Wheel of Time Season 2 Review
Fast, witty, and honoring the source material, The Wheel of Time Season 2 solidifies the show as the best fantasy that modern television and streaming has to offer… can the show finish as strong as it has started?
Fast, witty, and honoring the source material, The Wheel of Time Season 2 solidifies the show as the best fantasy that modern television and streaming has to offer. However, its deviations from the source material, though mostly understandable, make for an underwhelming, in some ways even anticlimactic, finale that leaves us with a burning question: can the show finish as strong as it has started?
When presented with a brilliantly written and executed adaptation of a well-known and beloved book series that also takes an abundance of liberties from the source material, the only way to properly give a critique is by viewing the material through two separate lenses. One lens represents long-standing fans of the series. The other is through the lens of newcomers to the Randlands.
Though certain principles of the critique will bridge the two points of view, it is best that we begin with the latter to avoid any unnecessary spoilers for those who have not yet (and maybe never will) read the books before moving into our analysis of the liberties taken by the writers and developers of the show in a different article you can find here.
Season two of The Wheel of Time has taken the show from an intriguing start in season one to being the reigning authority for current fantasy television and streaming. From the new locations like Cairhien and Falme to the revisiting of old ones like the White Tower in Tar Volon, the show continues to paint a bright and vivid world that is even more fully fleshed out, at least in its smaller, more intimate cultural details, than the book ever provided. Though major plot points like Daes Dae’Mar are mostly omitted, they are alluded to in fun and unique ways (like the titling of episode seven) that give a subtle nod to fans of the book while intriguing the newcomers alike.
Rand’s navigation of Logaine’s madness and his new relationship with Lanfear-in-disguise, Moraine’s conflict with her mission and her desire to save Lan from as much pain as she can manage, Perrin’s journey to Falme as he hunts the Horn of Elir and makes new friends and enemies, and the introduction of Elayne Trakand, daughter-heir of Andor, to the White tower as we witness Nynaeve and Egwayne’s struggle with their new positions as novices are where we start the season, promising a ride of intricate, overlapping plots that bleed with consequence that sends ripples across the Randlands and, though complex as a weave of the One Power, create a satisfying, exciting, and cohesive story - until the season finale.
At the end of the season, when all roads lead to Rome - I mean Falme - we are given some of the most satisfying and most disappointing sequences of the show thus far in seemingly equal measure.
Throughout the season, we’re subtly promised a scene of Rand sword fighting against someone as he’s been asking about, and training in swordplay forms since we meet him at the top of the season. This sword-combat-focused adversary is Turok, the leader of the Seanchan invasion, a wielder of his own Heron-marked blade!
Except, that promised conflict never happens. Not only does it never happen, but the scene is actually set up and then dropped harder than Uno’s face on a Seanchan execution spike. At nearly the same time, Matt fashions a spear out of the very-bad-evil-bad dagger that Padan Thein has been holding onto since the end of last season and then manages to blow the Horn of Valere (that Padan Thein also stole at the end of last season - I mean seriously. The dude’s a problem) and is revealed to be the only living member of the cast that is also a Hero of the Horn. Cool! Except this makes relatively no sense to anyone who hasn’t read the book because they didn’t take the time to set up this reveal.
After Egwene breaks her captivity, turning the tables on her Seanchan captor Renna, and Perrin kills the Lord Commander of the Children of the Light (say that five times fast), both events well developed with a satisfying payoff and allusions to what will come in the future, the team reunites atop The Watcher (the tallest tower in Falme) where Rand is supposed to proclaim himself as the Dragon Reborn across the sky in banners of Fire.
Except he doesn’t.
Look, I’m all for the subversion of expectation when it comes to prophesy, but claiming a person is going to proclaim themselves and then have someone else (looking at you, Moraine) proclaim them instead seems like a pretty major plot hole, especially when a more than adequate solution was given to you in the books. In fact, that solution would have been vastly preferred! But we’ll leave our book comparisons for a different article.
Ultimately, season 2 of The Wheel of Time improved marginally where the first season left us wanting, including how they took most of their liberties in the progression of the story. However, this improvement was not enough to say that The Wheel of Time as a series has reached maturity. There are still some lessons that must be learned for the series to fully hit its stride and take its place as the best fantasy adaptation since The Lord of the Rings. If the writers fail to learn, we will be left with something still marginally better than the heap of trash that was Rings of Power (not even deserving my viewership past the second episode, much less its own review). If they learn, however, and do better, this show still has its best seasons ahead of it; and that is truly something to be excited for.
If you’re interested in a comparison of this season with its book counterpart The Great Hunt be sure to check out my other article here. Warning: series spoilers in abundance.
