This will be our full spoiler review and episode breakdown for The Wheel of Time, Season 3, episode 4. When we say “full spoilers,” we’re including the entire book series, as we will be discussing changes from the books and potential ramifications for the future. If you don’t want plot points from the books that may show up in future episodes and seasons of The Wheel of Time spoiled for you, please read our spoiler-free review of the season instead.
Introduction
We’re at the half-way point of Season 3, and the episode that many fans have been waiting for: Rhuidean. For many book fans, the Rhuidean sequence in The Shadow Rising was a revelation that solidified their love of the books. Can the show do justice to the glass columns and the truth that Rand learns there? This is the episode when we finally find out.
Summary of Episode 304 – The Road to the Spear (written by Rafe Judkins)
En route to Rhuidean, Rand (Josha Stradowski) and Lan (Daniel Henney) are practicing sword forms, and this time, Rand is sharing about his life in the Two Rivers and a handy trick his father taught him: the flame and the void. We learn more about Aiel culture: about gai’shain, how Wise Ones know things, and another hint about what awaits in Rhuidean.
Aviendha (Ayoola Smart) confronts Rand about his use of swords, which are forbidden to Aiel. This leads to a sparring session between Lan and Aviendha, sword vs. spears. Mid-fight, the Wise Ones interrupt, and we learn Aviendha has been instructed to give up her spears and begin her Wise One training, which she has been avoiding. She finally relents and runs into the night to begin her trial.
Rand asks Rhuarc (Björn Landberg) about the coming trial, to which Rhuarc reveals the dragon tattoo and the prophecy that the car’a’carn will be marked twice instead of once.
Finally, the group arrives on a ridge, beyond which we see the fog-shrouded city. The Shaido are already on the slopes, and we meet Sevanna (Natasha Culzac) and Couladin (Set Sjöstrand). Sevanna reveals her husband is dead and his son, her new husband, Muradin (Fredrik Wagner), is in Rhuidean. Rand interrupts to ask to go to Rhuidean; Couladin is not amused, eventually pulling a knife and lunging towards Rand and the Wise Ones. Bair (Nukâka Coster-Waldau) channels to stop him. Egwene (Madeleine Madden) also asks to go to the city and is denied, while Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) asks and is given permission.
We hear the Wise Ones’ instructions to Rand and Moiraine as they walk towards and through the spears left behind by the prospective clan chiefs of the past.
In Rhuidean
Rand and Moiraine enter the city, walking underneath huge statues and through dense fog. Moiraine mentions that she can see threads of the One Power in the fog. They see the Tree of Life, Avendesora. Beneath the tree, Moiraine shares the story of her uncle Laman’s sin and the reason for the Aiel War, and Rand realizes the threads of the Pattern have tied him and Moiraine together since before he was born.
Rand leaves Moiraine and enters a forest of towering glass columns. As he enters, he sees Muradin, frozen ahead of him. Rand is transported into visions, moving further back through his bloodline, seeing the past of the Aiel. Josha Stradowski plays each of his ancestors, in the following order.
Janduin
Rand’s biological father Janduin, discovers Rand’s mother’s dead body on the slopes of Dragonmount after killing King Laman.
Mandein
Mandein is summoned with other Aiel chiefs by a much older Latra Posae Decume (Ania Marson) to Rhuidean to walk the columns for the first time to learn the truth of why they’re called Oath Breakers by Aes Sedai.
Lewin
Lewin and his friends Charlin (Kiren Kebaili-Dwyer) and Alijah (Ferdinand McKay) live among the caravans, caring for a chora tree cutting and an important relic. After a bandit attack, Lewin is one of the first Aiel to go against the Way of the Leaf and kill. We learn why they look down on swords and why they veil their faces when they kill. Heartbreakingly, Lewin is disowned by his grandfather Adan (Peter Gilchrist) and his mother (Jennifer Steyn).
After the vision of Lewin, Rand passes Muradin, who claws at his own eyes in rejection of the things he’s seeing. Meanwhile, Moiraine, presumably following the threads of the power she sees, finds the Sakarnen hidden in Avendesora. After she pockets it, she walks to find the three rings mentioned by the Wise Ones. Aviendha is suspended in one of the rings, screaming in terror or grief. Moiraine steps through and begins to see possible futures, including her being Amyrlin, her bonding Rand as her warder, her killing Rand, and her swearing fealty to Rand.
We return to Rand in the columns, as he witnesses blood streaming from Muradin’s eyes. He steps forward into the next vision.
