"Wheel of Time" Episode 6 Review

by Chelsea House, GGR Chief Media Correspondent

**Warning: Spoilers**

When we ended episode 5, Nynaeve, Mat, and Rand had found each other in Tar Valon with Mat becoming more ill by the second. Egwene and Perrin had just escaped the clutches of The White Cloaks, and Moiraine and Lan were mourning not just the loss of Karene, but Stepin as well. Episode 6 starts off with a short scene about the Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche (Keira Chansa as the younger, Sophie Okonedo as the adult) in her small river village. She is forced to leave her father behind so she can learn how to channel properly and not live in fear of her abilities. This already gives us the picture of what kind of a person Siuan must be. Not only learning hard work at a young age, but having to grow up so quickly. To survive that takes a special person. “Clever as a pike. Strong as the tides.” is what her father describes her as.  

Fast forward to present day. Moiraine, Alanna, and Leandrin stand in front of the Amyrlin Seat and wait for the Amyrlin herself to come and judge the decision of gentling Logaine without a trial. Siuan, draped in her beautiful golden garbs, walks gracefully to her seat and we get a panoramic of the room as well as a first glimpse of all the colored Ajah's. Yellow, Grey, Blue, Red, Brown, White, and Green. Siuan demands that Logaine be brought before her. She asks why he’s chained – he's gentled – so he poses no threat. This causes our suddenly livelier False Dragon to start spewing poisonous words about the rumors of The Amyrlin Seat losing her power. He also brags that even though he was eventually gentled, he faced off with 9 powerful Aes Sedai, and was still able to kill Karene. Moiraine’s eyes suggest she is more bothered by his talk of armies rising willingly to take down The White Tower than his last statement. Meanwhile, the rest of the Aes Sedai show enough disgust in his words to make us feel certain Logaine has sealed his fate. Instead, Siuan shows her worthiness of the title Amyrlin by staying composed and expressing that if he is looking for a quick death, he will not find it with her. This leaves our False Dragon begging for an end while being drug away. 

Once Logaine is out of the room, Siuan begins her trial with Alanna, Leandrin, and Moiraine. Leandrin defends why she made the decision she did by saying he was the most powerful male channeler she had ever seen. Alanna backs her and so does Moiraine. Which makes it all the more confusing when Leandrin suddenly decides to throw Moiraine under the bus about hiding Nynaeve’s ability to channel and the magnitude of her power. She states that the Blue Ajah are supposed to travel the world to spy and gain intel to protect the Amyrlin and The White Tower, yet somehow Trollocs went undetected and Logaine was able to build an army without Moiraine giving any kind of warning. Siuan asks what Moiraine has been doing the two years she’s been gone and when she refuses to answer, Siuan quickly reminds her of who’s in power which ends with Moiraine kneeling face down before her. She will have a penance placed on her the following day. Yikes. 

From here Lan takes Moiraine to the room where Mat and Rand are staying. Rand seems conflicted on how he feels to see her, although lands on not pleased. When Moiraine begins to walk towards the fevered Mat, Rand grabs his sword and jumps in front of her, only to be quickly taken down by Lan. Wee lamb. He desperately yells that Mat hasn’t channeled yet, blah, blah, and Moiraine finally cures Mat of his connection to the dagger. It’s a scene that resembles something from Venom, really, and makes you want to go brush your teeth or something. Rand meets her out on the balcony and thanks her for what she did. He seems to finally understand that she’s here to help which pleases and relieves her. That is, until Nynaeve shows up and opens her mouth like she’s about to give the Aes Sedai a mouthful. The only thing is, Moiraine finally says what she’s probably been wanting to for a while, “If Wisdom is the title you claim … I suggest you start using some.” and walks away. The only thing Moiraine is missing her is a hair toss. 

