Rand's visions from Rhuidean in The Wheel of Time season 3 Episode 4: "The Road to the Spear," explained

This week, Prime Video released the fourth episode of The Wheel of Time season 3. The epic fantasy show has been on the rise, but I think it's safe to say that this latest episode is one of, if not the best episode in the show's run to date. "The Road to the Spear" adapts a key part of Robert Jordan's iconic book series, where prophesied messiah Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski) enters the mystical Aiel city of Rhuidean to undergo a trial of visions which will prove beyond all doubt that he is the chosen one. As part of those trials, Rand relives the experiences of his ancestors to discover the secret history of the Aiel, which is so shocking that Aiel chieftains are forbidden to speak of it to anyone but those who have undergone the same trial.

This was an important moment for The Wheel of Time TV show to get right, and it's an immense relief to say that it pulled it off. Over the last 40 or so minutes of the episode, Rand experiences six different lives, each taking him farther back in time to peel back another layer and expose the Aiel's mysterious origins.

"Rand al'Thor, in the glass columns you will walk the footsteps of your blood ancestors. Each step forward, a step backward through time. Sometimes dozens of years, sometimes hundreds. To lead is to know where you came from, to understand the blood in your veins."

Melaine in "The Road to the Spear"

If you've just watched the episode, you're probably hungry for every detail you can get about what exactly Rand saw. While it's easy to follow the overall thrust of the story, each vision contains tons of secrets and Easter eggs to be parsed. We're going to break them all down below. FULL SPOILERS beyond this point for "The Road to the Spear."

Vision 1: Janduin — the Aiel War and the birth of Rand

The very first vision Rand experiences in the glass columns puts him into the shoes of Janduin...his own father. Janduin was a chieftain of the Taardad Aiel who led the Aiel during the Aiel War, a conflict which started when Moiraine's uncle Laman Damodred cut down a sapling of the Avendesora tree which was gifted to the people of Cairhien by the Aiel. As Moiraine explains to Rand, the Aiel pursued Laman all the way to the slopes of Dragonmount, the enormous mountain near Tar Valon, and killed him there to avenge this symbolic breaking of the peace between their two peoples.

In the vision, we see Janduin kill some of Laman's soldiers before his fellow warriors tell him they've found his wife. She is dead, blood staining the snow beneath her legs. We've seen this woman before, during the cold open for season 1 Episode 7, "The Dark Along the Ways." She was the one who fought off a bunch of soldiers while pregnant, and then proceeded to give birth to baby Rand on the slopes of that very mountain. Tam al'Thor, Rand's adoptive father played by Game of Thrones veteran Michael McElhatton, found Rand and his mother there and took the baby after she died. This is why Janduin's fellow Aiel tell him there's "no sign of the baby."

There's one other interesting bit of lore from this vision: Janduin tells his dead wife that he killed the oathbreaker — Laman — with his own spear. That means Rand's father killed Moiraine's uncle.

When Rand comes out of this vision, he has his mother's blood on his hands, and he's screaming as he relives Janduin's grief at finding out baby Rand was taken and his mother slain. It's mind-bending, intense stuff, and it's only the beginning.

Vision 2: Mandein — the binding of the Aiel at Rhuidean

The second vision punts Rand back even farther in time, into the body of an Aiel chieftain named Mandein. It begins with Mandein and his wife, a Wise One named Sealdre, watching as the city of Rhuidean is covered in fog for the very first time. Sealdre reveals that she and the Wise Ones from other clans had dreams telling them that any Aiel chieftains who do not come to Rhuidean and agree to some mysterious terms set by the Aes Sedai waiting for them there will ultimately lead their clans to extinction.

In the newly fog-covered city of Rhuidean, Mandein and five other Aiel chieftains meet with an ancient Aes Sedai named Latra Posae Decume. Remember, Aes Sedai age very slowly, so the fact that Latra looks as old as she does likely means she's hundreds if not thousands of years old. She's also wearing one of the sleek, multi-finger Aes Sedai rings from the Age of Legends which we've seen on the Forsaken, and an ornate necklace with several different colored stones, indicating she is the Amyrlin Seat of her time.

