INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Andrew Cunningham and Lee Hutchinson have spent decades of their lives with Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time books, and
they previously brought that knowledge to bear as they recapped each first season episode and second season episode of Amazon's WoT TV
of every episode, but they will contain major spoilers for the show and the book series
We'll do our best to not spoil major future events from the books, but there's always the danger that something might slip out
If you want to stay completely unspoiled and haven't read the books, these recaps aren't for you.New episodes of The Wheel of Time season
three will be posted for Amazon Prime subscribers every Thursday
This write-up covers the season three finale, "He Who Comes With the Dawn," which was released on April 17.Lee: Wow
But this episode kicks off with a flashback showing Elaida walking out of a certain twisted redstone doorframe, looking smug and fingering a
over a scene in an earlier episode where the boys are actually playing the snakes-and-foxes game that these horrifying fae-folk are based
Closure! (Well, some.) Balefire! Blocks breaking! Rand pulling a Paul Atreides and making it rain on Dune! I mean, uh, in the Three-Fold
Land! And many other things!
According to the book, this Cat-in-the-Hat-looking mfer's clothes are made of human flesh
Creepy.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
According to the book, this Cat-in-the-Hat-looking mfer's clothes are made of human flesh
Creepy.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Andrew: I found this episode
less than satisfying after last week's specifically because of that grab-bag approach
There is some exciting, significant, season finale-style stuff happening here, but it's also one of those piece-moving episodes with scene
after scene of setup, setup, setup without a ton of room for payoff
Setup for a fourth season that, as of this writing, we still don't know whether we're getting!
So a number of things just feel rushed, most
significantly Rand's hard turn on Lanfear after a cursory attempt to coax her back to the side of the Light, and the existence of balefire
doesn't just kill you, it also erases the last few seconds of your existence, represented here as a little shadow of a person that rewinds a
The books use balefire extensively as a get-out-of-jail-free card for certain major character deaths, so it really feels like something that
Car'a'carn is Car'a'carning and Lanfear is Lanfear'ing.
Balefire looks a little Ghostbusters-y, but I definitely wouldn't want
to get hit with any.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM
Studios
Balefire looks a little Ghostbusters-y, but I definitely wouldn't want to get hit with
any.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Andrew: It's hard to know where to
start with the rest of it! There are some recreations of book events that happen roughly where they're "supposed" to in the story
There are recreations of book events that have been pulled way forward to save some time
There are things that emphatically don't happen in the books, also done at least partly in the interests of time
It seemed like it might be poor neglected Logain (remember him?), but now the show makes it clear that the man on the spot is instead going
So much for that plotline.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM
Studios
Sammael (center) appears to be about as dead as Siuan
So much for that plotline.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Andrew: Yup!
So the big open question is whether the eighth is the Forsaken who does end up in the Rand-teacher role in the books
I feel like the show wouldn't have spent so much time setting up "Rand needs a teacher" without then bothering to follow up on it in some
way, but this episode wants to tease people who are asking that question rather than answering it
Fair enough!
Sammael's early death (pulled forward from book seven) has its own story reverberations
In the books he's one of a few Forsaken who set themselves up as heads of state, and Rand has to run around individually defeating them and
bringing all of these separate kingdoms together in time for the Last Battle (this is less exciting than it sounds, because it takes forever
and requires endless patience for navigating the politics of each region).It seems, increasingly, that we may just be skipping over a bunch
That was already implied by the downplaying of Cairhienin politicking that we got on screen in season two, and I tend to see "putting all of
Sammael's blood on the outside" as another possible nod in that direction
As ever with this show, "knowing how it goes in the books" only gives us a limited amount of insight into what the show is going to do.Lee:
boring version of the Game of Thrones imaginable, and we suffer through every single interminable import/export discussion with
Because up until that certain big major thing happens, Siuan spends a lot of her post-Amyrlin time as a scullery maid and underpants-washer
I think we can transplant that certain big major thing onto one of a half-dozen other characters and lose nothing
What about you?
Siuan (center) has passed on
She has ceased to be.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM
Studios
Siuan (center) has passed on
She has ceased to be.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Andrew: Yeah, I
mean, not nothing, exactly
Every book character we have lost on the show has done stuff that I liked in the books that is now probably not going to happen
Complaining about The Slog aside, people like these books in part because they successfully build a super-dense world inhabited by a million
named characters who all have Moments
Post-Amyrlin Siuan's journey is about humility, finding happiness, and showing that the literal One Power is not the only kind of power
there is to wield; it's not always thrilling, but I won't say it's of zero narrative value.
And even when discussing The Slog, part of the
reason it was so infuriating is because you and I were reading these as they were coming out
If you wait three years for a book, and then it comes out and nothing happens: that's maddening! It is also not a problem that exists for
modern readers or re-readers, now that the books have been done and dusted for over a decade
My assessment of Knife of Dreams, the series' 11th book and the last one written entirely by Jordan, went way up on my last re-read because
I was able to experience it without also having to experience the bookless years before and after
(It also made me newly sad that Jordan wasn't able to conclude the story himself, as someone who finds the Sanderson-assisted books a bit
clunky and utilitarian.)All of that being said! I agree that from this point forward in the story, Siuan is not a load-bearing character in
the way that Rand or Egwene or the others are
You do also get the sense that the show wants to surprise book-readers with something big every now and again
This particular death achieves that and also cuts down on what the show has left to adapt
I get why they did it! But I also sympathize with people who will miss her.
