The final shot of The Wheel of Time season 3 is chilling and I want more

The season 3 finale of The Wheel of Time, "He Who Comes With The Dawn," ends with lead character Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski) making it rain in the desert. To do this, he calls upon saidin, the male half of the One Power, to change the laws of nature itself. His show of strength does what he wants it to do: he convinces the Aiel people to see him as their messiah, ensuring they will follow him into the Last Battle against the Dark One.

But there's a problem. Saidin is corrupted, which is why the weaves of colorful magic that whip around Rand are streaked with inky blackness. Channelers who draw on saidin are destined to eventually go mad. As the Dragon Reborn, Rand is the most powerful channeler in the world, and if he goes mad, the whole world could suffer.

In the final moments of the episode, Rand's childhood friend Egwene (Madeleine Madden) implores Rand to let go of saidin. She does the same thing in the first episode of the season, and Rand complies. This time he looks back at her, all the power in the world at his command. He considers her, waves of saidin obscure the screen, and the season ends.

In a season full of highlights, this was my favorite moment. Is Rand mad? Can he be trusted? Will he use his power to save the world, or to destroy it? The prophecies of the dragon say that either is possible. Rand is the hero of the story, but in this moment I'm afraid of him, just like Egwene. I think this is a bold, eerie, goosebump-inducing way to end the season. It leaves things unresolved, but not unfinished. It asks questions that the show will hopefully spend future seasons exploring, rather than getting viewers hyped for the next season by withholding information. I already wanted more seasons of The Wheel of Time, but now that I know the show is capable of this kind of subtle shading, I want them all the more badly.

The Wheel of Time boss weighs in on Rand and Egwene's final exchange

The Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins weighed in on this moments while talking to The Hollywood Reporter. "This season for the two of them [Rand and Egwene] is very much about going from this place of unity to this place of: they love each other as you love people that you grew up with, but Egwene is not a character who is going to just fall in line," he said. "She will never be. What we wanted the final image of the season to be is Rand standing in his power, understanding both the darkness and the light that’s within him and knowing that he has to be both of those things. And Egwene being the only one who doesn’t bow to him. Earlier in the episode, also, Lanfear says something interesting to Rand. She basically says: in your last life you left me because I was the only one who wouldn’t bow to you."

"So for Lanfear and Egwene, these two characters who’ve been in conflict throughout the season, suddenly in the final episode you’re actually seeing there’s a thread that connects them. We view every relationship in the show as having this balance and, who is the balance to the Dragon Reborn? We believe it’s Egwene. You can go deep into the theories online from book fans, but there is this idea that there is a female balance to the Dragon Reborn and that it exists in Egwene. You can see in her eyes at the end of the season that she’s willing to stop Rand if she needs to, and that’s a very new place for her to be. It sets up a lot of really amazing stories that we haven’t seen before that can come in future seasons."

Rafe Judkins is a huge fan of The Whele of Time books, all 14 of them. The fact that he even knows about these granular fan theories should prove his bona fides. Watching the show, you can tell that it's made with love and reverence for the source material, even if changes are made. That's another reason the show deserves to continue. Right now, it's all up to Amazon and Sony.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.