Latra pulls a white orb out of the Avendesora tree, which we later see her use to create the glass columns of Rhuidean. The chieftain beside Mandein who asks why Latra called the Aiel to Rhuidean is played by the same actor as Couladin, the antagonistic Aiel warrior Rand met outside the city; presumably this is his ancestor. Latra tells the chieftains she has called them to Rhuidean because the last people that were "truly Aiel" and built Rhuidean are all dead. She says the Aes Sedai know these remaining Aiel clans as "oathbreakers," and charges their chieftains and Wise Ones with coming to Rhuidean to learn their history so that it is not forgotten, including why it is forbidden for them to carry swords.

The Aes Sedai also drops a bit of the Aiel Dragon prophecy, possibly for the first time ever: "The one who would lead Aiel will come later, of the blood but not raised by the blood. The Car'a'carn will come from Rhuidean at dawn and tie you with bonds you cannot break. The Car'a'carn will take you back and destroy you."

Essentially, we are seeing the beginning of the trials of Rhuidean in this vision. But there are extra tidbits to nerd out about as well. When Rand and Moiraine first go into Rhuidean, the Wise Ones tell them they must leave their weapons to honor "the last true Aiel." Mandein leaving his spear on the mountain outside Rhuidean is the beginning of this tradition. But he isn't "the last true Aiel" that either Latra or the Wise Ones are referencing. Let's carry on to the next vision, and meet them.

Vision 3: Lewin — the true Aiel arrive at the Three-Fold Land

The third vision Rand experiences takes him back to the moment the Aiel first arrive in the desert they will come to call the Three-Fold Land, aka the Aiel Waste. Except these Aiel are nothing like those we've seen in the show: they travel in brightly colored caravans and follow the Way of the Leaf, like the Tuatha'an Tinkers. These people are the last true Aiel, who built Rhuidean and who Latra Sedai claims have all died out by the time Mandein undergoes the first vision trial.

Here we get to see how the veiled, warrior Aiel we know from the show first split off from their peaceful roots. The vision follows Lewin and his two friends Charlin and Alijha, a trio who strongly resemble Rand, Mat, and Perrin. It begins with Lewin hugging the young Avendesora tree, which he calls a "Chora" — that's the Old Tongue name for these magically created trees, which are said to emit an air of peace and well-being. The white sa'angreal we saw Latra Sedai use in the previous vision is nestled within its branches.

Lewin's grandfather, old man Adan, informs him and his friends that Lewin's sister Maigrin and her friend Colline have been kidnapped by bandits. Despite Adan's insistence that they're to be left to the bandits and grieved, Lewin convinces his friends to try to save them. It goes horribly wrong, Lewin is forced to kill the bandits, and his friend Charlin is murdered. This is where we find out why the Aiel are forbidden to carry swords. After breaking with the Way of the Leaf and killing someone for the first time, Lewin proclaims that he and his friend Alijha will not use swords because all they will ever be is a weapon; that's why they're forbidden by the Way of the Leaf. Instead, they will use spears, because they're useful tools which can also "put food in the pots." This echoes a line that Aviendha said to Moiraine and Egwene in the season's second episode when she hunted their dinner with her spear, and scoffed at the idea of Rand training with a sword instead. So even though most modern-day Aiel have no idea why swords are forbidden, these words about spears being broadly useful tools have been passed down.

When Lewin's group returns, Adan banishes them for committing violence. Lewin's mother's heartbreaking speech encourages him to hide his face, because "I had a son with a face like that. I don't want to see it on a killer." We then see Lewin and Alijha pull up their dust veils, and decide they will protect and do violence on behalf of their fellow Aiel, who cannot do violence for themselves. This is the beginning of the Aiel cultural dress where they pull a black veil over their face when they mean to do lethal violence.

