ladysherlockian

Vesemir says "It feels like bullsh*t now" and it is an apt summary of this episode. It had totally nothing to do with the plot of Sapkowski's novels, which the show is allegedly based upon. Instead of taking the events from the book and transferring them to the screen, the showrunners decided to tell their own story about the witcher. If only it was a good story like it is the case with the games, but no, they had to invent some awful plot with the ancient evil witch Voleth whom nobody ever heard about in the novels, who posseses Ciri so that she turns wicked and starts murdering witchers and teleporting monsters from other sphere to Kaer Morhen so that they could kill more witchers. Vesemir and other witchers want to kill the possessed Ciri but Geralt believes he may help her come back and free herself from the possession. Meanwhile, the real Ciri is in a sort of vision of Cintra where she is happy and both her parents are alive, a vision supposedly created by the witch Voleth so that she can continue to possess Ciri's body as Ciri does not want to come back to the real world. Yennefer sacrifices her life to save Ciri and become a new vessel for the witch, but after Ciri is freed from possession, she uses her magic to teleport the witch back to her world, where she apparently possesses the wild hunt. Back at Kaer Morhen, it appears that Yennefer regained her magic because she was ready to die for Ciri -> this is how the showrunners solve problems which would not have existed at all had they stuck to the source material. It is nice that Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri are now a small patchwork family and the mage and the witcher would work together to protect Ciri, as it should have been the case from the beginning, without any this evil!Yennefer plot twist. Another small plus of the episode is that Phillipa is finally shown, she looks good with her clothing including some owl elements. Francesca went evil and started to kill children with her magic, later the elves captured Istredd who told them about Ciri's elder blood to save his life. So many political factions are now looking for Ciri. Meve is shown in the council of the Brotherhood with the kings and she suggests that Ciri is better dead than alive, Tissaia and others plan to capture and kill her, which I don't think was the case in the books, since in one of the volumes Ciri goes with Yennefer to become a student of Aretuza, so the sorceresses were not definitely intending to hunt and kill her like it is suggested in the show. And at the very end of the episode, the showrunners decided to reveal the identity of the emperor Emhyr, something that is not explained in the books until the last volume! I have no idea what they intended to achieve by doing that, spoiling the books for the viewers who have not read them yet. Ciri herself as well as Geralt and Yennefer learn about Ciri's father at the end of the last volume in the saga, in a very emotional scene which would never be possible to be shown in the series due to the stupid decisions of the showrunners.

Much improved in comparison to earlier episode this season, many elements from the novels are introduced, and Triss's visit to Kaer Morhen looks almost like in the books, of course except the investigation about the leshen. Triss looks much better this season and resembles the book Triss much more, she is also the person to give the witchers the dressing down they deserve for teasing and humiliating Ciri. I wonder why she never tells Geralt that Yennefer is in fact alive, maybe because she is not sure how long this is going to be the case after Yennefer's escape? There is an emotional scene between Triss and Geralt when they talk about their shared grief and Triss confronts him about his ability to feel real emotions. It is quite enjoyable to watch Triss, Geralt and Ciri work together in the lab to unravel the mystery of Ciri's power. Later on, Ciri's Elder Blood is introduced, something that would be very important in the later volumes, though Vesemir's reaction is really disappointing, as he now sees Ciri as his stepping stone to creating more witchers, thus turning into yet another person that wants to just use Ciri for their own purposes, as if there weren't enough of them. Poor Ciri...

There is Dijkstra and Phillipa Eihard in her owl form - though this is not obvious for those not familiar with the books. He looks totally different from the games, but is rather a convincing character, though I guess I would like to see more of him to really judge.

Finally Jaskier reappears! It seems he had matured a bit since we last saw them, he is more thoughtful and empathetic even towards Yennefer and has another emotional conversation with her after guessing she had lost her magic, saying he really fears losing his poetic talent - he seems to understand Yennefer very well, as his identity is build on his being a poet just like hers was built on being a mage.

