At long last, The Wheel of Time has returned for its third season on Prime Video. After the climactic battle at Falme at the end of season 2, our band of heroes from the Two Rivers are about to embark on the next chapter of their journey. The show's third season adapts The Shadow Rising, a key entry in Robert Jordan's iconic fantasy book series. And right from the start, it's clear that the television show is taking this task seriously; season 3 starts with a bang, as all hell breaks out in the White Tower of the Aes Sedai.
At 69 minutes, "To Race the Shadow" is a meaty season premiere that sets a promising stage for the season to come. We've a lot to discuss, so let's get right into the review. FULL SPOILERS for The Wheel of Time Episode 301 beyond this point.
The shredding of the Aes Sedai
"To Race the Shadow" starts by immediately paying off one of the lingering twists of season 2: that Liandrin Guirale (Kate Fleetwood) was secretly a member of the Black Ajah, a sect of Aes Sedai sworn to serve the Dark One. When we last saw Liandrin, the only people outside of Darkfriends who knew her true allegiance were Nynaeve (Zoë Robins), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), and Elayne (Ceara Coveney), who she gifted to the Seanchan. How and when would the rest of the Aes Sedai find out?
During the very first minutes of the season 3 premiere, as it turns out. The Amyrlin Seat Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) summons Liandrin to the Hall of the Tower to be judged for her crimes, with Nynaeve as a witness to prove Liandrin's guilt. It turns into an absolute bloodbath. Showrunner Rafe Judkins has long teased that the opening of season 3 is "a bunch of women in their 40s and 50s shredding each other," and that's exactly what happens. It is one of the bloodiest scenes of the series to date, with Aes Sedai being crushed, sliced in half, scorched, and bludgeoned to death. It is brutal, and cinematic, and filled with twists and turns as Liandrin calls on her fellow Black Ajah members to aid her against Siuan and her loyalists.
I thought this was a brilliant way to start the season for a number of reasons. First, it was a big twisty action scene that got the blood pumping; I couldn't look away for these first 17 minutes before the show finally cut to the title screen. It allowed the series to show off its gorgeous special effects, highlight a bunch of great actors, and introduce a major new threat by revealing just how many members of the Black Ajah have infected the tower right before they get away to cause even more havoc. And lastly, Liandrin and the Black Ajah's escape happens off-screen in the book; the show made it a big set piece, which worked really well while still staying true to the source material.
Was it a little campy in a few spots? Sure! But it was just the right type of campy where it worked, and by the time you squinted at it, the next person was getting turned into a bloody ruin. In a word, it was awesome.
The Two Rivers gang is back together...for a moment
After the exhilarating opening, "To Race the Shadow" pumps the breaks to let us catch up with the Two Rivers gang. Yes, after a whole season wandering the world apart from each other, the band is finally back together. I loved that this season started with all our main protagonists in one place, giving them (and the viewer) a much needed respite before they have to sadly part ways again. There was a lot to love in the scenes where our various heroes are hanging out in the bars of Tar Valon, but my favorite was when Rand (Josha Stradowski), Perrin (Marcus Rutherford), and Mat (Dónal Finn) went out drinking together. Just a total blast, especially Mat pompously posing to get his portrait drawn with the Horn of Valere.
Speaking of Mat, he's a standout in general in this episode for me. Last season very much felt like Finn getting the hang of the role while the show navigated the transition from previous Mat actor Barney Harris. But here at last, Finn acts fully at home in Mat's shoes, and the show seems to know just how to utilize him. Mat is a fun, funny character who has tragic undertones as he grapples with his own demons, and the ancient past life memories awoken in his mind from the Horn of Valere.
But really, every single character who featured in this episode had a very good showing. Rand is coming into his own as the Dragon Reborn, studying the Prophecies of the Dragon with Loial (Hammed Animashaun) and refusing to let Moiraine lead him around on a leash. Perrin is contemplating where he fits into this grand picture, which eventually points him back home to the Two Rivers. Nynaeve realizes she needs to overcome her block and finally accepts that she needs the help of the Aes Sedai. And Egwene...well, Egwene is fascinating.
Of all the Emond's Field Five, Egwene had the most traumatizing storyline in season 2, where she was turned into a slave by the Seanchan and tortured into subservience. She eventually slipped those bonds and murdered her captor, Renna (Xelia Mendes-Jones). Now we see Egwene is still haunted by dreams of Renna, and totally mistrusting of the Aes Sedai after being sold out by Liandrin. She demands to go through her Accepted trial, only to immediately depart the White Tower. This is a darker version of Egwene than we ever saw at this point in the books (with a darker wardrobe to boot), but I think the show is doing a good job of selling it.
Speaking of Egwene's Accepted trial, that is another standout moment of the episode, laden with cool little details. Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne ride out to a river, where a long-haired Rand al'Thor is standing half-submerged, turning the waters around him red as they wash the blood of his murdered friends from his hands. Rand demands that Egwene and the others bow to him. Egwene is dressed in the garb of the Amyrlin seat, while Nynaeve has on armor and Elayne is in an ornate green dress — presumably, Elayne and Nynaeve are wearing vestments of their respective ruling seats as the queens of Andor and Malkier, respectively. It's a wild vision.
"To Race the Shadow" is filled with these kinds of incredible Easter eggs and little details. Eagle-eyed book-readers will be feasting on this episode for months. But it's a testament to how accessible the show is that whether you've read the books or not, there's so much to enjoy.
