This review contains full spoilers for season 2, episode 6 of The Wheel of Time, now available to watch on Prime Video.
Episode 6 of The Wheel of Time season 2 focuses most of its attention on the monstrousness of the Seanchan invaders, decadent slavers whose power in part comes from controlling women who can channel. The script is highly faithful to Robert Jordan’s second Wheel of Time novel, The Great Hunt, and contains some of the best material the show has delivered so far.
Handling onscreen torture involves striking a tricky balance between evoking pathos and feeling exploitative, but director Maja Vrvilo and writer Rammy Park make it work by hewing closer to the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation’s two-parter “Chain of Command” than anything in Game of Thrones. Renna (Xelia Mendes-Jones) has none of Ramsay Bolton’s sadistic glee as she works to methodically break Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden) through a horrific mix of physical, psychological and magically inflicted abuse. With a tone of false niceness and patience, she’s always perfectly clear about her mission to dehumanize her powerful new pet.
Madden has been consistently one of the show’s strongest performers, and she really sells Egwene’s furious grit. The most outstanding moments of this episode aren’t her physical performances but the purely emotional ones like when Egwene briefly takes pleasure in channeling to feel the roots of the tree that comforts her outside her cell door – before Renna makes her incinerate it. The most devastating blow isn’t one of Renna’s kicks but when she almost gently informs Egwene she is not a woman but a damane, caressing her as she says she hopes the White Tower told her how special she was. It gets to all of Egwene’s insecurities about her power and significance next to Nynaeve, and provides the bleakest possible version of the future she imagined for herself as an Aes Sedai.
Like with Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Chain of Command,” the torture doesn’t diminish the strength of the hero; instead it emphasizes the horrifying power and values of the villains. That’s further developed in “Eyes Without Pity” with the Yellow Aes Sedai Ryma (Nyokabi Gethiaga) explaining just how much her sisters have suffered by underestimating the Seanchan. Ryma is a far more minor character in books, but the show’s version forges an immediate bond with Nynaeve. She helps Nynaeve view her role as an Aes Sedai as an extension of her work helping people rather than a betrayal of it. Ryma’s selflessness and conviction that to be collared would be a fate worse than death spotlight the Seanchan’s boundless cruelty.
Lanfear (Natasha O’Keefe) also continues to shine in this episode as she masterfully manipulates both Rand (Josha Stradowski) and Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood). Her encroachment in the nightmare that Ishamael (Fares Fares) wove for Rand demonstrates the Forsaken’s fundamentally different approaches to wooing the Dragon Reborn and just how powerful an ally Lanfear could be. It also shows her casual cruelty as she lets Rand see Egwene just long enough to make him desperate to be the hero. Her wicked smile is enchanting whether seeing Rand begging for help or flirtatiously biting her lip as Rand more forcefully tries to get information from her.
Lanfear is fighting a war on two fronts, battling for influence against both Ishamael and Moiraine (Rosamund Pike). She understands just how driven and manipulative Moiraine is in her lifelong mission to ensure the Dragon Reborn fights for the light, but it’s a credit to Rand’s development that he seems more afraid for Moirane’s safety than angry at being caught in her machinations yet again.
Rand’s also still going to make use of the tools she laid out for him. His first lesson with the false Dragon Logain (Alvaro Morte) provides a brief demonstration of just how dangerous Rand is until he gets control over his power. Morte does a fantastic job portraying the mix of madness and grief afflicting the stilled channeler as he practically cackles with joy seeing the raw magical might Rand is capable of wielding.
Moiraine is strained under the weight of all her secrets, made clear when her sister asks what could possibly be so important that she left her father to die alone – and she can’t answer that it’s literally the fate of the entire world. It’s a conflict that parallels Rand’s own as Lanfear points out that abandoning his friends made them more vulnerable. There has to be some emotional balance, but Moiraine has hardened herself so much that now that her work is truly bearing fruit, she’s almost too broken to see it through to the end.
The truth about the Dragon Reborn is known to so few that it becomes dangerous for Moiraine’s Warder a’Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney), who finds his motives questioned by Alanna (Priyanka Bose) and her Warders. It’s a scene that helps build tension as the Aes Sedai begin realizing that their ranks have been infiltrated by darkfriends, and demonstrates how Alanna’s usually jovial throuple can be very intimidating when they have to be.
There’s no Perrin in this episode but Mat (Donal Finn) is finally integrating with the main plot. Reuniting with Rand while running a petty con game and then laughing at his friend’s epic destiny feel very true to the character, and hopefully the show will finally be able to fully recover from last season’s casting issues. The visuals and fight scenes also remain strong, from the big battle on the streets of Falme to the Amyrlin Seat Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) sitting in her gorgeous dress and ornate coach and preparing to fight off attackers with an arsenal of conjured knives.
