THE WHEEL OF TIME – Season 2 – Episodes 1 through 3 – SPOILERS

In Illian, a hunt for the Horn of Valere has begun. Trollocs raid towns in the northern nation of Arafel, and another false Dragon has declared himself in Saldea. To the west, in Aryth Doman, Perrin (Marcus Rutherford), Loial (Hammed Aminashaun), and a band of men led by Uno Nomesta (Guy Roberts) are tracking Padan Fain. They will encounter Lady Suroth (Karima McAdams) of the Seanchan, and Ishamael (Fares Fares) on the peninsula of Toman’s Head.

Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) is being her usual secretive self at Tifan’s Well in the grasslands north of Tar Valon. She gets a visit from Bayle Domon (Julian Lewis Jones), a mariner from the southern city of Illian and in the best scene so far this season, Moiraine and Domon engage in a bargaining session that illustrates nicely the Aes Sedai’s ability to deceive while telling the exact truth. Her negotiations get her a copy of a poem that was written in blood on the remains of a shattered Moon Dial outside Cairthien. The dial was supposed to be shatterproof.

Moiraine and Lan (Daniel Henney) are attacked and wounded by three Fades. Verin (Meera Syal), with whom she is staying remarks after rescuing them: “Three fades hunting a single Aes Sedai? The eye of the Dark One is upon you, sister. Did you not think we would ask why? I assume it’s one of the boys you brought back to Tar Valon last autumn? The Dragon?” Moiraine replies, hand on dagger: “Who else knows? Adeleas? Tomas?”

“Good,” Verin says. “I wanted to know how far you’d go for the Dragon if you’re to lead him to victory, Our sisters wish to cage the dragon, to clip his wings. The fear that he will break the world again blinds them. to the truth, that after all these years our world is still broken, and that what we need is to make it whole once more.” Moiraine opines that some broken things cannot be mended.

In an effort to make him understand why she is leaving him behind, Moiraine tells Lan: “The last battle’s coming and we’re already losing it. The cuendillar that broke at the Eye of the World that was the seal that kept Ishamael imprisoned. We didn’t defeat The Dark One; we set his strongest lieutenant free. The Forsaken…are the strongest channelers that ever lived and Ishamael may be waking the others. What they can do with the One Power makes the Aes Sedai look like tavern magicians.”

Protected by Verin and her sister Adeleas (Nila Aalia), Moiraine undertakes to deliver that poem to The White Tower, though she is prohibited from returning there.

Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) aka The Dragon Reborn, who is not supposed to be alive, has taken a job as a hospital worker in the City of Cairthien which is slightly southeast of Tar Valon. Rand is cohabiting with Selene (Natasha O’Keeffe) and the two of them crash a formal dinner party because one of his patients, Logain Albar (see episode 1.4) wants a rare bottle of red wine in exchange for advising Rand on how to properly use the One Power. They get a dinner invitation from Lady Arilyn Dhulaine (who in the books is an informant for the Grey Ajah), and are cautioned by Anavaere Damodred (Lindsay Duncan) that however they reply, “there will be costs attached”. Rand drops the invitation into the fire.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE TOWER

Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden) meets newly arrived novice Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney), Daughter-Heir (Princess) of Andor, who may have been named (one hopes not prophetically) after Elaine of Astolat.

Egwene’s best friend Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins) is homesick and refuses to channel. Hoping to change this, it is agreed that Leandrin, who is banned from any involvement with novices, should be allowed to speak with her. Nynaeve follows her new instructor when she goes on a mysterious errand, and finds that Leandrin is caring for a man named Auldran (Vladimír Javorský). (This might be the “man in Northharbour” that Moiraine referred to in episode 1.6.) After Nynaeve leaves, Leandrin refers to the man as “my boy. my beautiful boy“, so he might be her son.

Supervised by Leandrin, Sheriam Bayanar (Rima Te Wiata), and Leane Sharif (Jennifer Cheon Garcia), Nynaeve goes through The Arches, an artifact from before The Breaking that forces those who pass through it face their fears. (No one knows what the Arches were originally designed to do, but they might have been used to virtually analyze a possible course of action before actually trying it.)

The Arches aren’t ordinary virtual reality simulators, because Nynaeve vanishes from sight when she enters and seems to be physically transported elsewhere, possibly to an alternate weave of reality, and to know the fears that must be confronted, the device must read the subject’s mind. Each time Nynaeve exits, water is poured over her, and she is told: “You are washed clean of your sins, and all the sins committed against you.” Wounds she has suffered remain when she exits, but she cannot remove anything but herself from the alternative reality.

A novice must pass through three times, Nynaeve believes she has made her third exit, but she remembers nothing of her experience; angrily rejects the Aes Sedai; leaves the tower; and encounters Lan, who agrees to go home with her to the Two Rivers. All of that is an illusion. An exit appears behind her but she does not notice. (She has been warned that “the way back will only appear once”.) Leanne and the others wait for a while, then conclude she has been lost. Egwene refuses to accept that her friend is gone forever. She tries to reactivate The Arches with no apparent effect, and her attempt might be what causes a second exit to appear for Nynaeve, who, after a while, emerges from the arches and into Egwene’s arms.

Matt Cauthon (Dónal Finn) has been imprisoned by Leandrin (Kate Fleetwood) at Moiraine’s behest. Leandrin has put Matt in the cell next to the seer Min Farshaw (Kae Alexander). Matt, as expected, tries to escape and pokes a hole in the wall between their cells. The two spend some time together, though it is clear they are not romantically involved. When Matt is released, Min goes with him, but before she “escapes” she manages to have a private word with Leandrin.

MIN: “He’s coming with me. It was mostly even his idea.”
LEANDRIN: “He’s nothing if not predictable. Do you know the way?”
MIN: “Mmmm-hmmm.”
LEANDRIN: “Remember, if you succeed, Moiraine won’t have anything over either of us ever again. Don’t let me down.”

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All episodes of THE WHEEL OF TIME can be streamed on Amazon Prime.