[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers from The Wheel of Time Season 1 Episode 8, “The Eye of the World,” so unless you can channel even the slightest bit, better turn back until you’ve caught up.]
The first season of Prime Video’s Nielsen-shattering, top-debuting original epic has come to a close and the only thing left to do is gather the dead and regroup for the next fight. Because as we found out after Dragon Reborn Rand (Josha Stradowski) seemingly destroyed the Dark One at the Eye of the World (which turned out to be a dank hole in the Blight), this was not the end of the battle…it was just the beginning.
There were other unexpected events along the way, some pivotal changes from the path of the Robert Jordan books and a huge hint as to what’s coming in Season 2. So, we went to the source (sorry, Moiraine) for the whole story. Here, showrunner Rafe Judkins clears up a few things that just went down.
OK, so here we are at the end and what we think is going to be this epic battle between The Dark One and Rand, but really, the epic battle is on the front at Tarwin’s Gap. I have so many questions….
Rafe Judkins: OK, OK. OK. [Laughs]
When Rand vanquishes The Dark One…and we see his face as he’s evaporating, The Dark One kind of smirks.
Does he? [Laughs] I mean, I think it’s an interesting thing to notice, Damian.
There were a couple of deaths that I was not expecting. And I’m guessing they’re probably not in the early books, because Loial (Hammed Animashaun), like, he’s just beloved!
He is beloved. And I think that you should always keep a little bit of skepticism of anyone you don’t see breathe their last breath on screen. Yeah, some of those folks that are in the finale that are in dire straights are still coming back to us in Season 2. I won’t say which ones.
But Lady Amalisa has to be dead, right? I mean, she just fried.
[Laughs] She is pretty dead on screen. I think you can count her dead.
As is her brother?
I mean, you see him get stabbed with a spear. It’s a tough thing he’s up against there at the end of the season.
Yeah, it’s a wall! Now, you certainly had some fun playing “Hide the Padan Fain.”
We talked a lot about how to seed them through and decided to go for a super subtle version of it, believing that everyone would pick up on it regardless. I’m happy we did, because I think some people have picked up on all of it, and people who missed it will maybe see it on the second or third time through. I think some people have discovered all of them now.
And Padan Fain — played by Johann Myers — is pretty bad.
I mean, in the books he gives you that creepy-crawly feeling because he was like one of us at the beginning. He’s in the Two Rivers, he’s part of the crew. And since we have limited screen time with him this season, we wanted to still give the audience that feeling of betrayal that you see from Perrin [Marcus Rutherford]) when he’s talking to him. Like, “You were part of us and you did this to us!” That’s I think what is the darkest part of Padan Fain and why people love to hate him so much in the books: He is there right in the village with them, bringing them his wares to peddle every year. So I think hopefully that still comes across in the show.
And has he known all along that they are the five focal points? Or is he discovering this as it’s going on?
You’ll learn more about it in Season 2, but we’re sticking to the book’s story with what Padan Fain knew and how he knew it and why the Trollocs were even there in the first place. I think he says that in the finale, as you realize that he’s the reason everything happened in Episode 1.
They weren’t there to kill them, but to gather them up.
Exactly. And there’s a reason Nynaeve [Zoë Robins] was dragged away by her Trolloc, instead of killed by her Trolloc. That kind of stuff, we tried to seed a lot of that in there. You never see any of the Trollocs
Oh interesting, OK. Now, Fal Dara: There were so many the places the kids hit in the books, I know that. But you’ve curated that and chosen ones for the show that have been really fascinating. We’re not done with Fal Dara, correct?
No. I mean, the Borderlands and Fal Dara and Shienar end up playing a role the whole way through the books. So we really wanted to set up that world and this world of the Borderlands and what it means really clearly in this season. We kind of have the Two Rivers, traveling time, the White Tower and Fal Dara. And we could do just those four places. So the reason we chose Fal Dara to be one that we really committed to was to get more about Lan’s [Daniel Henney] backstory, to understand the Borderlands… like, there are people in the world who do know what Trollocs are and that they’ve been fighting them for a long time. They are much more familiar with the Dark because it’s much closer at their doorstep, so to speak.
I want to know more about their culture.
Yeah, those areas, especially Shienar, are a much more male-driven, kind of militaristic culture than we’ve seen in other places. But Amalisa still provides this complement to her brother. We’ve amped that up a little bit from the books in the show, so she certainly has more to do in the show than she did in the books, but that was mainly because in the books, Rand kind of does everything at the end. He fights Ba’alzamon at the Eye of the World and then teleports and incinerates all the Trolloc in Tarwin’s Gap. So he does all of those things.
Everything we’re doing in Season 1 is about trying to make it an ensemble piece because the books as a whole are an ensemble piece. So we’re trying to split out the ending that Rand had in Book One and give parts of that to some of the other characters. That’s what we did with the Myneave-Egwene [Madeleine Madden] story.
Moiraine [Rosamund Pike] being cut off from the Source…
This is new.
I’m assuming that means a return to the White Tower for her?
You’re assuming. [Laughs]
Gotcha! And the final scene…
The Seanchan! The books fans will know when they see that group at the end, they should know the Seanchan are a big piece of Book 2 and this is our nod to what’s to come next season. You’ll spend a lot more time with those folks.
They are seafarers, so how does that impact your production?
I mean, we built a ship for them that we can use the front of. So we have that. And in a really nice way, since you don’t see the ocean at all in Season 1, it gives us a great new visual for Season 2. You see a lot more of the sea. I think it’s a really nice visual complement for the show.
What is their connection to all of this?
Yeah, you’ll have to watch and find out on that one. I like the Seanchan storyline because it basically sideswipes you in Book Two and you’re just like, “Wait, I thought I knew what this story was about” and then the Seanchan come in, slap you in the face and turn what you thought the books were upside down. And we wanted to do that same thing in the show. So I think that they will surprise a lot of people in Season 2 with exactly what they get up to and how deep they get into the story and how fast.
Nice. And you threw everyone for a curve by not having Mat [Barney Harris] go through the Ways and you have Donal Finn stepping into the role next year. What does that mean for Mat? Because this is a divergence from the story.
Yeah, well it is leading towards a story that Mat has in — I don’t know if I should say this — but it’s a story Mat has in Book Three. He has a story where he’s engaged in certain ways at the White Tower. I don’t want to say too much about it. But it’s actually leading towards a story that he has in the books.
Sweet. And finally, what would you say is the biggest risk you took with this finale?
I think the biggest risk we took, it’s either splitting the characters up — in the books, they all go to the Eye of the World together — or what Ba’alzamon does to Moiraine. That will probably be the biggest conversation point.
The Wheel of Time, Season 1, All Episodes Streaming Now, Prime Video
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