The Wheel of Time season 2 has come to an explosive end: the finale, “What Was Meant To Be,” was a massive event that saw various forces converge on the city of Falme. The episode featured the show’s biggest battle to date, with Whitecloaks and Seanchan and the spirits of heroes from bygone eras fighting in the streets.
Falme is an iconic moment from The Wheel of Time novels by Robert Jordan. While the TV show absolutely did it justice, it still made plenty of changes, too. Let’s run through the biggest of them
Beware: There will be SPOILERS for The Wheel of Time season 2 as well as the books.
Moiraine, Lan and Rand’s arrival in Falme
In the show: Lanfear leads Rand, Moiraine and Lan to Falme through the Ways. She instructs Moiraine to raise the Dragon banner when the time comes, then ejects her and Lan out a Waygate onto the beach near Falme. After that, Lanfear uses an ancient magical mode of transportation called Traveling to bring Rand to the city.
In the books: Rand goes to Toman Head, the peninsula where Falme is located, through a portal stone along Mat, Perrin and a group of Shienarans led by Ingtar. Lanfear is not involved at all.
Moiraine and Lan are not involved in the Battle of Falme. Instead, they arrive in the aftermath, reuniting with Rand before the next leg of his journey.
Egwene, Renna and the Seanchan
In the show: Egwene and Renna fight alongside the Seanchan, raining fireballs down on the Whitecloaks from Falme’s tallest tower. After a Whitecloak catapult disrupts their attack, Egwene finds an opportunity to put an a’dam collar on Renna and subsequently kills her. Egwene frees herself from captivity.
In the books: Nynaeve and Elayne rescue Egwene from the Seanchan during the chaos when the Battle of Falme is starting. Egwene never fights alongside the Seanchan in the battle. She also does not kill Renna; instead, Nynaeve convinces Egwene to leave Renna collared and at the mercy of the Seanchan.
Nynaeve and Elayne’s rescue attempt
In the show: Nynaeve and Elayne capture a Seanchan sul’dam named Seta, collaring her. Nynaeve disguises herself as a sul’dam and Seta as a damane. The three of them head to the tower in Falme where Egwene is in hopes of saving her.
However, Seta is killed by an arrow on the way to the tower, and Elayne is wounded. Nynaeve removes the arrow from Elayne’s leg and they reach the tower just in time to help Rand in his fight against Ishamael. By that time, Egwene has already freed herself from Renna’s control.
Min Farshaw is also involved in this plotline in the novels, but she does not go to Falme in the TV show.
In the books: Nynaeve and Elayne have figured out how to open a’dam collars by this point, after Nynaeve frees Seta’s damane and then subsequently collars the Seta. Min helps with their rescue plan, since she was also brought to Falme by Liandrin. Nynaeve, Elayne and Min infiltrate the damane kennels as the battle is getting underway and free Egwene.
Another significant thing which happens in the books is that Nynaeve and Elayne make plans with the ship captain Bayle Domon to ensure that they have a way to escape the city after rescuing Egwene.