Has the Dragon Reborn been revealed?
Last time on the Wheel of Time,
everyone was doing their best to make it to the White Tower. Egwene and Perrin spent most of their time
running from a group of wolves, who seemed to have led them to the trail of a
group of Tuatha’an, the Tinkers. The Tinkers, a group of traveling nomads in
search of The Song, a single song they believe will return the Age of Legends,
welcome them in and give the food and shelter as they travel. Rand and Mat
arrive at a town called Breen’s Spring and find work with the local owner of
The Four Kings Inn, a woman named Dana, and met the mysterious gleeman, Thom
Merrilin. While Mat and Thom bury an Aiel warrior that Mat had tried to grave
rob, Rand got somewhat chummy with Dana… until she reveals she’s a Darkfriend
and is going to turn Mat and him over to a Fade. Rand breaks down the door
holding him in Dana’s clutches, and he runs into and away with Mat. Dana
corners them and claims the Dark One wants to use Rand to “free” the world from
its suffering, to break the Wheel of Time and end pain. Rand and Mat aren’t
buying it, though, but when Dana goes to threaten them with Rand’s sword,
Thom’s dagger finds her throat, killing her. The boys run off after the
gleeman. Nynaeve begrudgingly did her best to treat Moiraine’s wounds and traveled
with Lan and her to meet up with a contingent of Red Ajah and other Aes Sedai
transporting a captured Self-Proclaimed Dragon, Logain Ablar. Enough recap
let’s get to it.
Episode 4: The Dragon Reborn
She makes persuasive arguments.
We open with a flashback to Logain
Ablar leading his troops on an attack on the capital of Ghealdan. The King of
Ghealdan, credited as just that but I’m going to call him Johanin, why? Because
that was the name of the king ruling Ghealdan at the time of Logain’s rise to
power. Johanin’s retainers try to stop Logain, but he is too powerful, his
weaves shattering their spears and bodies. Interestingly, when Logain summons
weaves, they start out as white as Moiraine’s or any other Aes Sedai we’ve
seen, but after a second or two, a blackness engulfs them. His army overruns
the keep, and Logain catches up to Johanin. Johanin tells him that he’ll never
hold the crown, but crowns mean nothing to the Dragon Reborn. He hears a voice
telling him to finish it. Logain scoffs at the idea of the Aes Sedai stopping him,
as he believes they should follow him. They fear that the Dragon will break the
world again, but Logain insists he will save the world. The voice tells Logain
to kill Johanin again, and in his distraction while responding to it, Johanin
tries to kill him. Logain stops the knife hand and captures him in flows of
air. The voice comes again, this time manifesting into a person made from
corrupted weaves, warning of betrayal. Another forms, agreeing that Johanin
will betray him, like his family. Logain, instead of listening, uses his power
to heal Johanin’s shoulder wound. He kneels to Johanin’s level and says that
there will always be a place at his side for anyone. The last Dragon broke the
world, but I plan to bind it.
We jump ahead to Nynaeve looking over
the Aes Sedai camp she’s found herself in. Lan seems to be making himself at
home with his Warder brethren as Moiraine is healed by Kerene Nagashi, a sister
of the Green Ajah. Once she is up, she asks why it seemed to take so much of
Kerene’s strength to heal her rather simple injury when she’s powerful enough
to hold back armies. Kerene reveals she’s exhausted as she is only one of three
sisters strong enough to hold Logain Shielded from the Power. Moiraine wants to
meet Logain, and she’s brought to him. We’re reintroduced to Liandrin and
introduced to the other channeler holding Logain, Alanna Mosvani. They’re
holding Logain and blocking his ears with weaves of air. They slipped into his
camp while he slept to capture him and used lightning to scare his followers
off. Kerene set wards in case that isn’t the case. Liandrin is quite insistent
that they Gentle Logain now, but Kerene seems to be in charge, and she holds to
the charge their boss the Amyrlin Seat gave them to bring Logain back for
trial. Moiraine offers to help them hold Logain, taking Liandrin’s place in
their shield. Once Liandrin drops her shield, Moiraine physically shakes as she
feels Logain’s power buck against her own.
