The Wheel of Time season 2 turns in an epic finale with “What Was Meant To Be”

Falme is a landmark battle for The Wheel of Time

The battle for Falme spans the majority of “What Was Meant To Be.” It’s huge and epic, filled with spectacular visual effects, great choroegraphy and powerful character moments. In Robert Jordan’s books, the Battle of Falme is a crucible for the series which proves it can pull off a big complex clash with lots of different parties involved. It ups the ante for the saga in a meaningful way.

You could say that Falme is to The Wheel of Time show what the Battle of the Blackwater was to Game of Thrones. The fact that The Wheel of Time managed to pull off this sequence elevates the entire series. I know that the Game of Thrones comparisons can get thrown around too much, but I honestly can’t recall feeling this elated watching a fantasy show since HBO’s flagship show. I gasped, I cheered, I cried ugly tears of joy. Falme is peak television, and I’m grateful to live in a time where I could watch it air in realtime.

There are so many highlights it’s hard to choose which to even talk about; Egwene (Madeleine Madden) and Renna’s (Xelia Mendes-Jones) complicated slave-master relationship comes to a dramatic head, Perrin gathers our heroes in the streets, Rand comes face-to-face with Ishamael, Moiraine and Lan reawaken their bond and then fight on the beach to save Rand’s life…it’s a lot, and so much of it is great.

But my favorite moment of “What Was Meant To Be” was probably when Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn) sounded the Horn of Valere, summoning heroes from bygone ages to help him fight his way to Rand’s side. This is a key moment from The Great Hunt which has huge ramifications, and it was important for the show to get it right. Going into this episode, I was somewhat worried because the show hasn’t told us much about the Horn of Valere. The finale tries to make up for that with a few quick lines of dialogue to remind viewers what it does, but I still wish it had been developed more ahead of time.

That said, once Mat cracks open the case that holds the Horn and actually sounds it, it’s hard not to be swept away. Mat has had an interesting journey this season, and the show has had to do some legwork to get him back in line with the rest of the series leads after recasting the role. Mat is a hero who is constantly being told that his own inner darkness will be his undoing, so to see him be accepted as an equal by great heroes from the past had me in tears.

“What Was Meant To Be” has some rough edges, but who cares?

I’ve mostly just gushed about The Wheel of Time season 2 finale, but there were a few odd spots. Mainly they were relatively small things, like strange cuts, awkward pacing or contrived encounters, such as Mat suddenly appearing out of a misty alleyway to reunite with Perrin, or all of our main characters conveniently arriving on the tower in time for a group shot at the end of the season. While I noticed a few things like that, they didn’t detract much from my experience. My prevailing feeling by the end of the episode is that even if there were some rough spots, they’re small enough to be hardly worth commenting upon.

There were some adaptation choices I found interesting, though; consider this your spoiler warning that we’re about to discuss some details from The Great Hunt which occur during the battle in Falme.

There are three points in “What Was Meant To Be” where the show gave book-readers a very clear nod toward a scene that occurred in the novels, but doesn’t occur on the show. The biggest of those is Rand’s encounter with High Lord Turak (Daniel Francis). In the books, we see Rand spend months training with the sword. By the time he finally faces Turak, their duel demonstrates that he’s actually earned the right to carry a heron-marked blade. Rand didn’t train with a sword on-screen much this season, so instead he just lashes out with an awesome display of the One Power. It still works, it’s just different.

Sad though I was to lose the Turak fight, it wouldn’t have had the same weight without seeing the training that made it possible in the books anyway. I’m still hopeful the series will bring give Rand a comparable moment later on, especially since we have reason to believe he’ll be doing some sword training in season 3.

Then there’s Ingtar (Gregg Chillin). In the novels, Ingtar is a Darkfriend. This is revealed in Falme, in an alleyway just like the one where he dies on the show. He gets a wonderful redemption moment with some memorable dialogue, turning away from the Dark at the eleventh hour to buy time for Rand and the others. Perhaps because the show already did two Darkfriend reveals with Liandrin and Barthanes, it decided to drop this one.

By far the change I liked least was that Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins) was basically sidelined for the episode. In the books, Nynaeve and her fellow Aes Sedai trainee Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney) rescue Egwene from her captivity as a damane. The show opts to have Egwene save herself instead, with Nynaeve and Elayne’s rescue attempt serving as an elaborate red herring. This meant big things for Egwene, but the downside is that Nynaeve and Elayne’s story ends up feeling somewhat pointless. There’s also the somewhat strange issue that most all of Nynaeve’s stronger moments from the end of The Great Hunt are given to other characters instead.

