Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 1.
After what feels like much too long of a wait, The Wheel of Time has finally returned for its much-anticipated third season — and things are kicking off with a bang, quite literally in this instance. While some viewers have already seen the episode, thanks to a previous tease of the opening sequence and a fan event screening hosted by Prime Video, there’s still a LOT that goes down in the premiere, “To Race the Shadow,” written by Justine Juel Gillmer and directed by Ciaran Donnelly, so why not recap all the important beats?
On the heels of a recap previously breaking down everything we need to remember from Season 2 (New Forsaken! Badass women channeling! The big battle in Falme!), Season 3 picks up back in the city of Tar Valon, where the Amyrlin Seat Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) is standing on her balcony in the White Tower, looking out over the gray and rainy day. It seems like an ominous portent of things to come — but there’s also a moment when we have to wonder if Siuan can also sense the presence of Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) standing on the street down below. Today, though, as Moiraine sternly reminds her Warder, Lan (Daniel Henney), the Aes Sedai of the Tower have more important things to worry about than the current status of their relationship — namely, the charges that have been levied against Red sister Liandrin Guirale (Kate Fleetwood).
The White Tower Descends Into Chaos in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Episode 1

Image via Prime Video

As Liandrin readies herself to enter the Great Hall, she — as well as the other members of the Red Ajah loyally flanking her — are informed that the Reds have been barred from entering, as have any men. It’s a sentiment that doesn’t sit well with Alanna’s (Priyanka Bose) Warders, Maksim (Taylor Napier) and Ihvon (Anthony Kaye), nor the members of the Red Ajah who are greeted at the entrance to the Hall by Leane (Jennifer Cheon Garcia). Whatever’s about to play out next, Siuan doesn’t want the Reds blindly jumping to Liandrin’s defense, though maybe they won’t want to back her up when the charges are ultimately revealed.
First, though, Liandrin has her own accusations to make against Siuan about secretly meeting Moiraine and Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) in Cairhien — and allowing the man who declared himself as the Dragon Reborn to escape. But Siuan deftly avoids greater debate about her actions by emphasizing that Liandrin is capable of breaking the Three Oaths she once swore to obey as an Aes Sedai because she has given herself to the Shadow, as a Darkfriend — and, unlike Liandrin, she has physical evidence of that in the form of Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins), who can testify to Liandrin kidnapping and selling her to the Seanchan last season (or attempted to, at least).
“Well,” Liandrin mutters, when the incontrovertible proof of her betrayal is produced. “I tried.” And with that, the Red begins to channel, though not before Alanna and Leane restrain her. For a moment, it seems that Liandrin is outnumbered — until she calls on her fellow members of the Black Ajah to join her, Aes Sedai who are sitting within this very Hall. The scene devolves into chaos, and channeling, and showrunner Rafe Judkins had the right of it when he referred to this scene as a group of women just “shredding each other.” Nynaeve attempts to channel to help in the fight, but can’t summon the One Power due to her block. Meanwhile, as Brown Ajah members Verin (Meera Syal), Adeleas (Nila Aalia), and Nyomi (Rachel Denning) move to protect the Tower’s most valuable magical items, including angreal and ter’angreal, Nyomi coldly reveals herself to be Black Ajah as well, knocking the other two women out — and shattering Adealeas’ mind in the process — before stealing everything in the room and “everything else [she] could carry.”
Back in the Hall, Liandrin links with the other Black Ajah to blow open the doors and escape, meeting up with her other secret allies — among them Jeaine Cadie (Olivia Popica) and Chesmal Emry (Mi Hae Lee) — but once they make it to the streets of Tar Valon, they’re confronted by Alanna and her Warders. In the heat of the fight, Maksim and Ihvon stab Liandrin and attempt to finish her off, but Liandrin’s cohorts fight them back and rapidly heal her of her wounds. As she and the other members of the Black Ajah try to flee, Liandrin directs a sword to fly towards Alanna — but Ihvon blocks it with his own body, taking a fatal wound for his Aes Sedai as Maksim and Alanna openly grieve the loss of one-third of their triad. Elsewhere in the city, two more Black sisters — Joiya (Joelle) and Amico (Zenobia Kloppers) — dispatch Siuan of the Aes Sedai protecting her and attempt to shield the Amyrlin Seat before breaking off part of a tower to fall on top of her — but Moiraine intervenes, stopping the debris from crushing Siuan, and the two share a lingering look before Moiraine turns and disappears into the streets once more. Back in the Tower, Lan finds Nynaeve among the wreckage left behind; luckily, she’s still in one piece, even if she’s been knocked unconscious.
Our Heroes Have a Not-So-Happy Reunion in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Premiere

