An event nearly two years in the making.
Last time on The Wheel of Time,
Rand and Moiraine set out to face his destiny. While they traveled the Great
Blight to the Eye of the World, Rand is plagued by dreams of the mysterious man
in Black taunting him. They arrive at the Eye and Rand falls into a coma. In
his sleep, the Dark One tries to tempt Rand by showing him a vision of his
perfect world, a life with Egwene and their daughter living in the al’Thor
farm. Rand nearly falls to it, but rallies when he remembers that even if this
is his fantasy, that’s not his Egwene so this isn’t worth it. He uses a
sa’angreal in his pocket to seemingly overwhelm and destroy the Dark One. While
that is going on, Egwene and Nynaeve are recruited to protect Fal Dara from a
Trolloc invasion. They form a circle with Lady Amalisa, sister to Lord Agelmar,
the lord of the castle and two others. They hold the Trollocs off, but everyone
but Egwene ends up burning out and dying. With the last of her channeling
strength, Egwene is able to revive Nynaeve. And while that is going on, a
raiding party of Fades lead by Padan Fain break into Fal Dara and steal the
Horn of Valere, an ancient artifact hidden in the castle for centuries. Loial,
the Two Rivers Folk’s friend, is cut by Mat’s old evil dagger in the struggle
and Perrin is left existentially struggling if he can hold onto the way of the
leaf and face off against evil. At the Eye, Rand wakes up and begs Moiraine to
find a way to tell everyone that he died here at the Eye. He’s worried that the
madness Saidin channelers always succumb to will consume him and he’ll kill his
friend unless he runs. She agrees to. After he left, Moiraine’s bodyguard and
confidant Lan arrives. They realize that the Eye was a seal to the Dark One’s
prison, it’s broken now, and that Moiraine was Stilled by the Dark One at the
start of the fight. Hell of a finale. Let’s get to season 2.
Episode 9: A Taste of Solitude
We begin at an isolated manner
house. A little girl is playing outside and looking at what looks like another
seal to the Dark One’s prison. A group of Trollocs arrive and run at the girl.
She runs inside and slams the door on them. She runs inside and hides under the
table. A meeting is going on, lead by the Man from last season, the guy that
Rand battled at and seemingly defeated at the Eye of the World. There are
several other people at this meeting, but we don’t see any of their faces as
we’re at the little girl’s eye level. She goes to speak to her mom, when the
Man ducks under the table and says they’re in the middle of a meeting. He knows
she’s in there because of the Trolloc. He takes her by the hand and says that
people call him monster and other mean things, Father of Lies, Betrayer of
Hope, Forsaken. He says they call him and the other “chosen” such hideous names
because if they called him by what he really is, no one would be afraid. We’re
shown Padan Fain at the meeting as he pulls his hood off and winks at her. The
Man takes her outside and shows her to the Trolloc, asking what if it’s not
evil, what if it’s just hungry? He picks the girl up and places his hand and
then hers against the Trolloc’s. Weird.
Shifting locations, we find Moiraine
working on a farm of some kind near a cliff. She’s drawing water from a well
and walking it back to main building. She pours the water into a large tub and uses
it to wash herself. She’s clearly trying to channel but the weaves don’t come
to her like they used to. She tries to relax in the water, but ends up crying
and hugging herself. Lan, meanwhile, is training with his sword. He goes
through several basic sword forms and also seems to be bottling up his
emotions. A horse rides up, breaking his concentration. We return to the main
house where we’re introduced to the Aes Sedai Adeleas and Verin, and Verin’s
Warder Tomas. Adeleas hits on Lan, but
he doesn’t acknowledge it, saying that they’ve got a visitor arriving. Verin
says that this is the 20th guest they’ve had and that neither Lan
nor Verin know what it’s about. Lan tells Moiraine that they’ve another
visitor, this one from Illian. The guest, Bayle Domon, introduces himself
before Moiraine orders Lan out. She says they have business to attend to.
We jump to the Amyrlin’s study in
Tar Valon. Egwene is there as a Novice, cleaning mostly. For those who don’t
know, a HUGE part of Novice training at the White Tower is centered around
having them do manual labor. It’s supposed to build character or something like
that. She does her best to keep her head down, and to not comment when she sees
things like Alanna Sedai in bed with her Warders/Lovers Ihvon and Maksim. Which,
ya know, is hard for a Two Rivers girl. They’re prudish. She passes the Warder
Training grounds and deeper into the Tower bowels to help Nynaeve with the
cooking. Nynaeve asks if the Amyrlin was back yet, but Egwene says no. Nynaeve
notes that they were told that the Wheel pulled them to the Tower, making them
sound important, but that they’ve only been cleaning since they signed the
Novice Book. Egwene says that it’s a rite of passage and to not complain.