Jonai
Jonai is an Aiel who is dedicated to the Way of the Leaf and to the mission given to them by the Aes Sedai. This vision seems to occur in the last days of the Breaking. Disheartened after an attack, some of the other Aiel with him abandon their mission and move south, looking for a place they can sing the song of harvest again. Jonai refuses, and he and his grandson Adan (Atom Uniacke) press on with their chora sapling after burying Adan’s mother, a Dreamwalker who dreamed of the Three Fold Land.
Unnamed ancestor
An unnamed Aiel is leaving Paaren Disen during the Breaking of the World. He and other Aiel are given a mission by Latra Sedai (Katie Brayben) to take cuttings of chora trees, along with the Sakarnen, across the Spine of the World. Latra has all the Aiel swear an oath to keep to the Way of the Leaf.
Charn
Rand’s final vision is of Charn, an Aiel who works alongside Mierin Sedai (Natasha O’Keeffe). From a floating spherical building, they watch his family harvest the field. Mierin believes she has discovered a new power, one that can be used by men and women: the True Power. Charn returns to his family, to sing their song of harvest. We watch as the floating building Mierin is in is destroyed by this new power while the sky cracks apart. Mierin, on her way to becoming Lanfear, has torn open the Dark One’s prison and the world will never be the same.
The trial completed, Rand collapses in the sand and dragon tattoos appear on both arms. He finds Aviendha, but she leaves to return to the others while Rand waits under Avendesora for Moiraine.
We see one last glimpse of Moiraine’s visions, a flurry of terrifying sequences where she is hunted down and killed by Lanfear. One future in particular seems especially clear: Lanfear striking down Moiraine in the desert.
Finally, we cut back to the Aiel camp where Egwene and Lan are worrying about Rand and Moiraine and we learn they have been gone for seven days.
As the sun dawns, Rand carries Moiraine out of the city, crossing the line of abandoned spears to reunite with Lan and Egwene. The scene has no dialogue, but plenty of emotion. What is next, now that Rand knows the past and Moiraine knows her future?
Review of Episode 304 – The Road to the Spear
Likes: Speaking very broadly, we loved how much of this episode was straight from the books and how well it all worked onscreen. At many points the characters might have popped right out of the pages of The Shadow Rising, rather than reciting from a script. While we fully realize it’s impossible to cut and paste book scenes into a television show, we were thrilled to see how well it was done here.
One aspect that book fans really missed from earlier seasons was Lan training Rand to use a sword. This season is definitely making up for lost time as we were treated to another scene of Lan and Rand training and, even more importantly, talking. (Communication? In my Wheel of Time?!) There was even a mention of the flame and the void.
This episode is our first deep dive into Aiel culture, and it was portrayed with care and depth. We could write paragraphs about all the details here – the dragon tattoos, Wise Ones channeling with a flick of the wrist, the Shaido making an impression immediately (including Sevanna, whose outfit was a delightfully book-accurate level of extra), Aviendha’s tear-inducing acceptance of her new life path, and of course the truth of the Aiel War and the history of the Aiel.
And in Rhuidean, the focus remained on the Aiel – other than a roughly three minute interlude to hint at Moiraine’s experience, once Rand enters the columns, the spotlight is on his journey for over thirty minutes. This marked departure from the show’s typical ensemble model serves as a reminder of just how important this moment is for the story. Each vision is carefully written, shot, and directed to show exactly what needs to be conveyed. They are packed with heartfelt moments like the parallels between our ta’veren trio and Lewin, Charlin and Alijha. There are no filler scenes here, no quippy comedy or flashy action sequences, just the tragically human story of a culture who has strayed so far from their origin, and whose true history is nearly lost to time. It’s a concept that’s integral to Robert Jordan’s writing – this exploration of identity, why history fades to myth and legend, how all stories have a beginning.
The story of the Aiel could not have been done justice without a perfect marriage of writing, cinematography, directing, music and sound, VFX, costumes, set design, and the list goes on. There are so many stunning shots and camera angles in this episode that we lost count – from the transitions between Rand and his vision selves, to the spinning camera in Moiraine’s journey through the rings, to the Sharom fracturing and exploding, this episode was an absolute visual treat. Rhuidean was the perfect blend of eerie and ancient and awe-inspiring. Absolute hats off to the entire production team.
