Season 1 Episode 2: Shadow's Waiting

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Shadow's Waiting

Season

1

Episode

2

Director

Uta Briesewitz

Previous Episode

Leavetaking

Next Episode

A Place of Safety

Author: Ilverin Matriam

Synopsis

After leaving the Two Rivers, the main characters travel east, towards the White Tower in Tar Valon. However, on the way they are forced to enter a dangerous city and later get separated.

Cast

Main Characters	Supporting Characters	Minor Characters
Rosamund Pike - Moiraine Damodred	Abdul Salis - Eamon Valda	Vilma Frantova - Yellow Aes Sedai
Daniel Henney - al'Lan Mandragoran	Stuart Graham - Geofram Bornhald	Pearce Quigley - Master Hightower, ferryman
Madeleine Madden - Egwene al'Vere
Josha Stradowski - Rand al'Thor
Marcus Rutherford - Perrin Aybara
Barney Harris - Mat Cauthon

Summary

The episode begins with a scene inside the Children of the Light’s camp, somewhere in Andor. Eamon Valda is served food, while overseeing a burning of an Aes Sedai alive. While talking to her, he collects her Great Serpent ring for his collection.

Somewhere north of the Two Rivers, Moiraine, Lan, and the Two Rivers folk are still running away from the Trollocs that continue chasing them. They reach the river Taren and they want to board the ferry which would take them across the river and out of the Two Rivers. Somewhere at the middle of crossing the river, the Trollocs and the Fade catch up to them, but since Trollocs are afraid of water, they do not immediately follow.

On the other side of the river, Lan cuts the rope that connects the ferry to both river shores, and Moiraine sinks the ferry so that the Shadowspawn do not follow them. The ferryman, master Hightower, in high desperation tries to save his ferry, but sinks along with it. However, this might only slow the Trollocs and not stop them completely.

After finding a place to rest, Moiraine Heals the horses, while the Two Rivers folk contemplate if they should trust her at all. During that night, Moiraine asks Egwene to talk, explaining that the Aes Sedai are bound by three Oaths, bound with the One Power itself, and they are not able to break them. She also tells Egwene that she can also become Aes Sedai, because she is a woman who can channel the One Power.

After talking with Moiraine, Egwene wants to go to Rand, but he pushes her away, so she sits next to Perrin by the fire. Egwene does not believe that they will ever go back home.

During the night, Rand has a very strange dream of being choked in his throat by a dead bat and then sees a menacing silhouette with eyes and mouth that look like burning embers. When he wakes up, he does see actual dead bats all over their camp side and finds out other people have also had a weird dream. Rand is very skeptical about all this and confronts Moiraine about where they are going and why. Moiraine has little patience left, so she simply rides away, but after another fight, this time between Egwene and Rand, the Two Rivers folk, follow the Aes Sedai.

On their way east, they run into a Whitecloak legion, lead by Geofram Bornhald. The Questioners are with them, and Eamon Valda asks many questions of Moiraine. In the end, she tells them that she’s been hurt by a Trolloc and the Whitecloaks decide they should follow the Shadowspawn’s trails. However, the Questioners decide to split and will instead continue south.

The group from the Two Rivers continue riding east and ride past different landscapes. At one point Mat notices that his friends are riding slumped and too consumed by their thoughts and decides to sing a song.

We walk the footsteps of our fathers
The trail blazed by our mothers
They bought the land with their blood
Long ago, Long ago
(Oh, sing) Sing of Manetheren
(Oh, weep) Weep for the blood of Aemon
(Oh, cry) Cry for Manetheren
Long ago, Long ago

The young people do not know who Manetheren is, they just know the song, but Moiraine tells them of the glory of Manetheren and their sad demise during the Trolloc Wars. The people that survived wanted to return to their destroyed home, and those are the ancestors of the people currently living in the Two Rivers.

When setting a camp for the night, Egwene wants to talk to Rand, but their relationship is not the same anymore; Perrin meets wolves in the forest. However, instead of attacking Perrin, one of the wolves licks his wound, and then they leave. During the night, the Trollocs and Fade find the group, so they need to run away. Moiraine is unconscious and Lan makes the decision to enter the fallen city of Shadar Logoth, where the Trollocs won’t follow them. Shadar Logoth destroyed itself from the inside during the Trolloc Wars and now the city is completely empty of life.

During the night, while the others are asleep, Mat gets up and follows whispering voices, until he finds a ruby hilted dagger and takes it. Outside a dark material is moving on the streets and on the buildings. It is dangerous, so the group starts running away from it, but they separate in the process – Egwene and Perrin, Rand and Mat, and Lan carries Moiraine out of the city.

Quotes

"The Light is always with you. It needs no instruction", Eamon Valda.

"We will always tell the truth. It just may not be the truth you think you hear", Moiraine Sedai.

Production

Directred by: Uta Briesewitz
Written for Television by: Amanda Kate Shuman
Aired on: November 19, 2021
Duration: 57 minutes

Trivia Bits

The name of the episode - "Shadow's Waiting" is actually also the name of chapter 19 from the first book in the series - "The Eye of the World". In that chapter, the Emond's Field folk enter Shadar Logoth, just like in the show.

In Shadar Logoth, before Mat gets woken up by whispers, we actually hear someone whistle. The same whistle was heard, being made by a character in Episode 1.

Deviation from the Books

This section contains spoilers relating to The Wheel of Time Books. Please expand to view.

Eamon Valda does not appear so early in the books, he is only mentioned. It has never been mentioned that he has ever burned an Aes Sedai, or killed as many as it's implied by the collection of rings he has in the show.
In the Eye of the World, Moiraine sinks the ferry, but the ferryman and his helpers are not harmed.
In the Eye of the World, the company goes into a town called Baerlon, where Rand and Mat have an encounter with White Cloaks and later, when they decide to leave Baerlon, Moiraine deals with the White Cloaks and reveals herself to be an Aes Sedai.
In the Eye of the World, the tail of Manetheren is a very emotional scene. It is again Moiraine who tells the story, but she actually speaks infront of many Emond's Field villagers, who want to drive her away from the village.
This early in the books, there are no direct encounters between Perrin and the wolves like the one shown in this episode.
While running away from Trollocs, the group enters Shadar Logoth, but it was under Moiraine's recommendation. The three boys go around exploring the city and are met by a strange man, who attacks them. Only after that has happened, did Moiraine tell them the story of the city and how it died. At this point, Mat had collected the dagger, but it does not get mentioned until later in the book.
The creature, that roams around Shadar Logoth, is not actually black in the books, but a silver gray mist, called Mashadar. Instead of spreading on the surfaces, Mashadar actually reaches out with tendrils of its being and kills everything it touches.
In the Eye of the World, Nynaeve is already with the group and after they get separated while running from Mashadar, she is alone for a time, but finds Lan and Moiraine and joins them in search of the rest.

Gallery

The legion of Whitecloaks appearing in Episode 2
Geofram Bornhald and Eamon Valda, the difference between the soldiers of the Whitecloaks and the Questioners
Mat while being searched by the Whitecloaks
The group riding east across a plane
The group riding while passing a broken old bridge
A close up of the group, while Moiraine tells them of Manetheren
Wolves that only Perrin meets
A wolf gets close to Perrin, but instead of attacking him, it licks his wound
The group enters Shadar Logoth
A look over Shadar Logoth while the sun is still up