This is Warder bonding.
We jump out to Lan doing weapon
forms with Stepin, Kerene’s Warder. They chat a bit, Stepin revealing that the
Amyrlin Seat is still not pleased with Moiraine and has threatened to bring
them in personally. He questions Lan’s “companion” Nynaeve, but Lan isn’t
talking about her. He goes to join Kerene when he sees her. They chat, with
Kerene expressing difficulty with working with Moiraine, even if she respects
her. Stepin tells her that Liandrin is getting support with the others, but
Kerene isn’t worried. Stepin wants her to rest while she ahs the chance, but
there is no rest for an Aes Sedai.
We jump over to Egwene and Perrin
with the Tinkers. Perrin didn’t sleep last night and is… nervous around the
Tinkers. Egwene tells him if the bad feeling is strong enough, they’ll leave,
no question. Aram comes up and tells them that the Tuatha’an are traveling east
towards the White Tower and that they’re welcome to join them for as long as
they can stand Tinkers. They claim to be from Whitebridge but got separated
from the trading caravan, but Aram clearly doesn’t buy that.
Rand, Mat and Thom are riding some
horses they stole when they come upon a farm. Rand and Mat pull back and try to
figure out Thom. Rand doesn’t trust him, but Mat does point out that he did
save their lives. To which Rand counters that might have been a ploy to ingratiate
him with them. Mat does conclude that would be smart but focuses in on the
other thing that Dana said, that the Dragon might be one of five of them. He
wonders who that might be.
It takes 2 of these 3 to hold him in place.
Moiraine meanwhile, is doing her
best to hold Logain in, but expresses to Alanna how weird it is to hold Logain
back when she can’t see his weaves. Remember, Saidin (male half) users can’t
see flows of Saidar (female half) users. The show shows us both because it’s
easier to visualize both. Moiraine gets in close to examine him. Alanna asks
Moiraine about the name of a dog she’d secretly kept when they were novices,
but Moiraine sees through the question as a ploy to get information about her activities.
She deduces that Kerene asked her to use her and Moiraine’s old friendship to
pump her for information. She doesn’t hold it against Alanna, though, saying
she could have been Blue Ajah with that sort of tactic, to which Alanna scoffs
at, as one Warder wouldn’t be enough for her. No, the “Battle Ajah” was always
what appealed to Alanna. Alanna worries that Logain is a sign that the Last
Battle is coming. Moiraine says that there have been false Dragon’s before, but
Logain’s power makes Alanna worried. Alanna asks the big question, that, what
happens if the Last Battle comes but the Dragon Reborn has been gentled. Before
Moiraine can answer, Logain bucks hard at their shields and they need to turn
their focus to them.
On Ajahs, the White Tower is broken
up into the Seven Ajahs, the individual… clubs, schools, social groups, take
your pick, of the Tower. Greens are the Battle Ajah and claim to prepare
themselves to fight the Last Battle, and for that have multiple Warders. Blues believe
in Justice and championing causes and have the most extensive network of spies
in the world. Browns seek knowledge in all it’s forms and spend most of their
days in libraries. Greys are diplomats and negotiators and often serve as
advisors to royalty. Whites are big into logic and like Browns are more
scholarly in nature. Yellows are healing specialists. And Reds devote
themselves into hunting rogue channelers (in the books, Men specifically, but
the show states here in a second that non-Tower Women are also in their
purview) and take no Warder at all. The Amyrlin Seat is chosen from one of the
Seven to preside over the Hall of the Tower, its governmental body composed of representatives
of each Ajah, the Sitters. Each Ajah has three. Sorry, should have explained
that sooner.
Outside, Nynaeve is eating chicken
while watching the camp when Liandrin finds her to get information from her.
