Perrin Becomes a Leader in <i>The Wheel of Time</i>’s &#8220;Goldeneyes&#8221;

This week, The Wheel of Time tackles the penultimate episode of the season. It’s a very important one for Perrin and for longtime book fans, as he and his allies prepare to defend Emond’s Field from the Trolloc army in “Goldeneyes.”

Recap

The episode opens on the village of Emond’s Field, where the people are preparing for battle. Some Tuatha’an arrive, and Perrin lets them in past the defenses. He is excited to reunite with Aram (Daryl McCormack) and Ila (Maria Doyle Kennedy) but Raen is dead, killed by Trollocs. There are also refugees from all around the Two Rivers.

Alanna works with Bode and Eldrin, and realizes that Daise Congar (Mandi Symonds), the new village Wisdom, is also able to channel. Maksim trains the villagers with spears, then reluctantly agrees to be shown their skills with Two Rivers bows.

Faile unveils a Wolfshead banner for “Lord Perrin Goldeneyes” and tells Perrin that the people of the Two Rivers are following him because he is one of them.

On the outskirts of the Two Rivers defenses, Perrin meets with the Whitecloaks, asking Dain Bornhald to put aside their quarrel and defend the Two Rivers. He offers to surrender to Dain once the battle is over. Dain refuses.

Alanna and Maksim share a romantic interlude, in which they tease each other and Maksim declares that, without Ihvon, the two of them must forge something new together.

Perrin confides in Faile his fears about watching his people die, and tries to make her leave before the battle, Faile demands he respect her choice to fight, and everyone else’s too.

Loial plays Maiden’s Kiss with Bain and Chiad, as a ploy to absolve Chiad of her toh towards him, so they can leave before the battle. Bain argues that now she has toh to Loial, outsmarting the Ogier.

Perrin asks Ila and the Tuatha’an to wait in the inn with the Two Rivers children, and to escape with them through a secret tunnel into the mountains if the battle seems lost.
Loial tells Perrin that he must go close the Waygate, otherwise the Shadow Army will always be able to call for reinforcements. Bain and Chiad go with him.

The Two Rivers bows and a storm of ice daggers from Alanna hold the line against the first wave of attackers, driving the surviving Darkfriends and Trollocs back. Perrin and Faile go to check in with Alanna and the other channelers, but Perrin realizes the retreat is a trick, just as a huge crossbow bolt fired from the tree line hits Alanna. Daise channels, shielding them as they make their escape, and is killed.

Loial tells Bain and Chiad that the Waygate can only be closed from the inside, and asks them to stay outside and guard his back.

Without Alanna, Maksim and the other defenders are forced to fall back to the walls of the village. Dain and the Whitecloaks arrive to reinforce Perrin’s fighters, with Dain apparently moved by Perrin’s earlier arguments. But Perrin recognizes Padan Fain among them, and realizes that Fain has been orchestrating everything. Fain and his followers attack the other Whitecloaks as the Shadow Army streams in through the open gate.

At the inn, Marin orders the Tuatha’an to flee as the Women’s Circle prepares to hold the line and cover their escape. Trollocs are waiting for them. Aram, carrying an infant, manages to dodge an attacking Trolloc and obtain its sword, killing it. The deed is witnessed by Ila.

Faile urges Perrin to rally for his people, asking what he will give for the Two Rivers. Perrin takes up his blacksmith’s hammer and uses it alongside the axe, plowing through enemies and rallying his people.

Valda finds the wounded Alanna with Eldrin and Bode. The girls channel, burning him alive.

Bain and Chiad hold the Waygate against waves of Trollocs and Darkfriends while inside, in the Ways, Loial discovers that the gates resist all attempts at destroying them. Facing the oncoming horde of Trolloc reinforcements, Loial destroys the bridge instead, falling into darkness with the shattered stone.

He pursues and subdues Padan Fain, who he has realized is directing the attack. He also realizes that Fain is afraid of dying, and offers to spare his life if Fain will order his forces to retreat. Fain agrees, and the Shadow army withdraws.

The next morning, Alanna, who has been Healed by Bode and Eldrin, tells the girls she isn’t going to take them to the White Tower. Realizing that Aram has been rejected by the tinkers, Marin suggests he become the new blacksmith of the Two Rivers. Bain, Chiad, Perrin, and Faile take a moment to mourn Loial.

Dain and the Whitecloaks come to arrest Perrin, who asks Faile to respect his choice and points out that violence never stops until someone says enough. He is shackled and taken away, as his people shout for Lord Perrin Goldeneyes.

