Wheel of Time recap: The show nails one of the books’ biggest and bestest battles

Summary

Andrew Cunningham and Lee Hutchinson have spent decades of their lives with Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time books, and they previously brought that knowledge to bear as they recapped each first season episode and second season episode of Amazon's WoT TV series. Now we're back in the saddle for season 3—along with insights, jokes, and the occasional wild theory. These recaps won't cover every element of every episode, but they will contain major spoilers for the show and the book series. We'll do our best to not spoil major future events from the books, but there's always the danger that something might slip out. If you want to stay completely unspoiled and haven't read the books, these recaps aren't for you. New episodes of The Wheel of Time season 3 will be posted for Amazon Prime subscribers every Thursday. This write-up covers episode seven, "Goldeneyes," which was released on April 10. Lee: Welcome back—and that was nuts. There’s a ton to talk about—the Battle of the Two Rivers! Lord Goldeneyes!—but uh, I feel like there’s something massive we need to address right from the jump, so to speak: LOIAL! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! That was some out-of-left-field Game of Thrones-ing right there. My wife and I have both been frantically talking about how Loial’s death might or might not change the shape of things to come. What do you think—is everybody’s favorite Ogier dead-dead, or is this just a fake-out? NOOOOOOOOO Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios NOOOOOOOOO Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Andrew: Standard sci-fi/fantasy storytelling rules apply here as far as I'm concerned—if you don't see a corpse, they can always reappear (cf. Thom Merrillin, The Wheel of Time season three, episode six). For example! When the Cauthon sisters fricassee Eamon Valda to avenge their mother and Alanna laughs joyfully at the sight of his charred corpse? That's a death you ain't coming back from. Even assuming that Loial's plot armor has fallen off, the way we've seen the show...