Summary
The season premiere starts five months after the season one finale. Moiraine and Lan are on icy terms, Egwene and Nynaeve are training at the White Tower as novices, while Perrin is on a quest to locate the Horn of Valere.
We recap the Prime Video series The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 1, “A Taste of Solitude,” which contains spoilers.
The season premiere starts five months after the season one finale. Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) and Lan (Daniel Henney) are on icy terms, Egwene (Madeleine Madden) and Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) are training at the White Tower as novices, while Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) is on a quest to locate the Horn of Valere.
There’s still no sign of Rand (Josha Stradowski), who went into hiding after his confrontation with The Dark One (Fares Fares), and Mat (Barney Harris) seems to be in a bit of a bind.
The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 1 Recap
Season two starts with a surprisingly touching yet terrifying scene. In a meeting with some of his Dark Friends, The Dark One expresses hope to eventually find Rand, aka The Dragon, and convince him to join his side.
But the Dark One is not all bad. He likes to think of himself as misunderstood. When a little girl (the daughter of one of his associates) bursts into the meeting because she saw Trollocs, and they scared her, the charismatic villain explains that the monsters are also misunderstood.
They may be scary, but they’re just overgrown, affectionate pets.
Where is Moiraine?
Aes Sedai Moiraine, now powerless and still banished, is living a simple yet miserable life in the mountains with her Warder Lan at an Inn run by two sisters, Verin and Adeleas.
Despite her troubles, she’s still as frustratingly secretive as ever and keeps seeing mysterious visitors but fails to tell her loyal Warder what she’s up to.
Where are Egwene and Nynaeve?
Having a better time than Moiraine, Egwene and Wisdom Nynaeve start season 2 at the White Tower as novices training to become Aes Sedai. And just in case the nature of the relationship between Alanna and her two Warders was left in any way ambiguous last season, this episode clears it all out; the three of them are romantically involved.
The girls have been novices for five months, but neither managed to channel the One Power since they helped flatten an army of Trollocs at Fal Dara. Ever stubborn, Nynaeve chooses to drink grim mop water instead of trying to learn how to channel from Alanna.
Because Alanna is failing at getting through to Nynaeve, Liandrin talks the Aes Sedai mentor into allowing her to talk to the young wisdom. After all, there’s a huge battle on the horizon, and the Aes Sedai need Nynaeve and her immense strength.
Perrin, along with some Fal Dara survivors, including Uno and the Ogier Loial, is on a quest to find the Horn of Valere, which was stolen by Darkfriend Padan Fain. On the way, they find a trail of bodies left by the Trollocs.
To Perrin’s dismay, the dead were a group of Tinkers, meaning the poor souls didn’t even try to fight back.
While Moraine is negotiating the purchase of an unbreakable Heartstone, Lan is missing the magical bond they used to share. The stone Moraine is trying to buy was found covered in a poem written in blood in the old tongue.
What did Moiraine buy from the seaman?
Moraine negotiates down for the poem and lets the man take the stone back, as she only wanted the poem all along. Before leaving, the seaman reveals he’s been followed by Fades.
After getting a pep talk from Alanna’s two Warders, Nynaeve tries to work on channeling but is rudely interrupted by Liandrin and her rather unorthodox training methods.
Tired of constantly being dismissed by Moiraine, Lan finally confronts her, and it goes as well as you might expect. He does, however, put his foot down for once and refuses to cook or serve her dinner, but his resolve doesn’t last long.
Where is Mat?
Nynaeve and Egwene spend a touching scene reading a letter they received from Perrin. Also reading the letter is Liandrin, who is keeping poor Mat prisoner at the White Tower and intentionally working on destroying any shred of confidence the poor boy has.
We get a small glimpse of Rand, alive and in hiding. Yet his location remains a secret for now.
The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 1 Ending Explained
While poor Lan hopes to reconcile with Moiraine by bringing her dinner, she gets on her horse and tries fleeing.
She doesn’t make it far before running into a Fade, who had followed the seaman straight to her location. Moiraine kills one of the evil creatures and is injured by a second.
How do Moiraine and Lan survive the Fade attack?
Luckily, Lan jumps in right in time to protect her, getting severely injured himself during the fight. When it all seems hopeless, the two are saved at the very last minute by Verin and Adeleas, as both women can channel.
The episode ends with an injured Lan angrily demanding to know what Moiraine is hiding.
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