On the road and HE begins the hunt.
Last time on the Wheel of Time, our
journey began. Moiraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah, and her Warder
Lan Mandragoran, rode out to the all-but-hidden mountain village of Emond’s
Field in the Two Rivers in search of the Dragon Reborn. In town they meet five
people that MIGHT be that Dragon, the village Wisdom, Nynaeve al’Meara; the
mayor and Winespring Inn owner’s daughter Egwene al’Vere; the blacksmith,
Perrin Aybara; the farmer, Rand al’Thor; and local gambler and pickpocket Mat
Cauthon. The night of the big Winternight festival, a group of Trollocs attack
the town, killing dozens, dragging off Nynaeve, and nearly killing the other
four possible Dragons. In a blind fury while killing a Trolloc attacker, Perrin
accidentally murders his wife, Leila. Moiraine and Lan dispatch the Trollocs,
though Moiraine takes a heavy blow to the shoulder. The next morning, she heals
who she can, including Rand’s nearly dead father, and tells them that one of
the four might be the Dragon Reborn. They need to go with her to Tar Valon, the
Aes Sedai capital, or risk their village being destroyed in another attack.
They elect to follow her. Enough recap, let’s get to it, shall we?
Episode 2: Shadows Waiting
Eamon "POS" Valda
We open with a group of
Whitecloaks… sorry, Children of the Light. For those who skipped my summaries,
they’re a group of religious zealots that preach adherence to “The Light” and
by that they mean do as they say when they say it, and all Aes Sedai must die. Eamon
Valda, a member of the Hand of the Light aka the Questioners, is enjoying a
lovely lunch of some sort of plucked bird as he watches a de-handed Aes Sedai
slowly burning at the stake. He’s a creepy bastard about it, too, eating the
bird that cuts his mouth up and talking about how good it is. He grabs her ring
from her severed hands and telling her that an Aes Sedai should know that
sometimes Brutality is the only path to mercy. He adds the ring to a collection
that he wears on his belt. Creepy bastard.
We return to the group riding, Lan
catching up to them to tell them that the Trollocs are still in pursuit. We see
the Trollocs following, and a cool little detail I like to point out is that
while most of the Trollocs run up right, there are several scattered about the
shot that are running on all fours. It adds a little flair to these scenes that
are basically a lot of hairy dudes running. They apparently ride through the
day until they reach Taren Ferry. They pay the ferryman to ferry them across
the Taren post haste. They shove off, just barely escaping the Trollocs.
Trollocs can’t swim and have a deep fear of deep water. The Trollocs watch them
cross the river, jockeying for position as their Myrddraal rides through them
on its horse. It screams at them, showing off its gnarly fangs. Moiraine calls
the Myrddraal a Rider of Fade and explains it’s a servant of the Dark One to
the Ferryman. The Ferryman wants to return to save his son, who had been on his
way to the house before the Trollocs arrive. Moiraine can’t allow him giving a
way for the Trollocs to cross, has Lan cut the ferry free and then weaves a
Whirlpool into the river to destroy it. The ferryman curses them and dives in
to try to save the Ferry but is drowned as it’s tossed about. The Trollocs are
only slowed down, though, so they need to ride fast.
I feel the Trolloc that fell into river was the lucky
one.
After riding presumably through the
night and into the next day, they have lost the Trollocs for now and make camp
to rest for a while. While the Emond’s Fielders wait by the fire, Moiraine uses
weaves on the horses, taking away their fatigue so they can ride longer. She
tells Lan they need their strength, and he counters that she does too. Mat
muses that if Nynaeve was there, she’d be making Moiraine’s life miserable. Egwene
tells them that she saw Nynaeve get taken and is clearly shook up by it, Perrin
believes that it was so quick it probably didn’t hurt her, and Rand wants them
to have a plan to bail if need be. Egwene asks what they’ll do if Moiraine is
right and one of them is the Dragon Reborn, to which Mat scoffs. Rand isn’t
sure. Moiraine tells them to forget everything they think they know about the
Dragon, and that they need to get sleep.
