We start off with our first look at the Whitecloaks, introducing the character of Eamon Valda in a chilling scene that immediately tells us these folks are bad news with very graphic visuals. It's a very effective introduction to a new danger to our heroes. This is a scene unique to the show, but sets up our main characters' encounter with the Whitecloaks later in the episode. That latter sequence replaces the first encounter with the Whitecloaks in the books, which takes place in the town of Baerlon, our heroes' first sample of what civilization outside the Two River is like.
Removing Baerlon from the story is something I kind of expected, but it's nice to see the Whitecloak section of it retained, as it will be important later. (From the trailer, we already know Perrin and Egwene will encounter the Whitecloaks again so it's smart to establish them early on and give weight to the later encounter.) In a deviation from the books, the company commander Geofram Bornhald advises Moiraine to seek out an Aes Sedai for healing. With this, we probably are to infer that, pardon the pun, there are shades of grey to the Whitecloaks and not all of them are like Valda, even if we can also assume Bornhald permitted Valda his eh, barbeque in the opening scene. I enjoyed this more diverse and serious look at the Whitecloaks, and will also add their uniforms are visually quite stunning and impactful. (If perhaps, not very practical. Poor sods doing laundry duty must hate these muddy roads...)
Between these 2 sequences we have the company's flight across the river Taren, where we get our first glimpse at Moiraine's ruthless side and another seed for the mistrust shown in her by the boys later. This is one of the iconic scenes from the first book and I am very happy to see it both retained and given import. What follows is a long trek through the forest, in which we get our first full group interactions. Here I felt the episode suffered a bit, as everyone is unhappy and the conversation drops to unpleasant exchanges, especially between Egwene and Rand. It risks the characters becoming unlikeable. Props for including the dream sequence with [redacted] and the tale of Manetheren though. So far I like the series' choices in 'let's show X now because it'll be important later' moments.
The back half of the episode, somewhat expectedly for me, features the stay in Shadar Logoth. This is our first look at city building in the series and I felt it was another good set design, especially when contrasted with the CG shot of Rand and Egwene looking out over the city. It gives me hope for the truely great cities we will visit later (oddly enough, I am most attached to the secondary locations like Cairhien and Ebou Dar). We do not get the same wide-eyed wonder of the villagers when they first encounter a true city though, and that surprised me a little. The whole Shadar Logoth sequence felt a bit rushed to me in general, playing connect the dots with the essentials: explaining why the city is the way it is, Mat finding the dagger and the attack by (unnamed) Mashadar splitting up the party. Unexpected, given the work that must have gone into the set. I did enjoy the small scene where Mat gifts Perrin his original dagger, another nice example of the obvious friendship between the two of them and Rand. I feel a few scenes like these are a continuous requirement for the series, to prevent the chaotic world events from overwhelming the personal stories of the characters, especially given the pace the story will have to set.
So far the series seems to be keeping pace with my expectations of 'how would you divide book 1 over 8 episodes'. I wonder how long I'll be able to keep saying that...
