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Fate And Free Will Clash In “The Wheel Of Time” Season 2, Episode 2

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME, SEASON 2, EPISODES 1 – 3 AHEAD!

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

“The Wheel doesn’t want anything. It can’t. Any more than a river or the rain can want something. It’s people who want.”

Those words, spoken in The Wheel Of Time‘s first season by Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) in rebuttal to Logain Ablar (Álvaro Morte)’s whimpered insistence that the Wheel “wanted” him to be the Dragon and the carnage he left in his wake was therefore unavoidable, have never sat right with me, and I think I have finally found the words to explain why while mulling over the events of the second season’s second episode, Strangers And Friends, which brings each of the main characters to something of a turning-point in their respective arcs where they realize that all the “wanting” in the world will avail to nothing if the Wheel of Time never gives them opportunities to assert their agency in the first place, and the Pattern, the complex product of the Wheel’s endless turnings, is practically inescapable for those unlucky individuals called ta’veren who find themselves woven into positions where they are responsible for holding the Pattern intact through the duration of a crisis. Even if they were somehow able to make a choice of their own free will, they would never know, because the Wheel would simply course-correct and keep turning. The Wheel doesn’t want, it can’t, but it was set in motion for a purpose by its Creator, and it will serve that Creator’s purpose as long as it is not prevented from doing so by the Dark One.

Natasha O'Keefe as Selene in The Wheel Of Time, sitting outdoors at a table underneath a wooden sign for her inn with a painted crescent moon. She has long black hair, and is wearing a dark blue robe over a lacy black dress, holding up a cup.
Selene | polygon.com

For some, like Logain, fate has convenience as a shield, an excuse for dark deeds, but accepting foregone conclusions is not in our human nature, and most of us would become enraged or inconsolable if we could analyze our every action to discern which we made freely and which were made for us with the express purpose of guiding us to an end – and we don’t even live in a universe where a Wheel of cosmic proportions periodically requires something of us, at least not as far as we know. And maybe it’s for the best that we remain blissfully unaware of our metaphysical surroundings, because for Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) it’s the knowing, as much as the impending madness brought on by channeling the tainted male half of the One Power, that has him on the verge of collapsing every day.

As Rand sees it, the Pattern should be done with him. He defeated the Dark One at the Eye of the World, and Moiraine let him leave so he could safely isolate himself from his friends before going mad and killing himself, as he was sure he would, sooner or later, when he first touched the True Source and felt the madness clawing into his head. And yet…five months later, he’s still alive, still mostly sane, and still haunted by recurring nightmares of the man he believed to be the Dark One, but was actually Ishamael (Fares Fares), strongest of the channelers derisively named Forsaken who served the Dark One before the Breaking of the World. The Rand we meet in episode two is one who is still just tentatively starting to accept that he might have been granted a few more months, weeks, or days in the world to do some good, and is now realizing he doesn’t want to work up the courage to face madness and death a second time. But the harder he fights to bring his powers under control, the more the madness grows within him. And no one can help him, not even the enigmatic innkeeper Selene (Natasha O’Keefe) who sidles up to him in his moments of doubt.

What Selene offers Rand, however, is the physical affection he desperately craves but wouldn’t dare to ask for from anyone he truly cares about. Although their arrangement is sexual in nature, it is not exactly a romance, and I’m surprised (but then again, not really) that some reviewers interpreted it as one when The Wheel Of Time goes to great lengths to make it evident that Rand is with Selene for reasons of his own, and vice versa. Now, there is a moment in episode two during a candid conversation between the two where something in Selene’s eyes suggests she’s disappointed in Rand when he admits he’s only with her to try and forget someone else, but she merely sighs and assures him that if that’s the way it has to be, then she’ll gladly help him to forget. She confesses to fantasizing he’s someone different as well, someone she wants to remember. Will we ever get clarification on that? Perhaps.

In the meantime, Rand begins working his way through the ranks of the caretaking staff at a depressingly decorated sanatorium in Cairhien that houses patients from all over the Westlands, including veterans of the local Aiel War and male channelers gentled by the Red Ajah. As we soon discover, it is also where Logain has been residing for the past several months; not at the White Tower, as in Robert Jordan’s books, which means the fan-favorite character may play a different role in the story going forward, but the explanation given in the show is that Logain comes from an exceptionally wealthy and influential family in Ghealdan (canonically accurate), and they arranged more comfortable accommodations for him to live out his last days, still watched day in and day out as Siuan vowed he would be, but free to swagger about the gardens and boast that he used to be a Dragon. Rand’s only hope for enduring the madness or avoiding it altogether now rests with Logain, certifiably a madman.

To my surprise, the tender scenes between Rand and an elderly patient at the sanatorium (played by Nasser Memarzia) did far more to engage me in his storyline than any amount of watching him grapple with the Power after leaving a generic bully lying bloodied in an alleyway, though I feel it’s a matter of personal preference and Stradowski being at his most convincing when his Rand has a faint remnant of his sweetly rugged former self to cling to and build around.

A group of soldiers standing in front of a stone building, looking up at a black-cloaked faceless corpse nailed to a wooden door several feet off the ground.
A Fade nailed to a door | moviesr.net

On the other side of the world, Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) is struggling to make sense of his own rare abilities, which manifest primarily as golden-tinted afterimages crowding any space where violence has been done and blood has been spilled, disorienting the somewhat squeamish young blacksmith. In the books it’s Rand, following the trail of Padan Fain, who comes upon a farmhouse in the land between Shienar and Cairhien, and stumbles into a looping vision of the previous occupants being slaughtered, while in the show, this moment has cleverly been repurposed for establishing Perrin’s wolf-senses, and the setting moved to the small village of Atuan’s Mill in Arad Doman that becomes the site of our protagonists’ first brutal skirmish with the Seanchan invaders introduced in the closing moments of season one.