Commentary

And so the trend of each episode of season three being even better than the last continues. I really have only one complaint about “Goldeneyes,” which is that if the season had started off this strong, we would have gotten so much more from it. As it is, we only have the finale left, and it feels like the show will be cut off right when it is hitting its true momentum.

With that being said, this episode was absolutely fantastic. It had a lot to live up to, for those of us who are fans of the books, and especially for Perrin fans. In this, it exceeded my expectations, striking a perfect balance between preserving the best parts of the Battle of the Two Rivers and making some interesting and exciting changes where the show’s story required them.

The biggest of these changes is the apparent death of Loial. While Loial (along with an Aielman named Gaul who does not appear on the show) did go to close the Waygate, in the books he was able to successfully close the Waygate without having to destroy it, and he and Gaul returned to the Two Rivers before the battle began.

This version of the story is much more dramatic and immediate, and although book fans might be dismayed by the change, it is a very good storytelling choice for this point in the show. Evocative of Gandalf facing the balrog on the bridge of Moria, it gives Loial a moment that he hasn’t had yet in the series, one in which he stands alone, not as a witness or an advisor as he has so far been, but as the sole arbiter of fate. Here, Loial makes his own choice, the hero’s choice, as we have seen many of his human companions do before him. As Perrin notes, Loial left his book behind, meaning he knew he would die before he left on his mission. He knew that only he could do what needed to be done to save the Two Rivers, and he did it, without fanfare or acknowledgment.

An aside: Viewers might not be aware, but it’s mentioned briefly in season one and is stated repeatedly in the books that Loial is young for an Ogier, which makes him a contemporary of the Emond’s Fielders, if one adjusts for the longer Ogier lifespan. He, too, recently left home for the first time, stepping into a wide, wild world he has only read about, but never experienced. He, too, has faced danger and Shadowspawn for the first time, and been asked to make some choices harder than those most of his elders have ever faced.

It will be sad not having Loial in future seasons, but thematically it makes sense to have an important death at this point in the show. The season wanted us to think it would be Alanna (and boy, has that girl been through the wringer) but the fact that it was Loial is even more powerful. As my partner, Emmet, pointed out to me, it is also time for the show to start making some decisions on how it will differentiate itself from the source material, and to take bigger risks. So far, it has largely been successful in deciding what to be faithful to and what to change, but it will be very interesting to see how longtime fans react to this one.

Speaking of thematic choices, Loial’s sacrifice fits perfectly into the specific theme of the episode, in which Perrin struggles with feeling responsible for other people’s deaths, and in which Faile urges him to respect the agency of others, and to honor their choices to fight, be it for their home, as Laila did, or for someone else’s home, as Faile is choosing to do. As Loial and Bain and Chiad have chosen to do. Perrin’s guilt is understandable, but it is time for someone to put pressure on him to move beyond it, to face the reality he cannot change with his grief and look forward, not backward. This episode has made it clear that Faile is that person.

I often use Emmet as a barometer as I watch the show. They know something of the series from me, but haven’t read it themselves, so they are coming at the show clean, in a way. If I am upset with a change from the books, I can check their reaction to tell if I’m just a little more attached to a detail than I need to be. And if I’m filling in information that isn’t actually given in the episode, Emmet can tell me whether or not the show has actually explained things clearly. It’s a useful check, and also a really fun way to watch the series.

For this reason, I was delighted when Emmet observed that Faile is good for Perrin, because that is exactly what their relationship should be. It is something that Jordan does in the series with varying levels of success. When he gets it right, it’s perfection, but romantic relationships aren’t his strongest suit, and because the books are so long, some themes and plot lines can get convoluted or stretched out when they would be better addressed in a more direct and simple manner. A television show has the opposite problem, of course: It needs so much brevity that it can be hard to actually get everything done in the time allotted. “Goldeneyes” manages that brevity beautifully, with short, powerful conversations that still feel realistic, and storytelling that perfectly uses cinematography to further communicate themes and to show us what characters are truly thinking and feeling.

I was glad Emmet saw what I have always seen in Perrin and Faile’s relationship—I think the show has gotten them just right.

It is fitting that Faile and Perrin are visually a picture of opposites, she a short, angular, sprightly figure, he a huge, strong man who isn’t always the swiftest, either in motion or in thought. (Note: I am not saying Perrin isn’t intelligent. Quick thinking is not the only way to be smart, though he himself sometimes fails to recognize this.) In many ways they are opposite in personality: Faile is quick tempered, ambitious, and a very complicated person, while Perrin is slow to anger, content with a simple life, and prefers to be straightforward in his thoughts and his dealings. In fact, one might go so far as to say that Faile is like a knife, small and cutting and swift, while Perrin is like his hammer, strong and blunt, and, most importantly, capable both of creating… and of destroying. 

