Egwene spends the episode trapped in a cell—in "the kennels," as they're called—learning about all the quirks and features of the Seanchan a'dam. It would be fascinating if it weren't so gruesome and awful. The a'dam's creator (an Aes Sedai, though we hear much more about her in the books) seems to have put considerable effort into thinking of all the potential ways a damane might fight back and then programmed around them. The a'dam can't be removed by the damane. The damane cannot touch the wristband control leash, even if it's not being held by anyone. The device even prevents the damane from touching other objects that the damane perceives to be weapons—which is just downright insidious, because it turns new damane into active participants in their own breaking. Egwene cannot even pick up a water pitcher to drink, because she can't stop thinking about smashing the sul'dam's head with it. She only gets to drink water after she has convinced herself that she won't attack the Seanchan.

It's rough. It's really rough. In between the put on the glasses pour the water scenes, we get to see Egwene convulsing repeatedly as she fights with the a’dam—so much so that she ruptures blood vessels in both eyes. And this takes up about half the episode.

As you point out, though, this is an absolute cornerstone of Egwene's character. It's the honing that will shape her into—well, into what she eventually becomes. (It's not a spoiler, I don't think, to say that the POV characters of an epic fantasy series all have Important Destinies laid on them, and Egwene wouldn't be able to inhabit the role—roles, even—she ends up having to inhabit without this shaping.)

I want to spend a moment on Rand and Logain, too—if for nothing else than to call out the first on-screen image of someone playing "stones," the in-universe name for what we'd recognize as Go . Stones is a game played in Randland by intellectuals and generals, and it's a given that if you see a character playing stones, that character is supposed to be super smart and brilliant and possibly an authorial self-insert. ("Take a shot every time someone is playing stones" is almost as popular a casual WoT drinking game as "Take a shot every time Nynaeve tugs her braid" or—my personal favorite—"Take a shot every time someone says something about the Dark One's taint.")

Logain is once again brought in to teach Rand—but really, to teach us —how channeling works for men. (I hope we still get you-know-who teaching Rand later, but Logain is definitely stepping into that other fellow's shoes here.) In a nice little compact scene, the false Dragon manages to teach the true Dragon three important facts about the One Power: women "surrender" to saidar, but men "seize" saidin; if you take too much in, you'll burn yourself out; and that Rand is incredibly powerful, capable of doing "anything" and fighting "anyone."

Upon releasing the source, Rand then learns a bonus #4 fact: the Dark One's corruption suffuses saidin. The book makes it sound like channeling the corrupted male half of the power is sort of like railing ultra-heroin while simultaneously chugging down raw sewage, and when Rand releases the source, he also releases his lunch. Ew.

Yeah, I agree that parts of the season feel kind of interminable, in spite of how bloody short it is. I too could have done with maybe a bit less Moiraine-arguing-with-her-sister and also a bit less of whatever the hell it is Lan has been doing with Alanna and the Funky Bunch, but I've been pretty happy with the World of Dreams bits.

Speaking of: I want to ask a question that my wife and I both feel pretty unified on, and I'll give you my answer after I hear yours, but: when Lanfear banished Ishamael from Rand's dreams, was she really banishing him? Because it seems much more Lanfear-like for that entire bit to have simply been Lanfear conjuring and then de-conjuring an imaginary Dream Ishy. It seems like the kind of thing she'd do.

One way or another, though, Rand just can't catch a break. He finds Mat again, but rather than leaving town with Rand to escape, he chooses to heed Min's warning and stay away. Rand then decides to depart Cairhien on his own but gets stopped by Lan and Alanna. What are they going to do with him?

Our answer lies in the arrival of the Amyrlin Seat and fourteen other Aes Sedai (including several familiar faces, like Liandrin and Verin). A similar situation plays out in the novel—Rand delays leaving Shienar for too long and gets stuck having to talk to the Amyrlin, recently arrived in the Borderlands with her retinue. Here, it looks like Rand delayed leaving Cairhien for too long and is stuck having to do the exact same thing. The Amyrlin and Moraine are old schemers when it comes to the subject of the Dragon Reborn, so the plots are all twisting back together. (As they should, since next week is the season's penultimate episode.)

Your description of playing Tetris with the plots is also spot on—that feels exactly like what's happening. I like some of it, and I don't like some of it, but I don't think I'd be able to do any better as a writer if faced with the same length and episode count constraints as the show is having to operate under. If there is a villain here, it's not really the Seanchan, or the Forsaken, or even the Dark One himself—it's whatever bean counters in the programming department decided on those constraints. (There is an obvious "a'dam around the neck of the show" metaphor that I could draw here, but I won't. Though I guess I just did.) Regardless, we're reviewing the show we've been given to work with, rather than the longer show we perhaps wish we had.

