didn’t have a lot to do during books 2 & 3, but is any non book reader even going to remember him when he’s finally on screen again in a year or 3?
This episode definitely wasn’t as good as episode 6 (best episode of season for me!), but I didn’t dislike it as most of you all here! Maybe I’ve just become used to some of the issues in this show (poor characterizations for Mat, Perrin, Rand, Lan…). That all being said, I definitely took a bit of issue with Moiraine and Lan ending up going off with Rand and Lanfear although…for the situation the writers set up, I can’t see Moiraine doing anything different, right? In that exact situation, of course Moiraine would make sure she ended up with Rand. Even if it means walking off with a Forsaken. I do greatly dislike how it played out. Seems almost that since the main focus of the episode was Siuan/Moiraine’s relationship, they wanted to bring it to a climax by having Moiraine walk away from Siuan, giving suitable weight to the moment. Ah well, it’s the direction the writers wanted to go, so fair enough.
Intrigued to see how next episode plays out, seems it will be a fairly straight re-telling of TGH? We’ll get Egwene escaping/being rescued and dealing righteous judgment to the Seanchan. We’ll get Rand’s battle in the sky it seems!! And hopefully duel with Turok, though not sure if/how Rand will have skills to keep up. I bet Lanfear will somehow interfere / mess with Ishy giving Rand the window he needs to conquer. Mat and Perrin? No idea what they’ll be up to, we shall see!!
One thing I’d really like? Would love if cold open was AoL conversation between Lews and Mierin…something to do with him trying to convince her to back off her research and her looking at him and saying, “Do you trust me?” I think it would be thematically appropriate and would just love to see Mierin on the screen, maybe even hear mention of Ilyena and see how well Mierin responds to that. That’s my wish for this episode!
There was one big error in the depiction this episode: Gitara’s foretelling and the Dragon’s birth are taking place at the same time, about 20km apart (Dragonmount is right next to Tar Valon after all). So one depicted in the snow and the other in a balmy summer afternoon is just wrong.
@28 I’m not sure about that. One was supposed to be on a mountain. It could just mean different elevation.
@29: Direct quote from the Foretelling: “The Dragon takes his first breath on the slopes of Dragonmount!” That’s from the books. Not having watched the episode, I can’t be sure if and how they altered it. Anyway, slopes implies lower elevation. There’s also how the Battle of the Shining Walls was alternately known as (particularly among those fought in it) the Blood Snow.
@28, @30 – That really bugged me too, and I don’t know why they did it since they did the snow for the fight in the first season. I’m not even sure we’ve seen snow on Dragonmount when it has been shown on screen. I wanted to see Blood Snow!
crzydroid @25:
100% agree with this. So easy to add one line of dialogue to clear this up.
@28,29,30:
I would say it’s a minor error rather than something big; although I’ve never heard of “slopes” implying lower altitude (as @30 says), it’s logically unlikely that a battle would have been at enough of an altitude to make that much difference. In the books, it was definitely winter weather in Tar Valon at the time.