We see Perrin take up his hammer at the last stage of battle and use it alongside the axe. The choice could symbolize Perrin combining the two sides of himself. Or, it may visually indicate his transformation away from being a blacksmith and into being a warrior. Ila would argue the latter, I think, but if this episode has shown us anything, the question of when to choose to fight—for your home, for your family, for you honor—is complicated for most people, especially in a world where things like Trollocs exist, and where some men swear their allegiance and their souls to a primordial being of anti-creation, which would destroy the very fabric of reality if it could.

For Perrin, the difference between fighting the Shadow and fighting people, even bad people, seems to be where he is choosing to draw the line. Despite the pain he feels over the violence he has already enacted, he believes the people of the Two Rivers must defend themselves and their home against the Trolloc horde and the humans who have allied with them. However, he draws the line at continuing his feud with Dain, even if it means submitting to a trial that he strongly suspects will not be just. In his initial parlay with Dain, Perrin apologizes for killing Dain’s father, and acknowledges that it was his pain that drove him to the act. He also acknowledges that Dain’s pain drove him to kill Natti Cauthon, and what’s fascinating about the statement is that there isn’t really any judgment in Perrin when he says it. If anything, he is empathizing with Dain, even after the terrible thing that the Whitecloaks have done, because Perrin understands how violence can affect someone. He takes responsibility for his part in that, without self-flagellating, and asks only that Dain take the same level of responsibility. (Of course, Perrin doesn’t know that it was Valda who did the actual torture and killing, but even if he did, Dain is still responsible for Natti’s fate, as he was the commander in charge, and gave her to Valda knowing full well what would come of that choice.)

This line Perrin has struck in choosing to fight the Trollocs but surrender to the Whitecloaks is a poignant one. In my read of the book series, I often make the distinction between Evil-with-a-capital-E and regular, lower case evil, and it may be that Perrin sees the same distinction. The Trollocs and Darkfriends like Padan Fain are Evil, but the Children of the Light, whatever else that organization may be, is not sworn to the Dark. The Way of the Leaf will not change a Trolloc, but perhaps, it can stop the cycle of violence between men.

That is not how Ila sees the issue, of course. For her, any violence for any reason, even against Shadowspawn, is abhorrent. Back in season one, she told Perrin about the death of her daughter, and how she keeps to the Way of the Leaf in hopes of creating a better world for her daughter’s soul to be reborn into. She also mentioned that choosing peace felt like a better revenge against the bandits who killed her daughter than choosing violence did, a thought Perrin might also be carrying as he chooses to surrender to Natti’s murders rather than seek revenge.

However, it is in Aram that the faith in the Way of the Leaf is most directly tested.

Aram’s journey is another big change from the books. Originally, Aram rejected the Way of the Leaf shortly after coming to the Two Rivers, but well before the battle. Having witnessed both his parents being killed by Trollocs, Aram was consumed with the idea that he could have saved them if he knew how to fight, and came to Perrin asking for permission to be taught to use a sword. Perrin, believing that every person has a right to choose for themselves, gave Aram that permission. After that, Aram’s story became entangled with Perrin’s, and the questions around violence that Perrin is constantly struggling with.

The show has simplified Aram’s story, and it seems likely that it will end here, with Marin offering him a place in Emond’s Field as its new blacksmith. But what is most interesting is the immediacy of the situation when Aram decides to fight back against the Trolloc. For one thing, the moment is as much about instinct as it is about anything else. In our own world, many cultures have legal and moral rules recognizing a person’s right to defend themselves, which is very different from deciding to participate in a battle that hasn’t started yet. The leaf may not have an instinct to defend itself, but animals and humans do, and it’s not an easy instinct to ignore when you are about to be eaten.

But what’s possibly more important, Aram isn’t alone when he is attacked by the Trolloc. He is carrying a baby, a tiny baby, strapped to his chest. Aram’s choice to survive by violence or perish beneath it does not only affect him anymore—it also affects a helpless child who has been entrusted into his care. One could argue a moral responsibility, a duty even, to protect that child that supersedes a duty to commit no violence.

The questions around Aram’s decision parallel him with Perrin, as Perrin, too, chooses to fight for those he is responsible for. Faile continually impresses this responsibility on him throughout the episode, culminating with her question at the eleventh hour of the battle, in which she asks him what he is willing to give for the Two Rivers, and he answers “Everything.” She isn’t trying to convince him to make a choice he has already made; she is merely trying to get him to understand what that choice means, and to stop hiding from it.