It’s an excellently choreographed action sequence that uses to its advantage the diversity of fighting-styles and philosophies amongst its participants: Perrin is a follower of the pacifistic Way of the Leaf and reluctant to kill or hurt even his enemies for fear of becoming more wolf than man, while the Shienarans take great joy in combat and the Seanchan have a callous disregard for anyone occupying the land they believe to be rightfully theirs, matched only by their monstrous treatment of female channelers, whom they collar and leash like animals. These women, the damane, have had their agency stripped away from them and placed in the hands of women called sul’dam, who claim to be unable to wield the One Power themselves but can manipulate its use by others.

Outside the White Tower, channeling may still be dangerous for both women and men with the ability, but for someone as strong in the Power (and as strongly ta’veren) as Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins) or Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden), none of the options before them are free of risk, because their options are limited at this point to what moves them both closer to becoming the most powerful and second-most powerful Aes Sedai, respectively, that the Tower has seen in a thousand years, something of which their teachers are eager to remind them at every opportunity – particularly Egwene, who understandably tires of hearing that her power is incomparable to Nynaeve’s, and that there’s no closing the gap. In need of a shoulder to cry on, she turns to the Tower’s newest Novice, Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney), the Daughter-Heir of Andor, who is true bestie material.

Elayne’s lofty titles are dropped into casual conversation with great weight, as if they should mean anything to the majority of non-book readers, who have no way of knowing yet, without a map to refer to, that Andor is the largest kingdom in the Westlands, encompassing the Two Rivers and a hundred other towns and cities, or that its current Queen, Morgase Trakand, was once a Novice at the Tower herself and is now attended by the powerful Red Aes Sedai Elaida do Avriny a’Roihan, soon to emerge as one of The Wheel Of Time‘s greatest antagonists. With the title of “Daughter-Heir” only vaguely defined and none of the political tensions between Andor and neighboring nations established, Elayne is likely just a princess to most viewers, but hopefully that changes if and when the show traces her familial connections to various other characters on the show. Regardless, she’s immediately endearing and cleverly written not to come off snobbish or entitled.

While Egwene and Elayne have sleepovers in each other’s rooms and sample strong alcoholic beverages brewed with the One Power via experimental weaves, Nynaeve has no one to turn to for shelter and thus finds herself coerced into taking a guided tour of the Tower’s seven Ajahs with Liandrin Guirale (Kate Fleetwood), who exploits their time together to try and make Nynaeve see the benefits of taking the Trial of the Arches, which all Novices must pass before being “raised” to Accepted and presented with a Great Serpent ring, albeit one bereft of the colored gemstone that Aes Sedai wear as a visual marker of their chosen Ajah. As Liandrin explains, with that disarming hint of genuine passion and pride in her voice, Accepted are permitted to learn from the Ajah of their choice – Healing from the Yellows, diplomacy from the Grays, spy-craft from the Blues, and so on. Sadly, our time with the different factions is limited to brief glimpses into the workings of the Yellow Ajah hospital, where Nynaeve discovers that the incurable illnesses of her village are easily treated in Tar Valon.

Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere sitting across from Ceara Coveney as Elayne Trakand in a small room with stone walls, lit by candles burning in niches. Both are wearing gray aprons over long-sleeved white gowns, and wear white boots. They are raising glasses filled with a light-orange beverage, and smiling.
Egwene al’Vere and Elayne Trakand | Twitter @TheWheelOfTime

For Nynaeve, however, that’s the only time on the tour that’s not wasted. She has no interest in the Yellow Ajah as an organization, but the first time she ever consciously channeled was to Heal the Aes Sedai and Warders wounded, some almost mortally, by Logain in season one, and she channeled again to protect her friends in the Ways. Long before she knew what she could do, she was drawn to the life of a Wisdom, and never regretted sacrificing companionship for the privilege and honor of protecting the people she loves. The duties of the Yellow Ajah come closest to aligning with her own desires, and it’s only after seeing the work they do that Nynaeve starts seriously considering the Trial of the Arches. She makes up her mind after following Liandrin later that night (having clocked the Red sister stealing poisonous herbs from the hospital), and realizing that even the cold and emotionless Aes Sedai have people in their lives besides their equally enigmatic Warders they would do anything to protect.

Liandrin’s happens to be her son, a man about eighty or ninety years of age, whose long-overdue expiration she has staved off with toxins that Nynaeve warns her will only cause him more pain. We don’t know what the Tower would do about it if they found out, but we can reasonably assume (and Nynaeve certainly does) that a lot of Liandrin’s more…questionable choices are the result of trying to hide her precious boy and keep him alive as long as possible, at least until she finds something else worth living for. How far will Liandrin go for her son, and who will get hurt in the process? That question has been answered in the latest episode, but I wouldn’t dare spoil it for those who haven’t watched yet. The long, tumultuous, and often uncomfortable emotional journey viewers will take alongside Kate Fleetwood’s Liandrin, for whom you can’t help but feel a begrudging form of admiration and respect despite all the writing on the wall telling you not to trust a single word that leaves her permanently pursed lips, is something you must experience for yourself – and if, by the end of it, you don’t understand why I am adamant that Fleetwood deserves an Emmy nomination for her work here, well, I can’t change your wrong opinion but know that I will judge you for it.

Seemingly central to Liandrin’s schemes is Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn), whom we learn has been imprisoned at the Tower for months now, but is digging an escape-route through the wall of his cell that eventually leads him to…an adjacent cell. Disappointing for him, but great for us viewers, because it facilitates a meeting between Finn’s Mat, who has a genuine warmth and sense of humor that Barney Harris, in my honest opinion, lacked, and Kae Alexander’s Min Farshaw, a charismatic bartender born with the unenviable ability to see pieces of the Pattern like images attached to people – sometimes cryptic, sometimes frighteningly clear. Mat has refreshingly little interest in learning his fate, however, and Min has no inclination to tell him what she sees; a vision of him stabbing Rand with the cursed dagger from Shadar Logoth, something that has no precedent in the books. Whether you interpret it as platonic, romantic, or playfully erotic, the palpable chemistry between these two is no joke (personally, I want them to kiss before the end of the season, but that’s just me).