I have one additional note from my wife that I need to read into the record: "Ingtar has better smoky eye than Lanfear and Egwene's sul'dam put together." No argument from me there.

Anything else from your notebook, Andrew, or have we reached the end for this week?

We'll see you back here next Friday. Until then, may you all find water and shade.

We open on the Seanchan doing what they do—making imperious statements and talking about conquering things. And, hey, for anyone wondering when the Horn of Valere was actually going to turn up on screen, here it is, hand-delivered by Padan Fain (with the requisite bit of whistling). I liked the scene, I like the Seanchan in the show, and I thought it was a solid opening. It was also kind of fun to see Shienaran Lord Ingtar (Gregg Chilingirian) in eyeshadow and da'covale robes, which are nowhere near as sheer on-screen as they are in the books.

The invaders from across the sea have their own look, their own accents, and their own theme music (which as near as I can tell includes a choir singing "DA-MA-NE!" over and over again). They're not just creepy and formidable—they're almost alien , which I suppose is the intention. How are they working for you so far?

• 

  Here is the place where the Seanchan meeting happened in the opening scene of episode five... [credit: Amazon Studios ]

Given that both Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time shot in Morocco, some location reuse was probably inevitable, but this one is particularly on the nose. Still, whether it was intended to be overtly obvious or not, I dig it. It definitely works, and also, now we know that Falme looks like Morocco!

OK, so—you're absolutely right that the show has drop-kicked the plot way ahead with the way events are landing. There are several specific things I want to talk about, and the first one is the Forsaken. We're given more of a window into who and what they are in this episode—along with the understanding that alliances between different members of the Forsaken are somewhat, shall we say, ephemeral. But the thing that jumped out most was the mention by Lanfear about the rest of the Forsaken—and how many there may or may not be.

Specifically, she mentions Moghedien, Graendal, and "the boys," and paints them all as incompetent. I can't remember if season one gave us the details on exactly how many of the Forsaken there are, but the show might have just told us that there are only six or seven—obviously less than the 13 named in the books. And if that is indeed what's happening, I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, given how much of the series is taken up by Rand chasing after and collecting all the different Forsaken like Pokemon.

And among all the Forsaken, Lanfear was supposed to be the most skilled within the World of Dreams (something that some of the other Forsaken take issue with, if I remember right). She shows off a bit of that skill in her cheeky meeting with Ishamael, and we see perhaps a bit more when she zaps Rand into her own little desert BDSM fantasy at the very end. Remember, Rand: there is no safe-word in the World of Dreams .

"Pineapple! Uh, banana! Orange! Peach! ....you're not letting me out of this, are you?" (credit: HBO)

We'll no doubt be spending a lot of time there, given how central Tel'aran'rhiod is to—well, to several characters (no spoilers from us about that yet—that'll likely be a season three or four thing), and it's great to know that it's not being cut. I have some hope that Asmodean also makes it, though as you say, he may not be necessary. We shall hopefully know more soon!

Changing tack slightly, there are two things I wanted to bring up about Randlandian politics again, and I promise not to spend too much time here. First, interestingly, we learn a bit more about Cairhien—it does in fact have a queen, named Galldrian, and Moiraine's nephew Barthanes Damodred is marrying her. This plus Moiraine's decision to delay draws a pretty straight line for Rand to get involved in the shuffle for the Cairhienin throne. Book readers might be scratching their heads at this particular set of choices, given that in the books Galldrian was a king who is dead before the series starts and Barthanes is—well, Barthanes is and does some spoiler-y things. I am hoping that they keep his most spoiler-y aspects intact.

This is what happens, Laman.

All right, Aiel time, because in an episode filled with important stuff, Perrin meeting Aviendha is one of the most important. We're re-using the whole "Aiel in a cage" bit that we only obliquely got to in season one, and we're mixing together a few different book bits, but the encounter came off satisfying to me. Aviendha dons a black veil and invites Perrin dancing—something she obviously excels at, being a Maiden of the Spear. Without revealing yet to show-watchers why she's important (you'll all find out soon enough!), it's nice to have one of the last of our main characters slotting into place.

Though I'd feel better if Thom Merrilin would show back up. His single appearance in season one was absolutely arresting. Perhaps we'll find him somewhere in Cairhien with Rand.

Which, speaking of—Elayne got a chance to basically do just that when she and Nynaeve ended up in Falme, after escaping from Liandrin and the Seanchan. I thought the Liandrin bits here were great, and I continue to love that they're actually allowing her character to be something other than just, like, vaguely misandrist and evil. Now she's got angst , and everybody knows that angst is the emotional equivalent of MSG—it makes everything more interesting.

