To Tar Valon, the greatest city in the world!
Last time on the Wheel of Time, our
heroes were all making their way to the White Tower in Tar Valon. Rand and Mat
were traveling with Thom Merrilin, a gleeman (traveling performer/storyteller),
who had helped them out a Breen’s Spring. They stopped at a farm, intended to
break into the barn to sleep for the night, but were caught by the farm owners.
They convinced the family, the Grinwells, to let them stay the night in
exchange for chores. Thom let’s Rand know that he thinks Mat is a channeler,
given his strange illness and memories from his own nephew Owein’s short time
as one. In the night, they discover Mat in the farmhouse, surrounded by bodies
when a Fade appears. Thom lets the boys escape and fights the creature presumably
to the death. Perrin and Egwene, at that time, were having an easy trip
traveling with the Tinkers. Egwene fits herself in with them easily, and Perrin
gets told of the Way of the Leaf by the lead Tinker. Meanwhile, Nynaeve, Lan
and Moiraine join up with the Aes Sedai procession bringing the False Dragon
Logain to the Tower. Moiraine is healed and goes about catching up on the
situation, as does Lan with his fellow Warders. Liandrin, the Red sister from
episode 1, seems to want to pry information from Nynaeve, but the Wisdom is
closed mouthed. She and Lan have a bit of a moment, but it’s ruined by Logain’s
forces trying to free him. Logain uses his overwhelming strength to free
himself but is slowed down enough by Moiraine for backup to arrive. He kills Kerene
Sedai, a friend of Moiraine’s, in the struggle. When her warder, Stepin, tries
to kill Logain in his grief he only succeeds in giving Logain a means to free
himself. Hi axes got stuck in the shield, Logain destroys them and flings
shrapnel all about. Everyone is hit save Nynaeve, Lan taking a blow to his
jugular from the amount of blood loss. Nynaeve furiously begins channeling,
healing everyone in a wave of the One Power. Logain repeats a line that
Moiraine told him, that the Dragon Reborn’s radiance will be “Like the Sun”
compared to him, awed. Before he can react, Liandrin leads the Sisters in an
attack, Gentling him right then and their despite law and custom. And that’s
the end.
Episode 5: Blood Calls Blood
Damn, Stepin is strong.
We open with the Aes Sedai burying
the dead from the battle. That includes King Johanin of Ghealdan and his troops
as well. Neat. Stepin buries Kerene and is visibly shaken by saying goodbye to
her. After we jump forward one month, which I appreciate the time signifier. In
the books, Jordan wasn’t the best at giving us a sense of the passage off time,
in part because he seemed to waffle on if a week in the Third Age was seven
days or ten. Anyway, the procession is making its way to and are insight of the
tower. Lan mentions that they’re nearly home, but Moiraine insists that home is
the road, these boots, and this brooding man at her side. Lan reports that
Nynaeve is worried about Stepin and asks if Moiraine thinks that they’ll find
the others in the city. She just insists they find them there or wherever they
currently are.
Two country bumpkins in a big city, what can
possibly go wrong?
Meanwhile, Mat and Rand are walking
toward the tower a few miles off, it seems. Rand is doing as well as can be
expected, but Mat is looking visibly sick. He almost lashes out at a kid for
running into him, which I think tells Rand just how bad his friend is feeling. As
they get close to the city, Rand sees Dragonmount in the distance and says that
he thinks he’s seen it before. They climb a rise and see Tar Valon in the
distance and are impressed. They make it to the city. Inside, they’re kind of
awed by all the people and things on display. “Blood and Ashes” as Rand puts
it. They go to an Inn that Thom told Rand about, the Light’s Blessing. Mat asks
about going to the White Tower, to which Rand says they need to clean up first.
As they go inside, we hear a whistling sound and see a man watching them enter
the inn. How creepy.
Mat and Rand get a room, Mat
basically collapsing into bed as they get inside. Mat asks Rand to tell him
again that he didn’t kill the kid from the farm, which Rand apparently has told
him a lot, but he refuses to believe.
Nynaeve is shown a room by Lan and
Moiraine in the Warder’s quarters. Nynaeve wants to find her people and is
already sick of tower politics. Moiraine gives Nynaeve advice about how being a
channeler changes things. She gets Moiraine to say flat out that she’ll inform
Nynaeve when she finds her friends, she will bring her to them.
Oh, fun, Whitecloaks.
Perrin and Egwene are making their
way to the Tower with the Tinkers. Both seem to have found peace with them, but
that’s ruined by a Whitecloak search party. It’s lead by Eamon Valda, the
Questioner. He sees Perrin and Egwene, remembers them and demands they come
with him. The Tinker form a wall to stop the Children of the Light, giving
Perrin, Egwene and Aram time to run. They only make it a short way before the
Children catch up to them. They knock Aram out and then corner Perrin and
Egwene.
