Diksha Sundriyal
In its penultimate episode, the third season of Prime Video’s ‘The Wheel of Time’ focuses on the war in Two Rivers. Tensions have been running high in the village since the beginning of the season. Perrin comes back with the hopes of taking a break from all the bloodshed, violence, and heartbreak he went through in Season 2, but is shocked to discover that his home is under attack from the Whitecloaks, who are looking for him, and the Trollocs, who have been a bane on the village for a very long time. In ‘Goldeneyes,’ the army of Trollocs finally comes to Two Rivers with full force, and Perrin is worried that his people might not be ready for it. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Two Rivers Prepares for War
The episode begins with the people of Two Rivers preparing to meet the Trollocs in battle. While Perrin forges weapons for them, he also watches them train under Maksim and wonders if he is leading them all toward death. He knows that they need help, so he reaches out to Dain Bornhald for help. He explains the situation to him, revealing that the horde of Trollocs is going to finish off the villagers and then turn towards the Whitecloaks, so it is in their best interest to join forces. However, Dain notes that there is no horde, and the number of Trollocs is so small that the Whitecloaks can easily fend them off.
To persuade him to join them, Perrin offers to surrender himself when the war is won. However, Dain does not trust him to keep his promise and walks away. The refusal of the Whitecloaks makes Perrin all the more worried about the death and destruction that is headed their way. He tells Faile to leave Two Rivers and go back on her search for the Horn of Valere. He questions her intent to stay and fight a war that has nothing to do with her. However, she counters that staying and fighting are her choices, and he must accept them, just like it was his wife’s choice to fight the Trollocs. Now that she is dead, he must honor her and should do the same for her if she dies.
Around the same time, the Tuatha’an, aka the Tinkers, arrive in the village. Perrin welcomes them with open arms as he reunites with Illa and Aram. She notes that he has gone back to the way of the violence, and while she is sad about the face, she is more concerned with Aram leaning towards the same thing. When the time comes, Perrin tells them to take the children of Two Rivers through a secret tunnel that will lead them away from the war. Shortly after this, the Trollocs start to make their way to the pass, which is the only way they can enter the village.
Loial Sacrifices Himself for the Greater Good
While the Trollocs are already more in numbers than the people of Two Rivers, their numbers are supposed to increase as they have control of the Waygate through which they can bring reinforcements. To increase their chances of survival, the Waygate has to be closed at all costs, and it can only happen from the other side. Perrin sends Loial to accomplish the task, and he is accompanied by the Aiels to make sure he succeeds. Much like Perrin, Loial also struggles with the guilt of throwing the Maidens of the Spear into harm’s way because they are bound to him because he saved their lives in Tar Valon.
He tries to get them out of this by agreeing to play the game of the Kiss of the Maiden, where they decide to stop the game when it becomes clear that he is not ready to kiss either of them. When the game ends, he tells them that having spared their life, they have paid their debt and are free to leave Two Rivers. But they beat him at his own game by claiming that by risking his life to free them of the debt, he saved them again. Now that it’s clear that they are not abandoning him, he moves towards the Waygate.
After killing the Trollocs and Darkfriends guarding the gate, Loial tells them to stay behind and kill anyone who might try to enter after him. Because he has to permanently shut down the gate from the other side, this goodbye for them. Inside, Loial sees a horde of Trollocs making their way towards the gate to Two Rivers. He tries to destroy it, but the magic keeps the gate standing. In the end, he has only one option. He targets the bridge which connects the rest of the place to the gate behind him. As the bridge breaks, the gate falls, and so does Loial, ending his journey. As the gate collapses, the blast is heard across Two Rivers, which gives Perrin and his army more confidence and helps them win the war.
Alanna Comes Dangerously Close to Dying
When Ihvon died, Maksim wanted to chase after Liandrin to avenge him. But Alanna drags him all the way to Two Rivers because she believes that the place might offer them more soldiers in their fight against the Dark One. She is proven right when Mat’s sisters are revealed to have the ability to channel, and they save her following the attack of the Whitecloaks, which would have killed her. This traumatizing event helps them patch up their differences, and Maksim decides to stay in town until the danger of the Trollocs has passed.
The couple also have sex, breaking down the emotional barrier that had appeared between them since Ihvon’s passing, and Maksim calls it a chance to build something new between them. Meanwhile, Alanna begins to train the girls, but their power is still too raw, and they need a lot of time to learn how to control it. Still, it is more than enough for the Aes Sedai to channel through them. She finds another channeler in the new Wisdom. With all their powers combined, Alanna helps turn the tide in favor of Two Rivers by raining hell on the Trollocs’ army. However, when they return home, someone attacks Alanna, throwing a spear at her, which cuts through her body, rendering her unable to fight the rest of the battle. She tries to get the girls to heal her, but they are too scared and cannot tap into their power.
Knowing that she doesn’t have much time left, Alanna accepts her fate, but Eamon Valda shows up. His presence scares the Aes Sedai as she knows that he will kill the girls if he finds out about their powers. However, on seeing Padan Fain, the girls are enraged as they remember what he did to their mother. This activates their powers, and they burn him on the spot. Now that they are in control again, they heal Alanna’s wounds, saving her for the second time. Later, when they ask if she will take them to the White Tower, she reveals that there is a different plan for them, though she doesn’t exactly reveal what it is.
Perrin Makes a Difficult Choice
Incredibly low on numbers and strength, the chances of Two Rivers winning the war against the Trollocs seem highly unlikely. However, the people are ready to fight to the death if that’s what it takes. More importantly, they are ready to follow Perrin to the end, and that’s what wins them the fight in the end. At first, they try to hold the ground at the pass, where they barely survive as the Trollocs make a tactical retreat following Alanna’s attack. However, by now, Perrin has noticed that the creatures are too disciplined, which means that someone is controlling them. During the short break they get, Perrin and Faile go back to the village, where Alanna is mortally wounded. With their Aes Sedai out of the picture, the villagers fear for their lives, but Maksim keeps them from leaving their posts.
Once again, they fight the Trollocs, but this time, they are forced to flee back to the village, which is where they must continue the fight. Relief arrives in the form of the Whitecloaks, as Dain seems to have changed his mind. However, their arrival soon turns into horror when Perrin discovers that Padan Fain is amongst them. He impersonated a Whitecloak at the end of the previous episode and had been keeping the Whitecloaks from the village. But when Dain changes his mind, he uses it as an opportunity to sneak into the village and wreak havoc. Even with the Whitecloaks on their side, the villagers struggle to stand against the creatures of the Dark One. With the massacre of his people right in front of his eyes, Perrin begins to lose hope, but Faile preps him, sending him right back onto the battlefield with much more conviction.
Eventually, Perrin finds his way to Padan Fain. Instead of instantly killing him, he asks why he is targeting Two Rivers. The Darkfriend reveals that the Dark One wants to wipe out the village as a message to Rand al’Thor. While he claims he is not scared, Perrin can smell fear in him, so he offers him a deal. Because Padan Fain can control the Trollocs, he must tell them to stop fighting and retreat and go as far away from Two Rivers as possible. If he ever returns, Perrin will not be as kind to him the next time. The man takes the deal, effectively ending the battle and saving more people from dying. The next morning, the Tinkers return with the children, and Dain comes back, asking Perrin to hold up his end of the deal. While his people are ready to fight for him, Perrin decides not to continue the cycle of violence and surrenders himself to the Whitecloaks.
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