Warning: This article includes spoilers for “The Shadow in the Night,” the sixth episode in season three of The Wheel of Time.
The latest episode in The Wheel of Time gives us a lot of action in Tanchico, the seaside town of Liandrin’s childhood, where she and other Black Ajah have traveled. Nynaeve, Mat, Elayne, and Min have followed them there, and the city is different than any place they’ve been to before.
For Nynaeve actor Zoë Robins, Tanchico lets the audience see different sides of the characters we’ve come to know over two and a half seasons. She told Reactor that Nynaeve, in particular, is “incredibly out of her comfort zone. And in Tanchico, I think we see that in her body language… she’s struggling a bit.”
Despite Nynaeve’s discomfort in Tanchico, she, along with Mat, Elayne, and Min manage to find one of the long-lost bracelets that can shackle the Dragon Reborn (aka their friend Rand) and control his power. The spider-like Forsaken, Moghedein, however, has other plans.
In the back half of the episode, we see Nynaeve and Elayne back in their room after successfully obtaining the bracelet. They’re about to go to bed when their “servant” enters. That servant is Moghedein, and she magically puts Elayne and Nynaeve into a giddy trance where the two giggle and eagerly tell the Spider what she wants them to (though Nynaeve openly struggles to resist at points).
Robins called that sequence the best time she had on set:
“We just had so much fun. We see Elayne and Nynaeve in a completely different way when they’re under compulsion. The audience is seeing them in a completely different light, no inhibitions, almost childlike. It was a lot of fun. And it was all there in the writing. I feel like for the most part, that scene has been left untouched. I don’t think there’s much that’s been edited out. Yeah, it was brilliant. It was just a lot of fun and a great collaborative experience with all the actors and our amazing director, Marta Cunningham.”
Robins added that she and Elayne actor Ceara Coveney talked beforehand with the writers and directors on how they should behave under compulsion. “It is such a specific thing and very different from what we’ve seen,” she said, adding that Moghedien actor Laia Costa’s amazing performance informed her as well.
New episodes of The Wheel of Time premiere on Prime Video each Thursday, with the season three finale releasing on April 17. 2025.
Really an excellent scene, imo—one of the highlights of the episode!