The situation Yennefer and Cahir meet Jaskier is totally different from the books, as they are on the run and get in touch with the elven underground in order to get to Cintra. There is some kind of Lord of the Rings callback as they meet some sort of watcher in the water when they are travelling in the sewers. Then they meet Jaskier though who turns out to be some sort of a smuggler helping the elves escape to Cintra, which is now elven city. In the novels, Jaskier got into trouble when he sang the ballad about Gerald, Yennefer and Ciri, and almost got killed before Yennefer saved him from Rience's bandits, but I wonder how it would turn out in the show, since now she has no magical powers and would not be able to rescue him in this way. The ending of the episode suggests Jaskier might be in trouble indeed, I wonder how he would get out of it now. The episodes are getting more and more interesting anyway :)

The showrunners completely parted ways with the source material in this episode, and not for the better. The best thing about it was Jaskier singing in prison and making friends with mice (I guess since they looked smaller than rats), Geralt rescuing him and their conversations as well as the meeting with Yarpen and his company, which could have been developed further but the showrunners decided to spent the time on something not taken from the novels. The political meetings between the Brotherhood is rather boring, though Dijkstra is rather well-acted. Nothing has been revealed about Phillipa yet. I do not really care about Fringilla's plot, who first teleports to her uncle and asks him to help her; I was hoping he would send her to Toussaint so that she can become more like the book!Fringilla but apparently no, she is back to Cintra and kills the Nilfgardian officers apparently under the influence of the eponymous witch Voleth, whose introduction to the show is beyond me as it doesn't make any sense, doesn't have anything to do with the novels and is a completely stupid plot device. Francesca's baby seems to be killed, it is not certain whether Fringilla killed it because the baby made the elves unwilling to cooperate with Nilfgaard anymore or the witch Voleth killed it herself. There are stupid changes to other characters as well, the wicked Lydia is killed by Ciri's blood, and Tissaia suddenly turns out to have an affair with Vilgefortz. Yennefer manages to coax Ciri into believing that they need to go to Cintra because the Nilfgardians are torturing Geralt but she has the ulterior motive of getting back her magic and only wants to use Ciri. The princess finally discovers her betrayal and creates another ravine in shock and anger, which makes the Niflgardian soldiers come to capture her, and Geralt and his company come in the last moment to save her. Then the witch Voleth seems to escape her hut and attacks Ciri. The whole Voleth storyline is so stupid that I can even. They could have made a calmer season concentrating on Ciri being taught to control her magic, first by Triss, later by Nenneke and at the end by Yennefer who loves Ciri as her daughter in the books instead of using the girl for her own ends. Yennefer seems to be the antagonist and a negative character this season, just like many positive and neutral characters who were changed into baddies such as Cahir and Fringilla and many others.

I have mixed feelings about this episode, there are some things which are quite good but also a lot of totally stupid ideas.
Let's start with the positive things. Kaer Morhen looks beautiful, it is quite similar to its depiction in the games which is a plus as I feel it was very well presented there. It is definitely atmospheric, and it is always rather dark inside the fortress even during the day, the same as it was in the game. The castle has a feel of mystery as well as long history. I liked the addition of the tree with the medallions of dead witchers, it was quite a nice touch. I wasn't sure about the actor who plays Vesemir when I first saw the promotional images, but it turns out that he plays his role well and fits the personality of Vesemir, he is very convincing as Geralt's father figure and his mentor relationship with Ciri is also well-presented, as he tells her the history of Kaer Morhen and its witchers. The conversation between Vesemir and Geralt, when Geralt tries to get advice about Ciri was also well done. The last scene with Ciri learning sword-fighting with Geralt and the bird-eye view of Kaer Morhen is quite impressive, too. Here we can see the symbolic transition in Ciri's character as she puts away the fox fur mantle to become a fighter, earlier in the episode she behaved with a lot of dignity, a princess every inch, and she could stand up to the witchers. Now as she takes off the mantle, she leaves her life as a princess behind to start a new period in her life.

The story of Yennefer and Fringilla had nothing to do with the books, but turned out to be rather interesting, maybe because I had no idea where they were going to due to the fact it was not taken from the novels. Yennefer and Fringilla cease to be enemies as they are forced to cooperate after being taken prisoner by the elves. There is also a contrast between Fringilla's faith in the empire of Nilfgard and Yennnefer's more cynical worldview. The elven mage Francesca is introduced, though she is a bit disappointing since in the book she was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world, she is not ugly but Yennefer and Ciri are better looking than she is. I wonder why the elves from Sapkowski's novels are depicted as rather ugly in all of the adaptations? It is also the case with the games and the Polish TV show. The dreams Yennefer, Fringilla and Francesca have are quite interesting, though they end with the revelation that Yennefer lost all her magical ability during the battle of Sodden, which I don't think was the case in the novels. She is really devastated when she discovers that she cannot perform magic anymore. I wonder why she didn't join Francesca's train as she would be in danger travelling alone without magic to protect her.

