This review contains full spoilers for season 2, episode 8 of The Wheel of Time, now available to watch on Prime Video.
Everything converges on Falme in the finale of The Wheel of Time season 2, which seems to be striving to evoke the messy spectacle of Game of Thrones’ battle of King’s Landing. Unfortunately, despite some poignant and dramatic moments, the episode brings an uneven season to a lackluster conclusion. “What Was Meant to Be” demonstrates the pitfalls of trying to cram one of Robert Jordan’s epic novels into just eight episodes, particularly when the show wasted so much time inventing new inconsequential plots.
The Children of the Light are largely cruel zealots, but “What Was Meant to Be” shows off the rare noble crusader Geofram Bornhald (Stuart Graham). Graham manages to bring an immediate feeling of complexity to a character who both wants to stop the Seanchan slavers but shares his group’s misogynistic contempt for women who can channel. The Whitecloaks obscuring the path of their cavalry by having kids precede them with censers is a very cool and creepy effect.
Bornhald is around just long enough to be brutally murdered by Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) dishing out some John Wick-style vengeance for his wolf buddy. Showrunner Rafe Judkins and the series’ writers continue to be needlessly cruel to Perrin, first inventing a wife for him just to have him accidentally kill her off and then dispatching the animal companion that’s a key part of his character in the books.
The show is taking distinctly darker turns with many of its characters than the books did, particularly Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden), who rain fire on the Children of the Light in an act of cathartic revenge for their cruelty last season. She also shows no mercy or remorse in her treatment of her captor, Renna (Xelia Mendes-Jones). Madden powerfully demonstrates Egwene’s steely resolve, grimacing as she feels the pain she’s unleashing on Renna. Her wrath is understandable given that cutting off Egwene’s braid, a symbol of her home, feels more brutal than any of The Handmaid’s Tale-style mutilations Renna threatened her with.
The flashback to the imprisonment of Ishamael (Fares Fares) and his tense interactions with his fellow Forsaken Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe) reinforce his role as the most consistent highlight of season 2. As strong a presence as he was, it’s probably the right decision to kill him off, and his last moments are beautiful. Still it’s telling that the writers felt the need to release six more Forsaken just to replace him. Their appearance also provides one last chance to show off how forward-thinking Ishamael was.
Lanfear dumps Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) and al’Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney) on a picturesque beach far from the fighting so they can’t interfere, and their stroll gives them time to talk through their emotions. The renewal of Moiraine’s mystical bond with Lan is a beautiful special effect, weaving their fates together as they stand face to face, showing an intimacy that goes deeper than any romance.
Their conversation surrounding it is sweet, if deeply cheesy. The Warders were right when they pointed out to Lan what Aes Sedai are capable of: Lan fighting off a bunch of guys is impressive, but Moiraine takes out an entire fleet from the shore! Moiraine calling Lan her better shows a humility that doesn’t suit a woman who just moments later promises to kill 1,000 innocent people to protect Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and let him achieve his destiny as the Dragon Reborn.
There’s too much Indiana Jones in the scene where Rand answers a blademaster’s challenge to duel by just killing him and all his guards with magic. At least the effect doesn’t look as bad as the giant flaming dragon Moiraine conjures at the end of the fight or the swirling movements around the warriors summoned by the Horn of Valere that make the whole battle feel blurred. The addition of Uno Nomesta (Guy Roberts) to their ranks feels hollow because the show didn’t spend enough time with the character to prove why he’d be more worthy of the honor than his fellow guardian of the Horn who died earlier that episode.
Moments that should be triumphant or dramatic are left empty because not enough time was spent building them up
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The significance of the Horn of Valere is hit home repeatedly in Jordan’s The Great Hunt, but not nearly enough time was devoted to it in the show. That makes its effect on the battle and especially on Mat Cauthon (Dònal Finn) feel deeply arbitrary. Mat’s glimpses of his past lives in episode 7 aren’t enough to sell his moment standing amongst a group of legendary warriors. Also Mat tying a cursed dagger to a stick to make a spear seems like an exploit a Dungeons & Dragons player would come up with. It’s a lousy concept that also reduces one of the book’s more compelling villains, Padan Fain (Johann Myers), to a pathetic, bumbling henchman.
Aside from making a very folksy threat sound deeply ominous, Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins) has almost nothing to do in this episode. Her efforts to rescue Egwene turn out to be pointless and she can’t find a way to use any of her great power in the battle. The reunion of the five ta’veren of Two Rivers feels cartoonish as they basically fight off Ishamael with the power of their friendship.
