Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 2.
If there’s anything that The Wheel of Time has made a point to emphasize so far, it’s that it’s impossible to understand the future without looking to the past first. Season 3’s latest episode, “A Question of Crimson,” written by Kate McKenna and directed by Ciaran Donnelly, illustrates this point perfectly in its opening moments. After a “previously on…” segment that catches us up to where these characters currently are now — some are going to the Waste, some are headed home to the Two Rivers, while others are staying behind in Tar Valon — the opening scene of Episode 2 actually jumps back 20 years ago to Caemlyn, the high seat of the kingdom of Andor, where a young (and visibly pregnant) Queen Morgase Trakand (Olivia Williams) prepares to take her rightful place on the throne after a long and drawn-out succession war. At her right hand is her advisor and member of the Red Ajah, Elaida (Shohreh Aghdashloo), and given that Morgase is also met by her two sons before she ascends the dais, it’s safe to assume that at this moment, she’s pregnant with Elayne (Ceara Coveney).
Now that Morgase has defeated others who were trying to challenge her for the right to rule, all she asks in return is a show of fealty to House Trakand. As a representative from each House kneels to their new Queen, Morgase declares that they have been absolved of their past wrongdoing — and yet, in the same breath, informs the other Houses that she can’t leave the door open for one of their heirs to challenge her unborn daughter for the Lion Throne one day. As the others are brutally slaughtered, their throats slit, it’s unclear whether that bloody plan was even Morgase’s at all or something suggested by Elaida — to eliminate any potential competition.
Elayne’s Family Pays a Surprise Visit to Tar Valon in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Episode 2

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In the present day, however, the Queen of Andor is descending on Tar Valon — and even though Elayne feigns ignorance about why her mother has shown up at the White Tower, we all know she was the one who sent that letter to Morgase in the last episode. Yet Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) can’t resist making a point of leaving Morgase to wait outside the Hall for an extra minute or two before she and her entourage are properly welcomed in. There are Morgase’s older sons, Galad (Callum Kerr) and Gawyn (Luke Fetherston), as well as the queen’s consort, Lord Gaebril (Nuno Lopes), whose name the Keeper of the Hall, Leane (Jennifer Cheon Garcia), visibly stumbles over as he’s introduced. Even Siuan affords Gaebril an overly friendly greeting, but her reception of Elaida is much frostier in comparison — and when Morgase finally enters the room, she only demands to know Elayne’s whereabouts. It seems that that letter may have clued the Queen of Andor into what happened with Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood) and the Seanchan, but Siuan attempts to assuage Morgase’s motherly fury by promising that she will take her to Elayne personally.
Before Siuan can bring Elayne to her family, Elayne finds some of them first, greeting Gawyn (her brother) as well as Galad (her half-brother) and Gaebril in the quarters they’ve been assigned. Galad is quick to point out that Elayne might not have been captured if she hadn’t been so coddled back home in Andor, which Elayne sidesteps by bringing up the fact that, now that her brothers are both in Tar Valon, they can begin the proper training to become Warders. (Although she was never raised to the status of Accepted, the episode also confirms that Queen Morgase wears a serpent ring, mostly as an honorary designation, so this family clearly has a long history of allegiance with the White Tower.) However, Elayne’s brothers don’t have the heart to break the truth to her about why they’ve really come, but Morgase’s suspicions are on high alert when mother and daughter finally meet and Elayne refuses to tell her why tensions are currently so high in the Tower. In response, Morgase informs her daughter that by the following day, she’ll receive her own honorary serpent ring and return home to Caemlyn. Elayne immediately resists, begging her mother to let her stay and finish her training to become a full Aes Sedai — but Morgase asserts that Elayne’s real duty, as her only daughter, is to the throne.
When Morgase rendezvouses with Elaida, she asks her advisor to divulge any information she may have picked up about what happened in the Tower before their arrival. Elaida hasn’t learned much — apparently, Siuan has asked the remaining sisters to keep mum on the subject — but when Morgase inquires about Elayne, the Red admits that signs point to the Daughter-Heir having been kidnapped by a Darkfriend from inside the Tower itself. Between that, and Min (Kae Alexander) telling Leane and Siuan that she’s been having visions of dead Aes Sedai and their Warders — proof that the fight in the premiere was just the beginning of the blood that will be shed here — it seems that Siuan is going to have a lot more problems on her hands than what already played out in the Tower. (At least Galad and Gawyn still find the time to spar shirtless in front of a bunch of novices, am I right?)

