Season 1 Episode 3: A Place of Safety

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A Place of Safety

Season

1

Episode

3

Director

Wayne Yip

Previous Episode

Shadow's Waiting

Next Episode

The Dragon Reborn

Author: Ilverin Matriam

Synopsis

After the group had split up in the previous episode, Nynaeve finds Lan and Moiraine and tries to heal the Aes Sedai's wound; Rand and Mat reach a small Andoran town, where they are chased by a Darkfriend; and Perrin and Egwene meet the Traveling People.

Cast

Main Characters	Supporting Characters	Minor Characters
Rosamund Pike - Moiraine Damodred	Izuka Hoyle - Dana	Kate Fleetwood - Liandrin Guirale
Daniel Henney - al'Lan Mandragoran	Alexandre Willaume - Thom Merrilin	Priyanka Bose - Alanna Mosvani
Zoë Robins - Nynaeve al'Meara	Daryl McCormack - Aram	Alvaro Morte - Logain Ablar
Madeleine Madden - Egwene al'Vere	Maria Doyle Kennedy - Ila	Clare Perkins - Kerene Nagashi
Josha Stradowski - Rand al'Thor	Narinder Samra - Raen	Peter Franzen - Stepin
Marcus Rutherford - Perrin Aybara
Barney Harris - Mat Cauthon

Summary

The episode starts with slowly waking up from unconsciousness Nynaeve, being dragged by the hair by a Trolloc after the events on Winter’s night. The Trolloc that’s dragging Nynaeve sees another wounded Trolloc and kills it for food, which leaves some time for Nynaeve to escape. She runs through the forest and enters the Women’s circle and ceremonial pool. The Trolloc has followed her and also enters the waters of the pool. Nynaeve kills it with its own blade and then escapes the pool.

After the intro, we see Nynaeve threatening Lan with a knife to his neck, squatting over Moiraine, who is unconscious. Nynaeve wants to find her friends, but Lan tells her that he has left them behind, even though Moiraine had done everything to keep them safe. The Warder asks Nynaeve to help the Aes Sedai and the Wisdom hesitates. They struggle for a moment after Nynaeve strikes at him, but he overpowers her.

Rand and Mat are climbing the hills east of Shadar Logoth and try to find Egwene and Perrin. They decide not to go back home, but continue on their way towards Tar Valon. On the northern side of Shadar Logoth, Perrin and Egwene walk on a bare plain, called the Caralain Grass, winds howling against them and wolves howling behind them. They start a fire hoping that it will keep the wolves away and they try to warm each other. They also decide to continue to Tar Valon.

In the forest, Nynaeve tells Lan she will help treat Moiraine’s wound if the Aes Sedai tells her where her friends are. The Wisdom then gathers herbs and mixes them into a sap for Moiraine’s wound. She lets Lan know that through the Warder bond he will feel the pain that the sap will cause on Moiraine.

Perrin wakes up inside his home and calls for his wife, Laila. He walks towards the forge, but there he finds a wolf seeming to be eating the corpse of his wife. After that he wakes up and realizes it was a dream. Egwene tells him that the wolves are now closer. They start running away from the animals and at some point the wolves simply stop 'chasing' them. Rand and Mat reach a small mining village on the other side of the hill by the name of Breen's Spring. At the entrance of the village there is a dead man in a cage. The boys enter the village’s inn, called The Four Kings. They ask the innkeeper, a young woman called Dana, if anyone else has come through the town today, but she replies that the only person who has come before them is a gleeman. At that time, the people in the inn quiet down and the gleeman performs the song “The Man Who Can’t Forget”:

The colors of his morning
The darkness of his night
Little graves that gave no warning
A sun that brought no light
He saw his whole world breaking
That tortured soul I met
In a prison of his making
The man who can’t forget
I can still hear the way that he cried
For the ones he was missing
I can still hear the way that he cried
For the ones he had lost
He saw them in the rivers
He felt them in the rain
In dreams he heard them whisper
The truth that is his pain
He caused the whole world’s breaking
That tortured soul I met
In a prison of his making
The man who can’t forget

Mat’s purse gets stolen and the gleeman steals it from the person who stole it from Mat, but doesn’t return it to him. Instead takes the contents of it as 'donations for the gleeman' and a 'life lesson' – to not trust anybody in there.

