This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for The Wheel of Time season 3 Episode 7.
The seventh episode of The Wheel of Time season 3 has arrived, and it shook the quiet village of the Two Rivers down to its foundations. "Goldeneyes" saw an army of bloodthirsty Trollocs descend on the Two Rivers, along with a mixed force of Whitecloaks, some of whom wanted to aid the villagers and others who had sworn to the Shadow. Leading the defense was Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford), who has come a long way since his days as a humble blacksmith. This is an iconic part of Robert Jordan's novel The Shadow Rising, and it was important for the television show to get it right.
From where I'm sitting, I'd say the show pulled it off. The clash with the Trollocs is easily the show's most ambitious battle sequence to date, with tons of extras and special effects and great choreography. It also served as a crucial turning point for Perrin, one of the main characters of the saga who has been sorely in need of this sort of spotlight in the TV show.
Before the battle, Perrin made Whitecloak officer Dain Bornhald (Jay Duffy) an offer: if the Whitecloaks helped defend the Two Rivers from the Trollocs, Perrin would go with them afterward to face justice for killing Geofram Bornhald, Dain's father, in Falme. Despite some waffling by the Whitecloaks, they do come to the Two Rivers' aid. Afterward, Dain returns to the village to see if Perrin will honor his word. And to the surprise of Faile (Isabella Bucceri) and many of the other people in the Two Rivers, he does.
"I think he kind of realizes what was [said] in season 1, that violence doesn't end until someone says enough. And I I think he feels like has has to remove himself," Rutherford told us in an exclusive interview. "Similar to Rand in certain parts of the show, he feels like, 'I am the person causing destruction to the people around me, and this isn't going to end until someone decides it.'"
Perrin certainly does decide it. When the credits roll, he's being marched out of the Two Rivers in chains by Dain's Whitecloaks, while the villagers chant their support for "Lord Perrin Goldeneyes." What happens next for Perrin? And does this all go down the same way in the books?
What happens to Perrin in the books?
While the Battle of the Two Rivers does include a lot of elements from The Shadow Rising, there's one major difference where Perrin and the Whitecloaks are concerned. In the books, Perrin doesn't have the same relationship with Dain Bornhald. In the show, they almost became friends before the battle at Falme drove them apart for good. Crucially, Perrin does not kill Dain's father in the books, but Dain believes he did because Perrin killed several Whitecloaks earlier in the story, and Whitecloaks love to blindly accuse people of crimes. Geofram still dies in the Battle of Falme, but under different circumstances. Because of this, the relationship between Dain and Perrin in the show is drastically, and Perrin's sense of personal accountability to Dain is much higher.
In The Shadow Rising, Perrin still promises Dain that he will surrender himself after the battle, but only if the Whitecloaks aid the Two Rivers. Instead of actually helping, the Whitecloaks wait for the battle to run its course and then show up afterward to try and arrest Perrin. Because they didn't help, he refuses to go with them, and the people of the Two Rivers run them out of town.
The show's decision to have Perrin surrender to the Whitecloaks is a massive deviation from the book series, where Perrin continues to lead the people of the Two Rivers and builds a large following of various factions who are drawn to his leadership. He eventually leads them from the mountains to the city of Caemlyn, where he reunites with Rand in the sixth book, Lord of Chaos. What happens after that is a story for another day.
Despite Perrin's choice to surrender being a large change, it does have a root in the book series. It's just that it's from a much later novel. To talk about it, we have to get into book series spoilers up to book 13, Towers of Midnight.
Perrin does eventually face justice from the Whitecloaks
In Robert Jordan's novels, the Whitecloaks harbor their grudge against Perrin for most of the series. He murders two of them after they kill Hopper in the very first book, The Eye of the World, and doesn't see any sort of resolution for it until the second-to-last book in the series, Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson. Yes, Perrin's winding story with the Whitecloaks went on for so long that a totally different author finished it off, following Jordan's death in 2007.
In Towers of Midnight, the Whitecloaks have come under the leadership of Elayne Trakand's half-brother, Galad Damodred. Perrin's large army of irregular forces and the Whitecloaks once more find themselves in a situation where making peace would best help them face the forces of the Shadow. This time, Perrin agrees to go on trial for an impartial judge, Elayne and Galad's mother Morgase.
Perrin's trial is a key part of Towers of Midnight and his overall story arc, where he finally finds closure for his very first act of bloodshed. By having Perrin surrender to the Whitecloaks now, the show may address this storyline much earlier so that it doesn't hang over Perrin for the entirety of the television series. That's a daring choice that will require no small amount of rearranging book events, but it might actually work out for the better.
While The Shadow Rising features Perrin heavily, the fifth book, The Fires of Heaven, does not include him at all. Obviously, the television show doesn't want to leave Marcus Rutherford on the sidelines for a whole season. By tackling a key storyline for Perrin much earlier, it would kill two birds with one stone, resolving that plotline while giving Perrin compelling material for season 4.
We'll see how it all works out. As of this writing, Prime Video has not yet renewed The Wheel of Time for a fourth season; we're eagerly keeping an eye out for any news. So for now, let's just rewatch "Goldeneyes" and appreciate that we actually got to see the Battle of the Two Rivers on television.
The Wheel of Time season 3 finale premieres next Thursday, April 17 on Prime Video.
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