Image via Prime Video

After a brief title card, we pick up with Nynaeve and the rest of the Emond’s Field Five — Rand, Mat (Dónal Finn), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) — hanging out in a small tavern while discussing everything that just went down in the Tower. Apparently, the only reason Egwene and Elayne (Ceara Coveney) couldn’t be called as witnesses to Liandrin’s treachery is because they’re still novices, a fact that visibly grates on Egwene. More importantly, though, the threat of the Black Ajah is a reminder that none of them are safe anymore, as Rand points out. It’s not safe to stay in Tar Valon, and besides, Moiraine wants him to go to Tear, which apparently holds a sword named Callandor, a sa’angreal powerful enough to take down a Forsaken. “Wherever we go, we do it together,” Egwene emphasizes, but the rest of the group doesn’t seem so confident about that — especially Perrin, who expresses the desire to disappear to a place where no one has ever heard of the Dragon.
This group has been cooped up on a boat for a month in traveling from Falme to Tar Valon, though, so even as Moiraine advises all of them to remain hidden, Mat suggests “one last hurrah” for himself and the boys. The Aiel — consisting of Aviendha (Ayoola Smart), Bain (Ragga Ragnars), and Chiad (Maja Simonsen)— also refuse to conceal their weapons in favor of shadowing Rand, despite his protests. Aviendha is skeptical about the possibility that Rand could be the prophesied Car’a’carn that the Aiel have been waiting for; never mind the fact that she, you know, witnessed the big fiery dragon projected over the city of Falme. Rand hasn’t faced the trial of Rhuidean yet (I’m sure book fans’ ears, including my own, perked up at that reference), and in Aviendha’s eyes, he’s just another “wetlander” who knows nothing of her people’s ways. The boys’ and girls’ respective hangouts couldn’t be more different, though; back with Nynaeve and Elayne, Egwene is struggling, admitting to the fact that she’s having nightmares most nights about her time with the Seanchan, when she was being tortured by a now-dead Renna (Xelia Mendes-Jones). Meanwhile, Perrin and Mat are trying to get deets out of Rand about who he’s been kissing apart from Egwene lately — a truth he only half-confesses to in namedropping “Selene” (Natasha O’Keeffe) — until Mat unconsciously starts speaking in the Old Tongue, something that appears to be connected to his blowing the Horn of Valere in the Season 2 finale. That said, being the Hornblower isn’t stopping him from broadcasting that status loudly and proudly, or getting his portrait drawn in the middle of town.
Meanwhile, “Selene” herself, AKA Lanfear, is slinking through the streets of Tar Valon looking impeccable as usual, but we don’t immediately learn her reason for being there until she decides to jumpscare Lan and Moiraine. Lanfear’s under no illusions that Rand will go to Tear, but she also warns Moiraine that every moment he doesn’t have Callandor is a moment one of the other Forsaken could remove him from the board. Right now, Rand’s friends are a weakness to him, and a distraction, and they need to be made to leave him behind — “to get him to do what we want,” Moiraine muses. Whether this unexpected allegiance will end in a betrayal is unclear for now, but once alone with Lan, Moiraine admits that Lanfear isn’t going to turn against them for one more night, at the very least.
Before these two women can carry out whatever plan they have in store, Moiraine finds time to eavesdrop on Siuan, who’s crashed Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne’s group hang. Egwene doesn’t love being confronted with the reality that she needs to be raised to an Accepted now or risk being barred from the Tower forever, so she agrees to Siuan’s terms on one condition: she’ll go through the Arches before night falls. We don’t see Egwene’s trial in its entirety, apart from one possible future where she (as the Amyrlin Seat), Elayne, and Nynaeve confront a version of Rand who has gone mad, leading to Egwene stumbling out of the final Arch covered in blood. But she’s earned her serpent ring, a moment Egwene barely honors before storming out. “This Tower is destroying itself from the inside out,” she snaps back, ignoring Siuan’s insistence that she remain. “My duty is to the Light, not you.”

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One Last Night of Freedom Almost Turns Deadly in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Premiere

