Knots are untied as The Wheel of Time season two approaches its finish

Lee: We’re rounding the bend to the top of the season with episode seven of eight right here, and there is a whole lot of floor to cowl earlier than we get to that big battle within the sky that no person appears to have the ability to shut up about. (It isn’t spoilers if all of the characters on display screen are speaking about it!) This episode concerned a whole lot of shifting items round on the board—a giant chunk of the scenes exist so as to get all of our characters in Falme for subsequent week, together with and particularly regardless of the hell is happening with Mat proper now.

However earlier than we get to any of that, we have now to speak concerning the opening for at the very least only a second. Final season, we obtained to see Rand’s beginning on the slopes of Dragonmount because the Aiel Conflict stumbled to an in depth, however now we’re given a peek into the different essential occasion that occurred on the similar time: the Aes Sedai Gitara Moroso (Hayley Mills) and her “Foretelling.”

Foretelling is seemingly a uncommon expertise that doesn’t present up in Aes Sedai fairly often, and Gitara Sedai was apparently one of many strongest at it—or at the very least one of the vital correct. Proving that prophecy typically comes on the most inconvenient of instances, we’re proven a flashback the place a a lot youthful Moiraine and Siuan enter Gitara’s rooms within the White Tower, and Gitara nearly instantly collapses beneath the burden of her imaginative and prescient of the Dragon’s return to the world. The Aes Sedai appears to really feel what Rand’s mom is feeling throughout her battle, and we’re led to consider that each Gitara Sedai and Rand’s mom expire on the similar time.

We all know from the books that that is the second that kick-starts Moiraine’s and Siuan’s secret-squirrel membership—the rationale why they’re actively looking the Dragon Reborn. The inconvenient bit, after all, is that nobody else was there—nobody else witnessed Gitara’s Foretelling. Will surely have been nicer if she’d collapsed in the course of the Corridor of the Tower with extra witnesses, however so goes historical past, I suppose.

Lee: Yeah—I suppose it is a side-effect of getting the Forsaken be such main characters on-screen, relatively than doing most of their motion within the shadows. They usually’re simply so rattling likable—Fares Fares as Ishamael feels downright fatherly at instances, and thus far all Natasha O’Keeffe’s Lanfear has executed is put on revealing outfits, have loopy intercourse with Rand, kill an previous man, and blow up the Foregate. She’s not precisely flaying kids alive or defenestrating widows or something.

Which I believe is sort of doing the supposedly legendary standing of the Forsaken no favors. Close to the top of the episode, when Lanfear walks into the courtyard with Moiraine and Siuan and mates, nobody freaks out at an precise residing non-bound member of the Forsaken strolling into the courtyard—Moiraine is rather like, “Oh rattling, it is Lanfear.” My impression is that Lanfear strolling up into your assembly, even should you’re a supposedly omnipotent Aes Sedai, could be like actual-for-real Jason Voorhees unexpectedly shambling by way of the door to your own home. The proper response is a few sort of mixture of “Oh my God wait Jason is actual?!” and Scooby Doo-style cartoon panic-running in a number of instructions concurrently. Probably with some pants-wetting tossed into the combo for good measure.

I additionally sort of wish to discuss regardless of the hell it’s that Ishy was doing with Mat. I used to be sort of left feeling clueless by the scene with the tea, however my spouse has sort of a idea.

Lee: I used to be a little bit let down by Ishy’s promise that he was brewing up some tea to let Mat see previous lives—I assumed the identical factor as you, that we is likely to be about to provide Mat the shove he wants to start out doing the issues he does within the ebook, however as a substitute of precise previous lives, we simply obtained extra bizarre stuff with Mat’s (show-only) abusive mom and his (show-only) points along with his (show-only) abusive father. I am genuinely unsure the place it is presupposed to be going, apart from to only abuse Mat some extra on display screen and get him to the purpose the place he is even extra in thrall to the Forsaken.

My spouse’s quick-n-dirty idea is that the tea was only a sleeping brew, and that the sequence was truly Ishamael screwing with Mat within the World of Desires. I would class that as a particular “possibly”—the factor that retains me from absolutely agreeing with it’s I simply do not see what the scene is for, whether or not it is Magic Spirit Journey Tea or simply plain sleeping tea and the Magic Spirit Journey is in Tel’Aran’Rhiod.

Okay, I’ve obtained like… paragraphs to drop in right here about Moiraine, however provided that you are prepared to show to her, and to the decision of one in every of this season’s greatest mysteries.

Lee: Precisely so. We study that Moiraine was shielded this whole time, with the defend weaves tied off into knots and left to sit down. However your level concerning the further-changed nature of defending feels prefer it’s a part of the bigger set of modifications which have been made to how the One Energy works with women and men within the present.