Mat’s approach to life is to pretend he’s dodged the weavings of the Wheel of Time entirely, and to avoid looking too long at his own reflection, which would show him he’s bound up in threads of the Pattern as tightly as a fly in a spider’s web. The confidence he gains from thinking that only strengthens his resolve to escape the White Tower dungeons, but leaving the confines of his cell is exactly what the Wheel expects of him and has taken into account already. He can’t escape, not really; no one can. And if he and the other four ta’veren have it especially bad, they are not alone in feeling helpless. Moiraine, once the most self-assured character on the show, is trying to come to terms with the fact that, at this critical juncture, she’s expected to do something not in her nature and surrender to the will of the Wheel. She’s seen the threads that bind her; seen even further, all the way to the brink of the abyss where she’s being pulled, swiftly and inexorably. She’s prepared for that. What she can’t cope with is the thought of anyone being dragged down with her, because of her.

Meera Syal as Verin Mathwin in The Wheel Of Time, sitting in a chair outdoors with a smile on her face. She has gray hair bunched up on top of her head, with loose curly strands falling around her face. She is wearing a silk brown dress clasped at the front with a large golden teardrop-shaped brooch, over a white blouse with long, frilly pleated sleeves.
Verin Mathwin | nerdist.com

And thus we come to the most painful scene in the episode, in which Moiraine dismisses her Warder, al’Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney), after nearly twenty years of service. It’s for his own safety, which he can’t bring himself to comprehend through anger and frustration, but Moiraine doesn’t tell him that, or try to assure him of anything. She’s very much like Rand in that way. They are both extremely protective of the people they love, and see themselves as inherently unworthy of receiving that same love and protection in return because anyone close to them is in danger of being hurt, possibly by their own hand. When Moiraine tells Lan they “were never equals”, Lan interprets it one way but Moiraine, I think, phrased it as she did specifically so she could lead him to a conclusion at odds with the truth: that in her eyes, she was never deserving of his loyalty, because for as long as she’s known Lan her only purpose in life has been to serve and protect the Dragon Reborn, and, as was pointed out to her by the alarmingly perceptive Verin Mathwin (Meera Syal), there is no telling who she’ll have to hurt or kill to help the Dragon achieve his victory over the Dark One at the Last Battle. She knows she can’t bring herself to hurt Lan and that he would all too willingly sacrifice himself if it were ever necessary, so rejecting him is the only option left to her.

The unfortunate consequence of this choice is that it sets up an aimless subplot with Lan and Alanna Mosvani (Priyanka Bose), the Aes Sedai to whom Lan is handed for safekeeping like a parcel by Moiraine, that begs for a swift resolution. Alanna’s sensuality and apparent openness juxtaposed with Lan’s stoicism and silence could have provided insight into both their characters as well as entertainment, but I feel that The Wheel Of Time is perhaps focusing too hard on establishing Alanna before it has the need, or the ability to do anything particularly meaningful with her. Until Lan inevitably returns to Moiraine (and, short of killing him herself, which she will never do, there is nothing she can do or say to prevent that from happening one way or another, because the Wheel has willed it), this storyline was bound to drag – but we will discuss that in greater detail another time.

The philosophical questions raised in episode two are unlikely to be definitively answered in our lifetimes, much less in this season of The Wheel Of Time, but the speculative answers put forward in the pages of Jordan’s books offer arguably less comfort than the uncertainty we endure. In the world he envisioned, certain events must happen and ultimately will happen in every Age for as long as the Wheel keeps turning, but they cannot happen on their own, therefore requiring that the people statistically most likely to make the “right” choices are spun out into the Pattern at the “right” time to ensure said choices will be made, as anything else could potentially lead to the breaking of the Wheel and the dissolution of the Pattern.

This would be bad, we’re meant to understand, because no one’s choices would have any meaning then. But what meaning does a choice actually have, if the Wheel only allows those that either directly serve its goal or have no consequence, and can spin out ta’veren to “correct” the rest? What meaning is there in the Wheel itself, if it wants nothing, works toward nothing, achieves nothing in any Turning except its continued self-preservation? If humanity can never advance so far that all their progress can’t be reversed in the next Age, all their accomplishments reduced to the stuff of legends? If the so-called Last Battle between the Dragon and the Dark One only acts as a catalyst for further upheaval, and all the blood shed, all the tears spilled, all the sacrifices made by our protagonists, not only won’t prevent it from happening again, but rather, ensure it will? Is the promise of rebirth any comfort, if the world into which you’re reborn is still fighting the same war you fought in all your previous lives?

(left to right) Gregg Chilingirian as Ingtar, Arnas Fedaravicius as Masema, Hammed Animashaun as Loial, and Guy Roberts as Uno from The Wheel Of Time, standing with weapons drawn in a village at night. Ingtar, Masema, and Uno wear light armor.
(left to right) Ingtar, Masema, Loial, and Uno | imdb.com

I don’t mean to burden my readers with these and other questions that keep me up at night wondering what Jordan potentially found soothing in this unique interpretation of the cosmos, and I’m not trying to parrot the Dark One’s own talking-points (breaking the Wheel is his only solution to everything, and while it sounds revolutionary on paper, in practice, it would achieve nothing), but these are questions which The Wheel Of Time‘s writers should spare some further thought, seeing as they’ve expanded on Jordan’s themes in countless ways already and always with a care and consideration for the essence of the source material coupled with a desire to be forward-thinking that makes me genuinely interested in what they have to say through the retelling of this particular story. I’m not saying the protagonists should necessarily break the Wheel by the end of the series; I just think there are a lot of shapes that time could take and something as simple as adjusting it to a…Straight Line of Time, for instance, would solve a lot of this world’s problems.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

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“The Wheel Of Time” Season 2, Episode 1 – Vindication For The First Season’s Flawed Finale

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON 2, EPISODES 1 – 3 AHEAD!

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

I wrote once that The Wheel Of Time‘s season one finale was a necessarily messy episode of television, having to hurriedly clear pieces off the board and wipe it clean so that season two could jump into a new game in a new setting (narratively and thematically as well as physically), and no longer be burdened with the consequences of working around COVID-19, star Barney Harris’ sudden departure, and the occasional incoherence of the source material itself, which piled up in the back-half of season one and threatened to bog down what was otherwise an enjoyable, fast-paced trek along the margins of Robert Jordan’s expansive world. Nearly two years later, I am pleased to report that my prediction has come to pass, as surely as any of Min Farshaw’s foretellings. The Wheel Of Time hits the ground running in its second season specifically because of the dirty work done in season one, episode eight.