Alanna comes in and gives the women in the kitchen a mini lesson on the One
Power. It comes in five parts, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit. The test
today is to use touch the Source and use the One Power to clean a glass full of
wash water before drinking it. Gross. She demonstrates the weave, taking the
threads of earth from the stones around them, threads of water from the air or
glass, combine them and then use that to clean the water. Egwene tries to it
without using her hands, and Nynaeve… well, she can’t seem to find the Source. Alanna
tells the other women to leave and has a talk with them. Basically she tells
them that the Lady Amalisa used their power kill the Trollocs in Fal Dara, that
they have great potential, Egwene’s is better than most but Nynaeve is
supposedly THE strongest initiate they’ve had in living memory. But she’s been
at the Tower for five months and hasn’t touched the Source once. Alanna gives
Nynaeve the ultimatum about the water and tells her to close her eyes. Instead,
Nynaeve drinks the gross water. Damn girl.
We jump to a meeting Alana is
having with Sheriam, Liandrin and several other sisters about the Two rivers
girls progress. Egwene needs to loosen up bit, and Nynaeve is still blocked.
Liandrin says suggests she might need a more effective teacher. It’s here we
learn that Liandrin is forbidden from teaching novices because the last one she
oversaw died. Repeat. DIED. Sheriam muses that even one loss is too many and
that the Tower is a shell of it’s former self. Liandrin insists she should be
allowed to teach Nynaeve, as the world is metaphorically burning right now.
Illian has called the Great Hunt of the Horn for the first time in a century, another
False Dragon has proclaimed himself in Saldea, and Trolloc raids in Arafel.
Liandrin asks to just talk to her, and Sheriam agrees. Alanna says this is a mistake,
but Sheriam walks off. Liandrin says that no one has ever been hurt by a little
talk… and I’m concerned she doesn’t realize that she’s going to be talking with
Nynaeve. Nynaeve can make talks hurt.
Another jump and we’re with Perrin
and Loial in Arad Doman. Perrin is writing a letter to Nynaeve and Egwene when
Loial comes up to him and says that the horses are being made ready. Perrin
muses that they’re all he has now that Rand’s gone and Mat’s missing. He’s
apparently writing to people back home and getting nothing from them either.
Loial says that the tracker Lord Ingtar hired has hired sent up a signal fire
and they go to meet him. The Hunt for the Horn of Valere begins. The group,
comprised of Perrin, Loial, Ingtar, Uno, and a bunch of nameless Shienarans
head toward the fire. Uno complains that the signal fire will tip off Fain and
the Dark Friends. Loial and Perrin tease Uno as he’s said more than once that
he’s been “this” close to catching Fain multiple times since Fal Dara. They
meet the tracker, a “sniffer” named Elyas Machera. Uno tells him to put out the
fire, but Elyas says that the fire isn’t his. He leads them to the site of a
battle, a bunch of people slaughtered by Trolloc. Perrin suddenly hears wolves
hwling and then has a vision off the fighting that took place. He begins to follow
the path of a child that escaped but stops when Elyas confirms that. They
follow the trail to a dead wolf and a dead Sheinaran. They believe the wolf was
trying to protect the girl and that the Shienaran was one of the ones that
helped Padan Fain into the keep. Ingtar orders that they bury the slaughtered
and continue in the morning.
Back at the farm, Moiraine is dealing
with Bayle. He shows her a piece of Cuendillar, Heartstone. While Moiraine says
it’s rare, she wants to know why he thinks this piece is so special. He says
it’s because the stuff is made from the One Power itself and shouldn’t BE
breakable. The stone white on one half, black on the other. Out in the garden,
Lan is picking fruit with Tomas, complaining that the broken bond has him
feeling… wrong. He says that Moiraine wants him to leave, and Tomas tells him
that that is an option, and that he’ll be here if Moiraine needs a Warder. Lan
refuses to go, Tomas saying he’s almost as stubborn as Moiraine is. Domon says
that he got the piece just outside of Cairhien, that the “moondial” outside the
city shattered early that spring. Domon says that he thinks Moiraine has people
following him, he says he wants them gone, but Moiraine says that his enemies
are his own. She notes that there’s
writing on it, Domon says that there was a poem written in the old tongue on
it. He says he’ll part with the heartstone for fifty marks and a copy of the
poem for five. Moiraine talks him down to one for the poem and just takes that,
saying it’s all she needs. Domon is actually impressed with her haggling
skills. She asks about the men following him, he says they’re two men in black
with their faces covered. Moiraine tells him to rush to his boat and get gone,
giving him ten more marks for provision. She wishes him luck as he goes. She unwravels
the poem and reads it.