Moiraine then decides to do some self-care because well... she’s had a day, and is found sitting in a steam room. Maigan (Sandy McDade) meets her there, complaining about the venue, and after a short conversation about how the world is going mad, commands Moiraine to stay stationed at The Tower. She’s obviously upset that Moiraine won’t give her any insight to her mission either. She does say she will try to speak with Siuan on her behalf since she was once a Blue. When an herb, or flower, falls from Moiraine’s towel, Maigan asks “More secrets?”. 

Our Moiraine is ever the busy bee this episode. She heads to Egwene and Perrin, who is now fully healed thanks to the Yellow Ajah. Egwene gives Moiraine the serpent rings she stole from Valdar’s tent, explains that he’s dead, and then tells the Aes Sedai about Perrin’s eyes turning yellow. Moiraine, startled by this story, tells Egwene to tell no one since that information could kill Perrin. 

Our girl has finally decided to chill, or so we think, as she’s in a night shift in front of her mirror. She looks at the picture on her wall and channels, which then teleports her to …. wait for it.... Siuan’s room! Or a secret room... or something. But Siuan is there! We quickly realize the two are lovers and that whole throne room scene was a “display”. My, my, Moiraine! Secrets indeed! Moiraine shares with Siuan that she has 5 potential dragons, with only 4 being the right age. She is exhausted from two years of searching and suggests that they bring the other sisters in on their mission. Siuan reminds her that if anyone finds out what they’re doing, they both will be stilled. (The same as gentling) She tells Moiraine that the Dark One is at The Eye of the World and he’s weak. That if they strike now, they can kill him. Moiraine resists saying that anyone who gets in the way of The Dragon and the Dark One will die. She also suggests that Siuan sentence her to exile as her punishment or she will be stuck at the tower because of Maigan. 

On to the next day! Lan and Moiraine are walking with purpose down the halls getting their thoughts and plans together until Leandrin interrupts them. She’s beginning to draw connections between the youngins found at the Two Rivers. Too bad Moiraine is not the one today and marches right up to her saying she knows about the man Leandrin meets and will rat her out to her other Red Sisters. “We both know what they’ll do to him”. She says, turning on her heel without skipping a beat and struts to the balcony to meet with Loial. She needs his help with something. 

From here – Nynaeve and Egwene get to meet Siuan, who continues to humble our poor stubborn Nynaeve. Moiraine is exiled from The White Tower in an emotional scene, especially for her and Siuan. Then our friends finally get a full reunion at a site that is called “The Ways”. Nynaeve says they all know what’s going on, but they aren’t going to follow Moiraine blindly. So, Moiraine explains that they are on their way to The Eye of the World to face off with the Dark One while he’s weak and unable to destroy the world. When Egwene asks what will happen to the ones who aren’t The Dragon, Moiraine tells the half-truth of not knowing for certain. Moiraine opens the gate. It’s dark, thundering, and eerie. They all bravely step in, or so we think, until the gates begin to close and a not so brave Mat stays behind. This ends our episode. 

This episode boasted some beautiful costuming. The vibrant colors, textures, and ornamentations were so stunning to see. There was a lavishness you got to see in The White Tower as well that made you feel like Aes Sedai lived like royalty to a degree. With the trials we were able to peel apart the hierarchy of The Tower as well. The Amyrlin, three heads of each color, and then so on and so forth. With Siuan and others reminding us that she was on a razor’s edge holding onto her Seat, too, there’s a definite push and pull for power that’s evident as well. It was also nice to have an episode follow Moiraine around. She is the most private of the characters thus far, so seeing the vulnerable side of her, as well as seeing and understanding more of her drive, was a good focus for an episode. I’m now really curious about what the next episodes will bring. The story seems to still be doing this stop and go method where it feels really lagging and then all of a sudden, we’re warped way ahead. It’s not as unsettling as it could be, but it does make one curious as to how the next two episodes will span. Hopefully they won’t try to cram a million things into the last little bit. I’m still holding a lot of my thoughts until the last minute of the last episode. Until next episode!