The second season of The Wheel of Time is over, and pretty much everyone agrees that it’s a vast improvement on the first. The story was more sprawling, the actors were more confident in their roles, and the effects got an upgrade.
So the new episodes are an improvement, but how do they stack up against each other? Let’s rank every episode of The Wheel of Time season 2 from worst (relatively speaking) to best.
8. Episode 201, “A Taste of Solitude”
We begin, conveniently, at the beginning. Season 2 takes its time getting off the ground. The first couple episodes are easily the slowest of the bunch as we learn what’s become of all the characters since the events of season 1.
Perrin and Loial are on the hunt for the Horn of Valere, which Padan Fain has stolen from the Borderlands city of Fal Dara. Nyaneve and Egwene are novices in the White Tower, training to become Aes Sedai sorceresses. Though they don’t know it, Mat is there too, imprisoned by the wicked Aes Sedai sister Liandrin. Moiraine is grappling with the loss of her power and learning things about the Forsaken, and Rand…well, we have so much to get to in this episode we barely see him.
All of this stuff is important to establish, but none of it is especially exciting. The build will pay off, but these first couple episodes can feel like a bit of a chore to sit through, which is probably why Amazon dropped the first three episodes of the season all at once. Happily, it’s upwards and onwards from here.
7. Episode 202, “Strangers and Friends”
This is another episode that’s heavy on set up. We spend a lot of time in Cairhien with Rand, who is laying low lest channeling drives him mad and he hurts his loved ones. He’s shaved his head, is working in an asylum, and has a no frills casual thing going with a hot innkeeper named Selene.
Meanwhile, at the White Tower, Liandrin wants to train Nynaeve, Egwene meets a nice princess named Elayne, and Mat makes friends with a fellow prisoner named Min. All necessary stuff, all a bit boring.
The stuff with Moiraine is especially odd. The show introduces a plotline where Moiraine, feeling rudderless now that she can no longer access the One Power, shuts herself off from Lan, which means severing their magical bond as well as generally being mean to him. Even having watched the whole season, I still don’t see quite why she does this. It’s the weakest storyline of the season, and it’s given a fair amount of space here in Episode 2.
Things are more lively over in Perrin’s part of the plot. He and the Shienaran soldiers he’s traveling with find a myrddraal that’s been pinned to a wall in a most unsettling manner and are later captured by the Seanchan, a race of strangers from across the sea. Their lead, Lady Suroth, wears a costume so garishly elaborate it bumps the episode up a spot all by itself.
6. Episode 204, “Daughter of the Night”
Honestly, the first two episodes of season 2 are the only ones I had real problems with. It’s all gravy from here on out, starting with Episode 204, “Daughter of the Night.” The title is a reference to Lanfear, a thousands-year-old Forsaken sorceress who has been posing as Rand’s main squeeze Selene with the aim of turning the Dragon Reborn to the dark side. The reveal of who she really is comes at the end of the episode, and it’s pretty juicy.
But it’s not the only good twist in the episode. We also get Liandrin attacking Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne for reasons we aren’t told yet, but we sure are curious to find out. Some of the interstitial scenes are also solid, as paths start to cross and characters meet up. For instance, I enjoyed the tension between Moiraine and the False Dragon Logain as she promises him what most people cut off from the One Power want: death…if he helps her. I also liked her interactions with her estranged sister Anvaere. This is a jam-packed season, but they managed to find room for a little family drama.
As someone who’s read The Wheel of Time books, it warmed my heart to see Perrin meeting Hopper, his best wolf buddy. Predictably, the worst part of the episode involves Lan trying to come to grips with losing his bond with Moiraine. I don’t know, I knew this plot wasn’t going anywhere so it just seemed like wasted time. Meanwhile, Mat and Min are on the move here, but don’t do anything especially memorable.
