The binge through the first three episodes of The Wheel of Time season 3 continues! Today, Prime Video dropped the mega-sized premiere block of its epic fantasy show's third season, and it is a veritable feast for fans of the series. All three episodes clock in at around an hour or more, and contain a ton of new developments for our heroes and villains.
The first episode, "To Race the Shadow," mostly caught us up with all the characters we already knew and loved from last season. Now that the stage is set, "A Question of Crimson" introduces a bunch of new ones; most notably, the royal family of Andor, led by Queen Morgase Trakand (Olivia Williams), the mother of Elayne (Ceara Coveney).
Read on for our FULL SPOILER review:
Queen Morgase does not mess around
Just like the premiere, "A Question of Crimson" kicks things off in entertainingly bloody fashion. This time it's through a flashback where we see Elayne's mother Morgase claim the Lion Throne of Andor. This is cool for a few reasons. One is that it introduces Morgase and her advisor Elaida (Shohreh Aghdashloo) as cold, calculating leaders who can watch a bunch of people have their throats slit without batting an eye. Another is that it gives us a glimpse of Caemlyn, a key location that will only play a larger role in events the longer The Wheel of Time goes on.
From the cold open, we jump right to the present, where Morgase is arriving at the White Tower to demand answers for the abduction of Elayne by Liandrin in season 2. Morgase doesn't have all the details, and she is not happy about it. She brings a retinue with her that includes Elayne's two brothers, Galad (Callum Kerr) and Gawyn (Luke Fetherstone), as well as her consort Lord Gaebril (Nuno Lopes). Book-readers will stare very hard at Gaebril in this episode; don't worry, well talk more about him in our review for Episode 303.
There's a lot going on in "A Question of Crimson," but the politicking in the White Tower is the highlight. It gives Olivia Williams a chance to shine as Morgase, and lets us spend ample time with her various family members as they move through different circles of the tower. Morgase's costuming is some of the wildest the show has yet had; kudos to costume designer Sharon Gilham. The show didn't have a lot of space to introduce the look of Andor before this, and I thought it did a great job making it immediately distinctive. The writing is also excellent, impressively juggling all the different characters and their various motivations and backstories. I loved how Elaida gives Morgase advice about how to navigate around Siuan (Sophie Okonedo), only for the scene to cut right to Siuan getting advice from Leane (Jennifer Cheon Garcia) and Verin (Meera Syal) about how to account for Elaida suddenly being back in the tower. These two have a history. We just get hints of it in this episode, but it sounds like Elaida was almost elected as Amyrlin instead of Siuan back in the day, and the bad blood has lingered.
Because of the heavy focus on the Andoran royals, Elayne takes a well-deserved spotlight here. It's one of my favorite performances yet from Coveney, who walks the difficult line between loyalty to the White Tower and to her homeland. By the time the dust settles, Elayne decides to stay in the tower and hunt the Black Ajah, impressing her mother with her resolve. But of course, Morgase can't let her go that easily; she leaves Galad, Gawyn, and Elaida there to keep an eye on things.
Our Two Rivers boys go their separate ways
While the Andorans are stirring things up at the White Tower, each of our three lads from the Two Rivers get ample time for their own adventures. Rand (Josha Stradowski) travels across a massive mountain range known as the Spine of the World with Lan (Daniel Henney), Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), and Avienda (Ayoola Smart). This isn't an action-heavy episode, which gives it lots of time for small character moments. The show takes full advantage of that.
The natural settings are also ridiculously gorgeous. I said in my full season review for The Wheel of Time season 3, one of the ways it's setting itself apart from the other fantasy shows of our current era is its locations, which capture the wondrous feel of a fantasy epic in a way many other shows are struggling to emulate. This episode is a great example of that. The Spine scenes are beautiful. No amount of magic in a studio can come remotely close to the sort of locations The Wheel of Time is taking the time to scout out and include to make the world of author Robert Jordan's books feel real onscreen.
That's true for the Two Rivers as well, which features absolutely jaw-dropping drone shots of dramatic vistas. Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford), Loial (Hammed Animashaun), Bain (Ragga Ragnars) and Chiad (Maja Simonsen) head there through a Waygate, so that Perrin can finally return to the simple way of life he longs for. Alas, it won't be so simple: Trollocs have infested the forests around the town, and Whitecloaks are there searching for Perrin, since he killed one of their leaders, Geofram Bornhald, during the Battle of Falme last season.
It was pleasant surprise that Perrin's group finds Alanna (Priyanka Bose) and her warder Maksim (Taylor Napier) already holing up in the Two Rivers — in the attic of the Winespring Inn, which is run by Egwene's mother Marin al'Vere (Rina Mahoney). The interplay between this mismatched group of characters is a lot of fun; I especially liked the bemused looks Alanna and Maksim trade when the Aiel offered their opinions on why the Two Rivers folk should be fighting off the Trollocs themselves rather than relying on the corrupt Whitecloaks.