Nynaeve sees through it, though. She says she’ll answer Liandrin’s questions
after Liandrin answers a few of hers. She starts with how long Liandrin has
known Moiraine.
Rand, Mat and Thom are planning to
break into a barn they found after nightfall, spend the night and be out before
dawn, hoping the farmer doesn’t catch them. Mat’s horse start freaking out,
which seems to draw the attention of the farm’s owner, Mr. Grinwell. Grinwell
has a bow on them. Mat goes for his dagger, but Rand intercedes, telling
Grinwell that they were just planning to rest in the barn in the night and
leave. He doesn’t think Grinwell wants to kill them, though, as he has the bow
drawn with a full fist and not his fingertips. And that Rand wouldn’t have said
any of that if he wanted to kill Grinwell. He lowers his bow, and then calls
off his wife and son who had their bows also pointed at them. They agree to let
them stay if they muck out the stables.
Returning to Nynaeve, Liandrin is
at the end of a presumably longer story about how Moiraine she knows Moiraine,
ending on which Ajahs they joined. Calls the Blues as Spies that exaggerate
their own importance. Lan comes up to them and Liandrin excuses herself, but
not before telling Nynaeve that the Red Ajahs tent is always open to women. Nynaeve
calls her a snake and is worried about heading toward the Tower. Lan tells her
they’ll be heading there soon, and that either her friends will be there, or
the resources to find them will be. He offers her a spot by the Warder’s fire if
she promises not to try to shove him into it.
The Traveling People live up to their name.
Back with Perrin and Egwene, Perrin
asks if the Tinkers have seen anyone like them on the Plain. Aram tells him no,
but they should feel lucky that the Tinkers found them, as they don’t usually
pass this way, but they’re trying to avoid soldiers from Logain’s army. Perrin
wonders why they’d be worried as they have the numbers to defend themselves,
but Raen informs him that they don’t have weapons. Ila explains that they
follow the Way of the Leaf, they forswear violence in all it’s forms. Perrin is
clearly confused by this. Ila asks if his life has been worse or better since
he picked up his axe, to which Perrin seems stunned.
Rand and Mat are mucking out
stables while Thom drinks and “supervises.” The gleeman offered to entertain
the Grinwells as an alternative form of labor for them, to stay fresh for the
performance. Mat seems to be feeling ill, which concerns Thom. Mat goes to
throw up, as he does so, we see the blackness of Mashadar creeping on his
discarded lunch and on his face, when Helga Grinwell, daughter of the Grinwells
arrived to bring the workers some bread for dinner. Mat, does his best to pull
himself together and thanks Helga for the Bred, getting down on her level to
talk to her. They have this kind of sweet moment, where he mentions she’s like
his sisters back home. She offers to give him her doll, Birgitte, back with him
as she protects Helga while she sleeps. I just made a squeeing noise at that
name, but you’ll find out why later. Mat tries to refuse but Helga insists, and
he takes it. In the barn, Rand is rationalizing Mat’s sickness as something he
caught in Breen’s Spring, but Thom doesn’t think so. He explains that Mat is
having similar symptoms as his nephew Owyn did years ago. He says that Owyn was
like Mat, spent half his life getting into trouble and the other half getting
out. He was a good boy, though. But that changed one day, when he started
snapping at family, animals were tense around him and no one could figure out
why, until one day when he threw a rock without using his hands. Yep, Thom
thinks Mat is a channeler. Huh. Rand isn’t sure, saying Mat would tell him as
he isn’t an idiot. Thom says neither was Owyn, hell, he probably knew more
about it thanks to his gleeman uncle’s stories. He knew that at the end of the
last age the Dark One corrupted the power so any man who used it would go mad.
