The Wheel of Time is back with the fifth episode of its third season, and it's a major step forward in broadening the scope of this expansive fantasy series. Last week the show tightened focus to cover Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski) and Moiraine Damodred's (Rosamund Pike) journey into the sacred Aiel city of Rhuidean. It stands as the highest-rated episode of the series to date on IMDb with a 9.5/10, and deserves every bit of praise it's getting.
But "The Road to the Spear" was only the halfway point in the season. In this week's episode, "Tel'aran'rhiod," we catch up with many of the characters who didn't get screentime during Rand's millennia-spanning vision quest. From the White Tower to a new Aiel settlement, Tanchico and the high seas, and even the dream world of Tel'aran'rhiod, The Wheel of Time is reminding us that it is a globe-trotting fantasy series that can fill viewers with wonder.
FULL SPOILERS ahead for The Wheel of Time season 3 Episode 5.
The Wheel of Time Episode 305 review: "Tel'aran'rhiod"
After last week's barnburner of an episode, "Tel'aran'rhiod" largely gives Rand's party in the Aiel Waste time to catch their breath. Rand finally gets some quieter moments with the Aiel, while Moiraine spends time with Lan (Daniel Henney), Aviendha (Ayoola Smart) chafes at having to teach the Car'a'carn about her people, and Egwene (Madeleine Madden) trains in Dreamwalking with the Wise Ones. All of these plotlines gel really well, giving each character a few moments to shine and driving home how far they've all come as a group. No one is the same as when we met them. That sense of progression really comes out in this episode.
Most of the Aiel action takes place at Cold Rocks Hold, a new settlement which serves as the stronghold of the Taardad Aiel clan, led by Rhuarc (Björn Landberg). The Cold Rocks set is gorgeous, made of cave-like houses and tunnels under a towering mound of rocks. I've mentioned before that The Wheel of Time has a sense of scale and wonder that few other fantasy shows can compete with, and this episode exemplifies that.
Egwene's Dreamwalking is a huge highlight. This is something I've been waiting for this season, and I think the show has handled it well. The dream world, Tel'aran'rhiod, is a major part of Robert Jordan's books, and it was always going to be an interesting task to see how the show brought it to life onscreen. I loved how Egwene started out by inadvertently exposing herself to Lanfear (Natasha O'Keeffe) in the dream before she starts getting the hang of her abilities later in the episode. I do wish the show had a little bit more time so that Egwene first learning to Dreamwalk and subsequently bringing Moiraine to visit Siuan didn't all happen in the same episode, but such are the choices that must be made in an eight--episode season.
That final Dreamwalking segment is beautiful, though. From Moiraine and Siuan's tearful promise to find each other in their next life to Egwene visiting the dreams of Nynaeve, Elayne, Mat and Perrin, it was an absolute tearjerker. It was a masterful stroke to turn such a tender moment on its head at the end, when Egwene visits Rand's dream only to find him getting it on with Lanfear in their special place on the mountains outside the Two Rivers. Not cool, Rand!
Nynaeve, Elayne and Mat go for a voyage
While Egwene is learning to walk the dream, Nynaeve (Zoë Robins), Elayne (Ceara Coveney), and Mat (Dónal Finn) spend most of the episode on a Sea Folk ship bound for Tanchico. Oh, and Min (Kae Alexander) is there too, because she snuck on board to follow them.
Yes, we got the Sea Folk this week! Like the Aiel, the Sea Folk (or Atha'an Miere, as they're called in the Old Tongue) are another beloved culture from Robert Jordan's novels. These ocean-faring people spend as much of their time on the water as possible, and are skilled traders who bring goods from place to place with uncanny speed. The Sea Folk section of the episode features some ridiculously beautiful visual effects work, as Elayne and Nynaeve discover that the Wavefinder (navigator) of the Sea Folk vessel can channel the One Power to speed their travels. This is a huge secret, because the Sea Folk have been tricking the Aes Sedai for centuries into thinking that none of their children are born with enough strength in the One Power to become full Aes Sedai, thus keeping the White Tower from snooping around Sea Folk business too much.
The balance between the Sea Folk lore and the various character dynamics on the ship is well-wrought. By the end of this episode the group has arrived in Tanchico, which makes this feel like a discreet part of their adventure we'll look back on fondly. I also have to shout out the music, especially during the Sea Folk channeling scene and the entrance to Cold Rocks Hold in the Aiel Waste. The score as well as the sound design in both scenes makes them feel even more transportive and cinematic.
Despite Mat's beef with Min, he ultimately vouches for her to Nynaeve and Elayne, which was a sweet moment. Together, this group of four will hunt the Black Ajah in Tanchico. But for this episode, it was nice to just spend some time with them together as they prepared for that daunting next step of their journey.
A daring rescue in the Two Rivers
Aside from Egwene's encounters with Lanfear, much of the action in "Tel'aran'rhiod" happens in the Two Rivers, where Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) leads a stealth mission to the Whitecloak camp in order to save Mat's mother and two younger sisters, who have been captured by the zealots. There are a lot of compelling parts of this sequence, from the humorously mismatched dynamics of Perrin's disparate group of companions, to Alanna (Priyanka Bose) and Maksim (Taylor Napier) sorting through their grief, to Dain Bornhald (Jay Duffy) caving to his worse impulses and signing off on the death of Mat's mother, Nattie Cauthon (Juliet Howland). Dain makes this fateful choice because he catches Nattie trying to steal his keys, and is subsequently bashed by the One Power as he tries to hurt her. She gives herself up pretty quickly — who wants to bet it was one or both of her daughters who possesses magic rather than her?
