The Wheel of Time (2021): To Race the Shadow - S03E01 - RECAP

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It took them quite some time but finally The Wheel of Time has returned with its third season after season 2 ended in October 2023, the premiere episode "To Race the Shadow" certainly doesn't hold back on the action or drama. I've been looking forward to this season for quite some time especially after how the second season wrapped up with that intense battle at Falme and Rand being revealed as the Dragon Reborn, you would expect him to be more in control same as for others but doesn't seem the case. The show has definitely been building up to something big and this episode kicks things off with a literal bang as chaos blows up in the White Tower right from the start. While I know many fans who have read the books have an issue with how the show has adapted the source material. In my case as someone who hasn't read the books; not a reader here, I found the first episode to be a solid return that sets up what looks to be an exciting season ahead, even if some aspects are starting to feel a bit repetitive.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7462410/
• Platform: Prime Video

Source The episode wastes no time pumping some dopamine into your brain, opening with a tense scene at the White Tower in Tar Valon where the Amyrlin Seat stands on her balcony looking out over a gray, rainy day that looks like the silence before the storm. Meanwhile, Moiraine and Lan are down in the streets knowing that something drastic is about to happen, with Moiraine reminding her Warder that they have more important things to deal with than their relationship issues, specifically the charges against Liandrin Guirale who at first insist or try to disguise everyone in the hall but Amyrlin Seat knows and has confirm she is a dark friend and has brought her to the Hall to be judge and sentence.

The trial quickly transform into something that drastically sets the tone for the rest of the season and basically split the Aes Sedai, forcing Siuan; the Amyrlin Seat, to turn everyone in the tower into a suspect, she now has doubts of everyone in the Tower and is going full black ops on the rest of the Aes Sedai, she basically turn Nyanaeve and Elayne into her personal spies and its funny because latter on there is a scene where Egwene goes through the arches to be accepted as an Aes Sedai and she has this vision where she is the Amyrlin Seat, with her Nyanaeve and Elayne probably the next two in command after Egwene, just some speculation.

Source Source Liandrin and Siuan go back and forward for a few minutes accusing each other, funny both saying the truth in their own way trying to generate some advantage on their own favor but things quickly escalate when Liandrin felt cornered once Nyanaeve was call as a witness by the Amyrlin Seat. Chaos explodes, the White Tower was way more than inflitrated, it was not just Liandrin but also other sisters from almost every other Ajah, the yellow, the green, the reds, seem like they develop as cells with very little communication with each other reason why no body saw it coming, Siuan must have though it was just Liandrin and the reds. In another part of the Tower, Brown Ajah member Nyomi reveals herself to be Black Ajah as well, betraying Verin and Adeleas to steal powerful magical artifacts. Everything that goes into this episodes says "Nowhere is Safe", reason why Brand and his friends decided to get out of there but eventually end up splitting again, something that is becoming boring at this moment, they couldnt stay together for a single episode.

I have to say, I'm really enjoying how the series is trying to expand its world and raise the stakes with each season but I'm not so sure if this is all recycle content trying to setup multiple story lines that will presumably play out over the course of the season, the Forsaken will should play a bigger role on season three but so far episode one feels just the same. The revelation of the Black Ajah infiltrating the Aes Sedai makes things more complex on the political landscape of the series, this kind of internal conflict is always more interesting to me than a straightforward good versus evil narrative with something in between, we can say a grey power since Liandrin is not fully evil but just seeking revenge for her own pleasure rather than participating into the war that is brewing to control Rand. Some of my frustrations with certain aspects of the show that continue to be issues in this first episode, all the fight scenes are great but look like smoke, it's getting a bit tiresome watching Rand and Nynaeve still struggling with their abilities to channel their power.

Source Source We are now three seasons in and it feels like there should be more progress on this, it goes for most since Nynaeve and Elayne its the same. Rand's inability to fully control his powers and Nynaeve's block that prevents her from channeling; unless she's angry, are plot points that worked well initially but are starting to feel like artificial ways to keep these characters from becoming too powerful too quickly, I get they trying not to burn this characters too quickly but I hope this changes soon. I understand the need for character growth and development but at a certain point it becomes frustrating to watch characters face the same obstacles over and over again without significant progress.

The episode ends with a chilling scene showing Moghedien torturing Jaichim Carridin and transforming him into a Gray Man, revealing that she was behind the assassination attempt that happen during the episode, something both Selene and Moiraine never saw coming and now setting Moghedien up as a major villain for the season, it seems on previous life she was always underestimated and things are about to "change. This final scene effectively shows the threat level of the Forsaken and I think despite most of the episode been a smoke curtain things might escalate and change with time because something that starts to build up is how Aes Sedai still want to cage Rand, the Forsaken want to use him as a tool of destruction but then there is this in the middle situation with Aviendha who says the Car'a'carn (Chief of chiefs) is here to destroy their people before he could lead them, so its interesting how there are this three different agendas playing out at the same time.

I know this series gets a lot of criticism from book readers for its deviations from the source material, and I can understand their frustration, when you love a book series as much as many people love The Wheel of Time, it's natural to want to see it adapted faithfully. Overall from the point of view that this is just another fantasy based TV series, I'm really enjoying it even with my own frustrations as I explain above but I would still give this episode an 8/10 because of the world they have created, the details and imagination within, and lastly the action scenes on this first episode are incredible. I'm definitely not a fan of series that release all episodes at once but watching three episodes; each one hour episode, in a single night was a blast.

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