The worst thing about the episode was the plot with Eskel turning into a leshen, and the party with prostitutes that the witchers organised in Kaer Morhen, a totally unnecessary addition and without any sense, as Kaer Morhen was in an isolated place and there were no brothels nearby. It had no function in the plot and served only to add some gratuitous sex scenes, I hated that. The idea of Eskel turned into a leshen was totally stupid as nowhere in the books or even games there is said that a person can be turned into a leshen, it seems it was only added to show Geralt fighting and to highlight his father-son bond with Vesemir, as when he is faced with the choice whether to kill the Eskel-leshen hybrid or let it murder Vesemir, Geralt decides to protect Vesemir. But it was completely pointless to kill off Eskel so early as according to the novels he outlives Geralt together with Lambert and Vesemir. It was definitely an unnecessary addition and deviation from the books. Also his character was changed to more aggressive and unlikable one, though it may be said it was the effect of the leshen on Eskel.

The episode is completely out of touch with the source material, but nevertheless quite engrossing. The only thing it had in common with the book was Jaskier being kidnapped and tortured by Rience, and then saved by Yennefer (though she was using magic in the novel), everything else is made up, but the scenes with Ciri's vision when she travels into her memory with Triss were impressive, the woman with the baby shown in the vision is some mixture of Lara Dorren and Ithlinne, since she speaks the prophecy about the Elder Blood?

Triss confronts Vesemir about his plans to restore witchers using Ciri's blood, though later Ciri herself insists on doing that and even a sample of her blood is collected for the elixir, but Geralt interrputs the procedure at the last moment. It seems though, that using Ciri's blood to create more witchers would probably be the least stupid way of making use of it.

Geralt has to cooperate with Istredd to learn more about the megaliths and it is nice to watch them learn to work together for the common purpose and overcome their differences. The story of the Conjunction of Spheres is elaborated here in comparison to the novels, when it was on the background and never explained in more details other than it brought all the races as well as monsters together to the Continent. Here we get a more scholarly turn on it, and Istredd is getting a more interesting character as a researcher and academic. And Geralt finally learns from Istred that Yennefer survived the battle of Sodden.

Yennefer, however, is in trouble as she had been captured and is about to be executed, she turns to the mysterious woman from her dream/vision earlier on and it turns out it was Ciri all along, who offers her a way to regain her magic.

Fringilla and Francesca are now ruling Cintra together, in some sort of a partnership, and it is rather nice to see some women in power cooperating with each other. Cahir soon joins them as his ship comes finally to Cintra. I wonder how his story would turn out and whether he would change into the person from the novels. Same about Fringilla, who did come from Nilfgard but was not particularly loyal to Emhyr and his cause, and she was rather a shy and reserved person, and not an antagonist since Geralt has a brief affair with her in one of the later volumes of the saga. The Fringilla from the show is totally different and I guess it is nigh to impossible to change what happened to her in the show so that it would fit her book image more.

Another change from the books is Lydia, Vilgefortz's assistant, she is shown to free Rience possibly on Vilgefortz's orders, so she is complicit in what he is planning, but in the books she was depicted rather as an innocent victim of his machinations, besotted with the mage.

Some more characters and elements from the book are introduced, as Istredd is doing his research and visits Codringher and Fenn (Fenn is a woman in contrast to the books but it does not seem such a big problem), they are both shown in a bit more positive light than in the novels rather as researchers and collectors of old literature (pity it's going to go down in flames together with Codringher & Fenn) and they tell Istredd about Lara Dorren and Ciri's ancestry. Mother Nenneke and the temple of Melitele are also introduced. Nenneke shows a lot of empathy and support towards Ciri, and the temple is atmospheric with its addition of the candle burning custom. It is really a nice touch that they included the historian apprentice Jarre, who was not a crucial character so it is great to see him included as well. I wonder if Shani and Yola would make their appearances later on? They become important in further volumes of the saga. Jarre also tells Ciri about oneiromancers and the tower that can be a portal, which suggests that the events with Tor Lara and the character of Condwiramurs Tilly would be introduced in further seasons? I hope so.