In the night, a still awake Rand
sees Moiraine wake Egwene and take her away somewhere. The two women walk a
short distance from their camp to talk. Egwene asks if she is going to kill
them, and Moiraine asks what she knows of the Three Oaths. Egwene knows the
general idea, that the Aes Sedai took them up to end Artur Hawkwing’s siege of
the White Tower, but Moiraine explains them in full. They are: 1. To Speak No
Word That is Untrue. 2. To Make No Weapon Which One Person Might Kill Another. 3.
To Never Use the One Power to Kill, Except in the Last Extreme Defense of their
Own Life, Or the Life of their Warder, Or the Life of Another Aes Sedai. They
are unable to violate these oaths. Egwene points out that Moiraine killed the
Ferryman, but Moiraine disagrees. Moiraine claims the Ferryman killed himself,
as he swam out to get the boat in a useless effort to save it. Her weave didn’t
kill him, the water did. At least in her and the Oath’s eyes. She reveals that
Egwene can channel and takes out a shiny blue stone to show her. They do an
exercise, and Moiraine uses her power to make the stone glow, but eventually
pulls back and lets Egwene do it. “You don’t listen to the Wind, Egwene. It’s
the Wind that listens to you.”
They return to camp, and Egwene,
seeing Rand, lies down beside him. He’s wakes up when she presses her forehead
to his, and he expresses a desire to be alone. She gets it and leaves him. He
goes back to sleep. Perrin is sitting by the fire keeping watch. He pulls up
his pant leg and we see he’s got a cut on it. Egwene joins him, and they sit
together for a bit. He asks if she thinks they’ll ever go back home, which she
doesn’t. Back with Rand, he sits up and starts coughing. It gets worse and
worse until he reaches into his mouth and tries to make himself vomit. He grabs
something and pulls a damn bat out of his mouth. It lays dead on the ground in
front of him, and then he sees a spectral man in black with burning red eyes
appear. He wakes up with a start, only to see the very dead bat by his feet. He
gets up and sees a whole lot more dead bats. Everyone else had the same dream,
apparently. Rand accuses Moiraine of doing this, but Lan steps in front of him
before he can get physical. Moiraine asks for details. Mat describes the bat’s
neck being snapped, and Perrin describes the man in black. She tells them to
tell her if they have more of these dreams. Moiraine tries to hurry them along,
but a frustrated Rand demands answers. She tells them they’re going East to
Whitebridge and then onto the Tower. He asks what happens then, pointing out
that Egwene might have a spot there, but asks what men could do at the White
Tower besides become errand boys for the Aes Sedai. Lan does not look amused
with that title. Moiraine tells him to go if he wants and she and Lan ride off.
Egwene is going to go, and Rand asks if she really thinks Moiraine is any
better than the Trollocs. Egwene counters that Moiraine has only helped them
since the Trollocs attack, despite him being a stubborn bastard, and says she’d
leave him behind too, were she Moiraine. Rand rather dejectedly says she
already left him behind and starts storming off, but Mat stops him. His friend
reminds him that they really do just have each other, and that while he knows
when their usefulness ends, Moiraine will ditch them, but until then, she does
shoot fireballs, so maybe they should stay on her good side.
Moiraine is doing amazingly well for a woman with
a gaping shoulder wound.
