Adam’s Review
This episode is where The Wheel of Time show has finally showed me one of the things I was most interested to see: How are they going to condense and adapt material that they can’t just throw away?
“The Dragon Reborn” sets us up for the mystery that unfolds as we get back to the main thread from the first WoT book and the thread that the show has been smart to try and focus on: Who is the Dragon Reborn?
Seeing the evidence for several candidates continue to grow has actually been fun to see. Mat’s corruption is the most palpable and paralleling that with Logain was the best part of the episode.
The show again decides to have a scene of characters sitting and talking to explain dynamics to the viewer rather than show them, and it serves to just oversexualize the Warder / Aes Sedai dynamic even further.
I’m shocked that I actually hoped a Red would walk into the scene given how unpleasant they generally are, but a different perspective was sorely needed.
The final scene of the combat with Logain’s army and the false Dragon himself. I am fully of the mindset that good shows worst moments tend to be action scenes, but this was handled fairly well.
The vicious way Logain is severed from the male half of the source left me feeling bad for a character that they better not dispose of moving forward.
Each duo (and one trio) have time to exist independent of one another so the characters can grow and those relationships can start to be revealed.
Rating: On a scale of Puar to Goku, this episode lands solidly as a Krillin.
Garrett’s Review
Act 1 of this season is over, and we’re fully into Act 2 – we’re starting to get some great pay-offs. Thom is great, Logain is great, an Aes Sedai battle was pretty badass, and we finally got to properly see a Myrddraal. This IS a pretty big deviation from the books, but I am ok with it; at its core, the story that I love is still there, and I’m liking (a lot) what we’re getting truncated into 8 episodes.
Rating: On a scale of portrayals of Batman, this episode was a Christian Bale (but not a Michael Keaton)
Fei’s Review
I had such high expectations after the brilliance of episodes 2 and 3, so I knew I had to be let down at some point. Still, Rafe, it hurts.
Episode 4 starts off strong: we see some cool shots of Logain and the male side of the One Power. More importantly, we see the taint of saidin, and the conquering of Ghealdan, something only hinted at in the books. Also, through Nynaeve’s eyes, we see the Aes Sedai camp and get a little more familiar with Lan and the Warders.
Here’s something that the show does much better than Jordan: romance. While Jordan is great at building other relationships, he seems entirely clueless as to how young love works; the show does a much better job illustrating Nynaeve and Lan’s budding love. We see Lan’s soft side – his rituals for the lost people of Malkier, his knowledge of the Old Tongue – and yes, I’m slowly falling in love with him too.
Even the buildup of Mat as a possible Dragon is exciting to see. But then the show seems to fall off in steam. The scenes of Egwene and Perrin are entirely too slow. We begin to wonder: why are we still hanging out with the Tuathua’an?
It’s as if the showrunners know that these scenes are dragging on, and we are brought back to the exciting battle between Logain’s followers and the Aes Sedai. And while it’s always cool to watch the One Power in action, I still can’t get over the last scene. Lan basically rolls a 1 on his Dex save and takes an axe piece to the throat, which requires Nynaeve to give off a powerful blast of the One Power that heals the rest of the Aes Sedai and Lan—revealing that she, too, can channel.
Remember what we said about Hollywoodizing the fantasy genre? That is pretty much exactly what we get here: a whopping dose of unnecessary, heavy handed drama. Too bad it’s sacrificing one of the coolest characters to achieve it.
Rating: On a scale of ugliest to cutest cats, this is a Dwelf.