The linked nature of the sul'dam ("leash holder" in the Old Tongue) and their damane is neatly demonstrated with the simultaneous call/response thing they do when channeling. My recollection is that the things utilize kind of a twisted version of the Aes Sedai/Warder bond to—well, to do all kinds of things , as poor Egwene is about to find out.

And, then, to finish up with our wayward White Tower trainees for the week, Nynaeve and Elayne escape into the city of Falme, seeking sanctuary in a place where there's not much to be had. And are they safe with the Aes Sedai and Warder who snatch them up? Ishy had a very peculiar response when Lanfear asked him about "the girls"—he notes that he has "just collected" them, and that "one craves power and the other fears it."

Mentioning two instead of three—or one—is odd. Does that mean that he's just collected Nynaeve and Elayne in Falme and that the Aes Sedai sitting on them is Black Ajah? Or am I misinterpreting?

Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, spoilers to dazzle, iron to bind. We'll catch you all next week!

The IRL book readers I've talked to have all brought up the substantial-and-growing deviations the show is making from the books, but I don't know anyone who's angry about it. I know this is difficult ground to tread, and everyone's going to have very strong feelings here, but at least for me, I believe that you're taking the right tack. I think we can call it objectively fun and enjoyable—at least as much as anything can be said to objectively contain those qualities. I'm rolling with the idea that this is a different turning of the Wheel.

Speaking of fun and enjoyable: crazily enough, even though things just started, at the close of this episode we are at the halfway point of the eight-episode season. I definitely want to get to those specifics you mentioned, but I feel like it's worth bringing up again just how much that episode count must be contributing to the narrative re-swizzling. Do you think there's any chance that future seasons will be, ya know, an episode or two longer?

And wait—I had one more overall big thing I wanted to bring up. It's a very Jordan-esque thing. I want, just for a moment, to talk about the politics of Randland.

(For non-book readers, the continent on which The Wheel of Time takes place is never really given a specific name. We know a bit about Shara, the mysterious lands to the east past the Aiel Waste; and we know a bit about Seanchan, the name of the continent to the west where the current set of insect-helmed invaders are coming from; but we never really learn if the densely-populated mess of city-states and countries where the majority of WoT happens has its own name. Book readers over the years came to simply refer to the home continent as "Randland," and I'm going to follow that convention.)

When Moiraine is visiting her sister Anvaere Damodred (Lindsay Duncan), we learn from the dialogue that Anvaere's son is marrying "the Queen"—which made me pause. In the books, Cairhien has no queen—Cairhien is currently bereft of a ruler. And the last ruler Cairhien did have was a king, still smarting from the fallout around Cairhien's starring role in the Aiel War. So who is Moiraine's sister's kid marrying? Are we talking about the Queen of Andor —Elayne's mom?

Mat and Min were excellent in their brief bit of screen time in this episode, but yes—that scene existed to give us Min confronting Ishamael. We get to watch her dawning horror as she realizes that she hadn't fully understood the shape of the deal she was signing up for—yes, she wants to get rid of her visions, but nobody said anything about bargaining with the strongest and most dreaded member of the Forsaken.

Still, I get the impression she's going to continue along the path Ishamael wants her on, and that she'll bring Mat to Cairhien. Considering Ishy reached directly into her dreams and met with her that way, it's not like running would do any good.

All right, we've danced around it long enough. Let's tackle one of the big ones: Moiraine and Lan. I honestly cannot tell what the show wants us to think about their connection at this point. I think Moiraine is shielded, not severed, but I don't know if we're supposed to believe that Lan's bond has been severed, or if it's still there but masked. I know how the books go, of course, but we're way off script with how this is being presented and that knowledge may not apply. The dialog between Alanna's blonde warder Maksim (Taylor Napier) and Lan is annoyingly ambiguous. What do you think is actually going on?

Definitely agree on the changed Moiraine/Lan dynamic. It also bugged me a bit that Lan seemed so flummoxed about Moiraine not thinking of him as an equal. Book-Lan seems to be very much cognizant of his role in their relationship, and I feel like Book-Lan's kingship and diverted destiny is brought up a lot more on the page than it has been on the screen (take a shot every time the phrase "Diademed Battle-Lord of the Malkieri" floats out of Jordan's word processor and assaults your eyes and you'll die of alcohol poisoning), and that even the older, darker, wiser, and prouder Lan of the books has made peace with the idea that he will never be more than a tool for Moiraine. (A favorite tool, and one not to be ill-used, but a tool nonetheless.)

The show is dangling the plot thread of "Where will Lan end up?!" in front of us—will he be bonded to Alanna as her third, or will Nynaeve end up snagging him? This same question plays out in the books in a very different place and in a very different way—though if you kind of squint, I think the fog shrouding the path that the showrunners are laying for us is beginning to clear a bit. And, like in the books, it's possible the resolution is tied in with Selene.