Eventually, an Aes Sedai found Owyn when Thom was away, and was Gentled, being
cut off from his ability to channel. And when Rand says, “At least he got to
live,” Thom reveals that channelers almost universally die within weeks of
losing their connection. Many of them die from a depression funk, but in this
version, Owyn slit his own throat. Thom promises to stay with them to keep them
safe for as long as he can, but they must keep Mat away from the Aes Sedai to
keep him safe. When Rand points out that Thom knows a lot for a simple gleeman,
Thom informs him that they use that name because the silly name makes them less
frightening. Nothing is more dangerous than a man who knows the past.
At the Aes Sedai camp, Moiraine and
Kerene are keeping Logain shielded. Outside, Nynaeve is having dinner with the Lan
and Stepin, as well as their Warder friends Maksim, and Ihvon and a few others
that don’t get names. I feels I need to note that Ihvon is laying against
Maksim’s legs. ... Cuz. Stepin just
finished a story about Lan being launched into a pig trough by his horse that
everyone laughs at. When asked how Nynaeve got involved with them, Lan starts
to tell a lie, but Nynaeve cuts him off with the truth that she tracked Lan. The
Warders all have a laugh at that. When some of the Warders leave to follow
their Aes Sedai, Nynaeve claims they “serve” them, the Warders don’t agree.
Stepin claims the bond they share with the Aes Sedai is closer than any person
can have. That Aes Sedai means servants of all in the old tongue, and that
makes them proud to work alongside them. Alanna joins them and draws Ihvon and
Maksim away, and it’s HEAVILY implied that the three of them are a couple. Lan
retires, leaving Nynaeve with Stepin.
In Moiraine’s tent, Lan points out
that Logain is ten years too old to fit the prophecy. He asks if Logain is
strong enough, Moiraine doesn’t think so but isn’t sure. Lan doesn’t think the
Dark One is after Logain, but Moiraine just shakes her head and says she doesn’t
think the Dark One knows who the Dragon is any more than them. Lan isn’t sure
if that’s terrifying or comforting. Moiraine is clearly upset they lost their
bet candidates. Lan kind of smirks and says she shouldn’t have drunk because
Moiraine always gets emotional when he does.
A simple life. Not an easy one, but simple.
At the Tinker Camp, they’re having
a dance party. Egwene is real into it, but Perrin is staying back. He wonders
off and leaves her to her fun. She asks Aram as they dance about the Song. He
explains that his people believe that they once knew a Song that could bring
harmony to the world, but they lost it inn the breaking. His grandparents
believe, but Aram claims that only fools and children really do. Egwene asks if
he’s sure they haven’t already found it, and we get a nice slowmo shot of
everyone dancing. Perrin, meanwhile, helps them fix a wagon wheel. He asks Ila
about a Tinker with scars on her face, to which Ila says she was a killer but
renounced her ways to join the Tinkers. Perrin believes there are things you
can’t run away from, but Ila doesn’t see it as running. “There is only one way
to end violence, everyone, everywhere, has to stop.” Perrin points out that even
if Ila only changes two minds, like she claims would make her content, she’ll
never see that peaceful world. Nor will Aram or even Aram’s great-great-great
grandchildren. Ila explains that she had a daughter, Aram’s mother, who was
violently killed by bandits. For no reason, just the sport of it. She wants to
bring peace for her, so that when her daughter is weaved back in, it would be
in a better world. Aram and Egwene are sitting together, and Aram asks who the
man who hold’s Egwene’s heart is. She claims she hasn’t lost him, as she’d know
if she had. Aram explains that at 20, the Tinkers leave the wagons for a time.
… I guess the Tinkers are also a bit Amish in this turning. Anyway, they leave
to explore the world. Some farm, some set sail, some fight even, but most come
home. He says the Leaf doesn’t fight the wind, sometimes it’s blown from the
tree.
He sees you.
