AND WE'RE BACK!!!!
Plot Synopsis: The episode opens with a statue of Darken Rahl being pulled down like Dzerzhinsky in the Lubyanka Square. Rachel, from the Puppeteer episode and her legal guardian are there to see it. Meanwhile Darken Rahl is hanging out in the underworld all naked and stuff. Apparently the Keeper had a plan all along and now plans to use the death of Darken Rahl to take over the world.
Meanwhile the gang hangs out in a hall eating food and listening to songs about the Seeker. Rachel, somehow there as well, comes over to harass Richard and Kahlan about not being able to get married. Zedd distracts her by making a popsicle out of his cider just as a creature comes through the window and attacks, beheading a random dude. Richard distracts it, and rides out into the woods somehow procuring a horse nearly instantly. He then taunts the monster until it charges at him hurling itself off of a cliff that he was standing on. Richard then watches it walk away unhurt from the fall.
In the tower of the Mord Sith, Cara of the season one finale bathes with her Mord Sith pals. Sexy. Another Mord Sith, Triana tells her that they must go to the People's Palace to find out who is the new Lord Rahl. Cara instead suggests that they organize and police the territories. Triana challenges her authority and this is met by a friendly smack across the face and near drowning.
Richard, Kahlan and Zedd track the creature from earlier and find a crack to the underworld. Apparently, the Power of Orden that Richard used to kill Darken Rahl ripped the veil to the underworld. Richard swears to find the Stone of Tears and repair the veil. Just then D'haran soldiers come to the town and swear their allegiance to the Seeker calling him Master Rahl. He tells the story of Darken Rahl's father, who upon seeing how evil little Darken turned out to be, learned of a prophecy of Darken Rahl's brother killing him.
Apparently he seduced Zedd's daughter by pretending to be a male Abercrombie & Fitch model or a shepherd or something. They then made a baby. Upon this he made fun of Darken Rahl causing him to kill Panis and set Richard's humble beginnings in motion. All the while Cara makes out with Triana in a show of dominance. While Triana scrubs the floor, a vision of Darken Rahl appears telling her to tell Triana to kill Cara and start a special task.
Richard acts all big and tells Zedd to search for clues in finding the Stone of Tears. He tells Kahlan to defend the town. Richard then leads the D'harans to hunt the screeling and announces intentions to claim the throne of D'hara, rejecting a notion that he must kill his men to make people fear him. The Mord Sith attack Cara and cut off her hair leaving her to the screeling. Kahlan boards up the doors to a hall as the remaining Mord Sith attack.
As Richard tracks the screeling, the commander of the one battalion that he commands is killed by the resistance. Wary of the D'harans they almost come to blows as warning bells are heard from the town. They head back where Richard learns that seven girls were taken by the Mord Sith including Rachel. Richard plans to lead the D'harans against the Mord Sith as a D'haran threatens him. Richard slaps him down as the rest of his men pledge their allegiance.
They find Cara lying in the gutter. Kahlan goes to confess her but Richard stops her. Triana calls a friend and tells him of the Seeker's batallion. Richard forms a plan to extract the girls from the cave, but it will likely involve his men dying. Zedd meanwhile meets up with Shota who tells him that Richard Rahl is prophesized to fail in his quest against the Keeper. Three omens will foretell this. She tells him to name him a new Seeker or the Keeper will win blah blah blah...
Richard's men are trapped in a canyon without him as Kahlan and Cara climb into a canyon distrustful of one another. As the D'harans are losing, Richard and the resistance charge up and take control of the battle. Kahlan and Cara free the girls and then Cara kills Triana. There is a reunion in the town and just as Zedd is about to tell the gang what he knows, the screeling reappears. Richard taunts it again causing it to fall into a fountain upon which Zedd freezes it.
They decide to head to the Abbott to find the Stone of Tears. Richard decides not to claim the throne. The plan is to send Kahlan off to the Mother Confessor throne while Cara appears and pledges her loyalty to Richard. Before they get to Aydindril, Kahlan seeing that Richard and Cara are getting awfully cozy decides that they will head to get the Stone of Tears together. As Richard is sitting by the fire, Darken Rahl appears and tells Richard to quit his quest. He grabs Richard and marks him on the chest fulfilling the omens that Shota suggested will foretell of his failure to defeat the Keeper.
Commentary: Sorry for the length but there was a lot of exposition in this episode. We got to see that peace will not come easy in the new Midlands. Some in the D'haran military just want to serve Lord Rahl, while others don't buy fighting for the Seeker. To make matters worse, apparently some guy named the Keeper has had a plan all along. Now Richard will have to fight off the Keeper and try to keep the peace in the Midlands. Except the prophecy foretells that he's not the one that can do this. Oh noes!
There was a whole lot of smacking around going around in this episode. I may be hazy in my recollection but is this the way things have gotten done in this universe? I half-expected Richard to haul off and smack Kahlan sometime in the third act. What's worse is after all the posturing, Richard refuses to take the throne of D'hara. This seems a little hypocritical. So it was okay for Richard to kill off half of that loyal D'haran battalion in his mission, but he can't claim the whole pie. Slippery slope Richard.
How many things can go wrong for Richard to start the season? I guess the guy just can't catch a break. I was a little interested in why we are listening to Shota. Has anything she said ever come true? She was wrong when she first appeared, wrong about Kahlan betraying Richard, etc. At this point, they should probably give her the same kind of credence, that I give to the crazy guy on the street that I pass on the way to work that tells me all about the crazy pigeon conspiracy. I just say that I take it under advisement. Seems to me Richard is doing just fine, but that's just this humble blogger's opinion.
