#The Wheel of Time Season 1 Episode 8 Review: The Eye of The World

The season finale of The Wheel of Time spun a stressful and intense tale that left many questions.

Thankfully, Amazon already picked The Wheel of Time up for a second season because after The Wheel of Time Season 1 Episode 8, we need more ASAP,

The Eye of The World (the episode and the location itself) presented many challenges for everyone, with a significant number of losses piling up.

The Dragon Reborn faced off against a formidable foe, and the entire city of Fal Dara faced off against the Dark One’s army.

The Trollocs attacked Fal Dara, with Lord Agelmar losing his life for his city.

He took the front lines against the Trollocs and sacrificed himself for the sake of trying to save the rest of the world.

Even though we only knew him for a short time as a character, we admired his bravery and mourned his loss.

However, we didn’t get long to mourn because the entire hour had us on the edge of our seats.

Lord Agelmar’s sister, Lady Amalisa (a channeler who wasn’t strong enough to become an Aes Sedai), led the battle from the secondary lines, channeling other women’s Power.

Egwene and Nynaeve join two other women from Fal Dara to help Power Lady Amalisa’s defense, with the two other Fal Dara women sacrificing their lives.

Elsewhere, Perrin feels useless being unable to help and enlists Loial’s assistance in finding a way to help the city.

This happened while Moiraine and Rand traveled to and reached, The Eye of The World.

On their way to the Eye, the Darkness presented itself to Rand many times, trying to turn him.

A strange man appeared to him in a dream, which added to the pressure of Moiraine and him getting to the Eye quickly.

Lan caught onto Moiriane’s scent thanks to Nynaeve knowing how to track her and started to follow them to the Eye.

The worst thing that happened at the Eye could’ve been Rand’s death or Moiraine’s death — or so we thought.

Neither of them died, but the Man there (NOT the dark one) did something that left Moiraine in an arguably worse state.

The Man took away Moiraine’s ability to channel.

Moiraine got left with no way of channeling or even accessing the One Power. She could feel its presence but could not summon it.

This devastates her and Lan, with their bond still clouded and now stuck that way.

Rand, however, didn’t end up turning to the dark (thankfully) and defeated the Man (or at least got rid of him for the time being).

Instead of heading back to Fal Dara, he admitted to feeling the Darkness start to creep on him after channeling his Dragon abilities and tasked Moiraine to tell everyone he didn’t live.

These characters have gone through emotional hell since the start of their journey, but it seems like that hell was only the beginning.

Moiraine will have to deal with not being able to channel (we hope there’s a way to reverse that), and Rand will have to deal with the madness starting to set in while continuing the fight against the dark.

Then there are the other three main characters we haven’t even gotten to yet, and they had their share of trauma amplified this hour.

Perrin enlisted Loial’s help to aid Fal Dara in the fight, and they helped find the Horn of Valere, which is to be used by the Dragon in the final battle.

While digging up the Horn, Perrin once again saw Padan Fain out of the corner of his eye.

However, this time, he convinced himself that he didn’t imagine it, and he was right, but it was too late.

When he left to find Padan Fain, Fain and two fades entered the main chamber and slaughtered everyone there. Including Loial (slaughtered by Fain himself).

This is not to say that Loial is permanently dead. He better not be. Maybe he’s not even dead.

Padan Fain explained everything to Perrin while taking the Horn and fades.

Perrin got left alone, with many dead bodies, shocked and confused. We want to hug him—a big hug.

Speaking of people being dead and then maybe not being dead, we get to the final stressful storyline of the episode, Lady Amalisa channeling with the other women.

The Trollocs broke through the barrier wall, and the two Fal Dara women had their entire Power drained from them.

Lady Amalisa needed to use more Power, though, meaning Egwene and Nynaeve were next on the list.

As their bodies started to burn up, Nynaeve sacrificed herself by using every last bit of her life force and magic to save Egwene.

Lady Amalisa’s (admittedly very effective and massive) attack launched itself. It took out every single member of the Dark One’s army, saving the city but killing herself (and Nynaeve) in the process.

Lady Amalisa’s body got burnt entirely up, sacrificing her life for the city she loved.

Nynaeve sacrificed her life for Egwene, but then something we never knew could happen — happened.

Seemingly coming from Egwene, we see the One Power being used to heal and revive Nynaeve until she takes a big breath.

Nynaeve lived, and it seemed like Egwene revived her (and until proven otherwise in season 2, we are going to believe that Egwene revived her because that’s badass).

As a non-book reader, this episode did, however, make for the only one that I felt in the dark about a lot of information.

A few descriptions were rushed (like the statue that Moiraine gave Rand), and the opening scene from 3,000 years ago felt weirdly out of place.

The battles all made sense, but explicit references were not explained well, which prevented this episode from reaching a perfect score.

Despite that, the fast-paced intensity of The Eye of The World created a spellbinding finale.

Also, the final scene of Rand channeling? The editing/cinematography was perfect!

The final scenes make for two intriguing plot threads for season two: Mat seemingly has the Darkness amplified within himself while a strange (large) army attacks with powerful summoners. a beach

Thankfully season two got greenlit early, but we don’t know where the plot will go after this.

All of the lead characters went through major emotional trauma throughout this season.

The development of powers and characterizations will only continue in season two, and we hope that the season comes to us quickly!

So Fanatics, what did you think of the Wheel of Time’s first season finale?

Was it as epic as you expected? Were you as stressed as we were?

Sound off in the comments below with your reactions and initial predictions for season 2!

Michael Stack is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.