This was a great episode. Zoë (the actress playing Nynaeve) did a great job. She had me crying at the end when she lost her daughter. UNO’s death was so brutal I always look away on replays.
I'm pretty sure that the first part with Rand and Selene is a dream before he wakes up. And Lady Suroth just gets one or more of her numerous servants to do anything that would be awkward with long nails.
He’s not the Dark One. In S2 E1 he says he’s one of the Forsaken. In S1 E5 they talked about the Forsaken. “Powerful people who sold their souls for eternal life”. Also Moiraine says “I think we set his most powerful lieutenant free”
Mat's arc is different from the books due to the unplanned leaving of the actor, but I'm really happy with the new one they've developed for him. He's getting torn down, becoming convinced he's just an awful person who can only bring harm and sadness to his loved ones. I think in a way it's a pretty relatable situation that a lot of us have been through (or are going through) where we don't really realize how good we are/can be. But yeah, it's still frustrating to see him turn away from Egwene. As for the brilliance of Nynaeve, and Zoe's acting, I can't even comment. It's indescribably sad. She "lived" in the arch for years...ugh Suffice it to say her ability to channel in there was a great example that the Aes Sedai (and everyone on WoT) don't know everything. Jordan is a master at writing characters who speak truth based on what they believe to be true but they don't always know. Aes Sedai are super powerful but their hubris is definitely a problem. They don't even know how much has been lost since the breaking. It's one of the things that make the Foresaken really dangerous, they know things the Aes Sedai can't even dream of.
As a mother, I absolutely could NOT with Nynaeve's scream at the end. That broke me. Glacier is clearly not heartless, though. He just deals with it through humor as a defense mechanism. I bet he's a big softie on the inside. As for what happens in the arches, nobody knows if it's real or not. Aes Sedai did extensive research by sending women in, and a lot of Aes Sedai died studying them. That's how they found out that anyone who entered the arches had to go in unprotected and "unaware" that it wasn't entirely real. That's the reason that women "can't" channel in the arches. They simply don't remember that it's possible. So was it real? No idea. But to Nynaeve, it felt real. She spent years in there building a life only to have it all ripped away from her and that's pretty darn traumatic. Regarding Rand and the corruption on the male half of the source, the Dragon isn't exempt from the madness. In the books, it's described as oil on water. The power itself is the water and is pure, but you have to reach through the corruption to get to it, and even after you let go of the power, the corruption sticks to you. It causes not only madness, but physical symptoms as well, like they're rotting from the inside out. Regarding Rand burning down the inn (was it even an inn? idk) the scene with Selene at him getting all hot and heavy and him channeling was a dream. But he woke up, essentially channeling in his sleep because channelers can't just STOP channeling. No matter how hard they try, the power will come out of them one way or another. So yeah, he burned it down, but it was half in his sleep.
Oil and water- that makes so much sense! Thanks for all the details and insight, and for watching! Glacier is a bug softie, and I swear he acts like a heartless butthead just to annoy me cuz I'm so sensitive. I don't have kids but I could feel how awful that was for her to go thru, whether real or not, it felt real, and the mind is powerful enough to make you feel it is real, so yeah, she has to be traumatized from it. -Phoenix
