The Wheel of Time Season 3, Episode 4 Review – "The Road to the Spear"

“The Road to the Spear” focuses wholly connected the Aiel trials astatine Rhuidean, delivering a profoundly affectional and revelation-packed episode. While the crippled owes a batch to Dune, the magnitude of clip spent exploring Rand and Moiraine’s visions of the past and aboriginal makes for a richer mentation of the rituals of enlightenment than Denis Villeneuve presented successful Dune: Part Two. It besides makes for the champion occurrence of play 3 to date.

Rand has immoderate bully feline speech with Lan, musing connected the simple, idyllic beingness his adoptive blademaster begetter chose for him adjacent though helium was calved of bloody conflict. Lan is simply a steadying beingness successful Rand’s life, listening to his problems with patience, mildly ribbing him arsenic a “sheepherder,” and past giving him carnal enactment to distract him from his problems.

It’s different way, Lan genuinely compliments and balances Moiraine, who can’t halt worrying astir what Rand volition bash next. Egwene responds to Moiraine’s fretting with a folksy remark astir watched pots ne'er boiling, a cleanable reminder of her Emond’s Field roots. But what Moiraine is genuinely terrified of is Rand boiling over, and that gets to the bosom of the information of trying to assistance the Dragon Reborn. Yes she volition inactive bash immoderate it takes to assistance Rand execute his destiny, adjacent undergoing the unsafe proceedings with him aft it’s powerfully implied that helium would dice without her.

The Aiel taboo astir carrying swords leads Aviendha to show however overmuch amended she is astatine warring than Rand by rapidly knocking him to the ground. Lan is intelligibly excited for the accidental to truly amusement off, and the remainder of the Aiel are conscionable arsenic blessed to ticker a bully battle. The lucifer is excellently choreographed, demonstrating their acrobatics and leaf skills by the flickering firelight – but nary stroke lands harder than Avienda’s crushed for picking the combat successful the archetypal place.

Like Rand, she has a destiny she doesn’t privation to face: Giving up the spear to go a Wise One. Moraine, Egwene, and Rand each speech knowing looks astir however discovering you’re a channeler changes the people of your life. There’s specified harsh finality successful Bair breaking Aviendha’s spears, followed by the vulnerability she shows successful stripping disconnected her warrior clothes, hardly holding backmost tears arsenic she departs to participate Rhuidean. This premix of severity and tenderness is simply a almighty amusement of the Aiel’s priorities and worldview.

But “The Road to the Spear” is truly astir the analyzable narration betwixt Moiraine and Rand. Moiraine dedicated her beingness to the prophecy of the Dragon, but has a hard clip really getting done to the stubborn, arrogant young antheral who hates the thought of being manipulated by her and the White Tower. Like Avienda, Egwene has to larn a hard acquisition that she’s already starting to accept: her way and Rand’s are nary longer aligned. She mightiness privation to travel Rand into Rhuidean, but lone Moiraine tin spot him done that journey.

The partition of weapons near by those who did not instrumentality is simply a informing of the peril, but besides a hilarious accidental to show who Moiraine is: She keeps producing hidden weapon aft hidden weapon to spell with Rand’s heron-marked blade. The clouded metropolis is beautifully ominous, filled with titanic sculpture from a mislaid property and the towering 3,000-year-old histrion Avendesora. The communicative of Moiraine’s idiosyncratic nexus to the Aiel War yet gets Rand to really perceive her retired and admit the ties that hindrance them, earlier helium walks into the mist to statesman his proceedings successful earnest.

What follows is simply a trippy, layered communicative reminiscent not lone of Dune but besides Cloud Atlas, arsenic Rand journeys further and further backmost successful time. Seeing his biologic begetter combat and mourn his parent gives him a wide reply to the question of however Aiel helium is, but it’s the deeper flashbacks that are adjacent much revealing. Rand digs further into conscionable however overmuch was mislaid with the Breaking of the World, with the bully interaction of Josha Stradowski donning a antithetic costume for each caller relation and epoch helium inhabits.

The Aiel warriors and pacifist Tinkers look similar they couldn’t beryllium much different, but they were erstwhile 1 people. The imaginativeness wherever that information is revealed is truthful touching (despite different mediocre longhaired wig for Stradowski) due to the fact that it starts with Rand and his 2 champion friends, earlier the aerial of lighthearted charm is utterly shattered by unit – conscionable similar successful the bid premiere. As helium goes deeper, there’s much to observe astir the Aiel’s progenitors, the losses they suffered, and the origins of their wandering: a unsafe ngo to find a harmless caller location for the Tree of Life.

Moiraine has her ain unusual journey, starting with softly pocketing the almighty sa'angreal that serves arsenic the pistillate equivalent of the leaf that Rand is destined to seize. Avienda seems to beryllium having a genuinely unspeakable clip successful the rings, but Moiraine dives close into her ain test, which is adjacent weirder than Rand’s: She sees lives that mightiness be, and the decease and unit that link astir of them. We spot her satellite virtually turned upside down arsenic the camera does flips implicit the heads of Rosamund Pike and her co-stars – a jarring modulation betwixt Moiraine’s visions. There’s the elemental happiness of beingness mending sportfishing nets with Siuan and the expansive powerfulness of being the Amyrlin Seat (with Egwene lasting by arsenic she slits Rand’s throat). She walks distant from Lan and bonds Rand arsenic her Warder. She bows down earlier the Dragon Reborn and sleeps with him.

But it’s Lanfear who’s the astir accordant beingness successful these dizzying montages; she makes an interaction connected Rand’s flashbacks, too. The erstwhile Aes Sedai tore unfastened the Dark One’s situation to bring powerfulness to the people, though that wasn’t her existent motivation: She’s intelligibly driven by her ain ambition and a tendency to undermine her ex, Lews Therin. Lanfear leads gothed-up versions of astir of the show’s heroes against Moiraine, strangles Moiraine successful bed, stabs her successful the White Tower, and kills her implicit and implicit again successful the desert. If this proceedings is meant to amusement Moiraine what indispensable be, her decease astatine the hands of the Daughter of the Night is each but certain.

Despite everything helium went through, including watching a would-be clan main die, Rand makes the prime to enactment for Moiraine. He carries her retired of the godforsaken into Lan’s waiting arms, erstwhile again bonding the 2 unneurotic with the cognition of who they are and what indispensable travel next.