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In terms of next steps, I have to question Siuan’s judgment a little bit here, especially because she tasks Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) and Elayne with tracking down the Black Ajah who escaped Tar Valon. Her argument is that Nynaeve and Elayne don’t fit the description of who Liandrin and her sisters expect to be sent after them — and even with Nynaeve’s block, both of them rival Liandrin in terms of power level. Per Siuan’s orders, Elayne will go through the Arches tonight to become an Accepted, and then they’ll be sent off in pursuit of the Black Ajah. While Elayne is visibly wrestling with whether to do Siuan’s bidding or obey her mother, it seems pretty obvious which one she’ll choose in the end, even before she takes a brief moment to herself to don Morgase’s crown — and share a brief drink and a chat with Gaebril. When she finally sits back down with her mother again, Elayne is much stronger in defending her position to Morgase. She can’t go back to a “cloistered life inside palace walls,” and she means to become the first Aes Sedai queen to sit on the Lion Throne — but she has to earn the right to rule first. Mother and daughter embrace, but in the morning, Morgase informs Siuan that Galad and Gawyn will be staying behind to begin their Warder training — along with Elaida.
As for where Mat (Dónal Finn) is in all this, he mostly seems salty that the White Tower novices are checking out Elayne’s brothers at every turn — and leaving his company in favor of some enthusiastic bedroom activity with them later on — so he’s not in the best mood when Min comes to fetch both him and the Horn of Valere for a meeting with Siuan. Given how they last parted ways, he’s not totally unfounded, but the two don’t really have time to hash out past betrayals when Mat has a meeting with the Amyrlin Seat to get to. Siuan’s main concern, now that Mat has been hoisting the Horn around, is that someone will kill him and take it, giving them access to its power. With very little cajoling from Siuan required, Mat surrenders the Horn into her custody — and seems somewhat despondent to the fact that he’s no real hero compared to everyone else. “Those we call heroes only did what they had to do,” Siuan points out.
Perrin Has a Complicated Homecoming in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Episode 2

Across the world, Perrin (Marcus Rutherford), Loial (Hammed Animashaun), Bain (Ragga Ragnars), and Chiad (Maja Simonsen) have elected to take a Waygate to spit themselves out closer to the Two Rivers, which definitely cuts down on their travel time. Perrin picks up on traces of another man and woman who have come through the same Waygate, but there’s no other sign of them otherwise. As the group descends into the valley between the mountains, everyone remarks on how much cleaner the air feels — but the reception they earn, as they walk into the main square, is less than warm, in part because of a patrol of Whitecloaks on horseback that suddenly comes galloping through. Yet Egwene’s mother, Marin al’Vere (Rina Mahoney), embraces Perrin affectionately even as she warns him that it’s not safe for him to be out in the open, so he needs to shelter in the Winespring Inn’s attic along with the “others” who have arrived.
Those others, you may ask? Alanna (Priyanka Bose) and her Warder, Maksim (Taylor Napier), both of whom look like they’ve seen better days. Trollocs have been attacking the land — first taking sheep, and then children — and Marin says that when the Whitecloaks showed up, they offered protection from that threat, but they also offered a ransom for Perrin for the murder of Captain Bornhald in Falme. It’s a system that isn’t going to lead to anything good, as Chiad points out, but Marin has every intention of giving the group some horses and sending them on their way. Perrin refuses to flee, however, when the clearest solution is right in front of him: he needs to turn himself in to the Whitecloaks.
The Path to the Waste Is Paved With Dreams in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 Episode 2