Fares Fares as Ishamael in The Wheel Of Time season two, wearing a dark coat, kneeling in short grass while holding the hands of a small girl wearing a red and blue dress. Behind them looms a massive Trolloc, man-shaped but with the face of a boar, with antlers sprouting from its head. It is night, and fog is rolling in.
Ishamael at the Darkfriend Social | telltaletv.com

The choice to depower Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) at the Eye of the World, controversial at the time, is one that forces Pike to resituate herself in her character’s fundamentally altered body and mind, and to which the Oscar-nominated actress responds enthusiastically by punching jagged holes in the façade of unreadable micro-expressions and mannerisms that Moiraine was accustomed to using as a shield, gaps in her defenses through which her raw humanity now spills in angry torrents, deliberately aimed to hurt the one person staying and trying – in his eyes, harder than Moiraine herself has ever tried – to patch up her wounds, who will continue to fail and hurt himself in the process as long as he refuses to acknowledge that these wounds run far too deep for him to heal; her loyal Warder, al’Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney). The more Lan tries to force Moiraine to talk through her grief, the more she pulls away from him and the wider the rift between them grows. They can’t get on the same page without the Bond to guide them in the right direction, and so in the first episode’s final minutes Moiraine runs, deeming it safer for them both if she does, only to have all her fears and doubts confirmed when Lan follows and nearly kills himself to protect her. The devolution of what once seemed an indestructible relationship founded in mutual trust is the episode’s central through line, around which all other plot-threads must loosely swirl, reflecting how the characters find themselves being buffeted by the winds of change to far-flung corners of the world at the beginning of season two.

But the wind lifts each of these threads and binds them to the others before episode’s end in a sequence that appropriately brings the Wheel of Time almost full-circle, as Bel-Tine lanterns last lit on the fateful night before the Emond’s Field Five left home – a year earlier, in-universe – now flicker once again on a stream in Arad Doman where Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) makes camp alongside Shienaran soldiers, on the stone windowsill of a room in the White Tower where Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden) and Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins) find fleeting moments of comfort amidst their grueling training, and on a street-corner in the scaffolding-encased city of Cairhien where Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski), the Dragon Reborn, waits patiently for madness to consume his soul. Dónal Finn’s Mat Cauthon, meanwhile, makes do without a lantern in the White Tower dungeon where we find him languishing, months after he abandoned his friends to go after a cursed dagger. Wherever these places are in relation to each other and Emond’s Field (and, for the viewer unfamiliar with a map of the Westlands, there really isn’t any indication), this scene forcefully reiterates that home is never far from any of our main characters’ hearts, and that right now, more than anything, they yearn for what they’ve lost.

With the exception of Rand, who doesn’t appear again until episode two, each of these characters, and Moiraine and Lan, face challenges in the premiere that test how far they’re willing to go, and what they’re willing to lose, to become the heroes they need to be if they’re to have any hope of winning the coming Last Battle – and no one is feeling the pressure more than Nynaeve, the most powerful channeler to train at the White Tower in a thousand years, who has subconsciously developed a ‘block’ that prevents her from channeling except in moments of extreme anger, fear, and sorrow. Every Aes Sedai in the Tower craves the prestige that would come from being the one to break Nynaeve’s block and guide her to greatness, making all their efforts to help seem insincere, but the one who finally coaxes a reaction out of her during a particularly brutal session is also the one Nynaeve trusts the least; Liandrin Guirale (Kate Fleetwood) of the authoritarian Red Ajah, a woman who represents everything Nynaeve detests most about the Aes Sedai and their White Tower.

To say that Fleetwood is a standout from the first three episodes would be an understatement. She is utterly electrifying, and no one on The Wheel Of Time, with the exception of Fleetwood’s frequent scene-partner Zoë Robins, is more deserving of critical recognition for their work this season (and we will talk about Robins in my review of episode three), though all the cast are perhaps equally worthy and there are several others I’d single out for praise in the first episode alone, including Madden, who brims with charisma; Rutherford, who has settled comfortably into a middle-ground between learned stoicism and innate vulnerability after being emotionally paralyzed by the narrative for much of season one; and the delightful pairing of Meera Syal and Nila Aalia as exasperated eccentric Verin Mathwin and playful flirt Adeleas, Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah who inject energy into Moiraine’s slow-paced storyline. Dónal Finn, who I will highlight in my review of episode two, quickly joins the likes of Robins, Fleetwood, and Pike with a performance I can only describe as enthralling.

With the younger members of the cast having each developed a strong, distinctive acting-style and synergizing effortlessly with each other and the veterans of stage and screen who surround them, the responsibility of carrying The Wheel Of Time can now be shared more evenly amongst them all, and I’m sure that after dedicating so much of her time in recent years to the character of Moiraine, there must be a part of Rosamund Pike that welcomes the opportunity to take a step back and proudly witness that transition occur. With that said, she is likely to continue serving as the series’ iconic mascot as long as her name alone can pull in new viewers, and it would be criminal in any case to neglect an actress of her caliber, or even expect her to be content with the relatively small and insignificant role her character plays in The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn, the second and third books in Robert Jordan’s monumental fourteen-volume series. Finding an appropriate balance going forward will surely be the hardest task facing showrunner Rafe Judkins, though to date, fleshing out Moiraine’s storyline with material derived from the prequel novel New Spring, including information about her early years that sadly never became relevant in the main series, has proven a satisfying workaround and opens new pathways that ultimately connect her back to Rand and other characters.