And we have seen what Perrin can accomplish when he stops resisting. Whether or not he chose to kill Padan Fain is almost irrelevant, I think. Fain’s survival may have repercussions for Perrin, and for others, down the road, but in the moment, the point is that Perrin is willing to do what he must to protect the Two Rivers. His choice to let Fain live is predicated on the survival of as many people as possible. If Fain had refused to call off the army, then his death would have been the next best chance to end the battle. Perrin would have carried out his promise, as Fain could plainly see; the strength of Perrin’s will is what made Fain unwilling to commit the double cross he mentions while under the axe.

Even Alanna and Maksim are part of the theme of violence and grief that has run through Perrin’s story this season. We learned earlier that Maksim wanted to focus on avenging Ihvon by killing Liandrin and her cohorts, while Alanna’s instincts ran to building her own army of channelers. But in this episode, Maksim chooses closeness with Alanna over closing himself off in his grief, both in letting her keep the bond “turned on” and in having sex with her. It is clearly the first time they have been intimate since before Ihvon’s death, and Maksim makes a point that he and Alanna are making something new, not trying to recreate what they had with Ihvon. Alanna also seems to have relaxed about her need to build an army of channelers. She hasn’t given it up entirely, I don’t think, but the way she tells Eldrin and Bode that she won’t be taking them to Tar Valon and that the Wheel has other plans shows us a much calmer woman, one who is no longer scrambling in desperation to keep herself from drowning in grief.

There are so many great moments in this episode I can’t possibly cover them all, but I am very impressed with Marcus Rutherford’s performance in this episode. Perrin is a difficult character to portray, and although he’s had some good moments in previous episodes and seasons, the character hasn’t reality been given that much to do. Rutherford really got to stretch his acting muscles in the last few episodes and especially in “Goldeneyes,” tackling Perrin’s anger and violence with as much aplomb as he tackles the romantic and lighthearted moments.

Every performance in this episode felt particularly grounded and powerful, and I really appreciated how well the show presented the people of the Two Rivers to us. Alanna keeps reminding Maksim, and thus the viewer, that the old blood of Manetheren runs deep in those mountains, and it is not just in channeling ability that the old blood manifests its strength. I particularly enjoyed the cameo by Cenn Buie (Gregory Gudgeon), and the way we saw Marin al’Vere lead the women’s circle during the battle. There was one particular moment when she hamstrung a Trolloc and then stabbed it over and over and all I could think was that we know where Egwene got her strength from. But when Marin offered Aram a place in the village, I saw where Egwene got her empathy and warmth from. I’m so glad that we got to see so much of Marin, and Rina Mahoney was a joy to watch. 

Easter Eggs and Favorite Moments:

Viewers might recall that when Faile first gave Perrin her name, she said it was Mandarb, which means “Blade” in the Old Tongue. Unfortunately for her, Perrin thought it was very funny that she chose the same name for herself that Lan chose for his horse, so she went with Faile, meaning “Falcon,” instead.

The last King of Manetheren Loial writes about in his book is Aemon al Caar al Thorin. The Old Tongue preposition “al” means “of the,” so Aemon’s name translates to Aemon, son of Caar, son of Thorin. Bain identifies the “al Thorin” as the source of Rand’s surname, al’Thor. Interestingly, in the Old Tongue the prefix “al” can also indicate royalty. It was added to the first name of the Kings of Malkier, while the prefix “el” was used for women and queens. Lan’s father was al’Akir, and Lan himself would be al’Lan, if he were to be addressed as a king. We saw this lead to some confusion in Fal Dara, a Borderland nation like Malkier, where Rand’s name seemed to indicate more than just an “of the.”

The name Thorin is also a nice little homage to The Lord of the Rings, which Jordan did often, especially in the earlier novels of the series. A reference to Thorin, a dispossessed mountain king, is especially fitting, since Manetheren was, and the Two Rivers is, a mountainous land.

I loved the moment where Marin offered the vegetarian Tuatha’an a bowl of stew from which she had “picked out the meat.” It’s a comedic moment that any vegetarian—or anyone with any dietary restriction, for that matter—can relate to. It also signals Aram’s changing opinion about the Way of the Leaf, as he is perfectly willing to eat it until Ila stops him.

Eldrin and Bode laughing at the appearance of the Horn of Valere (I think it looks pretty silly too, if I’m being honest) and making fun of Mat rather than being awed by his achievement is just peak sibling energy. I have two younger sisters myself, and that made the scene extra enjoyable, reminding us that all of these people are still just people, and moments of fun and joy can still be had even when things are dark.

Best Line: