In Review: The Wheel of Time (S2 – EP6) – Eyes Without Pity

Synopsis: In Eyes Without Pity, Rand makes a risky alliance and Egwene gathers her strength to confront the horror of her circumstances.

The Story

After having been recaptured in last week’s episode by the Seanchan. Egwene finds herself in a dungeon where she is being tortured by Renna. This is a traumatizing event for sure. As we see Egween dragged into her Dungeon by a chain. Renne proceeds to torture Egwene and shows absolutely no remorse or empathy toward her. Meanwhile, not to far away in the town of Falme Nynaeve and Elayne find themselves an Ally who tries to help them plan a rescue. But when Nynaeve is unable to control her power while trying to open one of The Seanchan collars they find themselves once again having to get away from Seanchan soldiers, but thankfully their newfound friend covers for them and pays with her freedom as she finds herself wearing a collar that suppresses her ability to weave. 

Elsewhere, after having spoken to Lanfear in his dream Rand is able to persuade her into working with him. But Lanfear makes the alliance conditional on Rand separating from Moiraine. Meanwhile, Lan is forced to reveal that Moiraine had allowed Rand to get away and had told them that he’d died. Pretty soon Siuan Sanche hears about Rand being on the loose and manages to capture him. But not before he reconnects with his old mate Mat. 

The Acting

Madeleine Madden screams herself hoarse in this episode as we see poor Egwene have her very own magic used against her via Renna’s manipulation of it via the bracelet that she uses to channel it. Xelia Mendes-Jones is excellent in the role of Renna and does a fantastic job of selling her relationship as Egwene’s tormentor to us. One of the most horrid scenes is where Renna makes Egwene burn down a tree, which she’d be using as a source of comfort. Renna is dead set on breaking Egwene’s body, mind, and spirit and is taking great sadistic pleasure in the process.

Once again Natasha O’Keeffe shines in her role of Lanfear but does not have quite as much to do this week. She has her opening scene with Rand (Josha Stradowski), which is the dream sequence that last week’s episode ended on. O’Keeffe is doing a fantastic job of keeping us guessing as to what side of the fence her character is on. As she is working with Ishamael, but you get the general idea that she is not completely on the same page as he is.

Overall

Eyes Without Pity, is probably the best episode that we have seen to date as we see most of the characters get a little development as we slowly get to learn more about the Seanchan and their beliefs about the Aes Sedai.