Everything happens for a reason on The Wheel of Time. In “Eyes Without Pity,” Egwene (Madeleine Madden) begins her damane training as Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe) continues to seduce Rand (Josha Stradowski).
The Sul’dam collar the damane, women who channel to control them. The damane are paired up with a woman who commands her. First they have to break them into submission. Egwene’s Sul’dam is named Renna (Xelia Mendes-Jones). Renna warns Egwene that she will hurt her as long as Egwene resists. The collar not only prevents Egwene from escaping, but also prevents her from hurting Renna. Renna starts with a simple command. Pour water into a cup. Egwene has trouble just grabbing the pitcher of water. Renna says as long as Egwene thinks of the pitcher as a weapon, she will not touch it.
Last week, Lanfear visited Rand’s dream. He is tied to a wheel and she sits in front of him. She wants him to trust her, but Rand is finding it hard to trust anyone, including Moiraine (Rosamund Pike). Lanfear says he’s repeating history by pushing away his friends. That just makes it easier for Ishamael to turn them to the dark. She says Ishamael wants to control Rand. Lanfear questions why he trusts Moiraine. She says it’s no coincidence that Rand ended up in Cairhien. Rand makes Lanfear a deal. He will trust her if she tells him where Ishamael (Fares Fares) is and what his plans are. Lanfear wants to tell him, but on one condition. Leave Moiraine.
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Rand does as she says and leaves Moiraine’s home. Moiraine is anxious to know what Rand found out, but Rand doesn’t tell her anything. Instead he asks why she moved Logain to Cairhien. Moiraine moved him there so Logain could train Rand. Rand leaves, realizing that Moiraine is trying to control the situation.
Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) and Elyane (Ceara Coveney) were able to escape the Sul’dam. Now the Sul’dam are searching throughout Falme for them. A Yellow Aes Sedai, Ryma (Nyokabi Gethaiga) and her warder Basan (Bentley Kalu) found the girls and questioned why they fled the tower. Nynaeve and Elayne tell them about Liandrin’s (Kate Fleetwood) betrayal. They realize she broke all of Aes Sedai’s oaths. That means the Black Ajah is real and the Aes Sedai are in great danger. Ryma finds a boat to transport Nynaeve and Elayne back to the Tower, but they say they won’t go without Egwene. Ryma thinks it’s important that someone tells the Amyrlin Seat about Liandrin Sedai, but the girls still decline. The Yellow Aes Sedai pulls out an a’dam and cuff. She says if they want to help Egwene, they need to figure out how to open the a’dam.
Liandrin sits her son, Aludran (Vladimír Javorský) when Lanfear arrives. She finds Liandrin a contradiction. On one hand, Liandrin hates men. But on the other hand, she will do anything to protect her son. And that makes her weak. She says this is no life for the man and kills him. Mainly because Liandrin won’t kill her son. Also because Liandrin swore her oaths to the Dark, not Ishamael. She can’t take back the oath, but there are many paths to walk through it.
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High Lady Suroth (Karima McAdams) has a party and forces Loial (Hammed Animashaun) to sing a sacred tree song. He sings, while Suroth’s guest laugh at him. A tree in the room begins to grow. Suroth sees that her guests are all listening intently. She claps to stop his singing and put the attention back onto her. She dismisses Loial and Ingtar (Gregg Chilingirian) from the room.
Ingtar discovers the horn is in the High Lord Turak’s (Daniel Francis) room of curiosities. The room isn’t guarded so he thinks they should be able to retrieve it easily. Loial is also concerned about saving Egwene, but Ingtar says she is more heavily guarded. The damane are located in a place called the kennels. Loial says no matter what happens, they will find a way to save her.
Mat (Dónal Finn) and Min (Kae Alexander) arrive in Cairhien. While she sleeps, Ishamael visits Min in her dreams. He tells her that Rand is in Cairhien. He says he will take away her curse if she makes sure that Mat leaves with Rand. Min realizes that Ishamael saw her vision of Mat killing Rand.
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Ishamael visits Rand in his dream. In the dream, all of Rand’s friends are dead. He has blood on his hands, indicating that he killed them. He knows that the men who channel can go mad and kill those they love most. Ishamael says this is what will happen. Lanfear arrives and chases Ishamael away. She realized she didn’t give Rand a reason to trust her. She gives him the gift of a dream. She says he can see and talk to anyone he wants. They transport to Egwene’s dreams. Rand calls out to her and she is too shocked to speak. He reaches out to touch Egwene’s face and Lanfear ends the dream. Rand gets upset and wants to know where Egwene is. Lanfear says Ishamael has her. Rand says he will do anything to help Egwene.
Egwene wakes up, for real this time. She hears other damanes crying in pain. Even though she knows it was a dream, she can’t shake the feeling that Rand was really there. While she pulls herself back together, she hears someone talking to her. The prisoner next door recites rules that the Damane must follow.
Alanna Sedai (Priyanka Bose) and her warders Ihvon (Emmanuel Imani) and Maksim (Taylor Napier) found the poem in Lan’s (Daniel Henney) pack. They are on the way to the Tower, but stop at Temples of the Forsaken to rest. Lan asks where the Amyrlin Seat is and Alanna says she is traveling back to the Tower as well. Later, Lan sneaks away, but is quickly discovered by the warders. Ihvon and Maksim accuse Lan of being a dark friend, sworn to Lanfear. The wards prepare to fight and Alanna stops Lan. She wants to know why he asked about the Amyrlin Seat. He says he needs to talk to her about Moiraine.He admits that they found the Dragon Reborn.
