The Wheel of Time S01E08 is the finale of the first season of an American epic fantasy television drama series streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The series is based on Robert Jordan’s novel series of the same name and is produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios. The series has already been renewed for a second season!
Entitled “The Eye of the World”, The Wheel of Time S01E08 compresses the stereotypical third act final battle complex into two levels. We have Moiraine and Rand (now revealed to be the Dragon Reborn) up against the Dark One at the Eye of the World (hence the title) and the rest of the cast have to contend with Trollocs and Fades while defending Fal Dara.
The highly anticipated encounter with the Dark One is terribly disappointing. It’s more of a psychological mind fuck than a mystical fist-fight as the silly looking Dark One – hardly evil or sinister – tries to tempt Rand into choosing the darkness over the light. Effectively, this is a re-telling of Christ’s temptations at the hands of Satan. But not quite as compelling. The resolution of this is extremely unsatisfactory and confusing at that.
As for the other deadly battle, there’s an element of deus ex machina in the manner in which various enchanters are able to wipe out what looked like thousand-strong Trolloc army. While we liked the terrible cost exacted in victory, again there was a convenient result to preserve the status quo with the characters.
In the final analysis, the loose ends from The Wheel of Time S01E08 was simply a plot device to set up Season 2 and already, this seems like an annoyance and an irrelevance. The quest regarding the Dragon Reborn seems to have been fulfilled – what more story is there to tell?
READ OUR REVIEWS OF THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON 1.
The Wheel of Time Season 1 was a very average fantasy series, never approaching the heights of the Lord of the Rings trilogy or the best bits of Game of Thrones. Hardly justifying a second season but there you go…
Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
… still there’s more …