Another repercussion of these choices is that Egwene has a much darker arc, since she murders Renna. In the book, Egwene begins beating Renna after she’s freed from captivity, but Nynaeve stops her before things get too out of hand. I feel a bit conflicted about the decision to make Egwene a murderer at this stage, when the source material specifically has her make the opposite choice. I’m curious to see where it leads.

In general it feels like this finale had so much to get to that it left some beats from the books by the wayside. When the season started, I probably would have been upset by that. But now I can only marvel at what the show actually did do and do well. It created its own version of the Falme battle, with its own important moments, some of which line up with the books and some of which are totally original. The finale doesn’t try to do a one-for-one recreation of its source material, but rather takes what it can to best serve the story the show is telling. It strikes a careful but effective balance.

One sign to me that a story is really cooking is when I can turn off the critic part of my brain and just get swept up in the magic. “What Was Meant To Be” did that for me, and so despite any criticisms or qualms I may have had, my prevailing feeling is that this show has earned my trust as a viewer many times over. I just want to see where it goes next.

More Forsaken are on the loose!

Following the climactic battle with Ishamael, we get a final scene with Lanfear, who rocks one more cool outfit for the road. Lanfear decides to totally betray the Forsaken. She is partially responsible for Ishamael’s downfall, since she brought Rand to Falme early and put Moiraine in position to destroy the Seanchan fleet. She also made plans with Bayle Domon (Julian Lewis Jones) to dispose of the six other cuendillar seals which are holding the rest of the Forsaken.

That doesn’t pan out, however. The season’s ending stinger is that Ishamael released the rest of the Forsaken before being killed by Rand. We meet one of them in the final scene: Moghedien, played by Laia Costa. Moghedien is a manipulator who prefers to stay in the shadows, thus all the spider imagery. She uses the One Power like a web, trapping Lanfear and warning her not to get in the way as the rest of the Forsaken go after Rand and his friends.

I loved this final scene, and Costa is chilling as Moghedien. The Forsaken were a standout part of season 2, so having the rest of them now on the board is very exciting. Plus, seeing Lanfear act genuinely frightened for the first time drives home just how big of a threat this is. I can’t wait to see what the show does with Moghedien and the other Forsaken in future seasons.