Perrin and Egwene are seemingly still chased by the wolves when they find fresh wagon tracks heading east towards the White Tower. Egwene thinks the wolves led them to the tracks and Perrin cautions her to stay behind until they find who leaves the tracks. Rand and Mat ask Dana if they could sleep in some beds in the inn for the night, in return they are ready to work for it. After the boys fight, because Mat thinks the whole adventure is a joke, Rand starts splitting wood and Mat starts serving beer inside the inn. He shares with Dana that he is planning to go back home, but Rand won’t be coming with him.

Lan leaves Nynaeve to watch over Moiraine after she confesses that she cannot heal the Aes Sedai, because the poison is nothing she knows. He travels to a high cliff from which he can see several tents in the distance. When he comes back he tells Nynaeve that he has found what he was looking for and that they should ride. Moiraine wakes up, but is still very weak. Perrin and Egwene are still walking through the Caralain Grass. Perrin tries to protect Egwene by scouting ahead, but in return she tries to comfort him that what happened in Emond’s Field is not his fault. Later they are met by the Traveling People and are taken to their wagons.

In Breen’s Spring Dana shows Rand where they would sleep for the night. She shares with him that she wishes to see the world instead of listening to the stories from people who come into town and tries to kiss him. After he backs away from her she reveals herself as a Darkfriend. Mat looks at the dead man in a cage at the entrance to the town, when he is approached by the gleeman, Thom Merrilin, who wants to bury the dead man. Thom tells Mat that the dead man is actually an Aiel, an honor-bound fighter, from the distant Aiel Waste. After Mat and Thom bury the Aielman the gleeman gives Mat back his purse and money and they separate. Rand tries to escape from where Dana has cornered him and after several tries breaks down the massive door. After him and Mat are chased by her through the town, she tells them that she serves Ishamael, who wants to break the Wheel and stop people from suffering and dying. Thom kills Dana with a dagger through the troat, gathers the boys and they all leave traveling east.

After traveling south west for a couple of hours, Lan, Nynaeve, and Moiraine meet other Aes Sedai, who say they've captured a man who calls himself The Dragon Reborn.

Quotes

"And what do you want us to do? Just walk? To the White Tower? How are we gonna get there?"
"They say all roads lead there."
"That's not how roads work."
~Mat and Rand

Production

Directed by Wayne Yip
Aired on: November 19, 2021
Duration: 58 minutes

Trivia Bits

The name of the episode - "A Place of Safety" is also the title of the eighth chapter of the first book in the series - "The Eye of the World". However, in the books, the young people haven't yet left Emond's Field in that chapter.

Deviation from the Books

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

In the Eye of the World, Rand and Mat do not even pass through Breen's Spring, but only hear of it by another man.
In the books, the Aiel in a cage is a very different scene. The Aiel is actually alive and is saved by Perrin.This happens in book 3 - The Dragon Reborn.
In the books, Four Kings is actually the name of a small town, where Rand and Mat have an encounter with a Darkfriend, and not an inn.
In the books, the boys meet Thom in Emond's Field, where he was hired to perform as a gleeman.
In the Eye of the World, it is not the wolves that bring Perrin and Egwene to the Traveling People, but there is another character, who they meet after Shadar Logoth and who helps them with navigation.
In the Eye of the World, Moiraine, Lan and Nynaeve do not meet other Aes Sedai, not to mention the False Dragon Logain.

Gallery

Rand and Mat climbing a hill after they escaped Shadar Logoth
A view over Breen's Spring
Mat looking away from a dead Aiel man in a cage
The entrance to the Four Kings inn in Breen's Spring
The patrons of the Four Kings inn while Rand and Mat are visiting there
Perrin and Egwene walking on the Carralain Grass towards a big mountain covered in mist
First appearance of the Traveling People - Raen, Ila and Aram are among them
Nynaeve tending Moiraine's wound in the woods
Lan is atop a big cliff overlooking the valley below
Rand and Mat fleeing from Dana