The very notion of changes to the order of events in the books is understandably nerve-wracking to some, and blasphemous to others, but while there are major changes, each and every one has been made with the essence of the characters in mind…and what’s more, even changes that could not have been avoided are executed in such a way that they could not feel more organic. For example, it’s Perrin, instead of Rand, who has the closest relationship with Ingtar Shinowa (Gregg Chilingirian, quietly exceptional in the role), and while on the surface it’s a change that could seem random, a product of circumstances more than anything else, a closer reading of Ingtar’s words to Perrin near the end of episode one as the two discuss Padan Fain (Johann Myers)’s motivations for joining the Dark reveals that it’s an exquisite adjustment made to service both their arcs in ways I can’t wait to explain after the season finale (no spoilers in the comments, please!). And remember, this beautiful scene wouldn’t exist were it not for Perrin being the one to awkwardly run into Fain in Fal Dara last season solely because someone had to fill Mat’s place.

Dónal Finn as Mat Cauthon in The Wheel Of Time, lying on a wooden bench in a dimly-lit room with his head leaning on the armrest, tears rolling down his cheeks as he stares at a flickering candle-flame in the foreground. He has brown curly hair and a beard. He is wearing an olive-green coat over a greenish-brown tattered shirt.
Mat Cauthon | cosmopolitan.com

And that brings me to an even better example, which is, of course, Mat’s entire storyline this season. While it was never planned or predicted that Barney Harris would leave The Wheel Of Time midway through filming season one, necessitating that his character be written off the show temporarily with a myriad of clumsy excuses, you wouldn’t guess it from the way it’s been gracefully handled in season two. I feel safe in stating that there’s nothing Mat does in the first three books that would have more perfectly illustrated to the audience exactly who he is and everything he struggles with than what Judkins came up with as a hasty backup plan for his character. To pull that off, as well as the recasting, in the middle of a pandemic, must have required a coalescence of imagination and ingenuity Hollywood can never hope to replicate with an AI.

Outstanding actors working from an excellent script could convince the audience that any four walls are a palace or a prison, but The Wheel Of Time is an epic fantasy greater in scale than almost any other, and that wasn’t always evident from the first season, which could only afford to visit three or four primary locations across eight episodes, with about the same number of outfits for each main character, or fewer. But an evidently sizable expansion to the series’ budget has allowed the production designers, costume designers, hairstylists, makeup artists, and propmakers in every field and art-form to go absolutely wild this season, filling every nook and cranny of this world with detailing pulled straight from the books. The White Tower, so obviously a single soundstage decorated slightly differently for various scenes in the first season, now feels like an entire ecosystem nestled in the beating heart of Tar Valon, itself much larger and more vibrant this season. The women of the Aes Sedai not only dress like actual people instead of being restricted to the color of their respective Ajah, they also dress fabulously, in patterned silks, laces, velvets, and furs, bedecked in precious stones and metals – everything I was missing from their introduction in season one, essentially. If costume designer Sharon Gilham alone walks away with an Emmy for her work this season, it will not be enough but nor will it be undeserved.

On a similar note, the CGI has improved substantially between seasons and the ‘weaves’ constructed by channelers from glinting threads of the One Power are far more intricate now, containing colors besides cloudy white, including vivid shades of gold, silver, and amber. These threads wind differently for each woman (and man), some as vague and ethereal as ribbons swirling in a breeze, some as sharply defined and precise as the razor-edged cord of a garrote. Nynaeve, because of her block, tends to channel messily when she channels at all, and her weaves are loose, ragged. Liandrin has a dexterity with the Power we have yet to see matched by any channeler save the Forsaken Ishamael (Fares Fares), her weaves forming long, thrashing whips. And Egwene…well, Egwene has been teaching herself to channel without the use of her hands, and we finally see her do so in episode three, though her weaves of sinuous flame are easily extinguished by Liandrin. It’ll be quite interesting to see how Moiraine uses the Power, assuming she’s unshielded by Rand or Siuan this season (I have no doubt in my mind she’s shielded, not stilled, as she seems to believe).

Even with an increased budget, however, I would never say that The Wheel Of Time relies at any point on its CGI, and in fact the continued use of practical effects wherever possible is perhaps one of the series’ most exciting and endearing qualities from a filmmaking perspective. In the first episode’s climactic action sequence, Moiraine is ambushed on the road by three Fades, the most vaguely humanoid of Shadowspawn. Bereft of the abilities she would ordinarily use to fight back, she hides for a moment to weigh her options, draws a knife, and begins stalking her unseen enemies through patches of shadow on the ground. The resulting battle is shot and choreographed to seem totally, brutally grounded, something I think is largely attributable to the fact that you can feel the presence of every actor and stunt performer in the scene, the weight and impact of every sword-thrust, kick, and hit. The Fades feel like a real threat because they are real, making their unnerving speed and strength more incredible, and their weaknesses more believable.

The season’s primary antagonists, Ishamael and Padan Fain, are relegated to small roles in the suspense-driven first episode, which allows our anticipation to grow with each passing moment that we know and the characters know that they’re just off-camera, observing quietly. Fain is one of the book series’ most terrifying villains, his deeds in service to the Dark downright stomach-turning, and I feel that was captured in the early scene where Perrin and the Shienarans come across the wreckage of a Tuatha’an caravan and the bodies of several Darkfriends killed by Fain for no other reason than to whittle down his competition. Perrin’s wolf-senses allow him to relive the carnage as it happened (interestingly, the girl that he sees escaping the massacre, whose fate is still unknown, is the very same girl who befriended Ishamael in the cold-open), further deepening his distaste for violence, his discomfort in his own body, and his distrust of Elyas Machera (Gary Beadle), the golden-eyed “sniffer” who shares his abilities. While it would have been nice to see Elyas in the first season, holding off his introduction meant effectively isolating Perrin, giving him more legitimate reasons to build barriers between himself and the wolves that we’ll see him topple gradually, reluctantly, over the course of this season.

If there is any cause for concern to be found in the first episode, it is the absence of Sophie Okonedo, who appears to have only filmed an episode or two as Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat of the Aes Sedai, greatly reducing both the amount of time we can expect her to share with Egwene and Nynaeve this season (if any), and her potential future involvement in storylines at the White Tower that…revolved around Siuan in the books. With the character of Elaida yet to be introduced, however, it seems those storylines may not be established at all until season three, which I think is a terrible mistake. Then again, if Mat’s character arc could be resuscitated and restored to full health in the span of a few minutes with Dónal Finn, I have faith that Sophie Okonedo and whichever extremely talented actress is cast as Elaida can convince me of their decades-long rivalry in no time at all.

Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere in The Wheel Of Time season two, standing before a table in a dimly-lit kitchen, wearing a gray apron over a long-sleeved white gown.
Egwene al’Vere | polygon.com

In short, the first episode of season two finally elevates the series a step above season one – and above most of the competition – in every way. The Wheel Of Time is even more epic and more thrilling in this Turning, its cast even stronger, its worldbuilding even richer. There is no comparing the two seasons, really, because the difference is night and day, and I say that as someone who enjoyed most of the first season and still rewatches my favorite episodes, three, five, and six, frequently. Season one was good, at times great, and offered fleeting glimpses of what The Wheel Of Time could be. Season two is phenomenal television that finally lives up to what was promised, and doesn’t waste a second of screentime in doing so.

Episode Rating: 9/10

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Nynaeve’s Accepted Test Begins In New “Wheel Of Time” Clip

SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME BOOK TWO AHEAD!

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Every day from now until September 1st, fans waiting with bated breath for the release of The Wheel Of Time‘s second season can seemingly expect to be treated to a full scene from the first three episodes being released on social media, each one focusing on a different member of the series’ large (and ever-expanding) ensemble cast. Yesterday, it was a conversation between Rand al’Thor and Logain Ablar, Dragons true and false, in the “sanatorium”, described by Josha Stradowski in interviews, where Rand will be working, undercover, to help male channelers gentled by the Aes Sedai. It was a good scene, very well-written and well-acted, but today’s scene is more special to me personally. The Accepted Test of Nynaeve al’Meara is not only one of the most iconic sequences from The Wheel Of Time‘s second book, The Great Hunt, but from the entire width and breadth of Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series, which spans fourteen volumes and a prequel novel.

Nynaeve al'Meara, wearing a white dress with a wide leather belt, standing framed between the stone pillars of a silver archway standing on a dais in the center of a round stone chamber underneath the White Tower. Candles burn in sconces on the far wall. Behind Nynaeve are Sheriam Bayanar, Leane Sharif, and Liandrin Guirale.
Nynaeve al’Meara | Twitter @TheWheelOfTime

And The Wheel Of Time‘s showrunner, writers, and actors have actually done it justice; evidence alone, if you ask me, of why they deserve everything the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have been asking for, because this was no easy feat. Although not every line of dialogue has made it into the show’s version of this scene, all but a few of the actresses’ lines are lifted either directly from the book, or with only the most minor tweaks. The scene opens with Nynaeve, wearing Novice-white (because in the show, I believe she does choose to train as a Novice for Egwene’s sake), warily approaching the three silver arches standing on low daises arranged in a semicircle in the White Tower’s basement. She asks what they are, just as she does in the book, and receives a similar, arguably more informative, answer from Sheriam Bayanar, the Tower’s Mistress of Novices, and Liandrin Guirale of the Red Ajah, who has taken a suspiciously active role in Nynaeve’s training. Below, I’ve quoted the passage from the books, and highlighted in bold the parts that made it into the show, with original dialogue in parentheses. Please forgive my rather, uh, messy presentation.

“Ter’angreal do many things, child. Like angreal and sa’angreal, they are (from before the Breaking, made during a time when women could create objects from the One Power itself) remnants of the Age of Legends that use the One Power, though they are not quite so rare as the other two. While some ter’angreal  must be (are) made to work by Aes Sedai, as this one must (like this one), others will do what they do simply with the presence of any woman who can channel….We don’t know why they were made. We dare use only a handful of them, and the ways in which we do dare to use them may be nothing like the purposes the makers intended. Most, we have learned at our (great) cost to avoid. Over the years, no few (Many) Aes Sedai have been killed or had their Talent (been) burned out of them, learning that.”

– The Great Hunt: Chapter 23; The Testing, by Robert Jordan

As you can see, with just a few tiny alterations, excisions, and additions here and there, that entire passage has made it into the show. And with just one new line of dialogue, the show not only clarifies what ter’angreal actually are for general audiences (without sacrificing any of their mystery in the process), it also subtly establishes that the art of creating ter’angreal is lost to the Aes Sedai of the present day, as well as signaling to attentive viewers that Liandrin is a highly unreliable narrator (possibly Jordan’s favorite writing-device), because her implication that only women ever created ter’angreal is, well, totally in-character for her but simply untrue. That’s good writing right there.

Nynaeve is taken aback by the mention of women burning out, having almost experienced that fate worse than death in the first season, and asks if they expect her to just walk into the arches after that. Leane Sharif of the Blue Ajah, who was not present for this scene in the books, responds to her with a line borrowed from Sheriam, to say that they know how the arches work; entering them brings a woman face-to-face with her greatest fears, which Nynaeve can keep secret to her grave, if she wishes. Dividing the dialogue between these three women helps to break up what would otherwise be a very long and exposition-heavy monologue from Sheriam, giving the scene a little more dynamism, and providing Leane with screentime she was sorely lacking throughout the first season. It’s Sheriam, however, who still delivers some of my favorite lines in the scene.

“Two things I (we) will tell you now that no woman hears until she is in this room. The first is this. Once you begin, you must continue to the end. Refuse to go on, and no matter your potential, you will be very kindly put out of the Tower with enough silver to support you for a year, and (but) you will never be allowed back.”

Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin Guirale in The Wheel Of Time season one, wearing red and brown, with her long white-blond hair flowing down her back in a mane of intricate braids, standing surrounded by similarly-dressed women in a rugged landscape.
Liandrin Guirale (center) and members of the Red Ajah | arstechnica.com

I genuinely did not expect most of this detail to make it into the show, but I’m so glad it did, because the rock-solid worldbuilding of The Wheel Of Time is one of many reasons why it’s considered a fantasy classic, and while the first book had to be slimmed down a great deal to work as a season of television, with much of that rich detail subsequently being shed for the sake of new fans and casual viewers, the second season won’t suffer from those same limitations and is free to delve deeply into Jordan’s world and mythology. But of course, these words aren’t merely decorative. They hold great relevance for Nynaeve, as she has been looking for an escape-route from the Aes Sedai, and now one is being dangled right in front of her. And at the same time, this entire scene is quietly setting up future storylines involving certain characters who actually took that escape-route.