As for Mat (Dónal Finn), he's still in the White Tower, hoping the Aes Sedai can heal him. They can't; Mat is stuck with his past life memories for good, as far as they're concerned. He has a few interesting scenes as he copes with the fact that being the Hornblower is less enticing to the novice girls of the White Tower when there are two sweaty, shirtless princes around. We also learn that Min (Kae Alexander) is in the mix in the tower; she's serving as a spy for Siuan.
Just like in the premiere, it's clear that Finn has really grown into the character in a much more natural way this season. I especially liked the scene where Siuan confiscates the Horn of Valere from him, pointing out that it makes him a target and saying she can't imagine he'd do anything so stupid as to call attention to himself, like say, having his portrait drawn with the Horn. Siuan's speech about her uncle is also drawn directly from the books; a great little detail.
Those little details are all over the place in this episode. The rewatch value for it is great; even after Episode 303, you'll notice new things in "A Question of Crimson," like brief pauses or hesitations whenever someone in the tower talks to Gaebril for the first time, the significance of which becomes clearer next episode. The Wheel of Time is taking pains to include tons of Easter eggs for fans to pick out, and it's such a testament to the love this show obviously has for the book series it's adapting.
Meetings in the dream world
The last element of "A Question of Crimson" we need to talk about is Egwene. She's having a very rough time of it, dreaming of the Seanchan Renna torturing her in her dreams. Except these are more than just dreams; Egwene is waking up with bruises on her neck. Late in the episode, we learn that it's actually Lanfear torturing Egwene in her dreams...while simultaneously trying to seduce Rand in his. Talk about a sadistic ex.
This culminates with Egwene seemingly jumping out of her own nightmare...and into the dream of an Aiel woman, Bair (Nukâka Coster-Waldeau). Bair tells Egwene she shouldn't be there and ejects her out of the dream. The next day, the party finally reaches the Aiel Waste only to find a group of warriors waiting for them, led by Rhuarc (Björn Landberg) and none other than Bair herself, dressed as a Wise One instead of a Maiden of the Spear like in the dream. Dreamwalking is a major part of Egwene's story in The Shadow Rising, and the show is pulling us right into it.
The Aiel know that Rand has come to try and claim his place as the car'a'carn ("chief of chiefs"), and are familiar with the prophecies about him. It's wild that two episodes in, we're already at the Aiel Waste. On to the next episode, stat!
The Bullet Points of Time
- Morgase is pregnant with Elayne in the cold open.
- After Morgase claims the Lion Throne, talking about how her heir won't face such challenges to her rule, the scene cuts immediately to Elayne scrubbing floors in the White Tower. This episode is filled with these kinds of layered cuts that tie plotlines together.
- This episode had some great new music from Lorne Balfe, especially during the traveling montage at the beginning where it cuts from Rand's group to Perrin's.
- Loial used an Avendasora leaf to open and close the Waygate in the Two Rivers! Previously the show had Waygates open with Channeling. It's nice to see the leaf make an appearance, since that's how they're used in the books.
- Loial has the "Longing." Essentially, when Ogier stay too long away from their natural environments, villages called steddings, they start to physically debilitate and grow weaker. Somebody get Loial to a stedding!
- The Yellow Aes Sedai trying to heal Mat is Ryma (Nyokabi Gethaiga). We saw her get captured by the Seanchan in Falme during season 2. It's nice to see her safely back at the White Tower.
- Min tells Siuan that she's had a vision of a battle at the White Tower where at least nine Aes Sedai end up dead. Book readers will know that a big event at the tower is coming later this season. Perhaps that's what Min is talking about? Or perhaps she's talking about a key event that happens much later in the series, during the 12th book The Gathering Storm?
- Siuan makes a few fun fishing metaphors in this episode. That's a particular quirk of hers from the book that the show has done a good job including without overdoing it.
- Gaebril tells Elayne that Morgase had to dismiss "Captain-General Bryne." This is a reference to Gareth Bryne, an important character from the book series who hasnt been announced yet for the show. It's nice to get confirmation that the show hasn't cut him. If he doesn't show up in season 3, he'll definitely appear in season 4.
- Morgase tells Elayne that Tigraine, the last daughter-heir of Andor who set off on her own, disappeared and was never heard from again. It's a major book spoiler to talk about who Tigraine is at this point, so suffice to say IYKYK. A very cool reference.
- I really liked Rand's description of saidin, the male half of the One Power, to Moiraine. That description of it being a pond tainted by filth is very true to the books. Every time Rand draws on the One Power, it pushes him a little closer to madness. It's also worth noting that women can't see the weaves of men and vice versa, so when Moiraine glances at Rand's hand as he starts Channeling, that's because she can tell what he's doing by judging his movements and not because she can literally see the magic around his arm.
Verdict
"A Question of Crimson" is another very, very solid episode of The Wheel of Time. After an action-packed premiere, Episode 302 slows things down a little to give the characters much-needed room to breathe. Considering how many new faces show up in this episode, it's a testament to the show's writing that it's able to balance them all so adeptly. The location filming was also breathtaking, and the Andoran royals absolutely stole the show. On to the next!
Episode grade: A-
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