Back in Tar Valon, Rand is
examining the inn’s library where he meets a most peculiar and delightful guest
of the Inn, Loial. Loial son of Arent son of Halan is an Ogier. Rand initially mistaken
him for a Trolloc, given hiss wide, flat nose, huge hands, and other inhuman
features, but Loial is used to that reaction by now. He is quite delighted to
meet Rand al’Thor, an Aielman from the Two Rivers who insists that he’s not an
Aielman. Loial proclaims Rand’s background as an oddity, and that he likes
oddities. They chat about books for a bit, well, about books and Egwene, but
are interrupted by Logain being paraded about. Rand sees Mat outside and
follows him.
Loial son of Arent son of Halan for the Win, baby!
They meet up on an upper balcony as
the procession comes through. Logain is back in his cage and getting vegetables
thrown at him. As he passes, he and Mat lock eyes for a second and Mat has a
vison of Logain laughing frantically at him. Mat, after that episode, insists
that he and Rand make a deal to kill each other if they end up being able to
channel. Rand is hesitant but agrees.
Back in the Tower, Stepin is robed
in white and prepared for the funeral, by Maksim and Ihvon. Stepin mentions
this is the first time he’s worn white since his father, whom he hated, died.
After he got into drunken brawls to handle this grief, until he met Kerene who
gave him purpose again. He knew he wasn’t worthy when she asked him to be her
Warder, but he agreed to it. He “had to become worthy of her.” Maksim breaks
the tension by mentioning that his father tried to kill him when he was 12, so
stop complaining. Lan tells Stepin that maybe he should become another of
Alana’s Warders, to help soften his pain, but Stepin angrily tells him to lose
Moiraine before trying to tell him to jump from one woman to the next. They
have the funeral rite for Kerene, which involves Stepin casting her Aes Sedai
ring into a pyre, melting it down. Lan joins Moiraine in her rooms, the two
having a silent moment together.
Valda only interrogates during lunch.
At the Whitecloak Camp, Egwene is
aggressively scrubbed cleaned, placed in a white dress, and then brought before
Eamon Valda. He has her hands restrained as he dishes himself up some pork. I’m
starting to think he can’t eat without interrogating/torturing someone. Perrin
is then brought in, bound and muzzled, before being strapped to a rack. Egwene
tries to beg for their lives, insisting that they’re ‘no body’ but Valda isn’t
buying it. He believes she can channel, despite her protests. He puts a knife
to her throat and tells her to stop him from killing her. Egwene refuses and
points out the logical fallacy that a man that “follows the Light” won’t kill
someone for doing nothing. Valda seems impressed with her gumption, claiming
she’d have been a strong Aes Sedai, and a wonderful ring to add to his
collection. He rips Perrin’s shirt and starts cutting his back, Perrin’s eyes turning
bright gold as he does so, and we hear a static-like noise as his screams are
muffled. Valda explains the Whitecloak philosophy that humans are “meant to be
of this Earth” and that the power of the Aes Sedai corrupts it. He continues to
slash Perrin’s back as he talks. He tells her to channel for him, if she does,
he’ll kill her and let Perrin go. If she doesn’t, he’ll kill Perrin and then
let her go. And gives her some time to think about it, pulling out Perrin’s
muzzle as he goes.
Stepin visits Nynaeve in her rooms,
asking for more of her goat’s tongue plant to help him sleep. She agrees,
Stepin telling her that he’s “not ready” to let go of the pain yet. She
promises him it never will, not completely, he thanks her and goes. Nynaeve
explores some of the Tower’s Warder quarter, stopping at a hall of Warder
statues. Liandrin joins her, explaining the statues are almost as old as the
Tower and are meant to represent all the Warders that bonded to her sisters. When
Nynaeve asks if Red’s don’t keep Warders because they hate men, she denies
personally hating them, but there is this kind of intense moment where Liandrin
talks about how men are “rarely kind to little girls” that show they’ll be
greater than a man. Liandrin points Nynaeve to the gardens, stating she should
enjoy herself.
Back at the Inn, Loial comes to
Rand, telling his new friend a fun fact that Ogier are allowed onto the Tower
grounds. Why is that fun? Because he found Nynaeve there. He realized it was
her thanks to the braid, he explains the history of the braid while the others
ignore him and hug. Nynaeve looks over Mat, and see’s him deathly ill. She asks
to see his tongue, but Mat grabs her and tells her not to touch him. Outside,
she and Rand talk, Rand telling her that he thinks Mat can channel. He’s
hesitant to talk to Moiraine, which Nynaeve agrees might not be a good idea.
She’ll look after Mat, and when the others arrive, they’ll figure things out
from there, together. Nynaeve insists she’s alive, using an example of Egwene’s
stubbornness from her childhood. She’d had breakbone fever, and with no real
treatment options, Mistress Doral Barran prepared a tea to end her suffering,
but Egwene refused it, by the morning her fever broke, not her.