They ride for a bit, before
scouting Lan returns and tells them Whitecloaks are coming. She gives Lan her
ring, telling them to let her do the talking, don’t mention the Aes Sedai, but
otherwise tell the truth if asked a direct question. The Whitecloaks ride up
then, led by Geofram Bornhald. They dismount and asks where they’re going. He
claims that it’s dangerous to be traveling with so many Aes Sedai about in
force, but Moiraine claims “Wars and witches don’t concern us, sir.” Moiraine’s
attitude and politeness seems to be enough for Bornhald and is about to let
them go, until Valda comes up, shaking the rings, and asks them to stay a
moment so he can Question them. FYI, Questioner was a term that the Hand of the
Light hated in the books, but I guess it’s their job title in this go round. Valda
frisks Moiraine as he asks Lan where he is from, where he delivers a badass
line. “I am from the Borderlands, where men know how to keep their hands to
themselves. Lest they lose them.” Valda has their horses searched and exposits
that the Tower sent eight sisters to deal with Logain in the south, and how
they can’t help getting into other’s business. In his probing, he finds her
injury and Moiraine explains that she was wounded by a Trolloc and it’s not
healing well. That piques Bornhald’s interest, and he examines the wound. She
tells them that they came from Tarren Ferry. Bornhald tells her to seek out an
Aes Sedai in Whitebridge, and the Whitecloaks set out. Valda splits off from
Bornhald’s group, traveling south, claiming they have a Higher purpose than
battle.
The group travels on, and Egwene
questions how Moiraine broke the oaths. To which, Moiraine reveals the Aes
Sedai’s best trick, telling enough half-truths that they don’t lie outright. She
said they were going to Whitebridge to see her sister, and since all Aes Sedai
are her sisters, she did tell the truth, that sort of thing. She advises to
listen carefully, and they ride on. Sometime later, Mat begins, and the others
join in singing a song of Manetharan. When Mat claims that no one knows the
origin of the song, Moiraine gives them the history of the Mountain Home. Short
version, a small but powerful nation formed just after the Breaking of the
World, thorn to the Dark One’s paw, he sent an army to destroy them, they held
out for 13 days without aide before they broke, and when King Aemon died, his
wife Queen Eldrene Sedai used her powers to obliterate the remaining force of
Trollocs at the cost of her own life. Enough of the children and their minders
survived that they were able to etch a new living in their broken lands, so
yes, Weep for Manetharan.
They make camp for the night,
Moiraine wondering if their proximity to the cursed city of Shadar Logoth is
keeping the Trollocs away, and if said proximity was on purpose, but Lan won’t
confirm or deny. Moiraine points out that Valda had seven rings on his belt,
clearly furious about it. Yes, she seems to be the 8th Aes Sedai
that was sent out. She rather angrily says that she won’t be forgetting Valda’s
face any time soon, either. Lan promises they’ll find her a healer tomorrow.
Rand and Egwene gather wood and fight about their relationship. Joy. She just
wants him to look at her and not hate her. He claims he could never hate her,
but her eyes say she doesn’t believe it.
"Hey, look, a Wolfbrother!"
Perrin gathers water from a river,
his leg paining him, when a small pack of wolves run up to him. He’s obviously
scared when he’s surrounded, but when walks up to him, they just lick his leg. The
wolves run off. Well, that was… odd.
That night, everyone besides
Moiraine sits up, the Aes Sedai clearly gravely ill. Lan tends to her, as the
village folk look on worriedly. He tells them to get some sleep. They try, but
Egwene awakens in the night to see the Myrddraal watching them from a cliff. They
spring up and get riding as soon as possible, Lan placing Moiraine’s limp body
in Perrin’s care for the ride. Lan sends them to Shadar Logoth, following close
behind. The Trollocs are in hot pursuit, but as they get close to the city,
they start falling farther and farther back. Their horses start freaking out,
and when they look up, they see a freaking HUGE wall with a gap broken in it.
They ride in, Lan assuring them the Trollocs won’t follow.
Big Freaking Wall with a crack down the middle?
Nothing ominous about that...
The city is dead quiet, no birds, bugs,
or people. They set up camp in a cathedral like building, Lan changing her
bandages and explaining the city’s whole deal. Shadar Logoth, formally Aredhol,
the greatest city in the world. When the Trolloc Wars were raging, though, they
build a massive wall with no entrance, sealing themselves inside and the
trouble out. Eventually, survivors of the war broke down the wall and found the
city empty. They think evil grew inside the city until it consumed everything,
and even millennia later, Trollocs still won’t enter. He tells them to touch
nothing and eat only the food they brought.
