TV Review: "The Wheel of Time: Daughter of the Night" (Season 2, Episode 4)
In this week's episode, a lot of things happen, even as the episode explores some deeper philosophical issues.
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I’m going to say it. The Wheel of Time is one of the best shows on TV right now. It’s that rare adaptation that manages to maintain the spirit of the original novels and yet manages to be its own phenomenon. Given that there are supposed to be significantly fewer seasons of the show than there are published novels, I’ve accepted from the beginning that there are going to be significant changes to the source material. This has not only kept me sane; it has also allowed me to be a more generous and thoughtful critic than those who have frequently been antagonistic to any change, no matter how slight, to Jordan's novels.
There is certainly quite a lot going on with our beloved characters in this episode, “Daughter of the Night.” Moiraine is hot on Rand’s trail, going all the way to Cairhien to save him from the clutches of the Forsaken Lanfear (heretofore known as Selene), while Egwene and Nynaeve have a perilous choice to make about the invasion of the Seanchan and the capture of Perrin. Perrin himself has a bonding moment with both Elyas and a wolf named Hopper, and Lan tries to figure out his life without his bond to Moiraine. While all of this is going on, both Mat and Min and Rand fall afoul of Forsaken (Ishamael and Lanfear, respectively).
As always, Rosamund Pike turns in a stunning performance in this episode. This is the steely, determined Moiraine, someone who will go to any lengths to protect the Dragon Reborn and make sure that he is able to fight the true Last Battle, even if that means giving her little sister (played by the magnificent Lindsay Duncan) the cold shoulder and promising the tormented Logain that she will give him the means to take his own life. These scenes in Cairhien are some of the best that Pike has ever done, and you can see beneath the icy exterior that she is very aware of the heavy burden she has to bear alone. She is also quite conscious of her own limitations, and even though she manages to cut down Lanfear mid-copulation, she bluntly tells Rand that she doesn’t have the power to kill one of the Forsaken (or at least not this particular Forsaken).
These scenes are also important for what they tell us about Moiraine’s sacrifices as a member of the Aes Sedai. Like the other members of her order, she has remained youthful (or, to use the novels’ terminology, “ageless,”) while all of those she cares about have aged. The scenes with her sister are suitably tense, and credit to Duncan for making Anvaere into a character with a steely spine; it’s no easy thing, after all, to talk back to an Aes Sedai, particularly not one with Moiraine’s formidable personality. At a more subtle level, her promise to Logain is both sinister and elegant, and I continue to be in awe of what Álvaro Morte has done with the character. I can’t wait to see what he does with it going forward.
The weight of time also hangs heavy on Liandrin, who has a weighty conversation with Nynaeve about her decision to keep her son in Tar Valon rather than sending him away, all before luring her into an effort to ride off to Falme to rescue Perrin. From the beginning of the show I’ve wondered just what they were going to do with Liandrin, whether she was going to really be a member of the Black Ajah as in the novels, or whether they were perhaps going to combine her story with Elaida’s. This episode seems to answer this question, as it’s clear that she is in league with Ishamael. It’s heartbreaking, in a way, particularly given the extent to which Nynaeve has clearly come to trust her (in large part because Liandrin is one of the few to treat her as a genuine equal). To find out that she is in fact the Black Ajah we thought all along feels like a betrayal (the fact that it’s in line with what happens in the books makes it even more devastating).
Rand, likewise, now finds himself caught in the snares of one of the Forsaken, the beautiful and manipulative Lanfear. I loved the scene where Ishamael releases her from her prison (it’s body horror, and I am here for it), and I also enjoyed the way that each of her statements seems to have a double edge. Like Rand, we can almost believe that she is no more than she says she is, even as each of her carefully-chosen words clearly has a double meaning. Natasha O'Keeffes’s angular beauty is perfect for Lanfear, and the moment when she binds Rand before beginning to seduce him is very much in line with the character we know from the novels. She might be foiled by Moiraine’s timely intervention, but it’s clear that we haven’t seen the last of her, and that she isn’t going to rest until she either bends Rand to her bidding or breaks him.
Lanfear is dangerous enough on her own, but this episode also shows us that Ishamael’s reach is very long indeed. He even manages to sink his claws into Min, and though I’m sure that book fans will revolt at even the inkling that she would ever willingly serve the Dark, this plot does at least give her something a bit more useful to do than just cool her heels in Tar Valon. Dònal Finn is suitably rakish as Mat, but I’m still waiting for the series to give him something useful or interesting to do.
This isn’t to say that this episode is all doom, gloom, and mental anguish. There’s a particularly remarkable moment in which Perrin bonds with a wolf named Hopper (a moment that caused fans of the books to erupt into celebration), and it’s quite lovely to see Alanna with her family, with whom she clearly shares a strong bond. Her conversation with Lan is likewise a lovely moment, as she reveals that Moiraine had changed even before the two of them met (most likely because of her vow to hunt down the Dragon Reborn and ensure he was brought intact to the Last Battle).
Overall, I thought this was the best episode of the series by far. As others have noted, it manages to pack quite a lot in without feeling rushed. However, it also manages to be a very philosophically and emotionally rich episode, particularly as it shows us the heavy burden that the Aes Sedai must carry. It’s to the series’ benefit that it allows us more insight into their personal feelings than the books do, and I hope this carries on even now that Nynaeve, Elayne, and Egwene are out of the Tower.
Join me next week as I share my thoughts on the next episode of The Wheel of Time!