Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 7.
While several episodes of The Wheel of Time thus far have spanned across a variety of locales — the Aiel Waste, Tanchico, and all the drama going down in the White Tower — this week’s episode of Season 3, “Goldeneyes,” written by Dave Hill and directed by Ciaran Donnelly, takes place entirely in the Two Rivers. It’s a bold move for a show that has only gotten bolder since it started off the season with an absolute shredder of an opening sequence. Then again, given that this is also the season that gave us the glass columns in Rhuidean, maybe it should come as no surprise that an installment solely focused on an emotional, bloody battle would find plenty of ways to deliver emotional gut punches along the way — and just think, we haven’t even gotten to the finale yet!
The Two Rivers Prepares for War in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Episode 7

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In the time since Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) first returned to the Two Rivers with new friends in tow, the village where he grew up has transformed into a fortress, with its people hard at work training in how to defend themselves. As for Perrin himself, he’s not exactly comfortable with anyone referring to him as an authority figure — even if a name like “Lord Goldeneyes” happens to be delivered in jest. When the warning bell suddenly sounds, everyone automatically runs to the fence, spears drawn, but Perrin immediately recognizes the new arrivals as members of the Tuatha’an. Among them are Aram (Daryl McCormack) and Ila (Maria Doyle Kennedy), whom Perrin last encountered back in Season 1, when he and Egwene (Madeleine Madden) crossed paths with their traveling caravan. The Tuatha’an have looked a little better than they do now, and that’s because their wagons encountered a group of trollocs less than a few miles outside the Two Rivers — the same trollocs that Faile (Isabella Bucceri), Bain (Ragga Ragnars), and Chiad (Maja Simonsen) discovered while patrolling nearer to the Waygate. Their concerned looks tell Perrin everything he needs to know: “They’ll come for us tonight.”
Things between Aram and Ila are tense as everyone sits down to share a meal, and, in the wake of the show’s Rhuidean episode, it’s interesting that the Tuatha’an’s lasting dedication to the Way of the Leaf is still a source of conflict for some of their own. Aram is clearly chafing under the restrictions of passivity, especially now that he’s surrounded by the trappings of war. Meanwhile, Alanna (Priyanka Bose) is hard at work training Bode (Litiana Biutanaseva) and Eldrin Cauthon (Lilibet Biutanaseva) to tap into their strength with the One Power, but all the girls want to learn how to do is throw fireballs. Realistically, given the time crunch, all they’ll be able to do is link with Alanna and strengthen her power, much like Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) and Egwene did in Fal Dara. When Alanna notices the Two Rivers’ new Wisdom watching her, she realizes the older woman also has the ability to channel. It seems the old blood of Manetheren does run strong in these mountains, a fact that she’s not too proud to gloat to her Warder Maksim (Taylor Napier) about.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Perrin has a plan of his own, at least when it comes to gathering more men for the Two Rivers’ cause, but it doesn’t mean he has to be happy about it. Teaming up with the Whitecloaks is an idea that Faile isn’t thrilled about either, by the looks of her, especially since their leader, Dain Bornhald (Jay Duffy), never seems to be far from his flask — not to mention the part where he’s still actively trying to arrest Perrin for murder. With dozens of refugees descending on both the Two Rivers and the Whitecloak camp, that spells hundreds of trollocs to deal with, but Dain isn’t all that eager to join forces with the man who murdered his father. As long as they’re talking spilled blood, Perrin can’t resist getting in a mention of Natti Cauthon (Juliet Howland), who wasn’t even a channeler and yet died in Dain’s custody nonetheless. It’s just become a cycle of grief and death now, with no signs of stopping. Yet Perrin acknowledges there’s no reason for Dain and the Whitecloaks to fight on behalf of the Two Rivers, apart from it simply being the right thing to do —so he decides to sweeten the pot a little more, out of Faile’s earshot. “You help us, and I’ll go with you when the battle’s done, to face your Light’s justice.” Dain isn’t inclined to believe anything Perrin promises, so it seems that for now, the people of the Two Rivers are on their own.
It’s the Night Before the Battle in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Episode 7