Jumping over to the Grinwells, Rand
tells Mat that he’s here for him, no matter what, but Mat doesn’t respond. Rand
blows out the candle and goes to sleep. In a nightmare, he sees Perrin
bludgeoning a body with his hammer, Mat walking with a bloodied right hand in a
trance, and Egwene suddenly grabbed by the man in black with Burning eyes. He
wakes in a start to Thom telling him it’s alright. They see Mat is gone and go
to check the farmhouse. They see the Grinwells dead and Mat standing there. We
see Mashadar creeping from his mouth before sliding back in, as Thom says to
grab him and for them to run. Mat suddenly points to the upper floor with is
dagger and says, “I see you,” to the Fade that reveals itself. Thom hurls a
knife at it and tells the boys to run while he fights it. They run, seeing
Helga’s dead body as they do. They get their horses and ride off, Brigitte the
doll buried in the dirt.
The next day at the Aes Sedai camp,
Nynaeve sees Lan walking and goes to follow. In Logain’s cave, Kerene confronts
Liandrin about talking to everyone else about Gentling Logain without trial.
Liandrin notes that Logain is so powerful that he isn’t even sweating while
continuing to try to break out of his shield, one of the most taxing things a
channeler can do. She points out that if Logain broke free, they could just
Gentle him, but Kerene says they must follow the law. In the cage, Logain
smiles. Nynaeve finds Lan doing some sort of prayer with water. He explains
it’s a Malkieri tradition, for the seven towers, for the home they lost.
Nynaeve says a prayer for Malkier too, which impresses Lan as it’s in the Old
Tongue. Nynaeve doesn’t, she doesn’t even know what the prayer means, but it’s
the last thing her parents told her when they hid her in a cellar during an
attack on their village. Lan tells her the meaning, it/s what the last king of
Manetheran said to his wife, before riding out to the battle that he knew he’d
lose. “We shall go into the land, so our children can always hold us, and will
never be alone.” Sweet. Nynaeve said he isn’t what he thought he was, a lapdog
with two legs. To which Lan says you are what I think you are, but before he
can answer what that means, warnings go off that Logain’s army is arriving,
bird calls for the normies, and Kerene’s wards for the Aes Sedai.
Arrows start flying at them, but
Alanna holds them up with weaves of air. In the cave, while Liandrin claims no
army can get passed seven full Sisters, Logain attacks full force, shattering
their shield, freeing himself and knocking both women back. Stepin feels that
Kerene was knocked down and warns the others as Johanin calls the charge for
the Dragon. Alanna drops the arrows on the chargers, and they fall back to the
woods. The Aes Sedai and Warders keep the attacker at bay, while Nynaeve looks
on, clearly freaking out at being in another battle. But grabs her knife and
shivs a dude that treis to attack her. Logain disintegrates his cage as the
fighting goes on outside. As he steps from the ashes, Moiraine arrives. She
warns the others will be there soon, so they don’t have much time to talk. She
asks why she should believe he’s the Dragon Reborn. He claims that he can hear
them, that those Corrupt weave wrought apparitions we saw before are the
thousand previous Dragons, the Thousand lives he’s lived. He says the voices
are teaching him to do better this time, and asks isn’t that what the Wheel
wants, for them to do better? Moiraine tells him the Wheel doesn’t want, that’s
a thing of people. Logain asks what she wants. After confirming Kerene is
getting up, Moiraine starts channeling and tells Logain the voices he hears are
whispers of madness and that as strong as he is, his power is a trickle. A
pinprick of candlelight against the Sun that will be the Dragon Reborn. Kerene
knocks him back and all three Aes Sedai try to weave shields. The other two
focusing on the shield, Kerene throws up shields to block Logain’s attack,
which cause her to be thrown back and impaled. She dies, and Stepin feels it,
going into a rage. The fighting outside is getting worse, Alanna sending
everyone else to get to Logain while she and hers hold the army back. She hits
them with a massive shockwave, killing dozens, including Johanin. Liandrin is
drawing too much, according to Moiraine, and that seems to be characterized by
her cheeks glowing with an internal light. She claims to not care, as she will
cut him down for killing Kerene. The others arrive and seeing Kerene dead makes
Stepin fly into a rage again and he tries to cut off Logain’s head. His axes
bite into the Shield, allowing Logain to destroy them and throw shrapnel back,
injuring everyone sans Nynaeve and cutting Lan’s throat.
