(Contains spoilers) Much has been made of the gory murder of Siuan Sanche, played by Tony Award-winning actress Sophie Okonedo, at the end of season 3 of The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime Video. The event marks a departure from the ‘Wheel of Time’ books by Robert Jordan. And soon after the final episode of the season dropped, late on Thursday, the show makers offered explanations like the desire to give an actress of Okonedo’s stature a fitting farewell and giving the character of Moiraine Sedai (Rosamund Pike) another push to keep fighting.
If you haven’t been watching the show on Amazon Prime Video and have not read the books, the show is premised on the idea of rebirth. The wheel of time, we are told over and over again, weaves patterns/destinies. The key events to look out for are the birth of the dragon (a human so powerful, he or she can defeat evil or fall prey to it and set humankind back thousands of years) and the Last Battle between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One. The source of supernatural power in this world is called the “one power” – people are either born with the ability to channel it or not. At the centre of this world are five friends from a mountain village called Two Rivers. When the story begins, neither they nor we have any idea that they are major movers in the wheel’s patterns. In the world of the books/series, there are those who want to save mankind from destruction – the Aes Sedai, who can channel – and those who are the favourites of the “dark lord”: the Forsaken or the Shadow-souled. There is politics and drama in all of their separate worlds. There are fighters (white cloaks, aiels), seers, regular folk, channelers, kings, queens and those who eschew violence to follow “the way of the leaf”.
If you’ve followed the series over the three seasons, you’ll recall that the five friends from Two Rivers have come a long way. "Wisdom" Nynaeve al'Meara (Zoë Robins) is now acknowledged as the best channeller of the “one power” in 1,000 years. Egwene Al'Vere (Madeleine Madden) is now more at peace with her role as a Dreamwalker and perhaps the only person who doesn’t treat Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski) like he needs to be handled with kid gloves. Perrin Aybara’s (Marcus Rutherford) transformation into Goldeneyes is progressing at a fast clip now, and Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn) is less troubled now than when the series began – in episode 8 of Season 3, a mysterious creature also rids him of the voices he started hearing in his head after he stole a cursed dagger from the shadow city two seasons ago. And Rand himself has given himself over to his destiny as the Dragon Reborn or as the Aiel call him, their Car'a'carn or chief of chiefs (remember that towards the end of Season 2, he'd been proclaimed the Dragon Reborn in a different geography - Falme).
In the final episode, Rand makes it rain in the desert – because his people, the Aiel, need a miracle to choose him as their leader over a pretender, and believe that they are the one thing they detest more than anything else: oath breakers. The rain gets the job done, not to mention, cool raised tempers. The Forsaken Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe), who’s still hopelessly in love with the Dragon / Lews Therin / Rand, has a face-off with Moraine, who gets a second wind from her anger and her grief as she feels Siuan’s passing – she and Siuan had been lovers, but their love story was constantly on the backburner as they prioritized their find-the-dragon-and-save-the-world purpose.
Of the magical scenes in the Season 3 finale, perhaps the less said, the better here. Nynaeve’s parting of the waters is strangely gimmicky – the visual effects perhaps failing for the first time in this series that has raked up many award nominations in this category. Mat’s sojourn in a strange-room-through-the-arch and narrow escape from death feel both short and divorced from the rest of the action. Indeed, so much happens in the Season 3 finale, that it feels more like a set-up for future seasons than a comprehensive episode in itself.
There are, however, two moments that stand out as both moving and moving the story forward in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s coming out of left field. The first is the death of Melindhara (Synnøve Macody Lund) who we learn took the dark oath to raise the kingdom of Malkier from ruin again. Time and again in this series, characters are called upon to forgo the very desire that drove them to make a deal with the devil. It’s these tensions and moments of conflict that give the series its meatiness.
The second moment that stands out is when Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney) learns that a Forsaken has infiltrated her kingdom, and comes back to rescue the “gleeman” Thom Merrilin (Alexandre Willaume) who told her about it – this is also when she wields an ancient ter’angreal and unleashes “bale fire” for the first time.
Indeed, some of the most fun sections of Season 3 have Elayne at the centre of them – think the sea journey propelled by the one power, the impromptu performance of the song ‘Hills of Tanchico’ (composed by Nikhil Koparkar), and scenes of drunken merrymaking as well as the hunt for objects that could mean the difference between winning and losing. As someone who is trained to be a queen someday, she is well-versed in languages, customs, histories of many lands – indeed a very handy thing to have in a character as you take readers/viewers on journeys across the world in the story.
Now, we know that there will be a season 4 of The Wheel of Time. Creator Rafe Judkins has maintained from the start that he hopes to make eight seasons, with eight episodes in each. The Season 3 finale has raised more questions than it’s answered. It won’t be long before the wheel turns and a new season opens to show us more of the pattern.
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