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Although Alanna and Maksim have consistently been at odds with each other since the death of Alanna’s other Warder and their lover, Ihvon (Anthony Kaye), this week sees them slowly starting to let go of all those complicated emotions in favor of building something new. As Alanna points out, she could turn off their bond until the battle starts, giving Maksim a few more hours of peace without her in his head, but if this is going to be their last night alive, Maksim admits he doesn’t want to miss a single minute of her. Of course, he also can’t resist torturing her with one of her favorite things — a date — by eating it directly in front of her and asking if she can feel it through their bond, to which Alanna simply shoves him up against a wall and decides to earn a taste herself by kissing him. It’s a lovely and surprisingly poignant scene, as Aes Sedai and Warder physically reconnect on an intimate level and figure out how they can fit together as a twosome.
Meanwhile, Perrin and Faile’s conversation takes a more emotional turn after she finds him at the blacksmith’s forge. Initially, he questions why she’s sticking around when a fight like this isn’t something she needs to put herself on the line for. When Faile tries to brush off Perrin’s concern about her by saying she simply believes in lost causes, Perrin grabs her hand and admits he doesn’t want to watch her die before urging her to leave while she still can. Faile, to her credit, doesn’t believe that she’ll suffer the same fate as Laila (Helena Westerman), a name that still makes Perrin’s hackles rise, especially when Faile goes as far as to graphically describe the circumstances of his late wife’s death. The (former?) Hunter of the Horn has a point, though; Perrin is so worried about something happening to Faile that he’s not respecting her choice to stay and fight.

7:20

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Rutherford also talks about the experience of working with Isabella Bucceri, who joins ‘The Wheel of Time’ this season as Faile.

As far as keeping the trollocs out is concerned, the overall plan doesn’t need to change, especially since they refuse to cross water and only have access to a small mountain path as a result. If forced to retreat, Perrin says, they’ll be able to hold the trollocs at the Two Rivers’ gate, and then again in the square, and then at the Winespring Inn as a last resort. The Tuatha’an are tasked with leading the village’s children through a secret tunnel into the mountains, in case the battle seems lost. Loial (Hammed Animashaun) volunteers to permanently close the Waygate outside of the Two Rivers; otherwise, the trollocs will be able to call in reinforcements. Perrin doesn’t love the idea, but relents when Bain and Chiad agree to accompany the ogier on his mission. As the people of the Two Rivers assemble with longbows and swords and spears at the mountain pass, Perrin rallies them with a song — the same one that the Emond’s Field Five once sang while leaving their home for the first time:

We walk the footsteps of our fathers, the trails blazed by our mothers

They bought the land with their blood, long ago, long ago

Sing of Manetheren

Weep for the blood of Aemon

Cry for Manetheren, long ago, long ago

Perrin Gives Everything for the Two Rivers in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Episode 7