I do not really care about the Cintrean storyline, it is nice that Francesca finally has her baby (Fringilla seems genuinely happy about having helped the child to survive) though that does not have much to do with the novels. Cahir seems bent on following Emhyr's orders and finding Ciri, he seems rather a cold-blooded person who does not have any feelings for the girl, whereas in the novels he was secretly in love with Ciri and wanted to find her only to protect her. His character seems to be permanently changed for the worse. Just like with Lydia, who works with Rience rather than being an innocent mage blinded by her love to Vilgefortz, here she seems to be a conniving and calculating person. Rience attacks Kaer Morhen and almost kills Vesemir, but manages to steal the vial with Ciri's blood (this resembles a bit the story from the game Witcher 1, where the gang of Salamandra steals the witcher mutagens). Triss helps the wounded Vesemir but finally decides to teleport to Tissaia and inform on Ciri.

Yennefer and Geralt reunite in the temple of Melitele, they kiss but from their conversations later it does not seem like they are fully reconciled. And anyway, Yennefer is yet another person who wants to use Ciri for her own purposes, this time to regain her magic, Geralt senses that she is nervous but cannot really detect the reason behind this, but Yennefer is here to kidnap Ciri. It seems that only Geralt cares about Ciri herself and not for the purpose she can be used to gain, he is the one who protects her rather than use her. He doesn't think what Ciri can do for him but rather how he can save her. It turns out that Ciri is not treated fairly by any other characters, even the positive ones, who perceive her as a means to their end rather than as a person with her own feelings and dreams, even Vesemir, Yennefer, Triss and others do it.

The episode had very little to do with the source material, but I found it enjoyable nevertheless. Anyway, after watching some films and shows based on books, I come to the conclusion that it is much better to watch the show first and read books later, because otherwise any deviation from the book is seen as something negative. I have this with Wheel of Time show which introduced a lot of changes but is quite good as a show. Maybe it is better to forget about the books and look at the show as something separate. But let's get to the point.

Ciri's training is the best part of this episode, she is definitely developing as a characters and shows her mettle as well as stubbornness in her desire to become a witcher, which finally wins her respect from the witchers who initially tease her but when she manages to survive the pendulum and other parts of the obstacle course, they start cheering for her. She continues to disobey Geralt who does not allow her to train too much. Geralt and Vesemir go to bury Eskel in some wolves' den (it is implied that the bodies of dead witchers are left to be devoured by wolves?), they tried to unravel the mystery of Eskel's turning into a leshen but fail to do so. Cir's vision leads her and Geralt to the woods when they meet the leshen that infected Eskel, it is killed by another monster quite quickly though, which than chases Ciri until Geralt kills it. A bit pointless but fun to watch.

Yennefer returns to the mages reunion, though she does not tell anyone that she had lost her magic, not even her friends. Triss seems to be healthy again, though she does not want to take part in any parties or events. Tissaia and Vilgefortz want to make a power grab, while Stregobor strikes against Yennefer and goes as far as to torture her, he also mentions the story of the murderous Falka, comparing her to Yennefer in some way because of her elven ancestry. However, only Tissaia senses that Yennefer had lost her magic, but she has no good news as there is no way for the magic to be restored to Yennefer. According to Tissaia, it is lost for good.

The whole plot with Yennefer forced to execute Cahir in order to prove that she is not a Nilfgardian spy is a total nonsense. I was afraid that the showrunners would really have him dead after they had messed up his character the previous season, making him a baddie even though he joins Geralt's company in search for Ciri in the future volumes and really fell in love with Ciri the first time he saw her. However, this whole nonsense in the show ends with Yennefer saving Cahir and them escaping together, maybe the time they'd spend together would bring him closer to the Cahir of the books.