Still, things are improving! Now let’s jump to near the end of the season:
5. Episode 207, “Daes Dae’mar”
The main action in this episodes takes place in Cairhien, where Rand is taken before the Amyrlin Seat Siuan Sanche, who now knows that he is the Dragon Reborn. In a major swerve from the books, where Siuan and Moiraine are on the same page about nurturing Rand, Siuan wants to control him and use him as a weapon, which puts her at odds with her beloved Moiraine. It’s a big change, but it does create a lot of tension and throws characters we haven’t seen interact in a while back together.
Later, Rand calls upon Lanfear for help. She vamps it up at the Foregate, blowing up everything in sight to distract the Aes Sedai while Rand and Moiraine make a run for it with the help of Verin, who is a great addition to the supporting cast this season. Everything comes to a head at the Waygate in Cairhien. Moiraine’s I-lost-my-powers arc finally pays off as Rand is able to untie the weaves holding her back. Actor Rosamund Pike completely sells the relief on Moiraine’s face.
And then Moiraine has to fight her lover Siuan Sanche! And then Lanfear interferes and lays the smackdown on the Amyrlin Seat herself! It’s drama left, right and center.
Over in Falme, we get an excellently creepy scene where Mat drinks some funky tea and has freaky visions of his past and future. In the first season, Mat was played by Barney Harris. In season 2, actor Dónal Finn stepped in. That made some fans nervous, but Finn emerged as one of the standout performers of the season, with this scene as Exhibit A.
The weakest part of “Daes Dae’mar” is probably Perrin’s trek through the desert with Aviendha and the other Aiel warriors. Aviendha’s brutal beating, administered to satisfy some kind of honor code, comes off as more weird and goofy than profound and powerful.
4. Episode 205, “Damane”
At this point in the season, things are really cooking. Lanfear has been unmasked and immediately starts to go all Michael Myers on Rand and Moiraine, stalking them from place to place and murdering any passersby she chances upon purely for the fun of it. Natasha O’Keeffe has a blast and a half playing this character. At the very end, she meets Rand in the dream world of Tel’aran’rhiod wearing a space vixen costume that practically stops time. And an iconic villainous is born.
But the real fireworks happen in Falme, where Liandrin sells Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne into Seanchan slavery. Up until know, we’ve known that the Seanchan are foreign invaders with outrageous fashion sense, but it’s here that things get really twisted. While Nynaeve and Elayne escape thanks to some petty sabotage on the part of Liandrin — who has a memorable role the whole season through, I might add — Egwene is taken and given over to a woman named Renna. We learn that the Seanchan treat women who can channel more like animals than humans. The patronizing way Renna talks to Egwene, as though she’s an especially smart dog, is somehow more upsetting than if she simply abused her.
I seem to constantly be saying that Perrin’s part of the episodes are the weakest. That’s true in Episode 205, but there’s nothing especially wrong with his journey to reunite with his kidnapped comrades. He also meets Aviendha, who will go on to be a very important character. Their 2-vs-20 fight scene against a group of Whitecloaks is edited too spastically for my taste, but Aviendha immediately marks herself as someone to watch.
Finally, a shoutout must needs be given to the Aes Sedai Verin, who drops into the White Tower and starts playing detective looking for the Black Ajah. I don’t think anybody expected Verin to pop off the screen quite as much as she does. Her scenes are an unexpected treat.
3. Episode 208, “What Was Meant to Be”
The Wheel of Time wraps up its second season with a huge blowout battle in “What Was Meant to Be.” Most of our principle players gather in the city of Falme just as the Whitecloaks attack in an attempt to drive out the invading Seanchan. Our original fivesome from the Two Rivers reunite high atop a tower to face down the Forsaken Ishamael, who dies another death in a long series of deaths. He must be so vexed.
The show mostly pulls off the spectacle, and there are plenty of unexpectedly powerful moments. My favorite was Mat blowing the Horn of Valere and learning that he is accepted by the noble-hearted heroes of the past, whatever Ishamael tells him about his inner darkness. I was surprised this moment hit so well considering the show had basically set up nothing about the Horn of Valere. I’m gonna once again give credit to Dónal Finn for crushing it.