Rand goes out to explore the city
alone, wandering the dead and empty streets. Egwene follows him, and they just
sort of marvel at the grandness of the city while holding hands. Back at Camp,
Mat sits with Perrin. He gives his friend a knife Leila made, saying she gave
it to Mat. He mused that he used it probably a thousand times before using it
to defend himself, but he kept it sharp and clean at her advice to save his
life or someone he loves. He gives Perrin the knife. Perrin is clearly still
raging inside about what he did to his wife but accepts the knife with tears in
his eyes. Perrin also reassures Mat that his parents, the al’Vere’s and Tam
will look in on the girls to make sure they’re safe.
Do I even need to tell you the dagger found in a
dead city is cursed as hell?
In the night, a low whistle blows
through Shadar Logoth. Mat suddenly wakes and starts wandering through the city
alone. He seems almost drawn to this hidden away alcove, finding a chest with a
gold dagger in it, with a ruby the size of a pigeon’s egg in the hilt. He hears
the horses screaming and runs back to them. Mat, MAT! That’s the opposite of
touching nothing! The others wake up and see one of the horses consumed by
Mashidar, a black ash that travels across the ground. (It’s not named in the
show, but in the books, the evil all-consuming force in Shadar Logoth was
dubbed Mashidar.) Moiraine wakes up, realizes where they are and claims Lan
killed them all.
Everyone gets separated by
Mashidar, them running in groups to get out of the city and hopefully regroup,
Mat and Rand, Perrin and Egwene, and Lan and Moiraine. Rand and Mat find a
break in the wall and make for it. Perrin and Egwene make it to the top of the
wall and jump into the river below. Thank the Light it wasn’t a calm river,
they’d have broken bones. Moiraine and Lan have the easiest time, just riding
out the gap they rode in on. Rand doesn’t want to go without the others, but
Mat insists. He and Rand swim down river on a log, Perrin and Egwene swim to
shore and start looking for them, and Lan does his best to help a clearly dying
Moiraine. And then someone puts a sword to his neck. Hi, Nynaeve! She tells him
that if he doesn’t take them to right now, she’ll slit his throat.
Okay, I think this episode was a
step up from the previous one. The pacing is better, we see more of the
individual characters, and the grandeur of Shadar Logoth is breathtaking. The
scene with Rand and Egwene as they just look out at it in the daylight feels
very well balanced with Mat finding the danger in the gloom of evening. I know
some viewers were disappointed in the cutting of Mordeth. Mordeth, in the
books, was the man who personally orchestrated Aredhol’s fall, and who is now
trapped in the city as a kind of hateful ghost attempting to escape. He’s a creepy
bastard, but also kind of a not super relevant to the story. Personally, I
think a world power falling due to its own internal corruption than being
pushed by an outside influence is much scarier, not going to lie. I rather like
Mashadar here as a sort of corrupting ash. In the books it was a silver mist. I
imagine the change was due to the ash being easier to animate. The scene with
the Ferryman was pretty messed up. It set up how Moiraine is willing to do
anything to get her charges out of danger at any cost quite well. The ferryman
dying in the whirlpool was particularly gut retching. It was weird seeing the
Whitecloaks as actually being menacing. For most of their run in the books,
they come across as lucky and incompetent most of the time, spending most of
their time being obvious bullies and tricking well-meaning but ultimately
stupid young men into their ranks. Hell, their biggest claim to fame in that
iteration was they hung an Amyrlin Seat once… she was already dead. But Valda
in this was terrifying as he killed the Aes Sedai. I wonder how they’ll explain
her being unable to channel. Shock of losing her hands? Maybe, but it doesn’t
quite explain how they got that up close to her in the first place. All I’m
saying. The group has been separated no, and we’ll have to see if they can all
come back together in time to save the world. See you next time!
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