It has been sort of a thriller why Moiraine herself hasn’t executed some extra intensive troubleshooting to seek out the extent of her challenge. When a sure set of characters (to stay anonymous, to spare non-book readers) finally figures out take away the Aes Sedai Three Oaths in a future ebook, one of many VERY FIRST issues these temporarily-oathless characters do is begin mendacity and guffawing—as a result of, let’s face it, having the ability to say “THE SKY IS GREEN!” for the primary time in years might be fairly exhilarating. Why would not Moiraine have merely began busting out with the lies, if for nothing else than to check whether or not or not she’s TRULY stilled?

There are two solutions that I can consider. The primary is the extra in-universe one: few Aes Sedai have ever bothered finding out the consequences of being stilled. Stilling is just too viscerally horrifying to confront, even for the knowledge-minded Browns. Stilled girls have a tendency to go away the White Tower in order to not be surrounded by reminders of their previous and are thought to rapidly die (as Lan makes evident when he asks Moiraine if she considered ending her personal life up to now few months). There are merely no data of what occurs, apart from that the ladies who DO survive the method have a tendency to take action by totally occupying themselves with essential duties that take the place of the One Energy of their lives. Moiraine may merely haven’t recognized that stilling unbinds the Oaths, and having lived her life by them for many years, stored up the habits of residing by them purely as a result of she does not know every other technique to be.

(Although, I suppose the REAL reply is much more apparent: “Son, the rationale the nice cowboys do not simply shoot the unhealthy cowboys’ horses is that in the event that they did, there’d be no film.”)

Lee: Agreed—and there are much more of these contrivances popping up round how the One Energy appears to operate, particularly round stilling and gentling and shielding. As you appropriately level out, being shielded within the present does certainly appear to do kind of what being stilled does within the books—for ladies, at the very least. Male channelers, alternatively, appear to have gotten some upgrades. Logain—gentled and positively not-screwing-around minimize off from the Supply by Liandrin—apparently retains the flexibility to each decide one other man’s energy with the One Energy, and likewise to truly see weaves. The books make it very clear that being stilled or gentled is a everlasting and whole factor that transforms the channeler into a traditional human with not more than regular human skills, so this can be a main swerve.

And why did they do it? In order that Logain can educate Rand a number of issues, which has occurred, and likewise in order that Logain can do precisely what he did and inform somebody that he sees Moiraine surrounded by weaves. That individual Chekov’s gun has now been fired.

Why could not Rand see the weaves round Moiraine earlier? Horses, film, and many others, I suppose. It isn’t how I’d have executed it, at the very least.

However! On the constructive facet of issues, we truly get a scene that I believe each single reader has been ready for—Lan offers Rand a crash course on seem assured earlier than the Amyrlin, and Rand then takes that information and makes a superb displaying in entrance of Siuan.

Lee: Sure—and let’s minimize over to Nynaeve and Elayne, doing their factor. They nonetheless have the a’dam snatched by Ryma (previously of the Yellow Ajah, and now carrying a collar herself), and after some dialogue with Loial, they ambush a lone sul’dam in an alleyway and snap the factor round her neck.

It is a massive second within the present, because it’s the primary actual indication that the Seanchan are literally weak in any significant manner—their weapons can be utilized towards them! However we lack the additional context—thus far, at the very least—that the books are in a position to present when the occasion occurs. In spite of everything, an a’dam solely works as a leash on a lady who can channel. So why does it work on a sul’dam?

Evidently, there are potential implications for, oh, the whole thing of Seanchan society—implications we’ll seemingly study extra about subsequent week throughout the finale. (And if not, look to season three!)

The final bit I would love to speak about is Perrin and Aviendha, who’re additionally converging on Falme with fan-favorites Bain and Chiad in tow. I used to be a little bit confused concerning the geography—for a minute, it seemed just like the scene was beginning off within the Aiel Waste (as evidenced by the Vince Gilligan-esque yellow shade grading), however apparently there is a desert surrounding Toman Head and Falme?

Lee: And, with a ultimate scene of Egwene calmly informing her sul’dam that Egwene is positively going to kill her in some unspecified time in the future, we end this week’s recap. The board is about, the items are shifting, and we come to it ultimately—the battle within the sky the place the Dragon goes to proclaim himself. I imply, I assume we come to it. We’ve not seen the final episode but, however you’d want to return in time and get your self an actual-for-real telegraph to telegraph the finale any tougher.

There are some things unsettled, although—what about that Horn of Valere? The factor that every one these hunters have been getting branded for in earlier episodes? And—and many different issues I am unable to actually articulate due to potential spoilers!