So, let's talk about the Daughter of the Night, shall we?

I get it, though. Rand is supposed to be, what, 20-ish here? (I know we've gone over this before and the show has aged everyone up over the books, but I can't recall by how much.) He's just a kid. Kids make poor decisions. Kids dealing with traumatic stress and literally having the corrupting influence of the Dark One flow through you when you channel can perhaps be forgiven for latching on to someone showing them affection.

Still, Moiraine showed up and kicked the anthill nicely, by planting a sword directly in Lanfear's torso and then slitting her throat. Which you think would do the job, but apparently not, since Lanfear is clearly still alive after. And there was something else, too—something I didn't notice on my first watch, because the screeners have a pretty low bitrate, but I caught the second time around. Something about Lanfear's eyes. Something… spotty . Did you catch it?

I find myself hoping that we get back to Falme and see the Seanchan some more—they play a significant role in the rest of the story, and I'm looking forward to learning more about how the show presents the characters. Episode 4 was the last in our current chunk of screeners, though, so at least until Amazon gives us some more, we're just as much in the dark about what's next as the rest of y'all.

That wraps it for now, folks. Life is a dream from which we all must wake, but we wish you a peaceful slumber until next week!

Like, there is a LOT going on here that isn't in the books, and honestly, I'm here for it.

For book readers, Rand's fate might be most jarring: his friends all think he's dead, and he seems to have moved in with a girlfriend in Cairhien's Foregate (sort of a shantytown built outside the gates of Cairhien) and gotten himself a job in the local sanitarium, caring for madmen. It seems odd at first, but Rand isn't just attempting some charity service—he knows that as a man who can touch the True Source and channel the One Power, he's cursed to inevitably go as mad as the people he's taking care of.

We find out by the third episode what Rand's goal truly is, because this is not just any sanitarium—it's a sanitarium that houses Logain Ablar, former self-proclaimed Dragon Reborn and now a trembling shell of a man suffering from being cut off from the Power. Rand wants Logain to tell him how to get himself out of this channeling mess—how to avoid going mad. Logain, of course, has some bad news for Rand on that front: he tells Rand that he won't be able to stop channeling, and he won't be able to avoid madness. Sucks for Rand.

(I also really do appreciate that there are finally characters on screen saying "Cairhien" out loud. I've been struggling with that city's name since 1997.)

In the look-and-feel department, season two feels vastly improved. (I'm sure relaxed COVID restrictions on production played a huge role!) I'd complained multiple times last season about the show's odd composition, the flat "digital" feel to the shots, the styrofoam sets, and the camera that refused to hold still no matter what the scene; this time around, none of those things are jumping out at me at all. The lighting feels organic and natural. The cinematography feels much more like proper prestige TV (which is to say, it looks like a movie). I don't know if the problem was me or the production, but whatever it was, it's fine now!

And I wanted to also make sure to call out the music—though, again, I'm not sure if it's the production or just me. It feels like there's a more unified musical "language" being employed in season two. The palette with which the music is painted feels much more focused and consistent. I feel like I'm beginning to know what the music in the show is going to feel like, much like how GoT or Westworld or other shows have their distinct musical language and colors.

I loved watching our Shienaran squad dance the blades with the Seanchan—in fact, heck, every single bit of swordplay we got in these first three episodes was excellent . (My wife's notes for this watch-through included the phrase, "UNO IS A STONE COLD BADASS," in all caps). Lan squaring off against the Fades was also excellent, and it shows just how far Rand has to go if he wants to actually be worthy of that heron-mark sword.

There was another really interesting bit my wife caught that I didn't: There's a moment in episode three where Egwene channels to stop another character from leaving the room, and Egwene does so without any of the crowd-pleasing gestures that the other Aes Sedai use. We know from the books that channeling has nothing to do with physical movements, but many channelers learn the motions with the weaves and can't do one without the other. She seems to have learned a valuable lesson from her time tied to a chair in Eamon Valda's tent.

I'll end my own side of this with the observation that so far, with these three episodes, it feels to me like the scenes the show does best are the wholly original ones. I wasn't super thrilled with how the gathering of evil (referred to by book readers as "the Darkfriend Social") played out, and the twist to Nynaeve's Accepted testing and how long that situation draws out compared to the books felt cheap and unnecessary. On the other hand, Min hanging out with Mat in their cells was fun—far more fun than the brief meeting between Min and Rand in the first season. Most of the other places where we've swerved from the text—especially Rand talking with Logain in the sanitarium—also felt solidly done. When the show is free to find its own way, it stops being so self-conscious and actually becomes enjoyable.

Maybe that's just the nature of adapted works. If so, I'm not a book purist—the show needs to stand on its own, just like any other adaptation. Changes are to be expected. It's a good thing.