Back at the Tower, Nynaeve is sword
training with Maksim and Ihvon. She’s good enough to impress them. Nynaeve
complains about Alanna, but then says it’s the Tower itself makes her feel off.
Maksim tells her that in the first month of Warder training you have to fight
ten men at once, that you get beaten and bruised and that the only thing that
can keep a man going is the reason they came to the Tower to train. She asks
what brought them, Maksim says he fell in love with a Warder, and Ihvon says he
fell in love with an Aes Sedai. How sweet… sort of. Maksim warns that the Aes
Sedai will do similar things, custom made for her, to get her to channel and
that she’ll save herself a lot of hurt if she can just answer that question. Nynaeve
heads to Egwene’s room and tries to talk to her but finds it empty. Egwene visits
Alanna. Egwene says that she wanted to talk about earlier, saying that she has
trouble focusing on two things at once. Alanna initially thinks this is a sex
question about handling two partners… but Egwene meant handling two WEAVES at
once. Alanna says that it’s because she’s focusing on the individual pieces of
dirt and not the mass of Earth itself and that’s what’s tripping her up. Egwene
thanks her and goes to leave, Alanna adding that “things are messy before
they’re perfect.”
Back in the kitchen, Nynaeve is
trying to practice the water trick when Liandrin joins her. She starts by
saying that Nynaeve has proven to be a disappointment. She says that Nynaeve is
wasting her time with the Warders. Nynaeve defends the Warders, saying she’s
learned more from them than from the sisters. Liandrin mocks the idea of
fighting with swords, showing that she can make a sword from air, and then
saying that she wouldn’t use such a thing herself. She doesn’t fight fairly;
she fights to win. She blasts Nynaeve with a tornado of Air Weaves. Nynaeve
demands to be let go. Liandrin says Red sisters don’t use Warders because they can
defend themselves, calling Warders glorified dogs. She insults Lan, saying that
he’ll end up a footnote in history, dying in a war, and pisses off Nynaeve so
much she channels and throws her back with Air Weaves. Liandrin is actually
impressed by that, saying Nynaeve was able to copy it perfectly after just
seeing it once. She shields Nynaeve and tells her to use her anger to channel.
She says she wants to make Nynaeve so strong no one will be able to take her
power away like that again. She leaves Nynaeve shaking on the floor.
The Shienarans bury the dead,
including the traitor. Perrin asks why, Ingtar saying that all men deserve a
proper burial. Perrin asks why he isn’t angry, the traitor killed hundreds of
his people. Ingtar says that if he was angry and sought revenge against all
those that wronged Shienar, there wouldn’t be any of them left in the
Borderlands. Perring talks about Fain, how Two Rivers folk treated him kindly
and how he thought of him as a friend, how he sees an image of Fain waving to
his wife and her waving back at him, smiling. He’s clearly shifting some of the
anger and guilt at her death on to Fain, just saying. Perrin says that there’s
a rage inside of him that grows as they get closer to finding him. He’s worried
about killing Fain and watching him bleed out in front of him like Laila did.
Ingtar says that maybe he had a reason and says that it might be worth it to
ask Fain that question even if he doesn’t like the answer.
Lan goes to Moiraine and asks how
it went. She’s still reading the poem and doesn’t acknowledge him until he asks
who the trader was. Lan is infuriated by Moiraine smiling at him and acting
like everything is fine and tells her as much. Moiraine says she’ll have her
dinner up here and Lan says to make it herself as he storms off. She sits in
silence and looks at the poem again.
Nynaeve goes to speak with Egwene,
showing her a letter from Perrin. She asks what Egwene is doing, and Egwene
reveals that it’s Bel Tine again, so she’s making one of the boats. Nynaeve reads
the letter, summed up, he’s overwhelmed but enjoying his time with the soldiers
and uses a metaphor about using shields to protect each other to say he misses
them. But now that they’re separated, every day he feels exposed. He tells them
that next year the four of them, Perrin, Egwene, Nynaeve and Loial will
celebrate Bel Tine together and if they’re lucky, Mat will stay out of trouble
and find them too. We cut to Mat, sitting on the floor of a cell. She reads the
same letter to Mat, sans the line about him and then says how sad it is that in
a dozen letters he hasn’t been mentioned once. She mocks his pain, saying it
must be difficult for them to forgive him for abandoning him. Mat says what she
wants. She says that naivety doesn’t suit him. He says that he hasn’t touched
the dagger in six months and he’s not a threat to anyone. She wishes him a
merry Bel Tine and locks him in.