The short story "Grain of truth" was significantly changed from the original version by Sapkowski, but it seems to me that it wasn't ruined entirely, at least not to such an extent I had been afraid Netflix may do it. There are important changes, foremost Geralt bringing Ciri with him (in the short story it happens years before he meets Ciri) and the fact that Nivellen is not a stranger but an old acquaintance of Geralt. There is an interesting tidbit about the meeting with Nivellen, as he tells her a story resembling that of Ciri's ancestor the elf Lara Dorren, her human lover and their forbidden love. Ciri seems to like Nivellen and enjoys talking to him, maybe because he is intriudced as Geralt's friend so she can trust him more.
The situation with Ciri's nighttime meeting with Vereena is very strange and creepy, and it is a bit surprising that the bruxa didn't try to harm her in any way. Ciri feels a lot of sympathy for the bruxa, even when her real nature is revealed and Geralt warns her about Vereena, still Ciri disobeys him.
Another significant change from the original story is that Nivellen never tells Geralt the real reason he got cursed, so when Geralt and Ciri hear it after Vereena is killed, they are really shocked, and this explains why Geralt was friends with Nivellen in the first place - because he didn't know the truth.
Yennefer is believed to be dead after searching the battlefield by distraught Tissaia yields no results. Tissaia is really devastated about Yennefer's presumed death, though Vilgefortz, who is still working with the mages, doesn't seem to be moved by it. The scene when Geralt meets Tissaia and she claims that Yennefer is probably dead is quite moving, the way the witcher's face changes when he hears the news. Triss in turn is severely wounded but saved by Tissaia and Vilgefortz. While Yennefer is the prisoner of war of Nilfgard, Cahir has been captured by the North and is being tortured by Tissaia, eager to get any information about Yennefer. I wonder how Cahir's story will go from here since he is important in later volumes of the Witcher saga. Yennefer herself is deprived of her use of magic as Fringilla's prisoner ( I wonder what they'd do with Fringilla's arch since she also plays a crucial role later on in the novels and not as a stauch Nilfgard supporter), but she does talk back to Fringilla and stands back to her. Though it seems to me that it would be better if the episode concentrated only on the travels of Geralt and Ciri and their budding father-daughter relationship, without any interludes about the mages and Yennefer, this could have been kept for later episodes, and removing it would have made it more coherent. I read in some reviews that Geralt is more introspective and thoughtful this season and it seems to be the truth. I also liked the scene when he confides in Roach and talks about his worries about Ciri to his horse :)

The flashbacks about Claire's bond with the patient whom she lost due to anaphylactic shock were quite moving, particularly the scenes in church with Claire taking part in perpetual adoration in Graham's stead. It is uplifting to see religion depicted in a positive light in the show, Claire is not a church-goer but she does not ridicule faith and does not laugh at it, this is rather rare in contemporary TV shows. In a way, as Claire notices, her patient Graham brought her and Jamie together again, as his death prompted Claire to reflect on the past and her life as well as initiating her journey to Britain thanks to which she got back to Jamie.
The whole plot with Claire's finding out penicillin after all and the operation on the twins, with Marsali as her assistant, was interesting too, though the operation itself was a bit repulsive ;)

Roger and Brianna's quarrel was not the best thing in the episode, though this time - thanks to Claire - they can mend their differences and it seems that Roger is a bit more mature in his relationship with Bree, he is making some small progress.
The entire part with Knox discovering the connection between Jamie and Murtagh was a suspenseful sequence, I feel bad about Jamie killing him and then causing fire to hide his crime, perhaps he had to do it to protect his family and himself, but it is still murder.
Bringing a cat as a present for Claire was quite sweet of Jamie :) a nice ending to the episode after dramatic events with Knox. I also liked Claire's voiceovers and her meditation on the nature of God and time.

It was quite an engrossing episode, lots of things happening, but most of the time was devoted to Hari Seldon's backstory about his relationship with Yanna, we learn how they met, fell in love and constructed the Prime Radiant together (so the thingy is not just an important piece of his research to Hari but also a memorial of Yanna) and how he killed the Empire agent who murdered Yanna in order to get hold of the Radiant. His backstory emphasises also that Empire is quite a totalitarian state (compassing galaxies in this case) and we have to bear it in mind. The telepathy woman turns out to be a very manipulative person, driving a wedge between Gaal and Hari, Gaal believes her as she is promised she'll be able to save her daughter. The manipulative telepath woman can understand Gaal's and Salvor's feelings about their strange relationship better than they do themselves. It looks like she was really an enemy as I suspected in the previous episode. Things are going badly for other characters too, as Hober enters some kind of birthing place of the spacers and they are very angry about it, whereas Poly and Constant are arrested almost immediately after their arrival on Trantor. They will probably be executed, which is a pity as they are really interesting and likeable characters, I quite enjoy Constant's banter. Day and Sareth announce their engagement publicly, and Demerzel looks like she can hardly contain herself when he mentions ending the genetic dynasty, she is really seething with rage. Sareth gives a talk on wanting to serve the citizens, which is likely to be completely at odds with Day's plans, as he does not feel like serving anyone but himself. On the whole, the episode was very intense and emotional, I couldn't stop watching.

