A Place Of Safety
Episode 3 of The Wheel of Time begins with Nyn slipping away from her Trolloc captors. She’s chased through the woods, as loud growls pierce the air, threatening to close in on her. Nyn keeps her nerve though, hiding in the water at The Women’s Circle before pouncing on this Trolloc and taking it out. This catches us up to the cliffhanger at the end of episode 2, as Nyn confronts Lan. “The darkness is coming for them,” He warns, going on to suggest she heal Moiraine. After all, Nyn is a healer. If she doesn’t do this then Rand and the others will remain lost. Speaking of lost, Mat and Rand wind up out in the wilderness alone, heading up to the rocky hills and calling out for the others. It’s no good, they’re nowhere to be found. However, they know their destination so the pair decide to walk on to White Tower. On the way, Mat and Rand come across a pretty inhospitable place, Breen’s Spring, complete with a caged warrior stuck with several arrows through the gut. It’s an unwelcome greeting, and one that paves way for the pair heading into this bustling market and looking around. Mat learns a harsh lesson, courtesy of a bard who robs him. In need of funds, the pair bag themselves some work in order to stay the night. Mat begins to despair though, believing Rand is following a fool’s errand and questioning the Dragon Reborn prophecy completely. The barmaid, Dana, puts the boys to work though, with Mat’s stubbornness eventually seeing him waiting tables inside. While Rand is given safe refuge and a place to stay, Mat meets Thom Merrilin, who’s pretty sharp and questions Mat about what he’s doing. He knows the boy is from Two Rivers but beyond that, Mat manages to dance his way through the questions and eventually takes the gem from the deceased in the cage. However, Rand realizes he’s been played by Dana, and after using his powers to break down a seemingly impregnable door, Mat and Rand find themselves cornered. That is, until Thom stabs her through the throat. Dana has called a Fade to town and that’s bad news. Thom is heading East though and implores the pair to follow. Unless they’d rather stick around and wait for the Fade of course. Perrin and Egwene meanwhile, are stalked by a pack of wolves. Perrin struggles to light a flint to get a fire going, so interestingly Egwene uses her “spark” to conjure forth a fire for them. As they sit under the dancing light, Egwene believes Rand’s heading back to Two Rivers, until Perrin sets her right. The pack of wolves close in though, forcing them on. They eventually make it to a caravan of nomadic people, sometimes referred to as “Tuatha’an” or, “The Traveling People.” They offer food and refuge for the pair. With Moiraine slowly on the mend, she, Lan and Nyn ride on and are greeted by Liandrin. She tells them they’re too late, gloating about capturing a man calling himself the Dragon Reborn. That man is Logain Ablar and as he looks up at the others, the episode comes to a close.
The Episode Review
The third chapter of Wheel of Time starts to break the crew up as they all find themselves off on their own little adventures. Rand and Mat learn the hard way never to trust a pretty face while Perrin and Egwene run away from wolves and begin to channel their powers. That’s to say nothing of Nyn’s inclusion in all this and how she nurses Moiraine back to health. Much like the second chapter, this is a much slower episode that really leans into character relations and the motivations that are driving these guys. It’s a nice inclusion but also perhaps something the first episode should have had instead before all that action. This show has been an entertaining watch so far, although I appreciate that book lovers are going to find a lot to dislike here, especially the changed prophecy about girls also potentially being the Dragon Reborn. Either way, we’ll have to wait and see what he rest of the season holds but this feels very much like a love/hate fantasy fare.