The Bullet Points of Time

• The opening credits returned in the season finale! Loved to see it.
• The scene where Moiraine unmasks her bond with Lan is beautiful. The CGI for the One Power has improved so much this season. I also liked the little wince Daniel Henney gave as Lan started feeling some of Moiraine’s pain over her ordeal of the past few months.
• Egwene fighting on the tower for the Seanchan was also very cool. Madeleine Madden’s heavy breathing after she roasts some Whitecloaks, combined with Renna’s elated “good girl” was a conflicting, fascinating moment. Egwene’s storyline remains one of the best this season.
• I also gasped pretty loudly when Renna cut off Egwene’s braid. Remember, braids are important to women of the Two Rivers; it’s a symbol of their adult womanhood. We saw Egwene lean back on that last week when she started braiding her hair in captivity, so this was harsh.
• High Lady Suroth’s ecstatic grin at the idea of gentling a man was another great moment. Karima McAdams has given that character a lot of personality, and made the most of her screentime. I wonder if she survived the destruction of the Seanchan fleet?
• Mat really shines in this episode. The part where he creates a makeshift spear out of the ruby-hilted dagger and then surprises Padan Fain (Johann Myers) was a joy. Mat’s been such an underdog all season, I’m so happy that the show pulled off his big turn here in the finale. The sizzly sound effect when he stabs a Seanchan soldier with the dagger-spear was also a cool touch.
• The battle in the city is a harrowing, which feels just right. It’s a little hard to get a feel for exactly how many people are involved, but it works because of how the show sells the chaos of it all.
• That said, those Whitecloak catapults did kind of come out of nowhere. Could no one manning the city walls see them? Or the damane up in their tower? They’re pretty big to miss.
• One of the damane killed by the Whitecloak catapults is Maigan, the Sitter of the Blue Ajah that the Seanchan captured.
• In the books, Renna survives the battle at Falme. She doesn’t crop up again until much later in the series, and only very briefly, so I think the show made a good choice to close the loop on her here. Renna’s death is probably the most brutal of the episode.
• Actually, I take that back, because good boy Hopper’s death was the most brutal of the episode. That was sad, and that dog actor sold it. Someone give him a biscuit.
• Hopper’s death also allowed Perrin to have a big moment from the books where he kills Geofram Bornhald, which sets up a grudge between him and Geofram’s son Dain. I’m excited to see where the show takes their rivalry.
• The final showdown on top of the tower was epic. Again, this is different from how things went in the books, where Rand duels Ishamael floating in the sky. Instead, Rand’s friends show up to help him, buying enough time for Moiraine to break the shield on him so that he can kill Ishamael. The idea that Rand’s friends are the source of his power, even more than his actual magical strength, is a theme the books hit time and again. I enjoyed seeing it play out here.
• Speaking of Rand’s friends, we got to see him and Elayne meet! They have a long story in the books, so expect to see more of them together. She heals his wound from Mat’s spear, but it doesn’t look like she got all the corruption out. In the books, Rand takes a wound during his fight with Ishamael that doesn’t heal. I like how the show reworked it so that Mat accidentally stabs Rand, which is heartbreaking considering how happy Mat looked to come to his friend’s rescue only seconds earlier.
• A shoutout must be given to Lan and Moiraine’s fight on the beach. They have had a season of ups and downs, and we really needed to see them function as an Aes Sedai and warder again. Moiraine weaving magic, totally trusting that Lan will defend her against a whole squad of soldiers, was epic. Plus, Lan caught an arrow out of the air.
• I also need to shoutout Moiraine’s cold-blooded proclamation that she would “let a thousand innocent people die if there’s even a chance [Rand] will live.” That is such a great line and drives home her conviction in her mission to protect the Dragon Reborn. If Rand loses, the Dark One stops the cycle of reincarnation. The stakes are as high as they get.
• Lorne Balfe’s score is magnificent, especially when Mat was sounding the Horne of Valere.
• There are some important people taking note of Rand from the crowd in Falme at the end. One is Aveindha, who calls Rand the “Car’a’carn.” This is the Aiel “chief-of-chiefs” that Aviendha told Perrin she was looking for, basically their own prophesied hero. That’s setting up season 3, where we’ll see Rand journey into the Aiel Waste with her.
• Then there’s Masema (Arnas Fedaravicius), a Shienaran soldier who is also in the crowd. In the books, Masema goes on to spread the word of the Dragon Reborn after Falme, which this scene presumably sets in motion.
• When Mat blows the Horn of Valere, he sees heroes from past ages. The one who tells him that he has fought by his side times without number is Artur Hawkwing, basically The Wheel of Time’s version of King Arthur. He was a king in the centuries following Lews Therin’s battle with the Dark, and a hero of great renown. He’s also, as it happens, the person the Seanchan are all claiming to be descended from. When they say they’re “of the blood,” they’re referring to Hawkwing’s blood. Hawkwing sent his son Luthair across the sea to colonize the Seanchan continent, which is what led to the rise of their empire.
• Another hero of the Horn is Uno Nomesta, the foul-mouthed Shienaran played by Guy Roberts that was killed by the Seanchan back in Episode 203, “What Might Be.” Uno survives for quite a while in the books, but I enjoyed seeing him come back this way.
• When Rand stabs Ishamael, his sword hilt burns a heron brand into his palm. A nice little detail relevant to the prophecies from the books that I was happy to see.
• The fire dragon that Moiraine summons is insanely cool. I think that shot, of the dragon encircling the tower while Rand and his friends stand at its peak, is going to end up being one of the single most iconic images from 2023’s slate of fantasy TV.

Verdict

“What Was Meant To Be” is every bit the event that you would hope for in a season finale for a prestige fantasy series. It has action, it has drama, it has some of the most gorgeous magic I’ve ever seen on TV and deep themes about the nature of past lives and reincarnation. While it does have a few rough edges and makes changes from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time novels, it still feels like a resounding triumph. This episode made me giddy in a way I haven’t felt in a long time while watching a fantasy show. If The Wheel of Time continues on this trajectory, there is no doubt that it is going to become a modern classic of genre television.

Episode Grade: A

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