We see Perrin make a boat for Laila.
He almost puts his ring on it and sends it off but puts it back on at the last
minute. Egwene says she misses Rand so much, and Nynaeve assures her that
she’ll be with her always. They put out their boat for Rand, saying may his
spirit find them again in this life or the next. Mat, meanwhile, moves his chest
of drawers and pulls out loose brick. We also see a moment of Rand in an
unknown village hanging his own lantern boat.
Lan joins Verin, Adeleus, and Verin
for dinner, asking them to wait for Moiraine. Adeleus says that he’s taking
this all too personally. Verin tells him that being cut off from the Source
feels like the worst kind of assault, that most women don’t recover, they die. Verin
says that she looks at Moiraine and sees strength. Tomas says the bond is one
way they communicate, but not the only one. He tells him to instead of trying
to force her to speak, to instead be quiet and truly listen. Lan notes that
that might be the first time in his life someone told him he needed to be
quiet. He takes a plate up to Moiraine. He finds her room empty but leaves the
plate and utensils on her table. Outside, She runs almost immediately into a
Myrddraal. It knocks her off her horse
and drives her into a nearby ruin. She draws a knife and tries to move around
the Half-Man. She makes a mark with her boot, then slips around and stabs the
Fade as it steps out of a shadow. She gets stabbed by a second one. Lan rushes
in and slices it to pieces. A third Fade arrives and Land fights it with two
swords. More Fades arrive, Lan keeps fighting and injuring the Shadowspawn. He
kills one more but takes a serious would to the back of the legs and to his
chest. He reaches out to Moiraine as they both bleed. Moiraine focuses and for
a moment it looks like she’s channeling, but it’s revealed to by Verin. She tells
them to cover their ears. Her weave distracts the Myrddraal long enough for
Tomas to kill it with a sword of fire. Lan asks her what she’s not telling him
as they both pass out.
Overall, this was a good start to
the season. We get to see how everyone is doing after last season. Perrin’s on
the hunt, Egwene is doing her best to learn, Nynaeve is doing her best to NOT
learn, Moiraine is doing research and not talking, Lan is frustrated at not
talking, Mat’s is being held against his will and Rand’s hiding out. Scattered
to the four corners of the world indeed. I think of tall of them Egwene is
doing the best. She’s not well, by any stretch of the imagination, but she’s
burying her grief in learning channeling and being an Aes Sedai, which is at
least productive. Nynaeve is terrified at tapping into the power that almost
killed her and is really doing her damnedest to stay away from it while still
not abandoning Egwene. She was never much of a fighter in the books, but I
could see Book-Nynaeve also trying to use physical training like learning some
swordsmanship to vent her feelings. Perrin is on the hunt, which is super
relevant to the journey he’s going to be on. I’m glad he’s got Loial there for
emotional support or else he might be wallowing in anger. The bit with his
lantern boat, where he almost lets his ring go as a metaphor of Laila go but
backs off at the last minute does describe his mindset well. Elyas is an
important character to his arc and I’m looking forward to seeing Perrin bond
with the ‘sniffer.’ I liked finding out what had happened to Mat since he left
in the 6th episode. Looks like he’s not doing well being held
against his will. That dude is too much of a free spirit to be happy being
stuck anywhere for six months. I’ve no idea what’s with the brick. Seeing the
flash of Rand this episode I think was a good call. Better to show us how
everyone is adjusting to his “death” than to focus on him for the first
episode. The Dragon Reborn is in the wind and they’ll need to find him soon. I
liked this interpretation of the “Dark One.” At this point in the story, he’s a
stark raving lunatic, screaming at his minions to find al’Thor and bring him to
him, his eyes and mouth on fire and his temper short. But this… calm version I
think is way more sinister. The fact he takes time out of an important meeting
to indoctrinate a child into trusting a Trolloc is just so unnerving. If he’s
this persuasive now, he’ll be very dangerous indeed. Moiraine burying herself
in her work to avoid her loss of power is classic her. I don’t love her pushing
Lan away, as the two were a united front for most of the first few books, but
this Moiraine without her powers is a unique plot line. So yeah, overall, I
liked this start to the new season and am looking forward to see where it goes.
Have a good night!
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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