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After Elayne sends out several letters — including one to her mother, Queen Morgase of Andor — she runs into Aviendha, who’s been shadowing her instead of Rand. The two have a moment that left me wondering if I was accurately picking up on the vibes between them before Elayne encourages Avi not to give up on Rand, especially since he’s still finding his way with the Aiel. It’s a sentiment Elayne echoes with Rand too, seeking him out after her conversation with Aviendha to emphasize that the Aiel will be worthwhile allies to him if he can seize that opportunity. We love seeing the Daughter-Heir of Andor be her most diplomatic and politically strategic self, but she also reminds Rand that, despite Aviendha’s outward scorn, the Aiel Maiden hasn’t abandoned him, either. After further reflection, Rand later informs Moiraine that he wants to return to the Two Rivers, rather than travel to Tear, but the Aes Sedai coldly paints a picture of the bodies that will no doubt stack up in his wake. There’s no such thing as a homecoming for the Dragon Reborn — not now, not ever. As for Mat, Elayne, Marcus, and Loial (Hammed Animashaun), they’re busy drinking Elayne’s homemade brew, and as Bain and Chiad challenge Mat to an Aiel game of Maiden’s Kiss, Elayne sneaks up to where Aviendha is hiding out. The two toast and share the kind of look that can only lead to one thing — Aviendha initiates their first kiss, and all Elayne can say is, “Finally.”
As the two women enjoy their last night of freedom together before Elayne has to return to the Tower, Egwene attempts to patch up Rand’s lingering wound from the Shadar Logoth dagger. When he spots her serpent ring and asks about how her trial through the Arches went, all she can say is that it was terrible. “You forget what’s real, what’s important.” Rand reaches for her, and Egwene flinches, Renna’s face flashing in her mind, but insists she wants to try to be intimate regardless. Others lie awake — Perrin wakes up from a nightmare about killing Whitecloaks, while Mat lingers downstairs, now wearing several spear cuts on his neck from playing Maiden’s Kiss, before he’s joined by Nynaeve. When she points out the fact that Mat hasn’t been sleeping lately, he admits that, ever since blowing the Horn of Valere, he has all of these new memories in his head, and when it’s too quiet he can hear them — people fighting, screaming, dying, over and over again. “Some of them speak like us, but mostly it’s in Old Tongue.” When he asks Nynaeve to heal him, she admits she’s not sure how she can, due to her block, but she wants to try. Mat begins to hallucinate that the characters on his playing cards are starting to move, while Egwene wakes up to Rand — another Rand — trying to strangle her. Perrin’s ax suddenly flies across the room and attacks him and Loial, while downstairs, an assassin with gray eyes and blackened fingers appears from the shadows and begins stabbing Nynaeve. Lan and Moiraine can hear their screams, but Moiraine discourages her Warder from immediately running to the rescue; apparently, this is all part of Lanfear’s plan to drive Rand’s friends away.
Bain and Chiad run into Perrin and Loial’s room and end up struggling with the seemingly possessed ax, while Egwene realizes that multiple versions of Rand are coming out through the room’s mirrors — but when he reaches for the One Power to destroy them all, he can’t seem to let go of it at first, embracing the temptation of saidin until Egwene finally gets through to him. Downstairs, Nynaeve struggles to shove her attacker off of her, but Mat, seemingly entranced by his playing cards, can’t hear her cries. When she finally calls out for Lan, he jumps into action, grabbing his Malkieri blade and stabbing the assailant. It’s enough to snap Mat out of his trance, and Moiraine quickly uses her power to heal Nynaeve’s injuries, but Lan, who clearly didn’t agree to things going this far, is out for blood when the two covertly meet with Lanfear later. The mirrors, playing cards, and ax were all the Forsaken’s doing, but she insists she had nothing to do with the black-fingered assassin — a Gray Man. There’s only one member of the Forsaken who can create them: Moghedien (Laia Costa), and we see what her exact recruitment process involves in the closing minutes of the episode.
Even if Lanfear and Moiraine’s plan ended up somewhat out of their control, the attack has had the intended effect on Rand and his friends. Nynaeve insists she needs to stay in Tar Valon to figure out what’s causing her block, or she’ll be no help to anyone, and Mat also decides to stay, since he needs to get to the bottom of what the heck is going on in his head. Perrin decides that, once and for all, he’s going back to the Two Rivers. “It’s not the last time we’ll see each other,” Rand promises, but it’s a sentiment that only carries so much weight when none of them seem to fully believe it. Egwene insists that she’ll follow Rand wherever he goes, but she still flinches a little when he reaches out to touch her. Loial is all for tagging along with Perrin, and Bain and Chiad decide to follow the Ogier since he saved their lives from that possessed ax.
Privately, Lan gives Nynaeve his mother’s ring before they part ways — “I would want no other woman as my queen, Nynaeve, in any life we might have lived.” It feels like as much of a marriage proposal as he can offer her, at least for now. Hugs are exchanged between friends and loved ones, and Mat has to get in one more parting joke about the White Tower’s phallic resemblance, but after that, Rand reveals to Egwene, Aviendha, Moiraine, and Lan that they’re not going to Tear — they’re going to “the last place the Forsaken or anyone else would ever think to look for [him],” to find the army he needs to fight the Shadow. Guess we’re heading to the Aiel Waste in Episode 2!
The first three episodes of The Wheel of Time Season 3 are now streaming on Prime Video.

The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time Season 3 kicks off with a bang, literally, as the White Tower battles itself from within and our heroes are forced to split up once more.

Release Date

November 18, 2021

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Rafe Judkins

Directors

Sanaa Hamri, Ciaran Donnelly, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Thomas Napper, Maja Vrvilo, Wayne Che Yip

Pros & Cons

It’s good to see our heroes all reunited again, even if it doesn’t last.
The White Tower sequence is a glorious 15 minutes of heart-stopping action.