Only second episode in and yet another character is gone, this time someone who seemed to be one of the main protagonists. Joel, Tess and Ellie looked like a little family in the first ep and now there are only two of them. It is a bit of a pity that Tess is gone so soon before we managed to learn something more about her, particularly as she was the one more supportive of Ellie and believed the girl much more than Joel initally did, now that she's sacrificed herself to help them escape, he may follow her last words and try and save Ellie (though maybe it was better for Tess that she died because she didn't turn into a monster after all, and what happened to her proved that Ellie's claims to be immune are true after all).

The introduction with the Indonesian scientist investigating the beginnings of the pandemic were pretty interesting, I hope there story of the pandemic's history would be continued in the next episode, and it would be explained how the fungus spread further? Did they bomb the city and it didn't help to stop the infections or was the scientist's harsh advice not followed? It definitely poses a difficult moral problem whether to sacrifice a city in hope that it might possibly stop the pandemic from spreading to other parts of the world.

The monsters themselves are horrifying and really scary, particularly as "they were men once" to quote Aragorn. I guess it is a fate worse than death for the victims since they are technically alive but lose all that makes them human.

The visuals are very good and the vistas of the post-apocalyptic city - really impressive and it looks like the producers were generous with money for these landscapes. I haven't played the game so the plot is quite engrossing since I have no idea what would happen next (though I guess the main characters won't be killed till the end of the show since they are main characters and the show would end without them).

The show does not have much to do with Tolkien and his writings, it is a fanfiction at best and not a very interesting one at that. I found most of the episode boring and for some time I just waited when it is going to end. There were some beautiful landscapes and some pretty scenes, the beginning of the episode with young Galadriel in Aman looked very promising, but soon afterwards the episode started going downwards. I liked the scene with the Two Trees of Valinor and the retrospective of the war with Morgoth, and later on in the ep another scene I quite enjoyed was the elves sailing to Valinor. However, elves themselves are disappointing as they do not look elvish at all, they are supposed to be beautiful and ever-young, but of the elven cast only Galadriel can have some claim to beauty, Elrond is plain whereas Celebrimbor looks quite old (and elves did not grow old so this is in conflict with what Tolkien wrote). The hobbits look and behave like complete idiots, maybe with the exception of the original character Nori, who is quite likable. The humans do not act in a Tolkienian fashion at all, they would have been more at home in one of the bars in "The Witcher". Arondir and his lady love look a bit interesting, and it seems like they are going to do some detective work so this might be fun to watch. However, I am totally not buying this kickass warrior they turned Galadriel into. Her being bent on finding Sauron and avenging her brother does not seem believable in light of what we know about Galadriel. All in all, none of the characters can make me root for them, they are all equally bland and I don't really care for any of them, either Tolkien characters or original ones. The dialogue sounds quite trite, banal and commonplace, and completely lacks the poetic quality present in Tolkien's language. I understand that the show cannot quote Tolkien's words as Peter Jackson did in LotR, since there is no novel based on this period, only some notes in the Appendices the showrunners have the rights to, but they could have at least strove to achieve a similar poetic turn of phrase, and they haven't even attempted it. And last but not least, the show failed to awake any emotions in me, which might be its final nail in the coffin. Since the episodes are quite long, I am wondering whether I would like to spend so much time watching the show, and I am not sure whether I would give the next episode a chance. Emotion-wise, it couldn't have been further away from the moving and poignant Peter Jackson films (which do a great job at depicting the spirit of Tolkien's works if not the letter). The good thing about the episode was lack of nudity and excessive violence, but that and some breath-taking vistas might be not enough to keep me watching it.