Now that she's Amyrlin, Elaida (center) gets to
wear the biggest hat of all.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM
Studios
Now that she's Amyrlin, Elaida (center) gets to wear the biggest hat of all.
Amazon is willing to pay for
And yet, there are our two twisted redstone doorways
Aelfinn (and the subtitles confirm this), which leaves Mat visiting the fox-like Eelfin.
The show has been dropping hints about this all
gets three wishes from a horrifying BDSM furry?Break it down for us, Andrew
What the hell are we looking at?Andrew: When you enter through these doors, the Finn give you stuff! The Aelfinn give you knowledge, by
answering three questions
And the Eelfinn give you Things, both tangible and intangible, by granting three wishes
Exactly what these people are, where they live, why they have this arrangement with anyone who enters through the doorways: even in a series
obsessed with overexplaining things, these are "don't worry about it, that's just how it is" questions
What you need to know is that the Aelfinns' answers are often cryptic and open to interpretation, and the Eelfinns' wish-granting is
hyper-literal and comes with, uh, strings attached, as Mat quickly discovers.
Mat getting his things from the Eelfinn is essentially the
moment he becomes the Mat he is for the rest of the story, like Perrin's wolf powers or Egwene's dream-walking or Rand's channeling
off real Great Value Brand Khal Drogo energy here.
Credit:
real Great Value Brand Khal Drogo energy here.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
entire rest of the series
Sort of somewhat similarly to the books!
Mat is being aligned and equipped very well now to head toward his destiny
In fact, after this much of a build-up, the most Wheel of Time-esque thing to happen now would be for him to be completely absent from
Ell-oh-ell.
A bargain made, a price is paid
rope.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
A bargain made, a price is paid
rope.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Andrew: The Tanchico plotline is
also kind of wrapped up here in abrupt fashion
In essence, our heroes fail
Not only do Moghedien and Liandrin manage to escape with all the parts of the collar they need to corral and control the Dragon Reborn, but
they also agree to team up so they can beat the other Big Bads and become the biggest bads of all
I cannot see this ending well for either of them, but Kate Fleetwood's Liandrin is such an unhinged presence on this show that I'm glad
she's sticking around.
Our heroes don't walk away entirely empty-handed, I suppose
Thom tells Elayne that they actually know each other and tells her that "Lord Gaebril" is actually a Forsaken and a usurper whom she hasn't
actually known her whole life
And Nynaeve gets pitched into the sea, where a near-death experience dissolves the block that is keeping her from channeling freely (the
show doesn't say this overtly, but this is only lightly altered from a similar sequence that happens in book seven or eight, I think).
Nynaeve (center) doing her best Charlton Heston impression.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Nynaeve (center) doing her best Charlton Heston
impression.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Lee: Right, I believe
I very much like bringing it forward, too
In the books, keeping the block around makes sense narratively and serves a solid set of purposes; in the show, it was starting to feel less
like a legitimate plot device and more like a bad storytelling crutch
It has served its purpose, and it's time to get rid of it and get on with things.
(Though it is kind of funny to note that Liandrin was the
one trying to help Nynaeve break the block in the show a couple of seasons ago
Looks like Liandrin finally found a method that works! The results, though, will not be what she expects.)
The foxhead
items that come to define Matrim Cauthon (center).
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Andrew: The show has set us all up to converge in Tear in season four, essentially going backwards in the story and doing parts of
book three; my guess would be that, if it's still identifiable as an adaptation of any particular Wheel of Time book, we see parts of books
five and maybe six mixed in there, too
But all of that is contingent on the show getting another season, and for the first time going into a WoT finale, we aren't actually sure if
that's happening, right?Lee: Ugh, yeah, still no word on the next season, which sucks, because this one was so damn good
We wrap in the desert, where Rand has darkened the skies (enough to be seen all over the world!) and brought rain
Everyone looks on portentously
We just need the all-swallowing monster that is Amazon to spare some pocket change to make it happen.
Rand (center-right)
summons the rains.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Rand (center-right) summons the rains.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Andrew: I've been worried about this renewal
Dramas like this just don't get as many seasons as they would have in eras of TV gone by, and we're several years past the end of streaming
TV's blank check era (unless you're Apple TV+, I guess)
and higher than the second season of Rings of Power.
But it also doesn't seem like Wheel of Time has become the breakout crossover smash-hit
success that Jeff Bezos had in mind when he demanded his own Game of Thrones all those years ago
It's expensive, and shows get more expensive the longer they run, as the people in front of and behind the camera negotiate raises and
contract renewals.I would love to see this get a fourth season
The third season had enough great stuff in it that I would be legitimately sad to see it canceled now, which is more attached than I was to
the show at the end of its first or second seasons
How 'bout you?
"And how can this be? For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!" I'm sorry, I'm sorry, no more Dune jokes.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
"And how can this be? For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!" I'm sorry, I'm sorry, no more Dune jokes.
Credit:
Prime/Amazon MGM Studios
Lee: I've said it a bunch, and I'll say it again: This has been the season
where the show found itself
Until then, dear readers, may you always find water and shade, and may the hand of the Creator shelter you all
And also perhaps knock some sense into Bezos.