Not bad for a wetlander
But since I have read the books, I do need to talk about a few interesting adaptation choices that were made in "To Race the Shadow." The first of those is that the Aiel Maiden of the Spear Aviendha (Ayoola Smart) hooks up with Elayne, the daughter-heir of Andor. I like this scene on premise; Elayne and Aviendha have a very close relationship in the books (understatement), and this expansion on it feels totally reasonable. But it does raise a few questions: namely that Elayne is the crown heir of a powerful nation. We don't really know anything about Elayne's relationship background; was this her first time with another person? She certainly didn't act like it, and thinking back to the prim and proper Elayne of season 2, it's quite a journey. If she weren't a royal, I probably wouldn't even be pondering these questions, but since she is — and since the show takes the time to establish her brothers Gawyn and Galad as promiscuous ladies men in the following episode — I think it's a fair thing to wonder.
Another notable adaptation choice was having Moiraine and Lanfear work together to drive a wedge between the members of the Two Rivers gang. This is drawn from a key scene at the beginning of The Shadow Rising, where a "bubble of evil" — a nebulous concept for the Pattern thinning and allowing darkness to cause mayhem — runs amok and results in an attack on our heroes. I like the show's decision to make it more comprehensible by focusing on Lanfear, but it's a bold choice to have Moiraine agree to cooperate with the Forsaken. I feel a little torn on it...but it did get us some great scenes with Natasha O'Keeffe, Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney, so again, I'll chalk it up as a canny choice.
The last adaptation choice we need to discuss is the Stone of Tear. This fortress features in the climax of the third book in the series, The Dragon Reborn. It's been confirmed at this point that the television show is shuffling things around; showrunner Rafe Judkins told us there's a "really clear plan" for how the show will tackle the Stone of Tear in a future season. I never expected the Stone of Tear to show up in season 3, so I was pleasantly surprised with how much the show mentioned it and set it up for the future. It feels like it drives home The Wheel of Time's philosophy as an adaptation: it might not include every single element of the books, or may rearrange them, but it's clearly doing it from a place of love and respect for the source material rather than disdain.
Leavetakings
"To Race the Shadow" is an absolutely jam-packed episode. By its ending, I was completely satiated as a viewer; it felt like so much had happened in its 69 minutes. The final 15 or so minutes, where Rand's party is set on by various magical implements possessed by Lanfear, while Moiraine and Lan wait to allow division to be sown amongst the group, was brutal. Perhaps even more so than the opening, I found myself cringing as Perrin got his hand chopped nearly in half, and Nynaeve was stabbed over and over again by a Gray Man.
That Gray Man is an interesting wrinkle, because he wasn't sent by Lanfear. We find out in the closing minutes of the episode that it was another Forsaken, Moghedien (Laia Costa), who creates Gray Men, and who unleashed that one on the Two Rivers gang. As Rand makes the unexpected decision to head to the Aiel Waste instead of Tear, Moghedien acts creepy in her lair and transforms a Whitecloak into a new Gray Man.
We've got a great set up for the season ahead! Rand, Moiraine, Lan, Egwene and Aviendha are heading to the Aiel Waste. Perrin, Loial, Bain and Chiad are going to the Two Rivers. And Mat, Nynaeve, and Elayne are staying at the White Tower. And since the second episode is out already, we can dive right into finding out what happens next!
The Bullet Points of Time
- There was a twisted red stone doorframe in the chamber with all the ter'angreal where Verin was ambushed by the Black Ajah in the opening! We'll see that doorframe again, I'm sure.
- Rest in peace Ihvon, we hardly knew you. Ihvon, one of Alanna's warders, was recast this season. I'm not sure if that factored into the decision to promptly kill him off at the start of the season, but I've been expecting that Alanna will go on quite a journey in season 3 so that turn didn't catch me too off guard.
- While Mat was getting drawn with the horn, another artist was making a sketch of Rand and Ishamael fighting in the sky above Falme. This is a nice nod to the book, where Rand and Ishamael actually do duel in the sky, rather than just on top of the tower.
- I loved Perrin talking to Rand about how he's not a leader. Who wants to bet that's going to change this season?
- Elayne sent letters to Tear and to her mother, Queen Morgase. I wonder what they said?
- Moiraine's line to Rand about how the "river will run red" referencing the Two Rivers happened right after Egwene's Accepted trial, where the river literally was running red.
- The writing on this episode was exceptional, both in terms of the overall narrative and the dialogue. "To Race the Shadow" was written by Justine Juel Gillmer, one of the show's executive producers who also penned some of the best episodes in the first two seasons.
- I loved the framing for the scene where Moiraine eavesdrops on Siuan's conversation with Egwene and Nynaeve. That sort of intentional separation of characters in a frame always reminds me of Breaking Bad, which utilized it in a number of important scenes. Kudos to the director of photography or whoever made that call.
- Mat played Maiden's Kiss with Bain and Chiad!
- Lan's father's sword is power-wrought, and it's hinted that this may be a way to kill the Forsaken.
- During the scene where Rand is shirtless with Egwene, we get a brief look at his unhealing wound. It looks pretty gnarly!
- Need to shout out Josha Stradowski's face of madness when he asks Egwene what she saw in her Accepted trial. Rand's battle with madness is a major part of the book series, and you can tell Josha Stradowski is ready to tackle it.
Verdict
"To Race the Shadow" is a stellar premiere to kick off The Wheel of Time season 3. It adeptly balances some outlandishly intense action scenes with calm moments that remind viewers why the show's characters are worth rooting for. It was an extremely packed episode that sometimes felt like it moved a little quickly through events, but that just makes it all the more impressive that it managed to do so without fumbling anything. Add in sky-high production values, razor-sharp writing, and a bunch of great foreshadowing for what lies ahead, and this is probably the best season premiere that The Wheel of Time has had to date.
Episode grade: A
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