“Second. To seek, to strive, is to know danger. You will know danger here. Some women have entered, and never come out. When the ter’angreal was allowed to grow quiet, they – were – not – there. And they were never seen again. If you will survive, you must be steadfast. Falter, fail, and…” Her silence was more eloquent than any words.

These lines are intriguingly delivered by Liandrin in the show; further evidence that she is beginning to care for Nynaeve, or have concern for her well-being at least, something that never occurred in the books. I’m all for this change, if only because it gives the phenomenal Kate Fleetwood much juicier, more compelling material to dig into as an actress, if her character isn’t innately cold and callous, as seemed to be the case throughout the first season. Obviously, she’s Aes Sedai, and Red Ajah at that, so there’s a lot of calculating going on behind her eyes, but the Aes Sedai are still human at the end of the day, and they ought to have human vulnerabilities. I look forward to later scenes between Nynaeve and Liandrin that build off this dynamic.

“This is your last chance, child. You may turn back now, right now, and I will put your name in the novice book, and you will have only one mark against you. Twice more you will be allowed to come here, and only at (on) the third refusal will you be put out of the Tower. It is no shame to refuse. Many do. I myself could not do it, my (the) first time here.“

Leane steps forward to speak these words. Again, I can’t help but marvel at the fact that so much of this monologue made it from page to screen. I don’t care in the slightest that it’s Leane in the show, not Sheriam, who declined to take her Accepted test once. It’s never going to be relevant again, I suspect, but what it does is it gives viewers a little bit of background information about Leane that they can use to start forming an attachment to her, which is important because she’s important, more so than Sheriam I’d argue.

Finally, Liandrin comes back with the one and only line in the entire scene that’s completely new, as far as I can tell. “If you are doing this for someone else, you will fail,” she tells Nynaeve, with an expression of genuine compassion once again flitting across her steely features. “Do this for you, or not at all.” Is she…trying to protect Nynaeve? After all, if Nynaeve passes the Accepted test, she comes one step closer to being “raised to the shawl” and made a full Aes Sedai, and with her raw power and status as ta’veren (able to bend the weavings of the Wheel of Time around her) there is nothing the Dark One and his minions will not do to prevent the White Tower from weaponizing her. It also sounds like this is a continuation of some conversation Nynaeve must have had with Liandrin earlier, where Nynaeve must have revealed (or Liandrin must have discerned) that Nynaeve came to the Tower primarily to protect Egwene, though she herself is still opposed to the Aes Sedai and distrustful of her own abilities. Again, it’s surreal that it’s Liandrin bringing this up, but I’m not at all upset.

Zoe Robins as Nynaeve al'Meara in The Wheel Of Time season one, sitting outside on a cliff-edge above water, with her long dark hair pulled into a braid falling down her back. She is wearing a dusty-green tunic. She is smiling faintly at something off-camera, to her left.
Nynaeve al’Meara | vaguevisages.com

Silence falls after she speaks, and the camera lingers on Zoë Robins’ Nynaeve, in whose dark, expressive eyes you can catch glimpses of all the emotions swirling within her – fear, frustration, curiosity – before they finally coalesce into steady determination, and she speaks the words that start the trial: “I’m ready”. She’s passed the point of no return, and now we must wait until September 1st to follow her into the arches. But hopefully we won’t have to wait that long for the next clip from The Wheel Of Time! If the pattern holds, tomorrow we could see either Egwene, Perrin, or Mat, followed by Moiraine and Lan, and then perhaps Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. On the one hand, I don’t want to see that many scenes from the first few episodes before the season premiere, but on the other hand…I kinda do, and I definitely won’t be able to resist watching them if they’re out there. Who are you hoping to see next? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

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The Wheel Of Time Quietly Released The First Scene Of Season Two

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME, BOOKS ONE THROUGH THREE, AHEAD!

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

There’s no particular reason you should be aware if you aren’t obsessed like I am with The Wheel Of Time, but last night, Amazon Prime Video quietly released a full scene from the epic fantasy series’ upcoming second season, attaching it to the very end of the season one finale as a sneaky surprise for fans rewatching the series. The scene in question is an iconic one from the prologue of The Great Hunt, the second book in Robert Jordan’s original fourteen-volume series of novels. Over the years, fans have taken to calling this scene the “Darkfriend Social”, as it depicts a group of cloaked, hooded, and masked Darkfriends mingling in a remote manor as they await new orders from Ishamael, leader of the Forsaken, following his confrontation with the Dragon Reborn at the Eye of the World.

A courtyard outside a tall stone building, with round stone discs standing on pedestals placed at the corners of cobblestone paths. It is nighttime, and only a few torches are burning in sconces on either side of the front door. Ishamael, wearing black, is leading a small girl in a red dress by the hand down the front steps into the courtyard, where three towering Trollocs, roughly man-shaped but covered in fur and with horns and tusks protruding from their faces, stand silently watching them, as if awaiting orders.
Trollocs attend the Darkfriend Social | ign.com

In the book, this scene is viewed exclusively through a keen pair of eyes belonging to “the man who called himself Bors”, a Darkfriend we learn by the end of the chapter is a Whitecloak Questioner. The adaptation takes a different approach, turning the camera on a young girl who is playing by herself in the courtyard, but rushes back inside after encountering Trollocs and scurries under the table around which a multitude of Darkfriends are seated silently, wearing veils to conceal their identities yet still unconcernedly (some might say carelessly) giving away clues as to their ethnicities and social standing through the shifting of black silk to reveal the long lacquered fingernails of Seanchan Blood, or a Great Serpent Ring on a black-gloved hand, or the brightly-colored skirts of a Tuatha’an woman. The man who called himself Bors is seemingly also present, unless a pair of distinctive white gloves belong to another member of his zealous organization. And the peddler Padan Fain, in brazen defiance of Ishamael’s instructions, actually uncovers his face.