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Meanwhile, Aviendha (Ayoola Smart) is leading Rand (Josha Stradowski), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), and Lan (Daniel Henney) toward the Aiel Waste, and it seems that they’ve made good progress so far, but Aviendha points out that they won’t be able to make it to the Spine of the World before nightfall, since most of the group are non-Aiel (and essentially slowpokes). As Moiraine — wearing an excellent hat, I might add — gathers wood for the night, Egwene sits in silent observation of Rand and Lan practicing their swordfighting skills. But Rand’s mind is elsewhere, as Lan observes, and Moiraine catches a glimpse of fresh bruises on Egwene’s throat. Egwene insists they’re not from Rand — and technically that’s true, since she earned them from those freaky mirror versions of Rand in the previous episode — but Moiraine uses them as a way in to emphasize that the more Rand channels, the more the madness will seep in.
Their conversation is interrupted by Aviendha, who’s caught a hare for their supper and scoffs at Rand’s continuing use of a sword over other weapons. Egwene is quick to come to Rand’s defense, so Aviendha responds by emphasizing that the “wetlander” version of the prophecy about the Dragon Reborn is neat and easy in comparison to what the Aiel have long-said about their fated leader: “The Car’a’carn shall spill out the blood of those who call themselves Aiel as water on sand and break them as dried twigs, yet the remnant of a remnant the Car’a’carn shall save, and they shall live.” It’s not merely creation or destruction, like the prophecy we’ve come to know, but both wrapped up in one.
Later that night, Egwene is still having nightmares about her treatment at the hands of a long-dead Renna (Xelia Mendes-Jones), while Rand is canoodling with Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe) in his dream, back in the room they once shared in Cairhien. She stresses that it’s harder to protect him from the other Forsaken if he doesn’t loop her in on what she’s doing, but Rand is adamant that his decision to go to the Waste is the right one. As Lanfear points out that someday soon, Egwene will be able to see the darkness lurking behind Rand’s “farmboy smile,” we discover that she’s also the one who’s been torturing Egwene in her dreams, pretending to be Renna. As Egwene rips herself out of one dream and into another, she finds herself standing in a desert across from an unknown Aiel woman (Nukâka Coster-Waldau). “You do not belong here,” she says, before Egwene snaps back into the world of the waking.
Later on their journey, Moiraine directly questions Rand about why he’s even bothering to continue training with Lan — and points out that he’s going to have to channel eventually, even if he’s afraid of it, but fear isn’t the problem for Rand. The One Power, for him, is a source of water that can quench his thirst, but it’s also bitter poison when he consumes it, craving the sweetness despite the filth. “You have to embrace the bitter and the sweet,” Moiraine says, “so you never forget which is which.” As the group hikes on toward the Waste, they suddenly find themselves surrounded by a group of Aiel warriors, all with spears and bows drawn. A tall Aiel man (Björn Landberg) inspects Rand personally before turning to the woman beside him — the one Egwene encountered in her dream. “He will come from the west, beyond the Spine of the World, of the blood but not raised by the blood. He will tie us together with bonds we cannot break. He will take us back home, and he will destroy us,” she says ominously.
The first three episodes of The Wheel of Time Season 3 are now streaming on Prime Video.

The Wheel of Time

Elayne’s family arrives on the scene in Tar Valon and Perrin finds trouble in the Two Rivers in The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 2.

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

The opening flashback establishes Queen Morgase as a ruler not to be underestimated.
Sophie Okonedo gets to show off more sides of Siuan Sanche through her scenes with Nynaeve, Elayne, and Mat.
Elaida is going to be a force to be reckoned with now that she’s sticking around in the Tower.