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Before the song even finishes, the roars of the trollocs, and the Darkfriends accompanying them, break through, and the battle is officially on. As Maksim directs the archers in firing rounds of arrows, it’s enough to initially give their enemies pause, until they start shooting arrows of their own. From a mountaintop looking over the battle, Alanna links with the Cauthon girls and the Two Rivers’ Wisdom; it’s not fireballs that she unleashes from the sky, or even lightning like Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) did in Season 1, but hail — daggers of ice plunging from the sky and taking out more than a few trollocs and Darkfriends with it. At first, the rest seem to be retreating, but Perrin isn’t convinced they’re safe yet, so he and Faile head back to the village while Maksim stays behind. The trollocs’ organized tactical maneuvers have been suspicious enough for Perrin to reach an unsettling conclusion: they’re being controlled by someone else. It’s a realization that comes too late, as trollocs pour into the Two Rivers from the mountains behind the inn — and Alanna takes a spear to the chest in the process, with Maksim bowled over by the severity of her injury. This is now an attack on two fronts, and Maksim and the archers can’t keep the mountain pass from being overrun while Alanna is out of commission, especially since Bode and Eldrin are trying and failing to heal her on their own power.
While the arrival of the Whitecloaks initially seems like a sign of Dain going back on his word — in a good way — the moment quickly sours when Perrin recognizes Padan Fain (Johann Myers) among their ranks. The Darkfriend and his cohorts have infiltrated the Children of the Light, and now they’ve all ridden right into the heart of the Two Rivers’ main square. Now, Perrin and Dain really will be forced to work together, and not in the way that either of them could have predicted. With so many threats now inside the walls, everyone — including the Women’s Circle — is forced to fight for their lives, but the longer the battle goes on, and the more people who fall, the more Perrin questions whether all hope is lost, and whether he has truly failed his home. It’s Faile who rallies him with words he needs to hear: “What would you give for the Two Rivers?” “Everything,” Perrin vows. “Then show them,” Faile urges — and with that, Perrin picks up his blacksmith’s hammer as well as his axe, dual-wielding the weapons before throwing himself into the fray with a ferocity he’s long denied himself, and all in the name of protecting his people.
Meanwhile, Loial, Bain, and Chiad advance on the Waygate, and waste no time dispatching the Darkfriends who have been left behind to guard it. Yet Loial’s admission that the Waygate can only be permanently closed from the inside gives his previous farewell to Perrin new weight, especially once he asks the Maidens of the Spear to guard his back while he ventures through the doors. At first, Loial attempts to use his hammer to destroy the Waygate itself, but meets resistance every time he swings, and with more trollocs advancing every minute, he makes a fateful decision to destroy the bridge instead. As each blow lands, the bridge begins to crumble until it breaks away, not just beneath the Waygate, but Loial himself. The ogier meets his fate with a defiant roar, making a heroic sacrifice to save the Two Rivers in the end.
When the Sun Rises, Everything Changes in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Episode 7

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There’s a lot to come to terms with as the battle winds down. When Perrin realizes that Padan Fain is controlling the trollocs, he holds the Darkfriend at the business end of his axe — but offers him mercy, despite Faile insisting otherwise, if he and his army ultimately retreat. It’s even more chilling to learn that the only reason the Two Rivers was attacked in the first place was so the Dark One could stick it to Rand. As for the survivors, not only has Aram betrayed the Way of the Leaf, killing a trolloc in order to protect an innocent life, in a moment that hearkens back to the Aiel ancestor Rand (Josha Stradowski) glimpsed inside Rhuidean, but he also knows he can never be a Tuatha’an again. On the other hand, the Two Rivers do need a new blacksmith, as Egwene’s mother points out. The Cauthon girls are able to heal Alanna for the second time after unleashing a fire of vengeance against Eamon Valda (Abdul Salis) for the murder of their mother, and there are many others still standing as Padan Fain’s army finally retreats.
When it comes time to mourn Loial, the ogier is immortalized through his own words; Faile points out that he must not have known he was coming back, since he’s left his book behind. Perrin tearfully flips through the pages, lingering on an excerpt about himself — “a man who took that role not because he wanted to lead, but because his people wanted to follow.” On his way out of the Winespring, Perrin is confronted by Dain, who insists on taking him into custody. Faile, naturally, is ready to fight anyone on Perrin’s behalf, but he bids her to keep her knives at bay and willingly offers himself up to the Whitecloak — because it’s the right thing to do. He may have had hammer and axe in hand last night, but right now he’s going to stop fighting: “Violence never ends until someone says ‘enough.'” As Perrin walks away, shackled and walking behind Dain and the Whitecloaks towards an unknown fate, the people of the Two Rivers begin their own rallying cry, one he doesn’t dismiss this time: “Hail, Perrin Goldeneyes, Lord of the Two Rivers!”
New episodes of The Wheel of Time Season 3 premiere Thursdays on Prime Video.

The Wheel of Time

Perrin fights to protect his home in the Two Rivers, but not without some significant losses along the way.

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

Marcus Rutherford delivers his best performance so far.
Hammer and axe!!!
The battle sequences in this episode are incredibly epic and well-choreographed.
Alanna and Maksim’s love scene is emotional on a number of levels.

I may never forgive this show for killing off Loial.