Great episode, visually impressive but also with fine plot and more character development for the Two Rivers folks. Quite a lot happens in the episode and it starts with a bang showing a fighting pregnant Aiel woman, obviously this is Rand's biological mother, and the story of how Tam found and rescued baby Rand. Rand's mum was a real badass to defeat so many armoured knights, even when she was about to give birth.
The Ways turn out to be the real "Mines of Moria" of the series, not the ruins of Shadar Logoth as I previously thought. There is even a call-back to the scene when Gandalf cannot remember the right way to go when Loial wonders how to read the guide stone. The whole sequence in the Ways is very emotional and also visually stunning. I also liked the city of Fal Dara and its culture, though it seems that Loial was totally forgotten once they enter the city? It isn't shown what he does next. Padan Fain also enters the city, I thought maybe he would attact some of the characters, but I guess he didn't penetrate the citadel.
The characters quarrel and make up, and the relationship between Lan and Nynaeve develops quickly, he invites her to a dinner with what seems like his family, though as he later tells her the story of Malkier it turns out these are his father's soldiers who saved him when his family was slaughtered by the dark side. In a way, Lan's story mirrors that of Rand as both were saved from certain death as they were babies.
Min is introduced, at first she talks only with Moiraine and initially I was a bit disappointed that she didn't have any interaction with Rand as she is going to be his future love, but they do talk later in the episode, after Rand realises he is the Dragon Reborn and hopes that she would not confirm that conclusion. In the end of the episode, Moiraine and Rand leave alone for the Blight after Rand confesses to her that he is the one. I wonder how are they going to survive there without any other help. From what Lan was telling Nynaeve, the area of the Blight used to be his kingdom of Malkier? I really cannot recall from the book who went to the Eye of the World, I was under the impression they all went together but I may misremember it.
I only wonder about Moiraine asking the Fal Daran woman to send a message to the Red Ajah so that they would find Mat, knowing Liandrin she would probably hurt him so it felt a bit like a betrayal from Moiraine? This was a bit puzzling. Otherwise an engrossing episode, I guess one of the best in the show so far.

This one was definitely better than the previous one, I like the backstory of Victor's childhood, which makes him a more interesting character. It is not explained what he is dying of, perhaps this is obvious to the players but not to other viewers. I wonder if he would survive and turn into some kind of human hybrid with the magical hex squares. I really hoped that the sisters would manage to finally get rid of the Silko guy, he turns out to be rather too resilient. I wonder how the entire story would end and how long it is going to be. The confrontation between sisters was rather emotional, though it seems that Jinx still has some positive feelings still left in her so there is a slight chance of her going back to the bright side, though from what I've read about the game she stays evil. Before watching the episode, I supposed that she would immediately try to kill her sister on sight because she felt abandoned by her, but as that didn't happen, it was a nice surprise. Though it looks like she might have killed her after all, though not entirely on purpose (though the trailer suggests that Vi will survive).

The episode starts with the reconcilliation between the king and Daemon as well as between Rhaenyra and her former friend Alicent, who seems to support Rhaenyra after all. However, things go to the dogs after Rhaenyra goes to paint the town red with her uncle Daemon, apparently he wanted to show her the poor district and what the common people really think of her? And then I don't know what happened since they ended up in a brothel so I skipped some scenes, and later when Rhaenrya returned to her chambers, she took advantage of Ser Criston but I don't know whether she really slept with Daemon or not as she swore to her former friend Alicent. There is a political scandal about it as the Hand informs the king on Rhaenyra, which has a lot of results, first Viserys expels his brother from King's Landing, than he has a talk with his daughter, and Rhaenyra agrees to marry the Velaryon to fix the political mess, but gives her father the ultimatum to fire Otto Hightower, which he promptly does. I didn't like the episode very much as it concentrated too much on the sexual themes which were often shown in the original Game of thrones and which I really detest, also, there was only one dragon shown in this ep. I liked the story about Aegon the Conqueror's dagger which Viserys tells to Rhaenyra before announcing her whom she is to marry.

It was quite a good episode, rather tense, suspenseful and full of intrigues. It seems to me that Tom is definitely using Greg and not treating him fair, though it looked like Greg has copied some of the incriminating documents he was meant to destroy. He seems a bit naive and it may get into huge trouble if he makes a mistake. Tom himself is not happy about pre-nup with Shiv, I got the impression that it is implied in the pre-nup she can cheat on him but he cannot so he is used by her in turn. Kendall is concerned about his dad not being in his right senses and possibly destroying the company, so he tries to find allies to support the vote of no confidence against Logan, however, it backfires after his talk with Logan's estranged brother Ewan. Ewan himself if quite an interesting character, the details of the feud between the brothers is not explained but it seems that Ewan is very principled and loyal, even to his brother as he does not want to support the non-confidence vote. The quarrel between the brothers was a great scene. Logan also gets aggressive as he hits one of Kendall's kids when he loses the eponymous "I went to market" game. Marcia looks rather positive, caring for Logan and playing the peacemaker in the family, but I still don't know what her endgame is. I guess these are all of the highlights of the episode. I was in a bit of doubt about the show, but this was a good one.