So here we see how the "true Aiel" — those who followed the Way of the Leaf — first came to the desert to build Rhuidean, and how the warrior Aiel we know first split off from them. This knowledge that the entire modern Aiel way of life is built on betraying an oath of pacifism is such a heavy burden to bear that chieftains cannot speak of it once they leave Rhuidean. And as Rand comes back to himself, we see that it was too much for Muradin, the prospective Shadio chieftain, to accept as well. This vision is the one that Muradin was not able to pass, seemingly gouging out his own eyes.

Fortunately Rand doesn't have this problem, and is able to find out what brought these "true Aiel" to the desert in the first place. Let's take another step backward in time.

Vision 4: Jonai — the departure of the Tuatha'an

The next character we see Josha Stradowski inhabit is an old man named Jonai. He's a member of an Aiel caravan which was attacked, its people killed and its wagons burned. His young grandson is none other than Adan, the old man we saw in the previous vision.

This vision reveals the origins of Rhuidean. Jonai's daughter was a Dreamwalker who dreamed a vision of a great city in the desert where the Aiel could finally be safe. Jonai's caravan is transporting the Avendesora tree there, which he says he was entrusted with from his grandfather. But not everyone in the caravan wants to continue after their latest tragedy. Most of the villagers decide they're done with this world-spanning journey, and just want to find somewhere safe to settle down. They claim that the Aes Sedai have killed the last man who can channel, and the world is finally settling.

That places this vision shortly after the Breaking of the World, when the previous Dragon Lews Therin Telamon shattered the land following his battle with the Dark One. The male half of the One Power was tainted in the final clash with the Dark One, which eventually drove all male channelers mad and led to an age of chaos. By this point, the modern world as Rand and the others will eventually come to know it is starting to take shape. You can see this in some of the language in this scene, with Jonai flipping from the newer common tongue to bits of Old Tongue.

The villagers ultimately leave, asking if Jonai remembers the song of harvest. This is showing how some members of the Aiel broke their oaths even earlier than Lewin — those who would eventually be known as the Tuatha'an, who modern Aiel call "the Lost Ones." The Tuatha'an kept to the Way of the Leaf, but abandoned the quest to protect the Avendesora and instead just went off to live their lives.

This vision ends with Jonai and Adan pulling the wagon with the Avendesora toward the Spine of the World, the mountain range which separates the Aiel Waste from the rest of the world, in hopes that the other caravans will meet them there as Jonai's daughter dreamed.

Vision 5: Rhodric — the oath of the Aiel and the Breaking of the World

As Rand passes into the next vision, we hear echoes of the Wise Ones telling him that each step forward will be a step backward through time, sometimes dozens of years, sometimes hundreds. The past couple have been dozens, but this time, it is indeed hundreds of years into the past: right back to the Breaking of the World.

During this period, male channelers are all insane and destroying the world around them indiscriminately, while the female Aes Sedai wage a campaign to stop them. We hear explosions and see a darkened sky overhead as Rand's ancestor Rhodric walks into a hall of the Aes Sedai.

Here he meets with Latra Sedai, the ancient Aes Sedai we saw build the glass columns of Rhuidean. She's also the Aes Sedai we saw meet with Lews Therin Telamon back in cold open for the season 1 finale, when he decided to go face the Dark One. Here, it's revealed that Latra and the Aes Sedai have charged the Aiel with spreading 10,000 clippings from the Avendesora throughout the world, because the magically created tree gives off an air of peace and well-being — something the world desperately needs at that point in its history. But she also gives Rhodric another duty: to protect the Sakarnen, the white orb we saw in the previous visions, which is the most powerful female sa'angreal ever made.

Latra's advisor is Solinda, another powerful Aes Sedai who reveals that the women of the White Tower have already killed many of their male counterparts by this part of the Breaking. But Latra reminds her there are many more out there in the world, and if any of them found a woman who would work with them, the Sarkanen would be too dangerous to have fall into their hands. She mentions that it was a female Aes Sedai named Mierin who first tore open the Dark One's prison, and that Mierin claimed the name Lanfear. We'll find out more about Lanfear's origins in the next vision.