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Moiraine tries to write a letter to the Amyrlin Seat but has a hard time telling her the truth. Barthanes (Will Tudor) brings her food and she treats him badly. After he leaves, Anvaere (Lindsey Duncan) confronts Moiraine about her ungracious attitude. Moiraine is running on no sleep and acts coldly about hurting her nephew. Anvaere tells her to leave and never return. Moiraine gets upset and reminds Anvaere that she is the younger sister. Anvaere and Barthanes are in the house because of Moiraine’s good grace. Anvaere calls her cold and uncaring, just like their mother.
The Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) rides in her carriage, writing letters. She hears a commotion outside of the carriage and hears horses riding up. Her driver tells someone to halt, but they don’t slow down. Lan is one of the riders. Siuan invites him into her carriage to talk.
Rand visits Logain (Álvaro Morte) and asks him to train him in everything he used to fight the Aes Sedai. At first Logain declines, but then Rand says this is his only chance to save the world. Logain tells him to embrace the One Power. Rand channels. The One Power slowly gets more powerful until Rand falls to the ground and throws up. Rand thinks there’s not enough time to learn how to fight. Logain says with the amount of power that Rand has, he can fight anyone he wants. Rand returns to the villiage and is reunited with Mat. Mat asks about Egwene, Nynaeve and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford). Rand only says it’s complicated. They go to a tavern for a drink.
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Elayne examines the a’dam and confirms that there is no seam or latch to open the collar. Nynaeve asks how Ryma got it. Ryma says she and three other sisters arrived to investigate the rumors of strange beasts and channelers kept as slaves. They didn’t realize how bad things were until they got to Falme. They were only able to get the a’dam because of the sacrifice of their sisters. Two of Ryma’s sisters and their warders gave their lives. A third sister was captured and collared. That sister was a Sitter of the Blue Ajah. Later, Nynaeve tries to convince Elayne to return to Tar Valon. She is the Daughter Heir after all. Elayne says she’s staying because Egwene is her friend. She’s never had a real friend.
The Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) rides in her carriage, writing letters. She hears a commotion outside of the carriage and hears horses riding up. Her driver tells someone to halt, but they don’t slow down. Lan is one of the riders. Siuan invites him into her carriage to talk.
Egwene continues to try and remove the a’dam, despite Renna’s warnings. Renna says an Aes Sedai created the a’dam. She believes the Aes Sedai curve a damane’s power but the Sul’dam teach the damane to use their full power. Renna activates Egwene’s powers and says it feels better when they are connected. She demonstrates by having Egwenen concentrate on slowly setting a tree on fire. Then she tells Egwene to pour the water. Egwene still can’t touch the pitcher and Renna beats her up because of it.
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Rand fills Mat in on what happened at Far Dara. He says he left everyone behind, letting them believe he’s dead. Rand thinks everyone is safer without him around, but Mat disagrees. Rand says Ishamael has Egwene and he intends to save her. Mat wants to go with him, but first he has to say goodbye to Min.
Mat finds Min drinking alone in her room. She tells Mat not to go with Rand because he will kill his friend. Mat realizes that Min saw a vision of his future. And she set him up. He gets upset because he thought they were friends. Min says they are and that’s why she’s telling him all of this. If he loves Rand, he won’t go with him.
Moiraine sends her letter to the Amylin Seat and then apologizes to Barthanes for how she treated him. Anvaere interrupts because the Amyrlin Seat has arrived in Cairhien. And she is demanding an audience with Moiraine. Meanwhile, Liandrin is the first to approach Siuan, but she is quickly dismissed.
Rand waits for Mat by the gates of the city, but he doesn’t show. Mat is hiding in a nearby tent, contemplating what Min said. Rand starts to leave, but encounters Lan, Maksim and Ihvon. Lan apologizes, saying he can’t let Rand leave.
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Elayne and Ryma channel the One Power to find an opening to the a’dam. Ryma invites Nyneave to join them, but warns her not to use too much power. Nynaeve uses a large surge of power and says the a’dam is alive. It needs to be healed and the only way to do that is to collar a woman. There is a knock at the door and everyone panics. Ryma volunteers to meet the Seanchan, telling the girls to remain quiet. Ryma and Basan meet the Sul’dam with their damanes. There are four sets of Sul’dam around her. Ryma is able to avenge two of her sisters’ lives, but is shot by an arrow. That’s when things go south. Basan is killed and Ryma is collared.
Renna tries once more to make Egwene pick up the pitcher and pour her some water. Egwene still can’t touch it. Renna hands Egwene on a hook by the collar. The collar starts to choke her. Renna waits until Egwene is almost passed out before she removes her from the hook. Renna tells Egwene to pour the water one more time. Egwene slowly approaches the pitcher, expecting to be hit with pain. She is able to grab the pitcher and pour the water in Renna’s cup. Renna is satisfied and leaves the cell. Egwene screams and cries when the woman next door tells her not to cry. She says Egwene lasted longer that she did. And she is a Sitter of the Blue Ajah. That Sitter is Maigan (Sandy McDade).
Stream The Wheel of Time seasons 1 and 2 on Amazon Prime.
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