All the biggest book changes in The Wheel of Time Episode 207

Egwene al’Vere

In the show: Egwene has her power tested as part of a damane exercise by her sul’dam, Renna. Later, Egwene promises Renna that she will one day kill her.

In the books: We don’t actually see the damane exercise to test Egwene’s strength. Egwene is also less defiant by this point in her captivity, and tells Min, who is also in Falme, that she’s starting to give up hope.

Nynaeve, Elayne and Loial

In the show: Nynaeve and Elayne find out from Loial that Egwene is being held in the damane kennels, which are strictly guarded so that no one aside from sul’dam may enter. Elayne and Nynaeve use an a’dam collar to capture one of the sul’dam as part of their plan to infiltrate the complex and free Egwene.

In the books: Min tells Nynaeve and Elayne about the damane kennels; Loial is not in Falme at this point in the story; he arrives later with Rand and Ingtar after they go through the portal stone. The damane are also allowed visitors, and Min visits Egwene in captivity. Nynaeve and Elayne do capture a sul’dam, named Seta, but they experiment more with the a’dam collar before capturing her to ensure that they know how to open the collar before initiating their plan. In the books, Nynaeve frees a damane in the streets just as a climactic battle is starting outside Falme. The damane then turns around and decks her sul’dam, which gives Nynaeve and Elayne an opening to put the collar on her while she’s still stunned.

Mat Cauthon

In the show: Mat ditches Rand in Cairhien after learning from Min that he’ll kill Rand with the ruby-hilted dagger. Mat is then snatched by the Forsaken Lanfear and transported to Falme at the behest of Ishamael. Ishamael gives Mat a tea that will let him see his past lives.

Mat then has a vision trip, seeing himself hanged in a mirror as well as several scenes of murder. His mother, Natti Cauthon, appears to tell Mat he’ll end up just as terrible as his father. Ishamael oversees Mat’s fit, musing about how he wants to stop the cycle of reincarnation.

In the books: Mat, Perrin and Rand are all part of the same party and head to Falme together through a portal stone. That portal stone gives them visions of other lives they might have lived, but we never find out what visions Mat saw specifically, since the chapter is written from Rand’s point of view.

Mat’s father, Abell Cauthon, is also a good person in the books, so there’s never any internal conflict about Mat ending up similar to him. However, the vision of Mat being hanged is a very clear nod to an important moment which occurs near the end of The Shadow Rising. That moment ties into the idea of Mat receiving knowledge from his past lives. We expect to see that event happen in season 3, so we won’t spoil any more details here.

Finally, in the novels, Ishamael doesn’t have the same sense of exhaustion. He still goes by the name Ba’alazamon and is pretending to be the Dark One. He doesn’t start to exhibit this sense of tiredness at the idea of being reincarnated until later in the book series, when he goes by a different name. The show is combining characteristics of these two different versions of Ishamael.