It was great to see Kahlan get all catty because Richard wants to hang out with Cara. Time to start employing those convenient waterfall showers, Kahlan. I didn't really buy the Mord Sith conspiracy. The whole Triana character just didn't do it for me. At first she challenges Cara, then doesn't, then listens to Darken Rahl's water ghost and does again. Finally, she refuses to kill Cara when Darken Rahl specifically told her to. This comes back to bite her and she meets an unspectacular death. It was also a waste of Charisma Carpenter whom I wanted to see more of.
A couple of shots of beautiful New Zealand that we HD-Pornoriffic. I also noticed some new music that they definitely went for. I guess the Emmy award money can come in handy.
Richard and Kahlan Romance Index: 2 out of 10.
Nothing really happened to advance their relationship. A couple of glances towards Richard I guess. There was also the wince-inducing conversation with Rachel about marriage. What kid asks that? Kahlan's cattiness didn't work either. Was she seriously planning to confess Cara for no reason?
Zedd's Creepiness Factor: 4 out of 10.
Zedd also has a freezing power. Thanks for using that last year Zedd. Though I can't really think of when it would have come in useful but I'm sure they could have found a time. His creepy tryst with Shota came up again. Also I love how indignant he got that his daughter might have been with Panis Rahl. We've met a bunch of weirdos that he's gotten with. Like father like daughter.
Notable Quotes:
Richard: "This happened when I killed Rahl. When the Boxes of Orden exploded."
Zedd: "Wizard's Second Rule: The greatest harm can come from the best intentions."
Richard: "Darken Rahl is dead. The war is over. Lay down your arms or you will feel my sword."
D'haran Commander: "We have not come to fight my lord. Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours."
Shota: "We're all relying on the Seeker. But not Richard Rahl. It is written in the halls of Prophecy that Richard Rahl will fail in his quest to defeat the Keeper."
Cara: "If you're foolish enough to turn down the throne of D'hara, then you need me all the more."
Richard:"What about Aydindril?"
Kahlan: "I'll get there... When all this is over... But as long as you're still the Seeker... you need your confessor by your side. "
Editor's Note: Have your own favorite quote from the episode? Did we forget to mention your favorite moment and now you're angry? Leave it in the comments and we'll update with the best of. Like the blog? Sign up to receive our Feed through Feedburner.
6 comments:
Maybe you can clear up some questions i have
1. Is Cara the Mord Sith a lesbian, are all of them lesbians, because I am assuming that they do not have children of their own, though i'm sure childbirth would feel like a slight headache to them.
2. Shota has never been of any real help in the past.. do you think it's possible that Darken Rahl materialized as Shota or it really is her spewing educated guesses as usual.
I really liked your take on the episode :)
Thanks for writing!
1. I don't think Cara is a lesbian because of the palpable sexual tension between her and Richard. I don't think that all of the Mord Sith are lesbians though some might be. I kind of saw the kiss between Cara and Triana as a show of dominance by Cara. Not much sexual about it.
2. There's nothing really to suggest that Darken Rahl is controlling Shota. However, Shota is just doing what she usually does and that is looking out for herself. She doesn't really care about the Seeker and the gang with exception of Zedd.
I really like Cara, she gives the whole story some sarcastic touch. It will be pure joy to see her and Kahlan around Richard!
Has anyone noticed that Panis Rahl is not dead? Do we get some "Star Wars" - I'm your father thing here?
Btw.. I like your comments on this show! They are hilarious!
When it comes to Shota...all her visions have actually come to past...Richard states in one of the episode that although they are true, they can be diverted....Her first vision was that Richard would die, so she switched him and someonw else so that the death would be diverted even though it did almost happen....Zed address this at the end of the episode by saying "the spell lasted long enough to save richards life".
And Kahlan did betray richard by leaving him...causing him to be captured and tortured by Deanna...this is also addressed at the end of the episode when Khalan says: it would seem the greatest betray is leaving your side"
And in the episode when she turned the king into that monster, her vision was correct because the castle was attacked and horded just like she saw.
Though Shota is NEVER direct and to the point in some ways she is always right, in the episode where we first meet her she says she "shows one of many possible futures"...her visions are usually right but can be easily diverted.
Thanks for writing!
I agree that she has some ability to peer into the future. However, if her visions can be easily averted, then they don't always come to pass. Richard never dies nor does the person she masks as Richard. Furthermore, it isn't clear that if she had never meddled that this vision would have come to pass.
It feels like most of her directions are just general observations that only make sense post fact. She goes into great deliberations to explain how what she actually saw happened. It all goes back to the predestination argument. If something that is destined to happen doesn't happen, then was it ever really destined to happen?
In either case, I still claim that the gang should just take her ideas under advisement and move on.
Well, Shota did explain once that visions and prophecies are two different things.
The visions show possible futures. They can be averted,like in the episode Identity.
Prophecies can't. That Kahlan would betray Richard was a prophecy and did come true. That Richard would fail in his quest is also a prophecy.
Now, I believe that though prophecies come true, they don't always occur in the way you expect it to. So I agree with Misha that "most of her directions are just general observations that only make sense post fact."
Of course this prophecy's pretty straight forward. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.:)
In the books Richard is wise enough to plainly ignore visions and prophecies.
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