Quick, Nynaeve, use the Kamehameha!
Nynaeve, seeing the carnage, tries
to save Lan, but the bleeding is too much. She starts chanting NO, and on the
third, causes a shockwave of Saidar to fly out, healing all the injured in a
maelstrom. Logain, stunned, says “Like a raging sun.” The other Aes Sedai link
with Liandrin, and with their power, violently Gentles Logain. We see as the corrupted Saidin leaves him, and
tear flow down his cheeks. He drops to the ground, powerless and sobbing.
Stepin holds Kerene, and Lan feels his injured throat. We close on Nynaeve
staring at the camera. Chills, absolute chills.
I’ll start with Perrin and Egwene’s
plot. I actually love Aram and the Tinkers in this go-round. In the books, Aram
is a pretty much a nothing character in his first appearance, a pretty boy that
tries to get Egwene to stay with him when she and Perrin elect to leave. Him as
this sarcastic charmer was a much more fun take on the character. Ila’s speech
about the Way of the Leaf hits a lot harder here. In the books, she just feels
like someone preaching a philosophy that is easy for her but can’t accept is
actually very hard for people who are struggling against the forces of evil. The
reveal of the personal tragedy of her daughter’s death, again show only, makes
it seem… more real. She has struggled with the Way, it seems, but decided it
was the best way to honor her daughter and bring a better world. I loved that
Thom and Rand are… misinterpreting Mat’s illness as Channeling sickness. It’ll
make the reveal about the dagger even more shocking; I think. Seeing Mat have a
moment with Helga Grinwell was sweet, and just doubled the pain when we see her
dead later. I LOVED seeing the Fade fighting finally. So far, they’d just been sitting
on their horse looking menacing, it was neat to see them bust out not only
their killer fighting skills but also their supernatural powers like the
traveling through shadows thing. Now we know they just aren’t Trolloc
coordinators, but threats on their own. And now onto the highlight of the
episode, the Aes Sedai camp story. I LOVED seeing Logain in this version. Álvaro
Morte really breathed life into this character, making me feel sorry for Logain
in this telling, more so than in the original version. He believed he could
save the world, believed it with his whole being, but to see his power taken
away like that will break him. This isn’t the last we’ll see of Logain, though,
so we’ll get to see more of his post power story. Loved seeing Nynaeve and Lan
in this. In the books, they’ve got a very intense love/hate relationship early
on, and I think we’re starting to see that form here. She is distrustful of Aes
Sedai, but Lan is someone she trusts, within reason. The additional Aes Sedai
were also interesting. Liandrin was pretty one dimensional in the books, being
a petty, meanspirited character from the get-go, so seeing her in a more…
heroic capacity is… interesting. Alanna is another character that puts my back
up, but for different reasons we’ll get into later, but even she was interesting
and fun in this version. All but stating her and her Warders are in a
polyamorous relationship I think was a good call. Greens in the books had an
unfortunate habit of coming off as a bit… slutty when it came to their Warders.
And, while it was implied that Alanna probably was in a relationship with both,
the idea that they are also romantically involved changes the dynamic for the
better, I think. And that last battle scene was amazing. I loved seeing the
weaves used offensively, seeing the warders fight, Logain’s prison break and
finally Nynaeve going full on Super Saiyan to heal everyone and let Logain be
beaten was just… amazing. A thing I and others have noticed regarding both
Logain and Nynaeve as opposed to other channelers. Aes Sedai are reliant ono
their hand gestures to do anything, to form a shield requires cupping your
hands in a ball, Alanna had to point to the sky to block arrows, etc. But Nynaeve
and Logain both just will things to happen. It’s a less formal style, I think, and
fitting for one person who is going on instinct in the moment and the other who
is self-taught. I loved this episode and am looking forward to the next. Next
time let’s talk about Dune.
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