The main event is the scrape in the Whitecloak camp itself, where Perrin's Aiel companions Bain (Ragga Ragnars) and Chiad (Maja Simonsen) successfully spirit away Mat's younger sisters, only for Perrin and Faile (Isabella Bucceri) to get caught up in a fight with Dane and his Whitecloaks. This fight scene is exciting and intense, and ends with Perrin getting stabbed in the exact same spot where we saw Charlin, the friend of Rand's ancestor Lewin, get stabbed in a Rhuidean flashback. Charlin was an obvious stand-in for Perrin, and he took that wound rescuing Lewin's sister; I love the parallel with Perrin's rescue attempt here.
While Perrin and Faile fight in the camp, Eamon Valda (Abdul Salis) leads a surprise attack on Alanna, who is creating an unnatural fog from the ridge above. Alanna is shot through with so many arrows that I was genuinely worried she might die, but thankfully Maksim returns at the last moment to help her after previously telling her he'd go his own way. The show is making Alanna far more likable than she ever was in the books, and I'm here for it. Bose and Napier give great performances here, and I was on the edge of my seat during the final moments of the attack.
Who's the Darkfriend in the White Tower?
However, Perrin and Alanna's terrible wounds do underscore one issue I have with The Wheel of Time: it has a habit of overusing death fake-outs, which goes all the way back to season 1 when Lan's throat was slashed open by Logain only to get restored a moment later by Nynaeve. We don't see what happens to Perrin and Alanna after their fights, but presumably they'll live, because the show didn't explicitly kill them.
Meanwhile in the White Tower, Elaida (Shohreh Aghdashloo) has a very similar experience. After a very tense verbal sparring match with the Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo), Elaida is manipulated into going to see the two captive sisters of the Black Ajah in the White Tower's basement. Through Nynaeve and Elayne's investigation, Verin (Meera Syal) was able to determine that there is at least one Black Ajah sister left in the tower. Siuan wants definitive proof that it's Elaida so that she can kill her, because Elaida is a giant thorn in her side.
However, when Elaida goes down to confront the two captive members of the Black Ajah, it quickly becomes clear that as awful as she is, Elaida is not a Darkfriend. Elaida kills one Black Ajah sister and is just about to torture the name of that last hidden Black Ajah member out of the other when a Grey Man shows up unexpectedly and kills her, then proceeds to stab Elaida repeatedly. Only a timely intervention and healing by Siuan and Leane (Jennifer Cheon Garcia) saves Elaida's life.
On the whole, I liked these scenes. It's riveting to watch the back-and-forth between Siuan's idealism and Elaida's petty self-assurance. In previous episodes, Elaida got one up on Siuan; here, Siuan gets one up on Elaida, as the Red sister realizes she was manipulated. Elaida is an extremely vindictive character, so you can be sure she won't let that lie. But I do wish the Grey Man had just come close to stabbing Elaida instead of poking her full of holes like a pincushion. Nynaeve got stabbed in much the same way in the season premiere. The problem with The Wheel of Time doing this sort of thing so often is that it starts to feel much less dangerous when people take wounds, because we can almost always assume they'll just get healed right after.
But considering how good "Tel'aran'rhiod" was, I'm not too mad about it. This was an all-around solid episode that greatly expanded the season's scope, and deftly juggled numerous characters and plotlines while moving just about all of them forward in interesting ways. If this is the breath-of-air moment after Rhuidean, I can't wait to watch what happens next.
The Bullet Points of Time
- The visual effects of Moiraine using the Sakarnen are stunningly beautiful...right up until she's nearly burned out by overusing the One Power. I'm glad the show is establishing how dangerous the Sakarnen is, rather than just letting Moiraine casually handle it. Also, shout out to the crazy sand dunes this display of power made around her.
- Aviendha's sass with Rand is fun, but I especially liked the dialogue where the Wise Ones take issue with her claiming she "can't" teach him.
- Rand playing with Rhuarc's granddaughter was an adorable moment to remind us he's still human even after everything he's gone through.
- Many Aiel having polyamorous relationships is very true to the book series; the show did a good job of carrying that element over without getting mired in over-explaining it.
- The armor that Egwene imagines herself wearing in Tel'aran'rhiod is the Amyrlin Seat armor she wore in her Accepted trial vision where she, Nynaeve, and Elayne fought Rand in a river.
- The Aiel call the Forsaken "Shadowsouled." It's easy to forget Egwene has never actually met Lanfear, but now she knows that Rand is having dream makeout sessions with a Forsaken, even if she's not positive which Forsaken it is.
- Even though it was a very serious scene, I cackled at Maksim calling the Two Rivers "Turnip Mountain" while arguing with Alanna.
- One of my favorite scenes in this episode is when Moiraine and Lan drink Oosquai, an Aiel fermented liquor, together. They needed a quiet moment together like this after Rhuidean.
- It was interesting to hear Melindhra tell Lan more about Malkier. She was obviously older than he was when it fell.
- When Mat arrives in Tanchico, he sees a person hanging and gets nervous; a nice nod to Min's vision of him that he's trying desperately to believe won't come to pass.
- Mat's mom being in his dream, and that being the last time we see her after she's died in real life, plucked the heartstrings hard.
- It was also nice to see Hopper, Perrin's wolf companion, in his dream. Give us more wolves onscreen, show!
Verdict
"Tel'aran'rhiod" expands the world of The Wheel of Time in major ways, introducing new locations and cultures like the Sea Folk while giving most every member of the show's sprawling main cast a good amount of screentime. The visual effects and music are gorgeous, and the sets and landscapes instilled a sense of wonder that is missing from many other fantasy shows. This is exactly the sort of breather we needed after Rhuidean, letting us spend time in amazing locations with characters we love before the next phase of the season begins.
Episode grade: A-
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