We also see how the Aiel first swore their oath, and what that oath is: to always follow the Way of the Leaf in order to fulfill their ancient obligations to the Aes Sedai. The Aiel were servants of the Aes Sedai in this ancient age, and it was their strict adherence to peace which swayed Latra to entrust them with this mission to spread Avendesora clippings throughout the world and guard their most dangerous objects of power like the Sakarnen. The most powerful male sa'angreal, the sword Callandor, is already sealed in the Stone of Tear during this flashback, guarded by "war and fear" in an impenetrable fortress. The Aes Sedai wanted to try a more peaceful way of protecting the most powerful female sa'angreal by hiding it with the Aiel.

This vision ends with Rhodric loading the small Avendesora clipping into his wagon with the Sakarnen nestled in its branches. He and his partner Comran take a moment, repeating some words we've heard in later generations, and then drive their wagon away from the city as ominous red lights color the horizon. This is how the Aiel first came to start traveling in their wagon caravans, and why they originally had a culture of always staying on the move — because that is what they promised the Aes Sedai of the Age of Legends they would do, until they finally found a place where they could finally be safe.

Vision 6: Charn — the drilling of the Bore

The final vision takes us the farthest back we've ever been in the Wheel of Time mythos, to the moment just before Mierin Sedai freed the Dark One from his prison more than 3,000 years ago. Yes, that's Lanfear before she was turned to the Shadow!

Here we see her in a floating white spherical building known as the Sharom, where she's chatting with an Aiel servant named Charn. She reveals that she's found the thinnest part of the Pattern, where she believes the Aes Sedai can punch through it to find out what's on the other side. According to Mierin, there's a magical power beyond which can be used by anyone, unlike saidin or saidar. It would change the world! But as she comes to find out, this "true power" is a form of magic drawn directly from the Dark One. Sure, anyone can use it...if they swear oaths to the Shadow and he deems them worthy.

But that's getting ahead of ourselves. Here we see Mierin engage in a sweet conversation with Rand's ancient Aiel ancestor, where she tries to get him to imagine what it would be like to harvest the wheat he's grown with magic, and he responds that it feels good to do it by hand. There's something beautiful about going this far back in Rand's bloodline to find him as a simple farmer, just as he was when the series started in the Two Rivers. Mierin's final line to him, "There's nothing more important than holding on to the people that you love," is a reference to Lews Therin, Rand's past life incarnation who Mierin loves and who does not love her in return.

Charn goes out to join in harvesting the wheat, where all the Aiel are singing their song of harvest. Remember how the Tuatha'an are obsessed with an ancient song they once knew that promoted peace which no one remembers anymore? This is that song. Here we see the ancient Aiel, servants of the Aes Sedai, singing it as they're harvesting. It's one last idyllic moment before Mierin rips open the Dark One's prison and everything changes for good.

Suddenly, the floating fortress crumbles and crashes to the earth, as reality splinters around it and cracks the sky. Through those cracks, we get our first glimpse of the Dark One in the series, an otherworldly, unknowable presence. As the Sharom falls, you can also catch a glimpse of a settlement in the distance behind it; that's V'saine, a city which contains a university known as Collam Daan that's one of the high seats of learning in this age. All of it is leveled by the explosive backlash of the Dark One's prison being ripped open and the Sharom's fall.

In The Wheel of Time mythos, this event is known as the drilling of the Bore. It is ground zero for the unending battle between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One. Just like Rand, we now know where it all began, and how the Aiel fit into this complicated tapestry of events.

After Rhuidean, nothing will ever be the same for Rand al'Thor or his Aes Sedai mentor Moiraine Damodred. New episodes of The Wheel of Time season 3 premiere Thursdays on Prime Video.

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