Depredations and depravities reign in this week’s Wheel of Time

Egwene spends the episode trapped in a cell—in "the kennels," as they're called—learning about all the quirks and features of the Seanchan a'dam. It would be fascinating if it weren't so gruesome and awful. The a'dam's creator (an Aes Sedai, though we hear much more about her in the books) seems to have put considerable effort into thinking of all the potential ways a damane might fight back and then programmed around them. The a'dam can't be removed by the damane. The damane cannot touch the wristband control leash, even if it's not being held by anyone. The device even prevents the damane from touching other objects that the damane perceives to be weapons—which is just downright insidious, because it turns new damane into active participants in their own breaking. Egwene cannot even pick up a water pitcher to drink, because she can't stop thinking about smashing the sul'dam's head with it. She only gets to drink water after she has convinced herself that she won't attack the Seanchan.

It's rough. It's really rough. In between the put on the glasses pour the water scenes, we get to see Egwene convulsing repeatedly as she fights with the a’dam—so much so that she ruptures blood vessels in both eyes. And this takes up about half the episode.

As you point out, though, this is an absolute cornerstone of Egwene's character. It's the honing that will shape her into—well, into what she eventually becomes. (It's not a spoiler, I don't think, to say that the POV characters of an epic fantasy series all have Important Destinies laid on them, and Egwene wouldn't be able to inhabit the role—roles, even—she ends up having to inhabit without this shaping.)

I want to spend a moment on Rand and Logain, too—if for nothing else than to call out the first on-screen image of someone playing "stones," the in-universe name for what we'd recognize as Go. Stones is a game played in Randland by intellectuals and generals, and it's a given that if you see a character playing stones, that character is supposed to be super smart and brilliant and possibly an authorial self-insert. ("Take a shot every time someone is playing stones" is almost as popular a casual WoT drinking game as "Take a shot every time Nynaeve tugs her braid" or—my personal favorite—"Take a shot every time someone says something about the Dark One's taint.")

Logain is once again brought in to teach Rand—but really, to teach us—how channeling works for men. (I hope we still get you-know-who teaching Rand later, but Logain is definitely stepping into that other fellow's shoes here.) In a nice little compact scene, the false Dragon manages to teach the true Dragon three important facts about the One Power: women "surrender" to saidar, but men "seize" saidin; if you take too much in, you'll burn yourself out; and that Rand is incredibly powerful, capable of doing "anything" and fighting "anyone."

Upon releasing the source, Rand then learns a bonus #4 fact: the Dark One's corruption suffuses saidin. The book makes it sound like channeling the corrupted male half of the power is sort of like railing ultra-heroin while simultaneously chugging down raw sewage, and when Rand releases the source, he also releases his lunch. Ew.

Yeah, I agree that parts of the season feel kind of interminable, in spite of how bloody short it is. I too could have done with maybe a bit less Moiraine-arguing-with-her-sister and also a bit less of whatever the hell it is Lan has been doing with Alanna and the Funky Bunch, but I've been pretty happy with the World of Dreams bits.

Speaking of: I want to ask a question that my wife and I both feel pretty unified on, and I'll give you my answer after I hear yours, but: when Lanfear banished Ishamael from Rand's dreams, was she really banishing him? Because it seems much more Lanfear-like for that entire bit to have simply been Lanfear conjuring and then de-conjuring an imaginary Dream Ishy. It seems like the kind of thing she'd do.

One way or another, though, Rand just can't catch a break. He finds Mat again, but rather than leaving town with Rand to escape, he chooses to heed Min's warning and stay away. Rand then decides to depart Cairhien on his own but gets stopped by Lan and Alanna. What are they going to do with him?

Our answer lies in the arrival of the Amyrlin Seat and fourteen other Aes Sedai (including several familiar faces, like Liandrin and Verin). A similar situation plays out in the novel—Rand delays leaving Shienar for too long and gets stuck having to talk to the Amyrlin, recently arrived in the Borderlands with her retinue. Here, it looks like Rand delayed leaving Cairhien for too long and is stuck having to do the exact same thing. The Amyrlin and Moraine are old schemers when it comes to the subject of the Dragon Reborn, so the plots are all twisting back together. (As they should, since next week is the season's penultimate episode.)

Your description of playing Tetris with the plots is also spot on—that feels exactly like what's happening. I like some of it, and I don't like some of it, but I don't think I'd be able to do any better as a writer if faced with the same length and episode count constraints as the show is having to operate under. If there is a villain here, it's not really the Seanchan, or the Forsaken, or even the Dark One himself—it's whatever bean counters in the programming department decided on those constraints. (There is an obvious "a'dam around the neck of the show" metaphor that I could draw here, but I won't. Though I guess I just did.) Regardless, we're reviewing the show we've been given to work with, rather than the longer show we perhaps wish we had.

I have one additional note from my wife that I need to read into the record: "Ingtar has better smoky eye than Lanfear and Egwene's sul'dam put together." No argument from me there.

Anything else from your notebook, Andrew, or have we reached the end for this week?

We'll see you back here next Friday. Until then, may you all find water and shade.