I had the Wheel of Time marked on my calendar, but my ongoing Cold From Hades kept me from remembering to watch the first three episodes, released November 19. I watched them Tuesday night, one episode after another.
Not having read the books in the series, I'm not coming in with expectations. In fact, I thought the previews for the show looked and sounded a bit hokey.
Never fear, I was completely captivated by the show and wished I could have zipped through a few more episodes.
After watching, I dug around on my shelves and read the first few pages of the first book Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.
I've read some reviews of the show so far, and its one of those things where I swear others watched a different show than I did.
So, as far as I know so far: there is a eons long, recurring battle between a Dark One and a Dragon. Sometimes the Dragon is influenced by good, sometimes by evil.
As we come into the story, a Wise Woman named Moiraine and her bodyguard/companion Lan hunt for the new incarnation of the Dragon, trying to get to him or her before the minions of the Dark do.
Episode One Leavetaking
We meet the villagers of Two Rivers preparing for a festival.
Egwene becomes one of the Circle of Women in her village, having her hair in a braid for the first time, and undergoing a ritual and test.
Rand accompanies his father to town reminiscing about his youth.
Perrin the blacksmith drinks in the tavern letting his wife do the work at the forge. I thought he seemed to have a crush (?) on Egwene in the first tavern scenes, and was then surprised he was married.
Mat tries to make money gambling or stealing in order to provide for his sisters who aren't cared for by his drunken and uncaring parents.
Enter Moiraine, who looks at all of them intently, but can't tell which of them is the Dragon.
In the middle of the festival next day, strange creatures that look like some incarnation of the devil attack the village, killing everyone they can. There are dozens of them, completely vicious.
Moiraine is able to fight many of them off with the help of Lan, but afterwards she tells the four friends they need to leave their village and follow her east, even as a host of three hundred more Trollocs are seen headed down the mountain towards the village.
Wanting to save what remains of their families, the four get horses and follow Moiraine.
Episode 2 Shadow's Waiting
Oof. This opens with a cruel man eating some gross food, then taunting a woman who seems to belong to the Aes Sedai along with Moiraine, and he burns her at the stake while he continues to eat.
He is apparently one of the Whitecloaks, and a special one called a Questioner. They're some sort of religious order.
There are tense moments when our travelers come upon these men on the road. Moiraine hands her ring to Lan to hide while she is Questioned. It would be excellent to never see the Whitecloaks again, as they are the sort of cruel, hard men who instill dread quickly.
The relentless Trolloc army catches up with the group near a ferry. While Trollocs don't mind water, they can't tolerate deep water. There's a near capture of our group, but they manage to get to the other side.
The ferryman, despite the army of monsters on his home side of the shore, wants desperately to get back over to help his family escape, and to save his son who was expected home any minute. I felt for his desperation in an impossible situation.
Once more the travelers find the Trollocs have found them. They enter a huge ancient city without a single living thing in it. Warned to not touch anything in this cursed place, Lan tends to Moiraine's worsening wound received in the fight at Twin Rivers.
Everyone sleeps but Mat is wakened by something, and follows a shadow a few doors down to a room with a chest in it. Of course he opens it. There's a curved dagger with a red glinting stone.
Almost immediately, something black and fast moving attacks the horses, turning one to dust. All of the companions are separated as they try to find a way out of the city, the black rolling moss closing in fast.
So far, the pacing of the story and the flight of our heroes is just pulse pounding. What a strange, strange world.
Episode 3 A Place of Safety
Rand and Mat are paired in their flight. They argue most of their journey, with Mat wanting to return home and Rand determined to get to wherever Egwene might have gone.
They go down into a valley that looks like there is no outlet at the other end. Agh why trap yourself? From what we've seen of the world so far, nothing good can be in this place. This is reinforced by the corpse of a man in a cage pierced by arrows at the outskirts.
While they're given dirty looks by everyone, nothing bad happens to them from the locals. Arriving in a tavern, hoping for some food and a place to sleep, they meet a troubador and the owner of the tavern. The troubador is somewhat creepy, I thought, and he took an interest in Mat pretty quickly, stealing all his money.
The tavern owner offers the boys work for a meal and a place to sleep. Agh, the food. Some sort of soup, it looked to me like she dumped out any uneaten soup back into the pot, and then there was what looked like part of an arm on the counter and she whacked it with her cleaver and tossed that into the pot too.
Even so, she seemed really nice until revealed later to be a "dark friend," someone trying to find the Dragon for the Dark One.
Egwene and Perrin escape over a wall just in the nick of time into a pool of water. They begin traveling east again, looking for their friends as they go.
Wolves have been following Perrin, and now they're close on the heels of he and Egwene. They seem to be herding them, and when the pair come upon wheel tracks, they decide to follow, hoping to find help and shelter of some kind.
As they get closer to the source of the tracks, but no one is in sight, I thought it was interesting how they approached with caution and fear. Fear being their companion since leaving home.
Suddenly, they're surrounded by people who demand to know if they know a particular song, and they have both Perrin and Egwene recite a statement. Once they do, everyone's friendly and they are taken to a camp of a people who seem very much like gypsies. The folk are friendly and feed them and seem cheerful, but who can trust anyone in this land?
Lan and Moiraine are the only ones to leave the city through a gate. Nevertheless, the poison from the Trolloc weapon has her completely asleep. While Lan tries to help her and decides what to do next, an astonishing thing happens. Nynaeve, the Wisdom of Two Rivers, who planned to apprentice Egwene as a healer, shows up with a sword to Lan's throat.
We had seen her last being dragged off by a Trolloc. She was dragged, but dropped while her captor went to a wounded Trolloc. There was a moment where he looked concerned about him, putting a claw on his shoulder. Then all of a sudden he's tearing his fellow apart, entrails everywhere. While he was busy, Nynaeve ran and escaped. She would not say how she had tracked them to the silent city.
As a healer, she reluctantly attempts to get the poison out of Moiraine's shoulder but it's too strong.
Leaving the women temporarily, Lan rides out, and from a high vantage sees possible help.
As they approach as a group, Moiraine and Liandrin, a sister warily greet each other. In a wagon behind her is a man who has claimed to be the Dragon.
The series has only eight episodes, which will air on Fridays through December 24. I really enjoyed the first three episodes. I had to know who the Dragon was from the characters presented. It's sort of obvious from the way Moiraine looks at the characters, one in particular early on.
The characters are well fleshed out, the scenery beautiful, ruins of all sorts are the stuff of nightmares. If I'd read the books I'd know how long their journey was going to be. At this point, with everyone split up, it's hard to see how they'll all come back together.
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