But other moments fall weirdly flat. After waiting episodes to Egwene get revenge on the crual slaver Renna, the moment feels like an odd non-event; I wanted something more physical and tactile. It’s also a bit odd that the Whitecloaks play so prominent a part in proceedings considering how little they’ve been onscreen this season. “What Was Meant to Be” benefits from the momentum generated by all the episodes before. But the Whitecloak attack doesn’t feel built to. They just show up.
Still, the finale is an exciting, explosive hour of TV that turns the page on a new chapter for the series. And the creepy stinger teases more fearsome Forsaken fun to come.
2. Episode 203, “What Might Be”
This episode has one big main plot and a few subplots. Off to the side, Rand visits Logain in a sanatorium and goes to a fancy party with Selene. Perrin and his Shienaran compatriots face down the Seanchan, who prove how ruthless they are by killing the sewer-mouthed Uno in a shocking, abrupt way. And Mat escapes from his prison in the White Tower with Min, only for us to learn that’s exactly what Liandrin him to do. Intrigue!
But this episode belongs to Nynaeve, who takes her test to become an Accepted by entering a mysterious arch so old and powerful not even the Aes Sedai know how it works, or even what it does. Inside, she has a kind of It’s a Wonderful Life nightmare where we learn all about her past. She is tempted three times to remain inside this strange alternate world, and three times must resist. The final time, she can’t say no to the prospect of settling down with Lan and raising a family in the Two Rivers. She is lost forever in the ter’angreal.
“What Might Be” really benefits from being able to focus on one character like this, exploring her hopes, dreams and fears in detail. The world inside the ter’angreal is intoxicatingly mysterious. With so little knowledge of what’s really going on, who are we to say we wouldn’t make the same choice Nynaeve did?
When Nynaeve fails to reemerge from the arches, the episode moves on as if she really is lost. We get to know Elayne better as she comforts a grieving Egwene. Honestly, I started to wonder if maybe the show had taken a massive turn from the books and decided to kill off Nynaeve not a fifth of the way through her journey.
But of course it hadn’t; she resists the false call of the ter’angreal at the moment where it’s maximally painful for her and emerges back into the real world wailing and traumatized. It’s a great, expertly executed twist that gives actor Zoë Robins a chance to show off what she can do as Nynaeve.
1. Episode 206, “Eyes Without Pity”
Like “What Might Be,” “Eyes Without Pity” benefits from being able to focus mainly on just one plotline, in this case the plight of Nynaeve, Elayne and especially Egwene in the Seanchan-occupied city of Falme. Egwene has been enslaved by Renna, who cruelly controls her using magical technology. I already mentioned how creepy the Seanchan relationship with channelers is. Egwene learns just how creepy in the most painful possible way.
Egwene’s struggle forms the backbone of this episode. Renna beats her down again and again and again, physically, psychologically and spiritually, all while believing herself to be in the right. It’s deeply unsettling. And it pays off when, at the end of the episode, Egwene shows signs that she really has been broken. It’s a gut punch, and a wonderful showcase for actor Madeleine Madden. She gives the performance of the season in this episode. Before this, I don’t think many people were looking at her as one of the show’s acting MVPs, and now she’s at the top of the list.
Nyaneve and Elayne also go through it on the outside, scheming with an Aes Sedai and her warder how to break Egwene free. The Aes Sedai, Raya, gets collared by the Seanchan at the end of the episode, a blow on top of a blow.
Rand also has some fun stuff as he negotiates with Lanfear in the dream world of Tel’aran’rhiod and reunites with Mat in the waking world. Their reunion is more touching than I figured it would be considering that someone new is playing Mat. One last time, I give it up for Dónal Finn.
Overall, The Wheel of Time had a great season of TV! If it continues on this trajectory, it could become a legendary show in its own time.
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