A few of the Darkfriends seated around the table might just be extras to fill out the scene, but most will reappear later in the series as antagonists. The Seanchan noblewoman is a character we’ve already seen hanging out with Ishamael in the trailer for season two and in various promotional stills, High Lady Suroth Sabelle Meldarath. The man wearing the black hawk of Shienar on his clothes is almost certainly [redacted], and the black-ringed Aes Sedai, though unidentifiable from a close-up shot of her hand alone, is probably [redacted]. I’m sorry to have to censor the names, but I’m doing it for your own good. As for the man who seems to be the man who called himself Bors (can I just call him Bors from now on? Does anyone mind?), I expect him to turn up again fairly soon, when the Whitecloaks invade Almoth Plain in season two. I’m oddly most interested in the nameless, faceless Tuatha’an Darkfriend, whom the little girl refers to as “Mum” while tugging on her skirt. She’s technically a character from the book, but not one that we ever see again:

“Merchant and warrior, commoner and noble. From Kandor and Cairhien, Saldaea and Ghealdan. From every nation and nearly every people. [Bors’] nose wrinkled in sudden disgust. Even a Tinker, in bright green breeches and a virulent yellow coat. We can do without those come the day.”

– The Great Hunt; Prologue: In The Shadow

There’s never any reference to Darkfriends among the Tuatha’an that I can remember from the books, and it’s hard to imagine what a Tuatha’an Darkfriend could even accomplish with that peaceful people that would help the Dark One. My out-there theory is that she’s some version of the extremely minor character Leya, a Tuatha’an woman killed in a Trolloc raid in The Dragon Reborn, who in this Turning of the Wheel will actually be responsible for leading the Trollocs to the Dragon’s location at some point. Or perhaps she was already responsible for arranging the confrontation between the Whitecloaks and Tuatha’an in season one, which resulted in Egwene and Perrin being captured and nearly killed.

(left to right) Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, and Daryl McCormack as Aram from The Wheel Of Time season one, standing in a forest. Egwene is wearing a purple-pink shawl over a red-brown coat, looking anxiously over Perrin's shoulder. Perrin is wearing a dark brown fur coat with a leather satchel. Aram is wearing a striped jacket in muted shades of red, blue and yellow over a white shirt with floral embroidery.
(left to right) Egwene al’Vere, Perrin Aybara, and Aram | dragonmount.com

Ishamael overhears the girl trying to get her mother’s attention and interrupts the meeting to crawl under the table and speak with her, telling her not to be afraid of Trollocs. He then takes her by the hand and brings her back outside to play, while the Darkfriends sit in awkward silence, all presumably glaring at the Tuatha’an mother from behind their veils. I don’t necessarily expect the girl to have any significance down the line, but it’s not inconceivable that she grows up to be the young Darkfriend assassin Mili Skane, whose small role in the first book was given to the original character Dana. Though I’d still prefer if Dana was simply resurrected and merged with Mili going forward, I wouldn’t mind this alternate backstory for the villain, who actually has an intriguing connection with Ishamael in the books. Either way, I wholly approve of Ishamael having an unpredictable paternal affection for some of his Darkfriends. He could be The Wheel Of Time‘s version of Silco from Arcane.

The scene ends on a strangely sweet yet suspenseful moment where Ishamael invites the girl to reach out and pet a Trolloc, which had me fearing the entire time as she caressed its face and bloody tusks that her hand would be bitten off, or that Ishamael would leave her there and lock her out. I appreciate that he didn’t, that he actually wants to prove to her that he meant it when he said Trollocs aren’t monsters for being part-human and part-animal, any more than he can reasonably be called a monster for existing in the space between good and evil. Ishamael in the books wouldn’t ever do that, because he’d be too busy running around yelling that he’s gonna crush the Dragon like a worm beneath his heel and then dramatically failing on three separate occasions to do so in just the first three books:

“”The place where you stand lies in the shadow of Shayol Ghul.” More than one voice moaned at that; the man who called himself Bors was not sure his own was not among them. A touch of what might almost be called mockery entered [Ishamael’s] voice as he spread his arms wide. “Fear not, for the Day of your Master’s rising upon the world is near at hand….soon the Wheel of Time will be broken. Soon the Great Serpent will die, and with the power of that death, the death of Time itself, your Master will remake the world in his own image for this Age and for all Ages to come. And those who serve me, faithful and steadfast, will sit at my feet above the stars in the sky and rule the world of men forever. So have I promised, and so shall it be, without end. You shall live and rule forever.””

– The Great Hunt; Prologue: In The Shadow

See what I mean? That’s just an excerpt, but that’s how he talks all the time, unnecessarily capitalizing every other word. It’s exhausting. In the show’s version of events, Ishamael comes across as more cool-headed and patient, less interested in killing the Dragon than in manipulating him into fighting for the shadow, which I think is a smart choice. There are plenty of other Forsaken whose job it is to be campy and over-the-top evil.

Ishamael in The Wheel Of Time season two, played by Fares Fares, wearing a black coat with white cuffs, kneels down to be on eye-level with a small girl in a red-and-blue dress. Standing between them, towering over both, is a Trolloc wearing bits and pieces of leather armor, covered in fur, with broken antlers and tusks protruding from its face. It is nighttime, and fog is drifting over the short grass through a courtyard filled with stone pedestals.
Ishamael | Twitter @TheWheelOfTime

Where are the other Forsaken, anyway? The large stone discs standing on pedestals in the courtyard outside the Darkfriend Social likely represent the seven seals on the Dark One’s prison that hold him and the Forsaken captive, with the one broken and lying on the ground being a miniature version of the actual seal broken by Rand al’Thor at the Eye of the World that released Ishamael into the world. On it is carved an ornate eight-pointed star containing symbols of the eight Forsaken in the spaces between its points: what looks to be a spider in a web for Moghedien, something that could be a moon for Lanfear, a guitar for Asmodean, and then a lot of squiggles and shapes whose meaning is still unclear. I believe that with one seal broken and the rest weakened, Ishamael will be able to release the other Forsaken into the world, starting with Lanfear, Daughter of the Night, and that will be the catalyst for much of what happens in season two.

Now you tell me what you think! Have you watched the new scene? Or are you saving the experience for when the season premieres? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!