Back at the Whitecloak camp, the
girl in question is trying to channel the knife to her to free herself. Perrin
tells her to stop and says that he should be the one to die. He admits that he
killed Laila during the Trolloc attack, and that he deserves death and torture.
Valda joins them, asking if they’d reached decision. They haven’t, so he
intends to cut Perrin until he bleeds out or she channels. We hear wolves
howling in the distance as his eyes glow gold again, and Egwene tells him he’ll
forgive himself someday. Egwene starts channeling, forming fire in her hands.
Her fireball doesn’t hurt Valda, but that really was just to distract him while
she burned Perrin’s bonds. He gets up, and growls menacingly at Valda,
distracting him long enough for Egwene to free herself and then stab him in the
shoulder with his own knife. Valda drops and they hear barking outside. Egwene
grabs Valda’s chain of Aes Sedai rings, and they try to run. The camp is being
ripped apart by wolves. One stops them from getting to the horses for a moment,
but Perrin is sure it won’t hurt them. The wolf runs off and they grab horses.
Liandrin meets up with Moiraine and
tries to grill her Sister for information. Moiraine is evasive, as you can
imagine. Liandrin implies that she’ll get Nynaeve to join the Red Ajah, which
Moiraine just scoffs at, as Nynaeve is a healer at heart and the Yellow will be
chomping at the bit to get her. She tells Liandrin to look for converts
elsewhere and walks off.
This scene is heartbreaking in retrospect.
Lan finds Stepin praying at a small
altar. On the altar are eight black stone figures, statues of the Forsaken.
Stepin is praying on his mother’s old altar to ward off Ishamael, the Father of
Lies. They explain that the Forsaken
sold their souls to the Dark One for eternal life and that while the last
Dragon sealed them away with the Dark One, eternity is a long time, so they
might be back. Lan promises to stay up with Stepin and the two go to have a
drink.
Meanwhile, Moiraine and Alanna are
conversing. She wonders if Stepin will take Alanna’s offer to bond Stepin, but
Alanna isn’t sure. Moiraine read that there is a way to release the bond, but
it’s not well known. Alanna comforts her friend, and then confirms the Amyrlin
is returning from Caemlyn and that they need to answer for what happened to
Logain. Moiraine isn’t worried about the Amyrlin, but Alanna warns her to be
careful. Alanna leaves but warns her that she needs to trust someone with her
secrets or someday they’ll scour her from within.
Lan and Stepin have a drink, with
Stepin saying that he might take up Alanna’s offer. He asks about the Wisdom,
but Lan isn’t exactly an open book about any topic least of all her. Stepin
tells him that they’re allowed to love, and should do so, or else life would be
intolerable. Lan says he can tolerate a lot.
At dawn, Lan wakes up on the floor.
He sees the packet off Goat’s tongue powder Stepin used on him, and that one of
his swords is missing. He runs… only to find his friend dead in the Warder statue
hall. He stabbed himself through the gut, much like the Japanese Samurai’s
Seppuku tradition. Lan drops to his knees beside him. Later, they have a funeral
for Stepin. Lan is chosen to “relieve us of our grief.” He puts his hand on
Stepin and then everyone starts thumping against their chests. Lan’s eyes start
welling up with tears and he screams in pain as he joins.
I’ll start by giving a ton of
credit to Peter Franzen for his portrayal of Stepin in this episode. The man
was clearly grieving from the moment he first appeared up until his suicide at
the end. He just looked so… strung out, barely hanging on. I liked that
everyone, Lan, Ihvon, and Maksim specifically, know that he’s in pain and are
looking after him, but still ultimately underestimated his grief. The bit with
Lan at the funeral is great. He emotes more here than he did for the whole first
three books, which I love. Having the character that’s famous for being as
expressive as a rock breaking down is just great story telling. Rand and Mat’s
bit was probably the most chill plotline for this episode, just dealing with
Mat’s illness, seeing Logain and meeting Loial. God, I love Hammed Animashaun
as Loial. If you offered me a more accurate to the book Loial, (he’s supposed
to be eight or nine feet tall and have long tufted ears) but have a different
actor, I’d say no. Hammed has all the loveable charm of Loial, his mild
exasperation at the hastiness of humans, and good humor. I loved that line of
Rand being “An oddity. I love oddities” sums him up perfectly. The gag of him
talking about ancient history while the others move on is a joke that I think
would be in the book if that would be less awkward to narrate in written form. I
also really enjoyed Egwene and Perrin in the Whitecloak camp. Valda’s tactic
was very Salem witch trial, either watch your friend die or damn yourself. I
was not expecting Perrin to fess up about killing his wife to anyone this
season. I assumed it’d eat him up for a season or two before he finally broke.
But this was a fitting place for it to happen. Egwene grabbing the Aes Sedai
rings was a nice touch. She’s all about justice, that girl. Next time, we’ll
finally meet the Flame of Tar Valon, Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat. Have a
good night.
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