Dislikes: In an episode this strong, there is not much to dislike. But there are a few moments we wish were stronger. While we loved the visual presentation of Moiriane’s visions and marveled over the time and care put into filming so many different shots that only appear for a few seconds on screen, seeing Lanfear kill Moiraine in the exact same setting in the desert one too many times diminished the impact for us. We also wish we could have seen Jeordam’s story where we witness the birth of the Maidens of the Spear, especially after Ila’s story in Season 1. And this is not exactly a dislike, but a point of possible confusion: other than a line about seeing threads of the One Power in the fog, no explanation was given as to how Moiraine knew the Sakarnen was hidden in Avendesora. (On the other hand, we do like that the hiding place in the Age of Legends was also carved to look like the Tree.)
We also anticipate that the immersion might be broken for some viewers who pause to ask how Rand’s bloodline continued on after some of the very dire situations we saw. It’s a question with many possible answers, all that would take away from the immediate story, so we understand why time wasn’t spent on addressing it. However, we do acknowledge that it is something that will make people wonder.
Finally, while this doesn’t qualify as a dislike, as book readers, we worry show-only viewers may not fully grasp the significance of the Rhuidean reveals since the amount of time spent with the Aiel has been relatively minimal thus far. This is the only potential downside, in our opinion, of reordering the Tear/Callandor plot. However, in our experience, the show has done a very good job conveying the important things to non-readers, so we hope this concern turns out to be unfounded.
Book to Screen Comparisons
Mat: The most obvious change to the Rhuidean sequence is that Mat does not accompany Rand and Moiraine in the show. However, we’ve already spotted a certain redstone doorframe in the Thirteenth Depository, and Min’s episode three vision of Mat hanging from said doorframe points towards him having some variation of his journey to Finnland in the show.
Rhuidean Columns: While the essence of the Rhuidean visions is the same, there were a few modifications. Notably, Rand does not see through his father Janduin’s eyes in the books, but we found this was a completely understandable change; Tigraine’s stunning fight sequence in season one received near-universal praise from book readers and show-only fans alike, and showing the aftermath of that scene from Janduin’s perspective provides an emotional anchor for the start of Rand’s journey back through time. Close watchers may notice that Tigraine and Janduin have similar fighting styles.
We see Latra hand over the Sakarnen to one of Rand’s ancestors in a vision. This is not from the books, but does connect the Sakarnen more clearly to the plots already present in the season, namely Lanfear mentioning it to Rand as a way to break her oaths.
Mandein’s vision is slightly changed but still shows the beginning of the tradition of clan chiefs visiting Rhuidean to learn their history. In the show, they are leaning on the theme of “oathbreaking” which comes up in this vision as well as others.
We do not see the visions of Rhodric or Jeordam. We would have liked to see the birth of the Maidens of the Spear. Instead of Adan’s vision, we see Jonai experience the Tuatha’an split from Da’shain Aiel, blending Adan’s vision with Jonai’s vision of wandering. In the show, Adan is Jonai’s grandson and Lewin’s grandfather.
Later, we see Jonai leave Paaran Disen with his partner after receiving the quest from Latra Sedai. Instead of wagons of relics, she hands him the Sakarnen. The Aiel leave paradise in 10,000 wagons with chora saplings.
We do not see Someshta or the murder of Charn. We do see Charn with Mierin, and see him witness the drilling of the Bore as the Sharom explodes over the field he and his family are harvesting and singing in.
Rhuidean Rings: In the books, we don’t see anything from Moiraine’s point of view during her trip to Rhuidean, but we do get a glimpse in the adaptation. The essence of what she saw is the same, as in the books Moiraine later writes Rand a letter explaining that she knew, and welcomed, her fate at the docks in Cairhien.
Callandor and Sakarnen: As indicated in the previous episode, the show is simplifying and streamlining the sa’angreal. Instead of having two powerful male sa’angreal – Callandor and the male Choeden Kal – it seems there is now just one that is considered the most powerful: Callandor. The Sakarnen is likely to take the place of the female Choeden Kal.
Final Thoughts
Rhuidean is one of the most iconic sequences from the entire book series, with sky-high levels of fan expectation to match. For a showrunner, adapting something this universally beloved within a fandom is a near impossible task, especially given time and budget restraints. Showrunner Rafe Judkins remarked to Nerdist that the Rhuidean episode was “either going to be the most beloved or the most hated episode of Wheel of Time,” but we’re happy to say that we all loved the episode. Judkins and his team have pulled it off. This is by far our highest average rating of an episode to date, earning a collective score of 4.94 out of five.
This is a moment when our words have run out, and we’re content to simply remember the feeling of watching the sun rise over Rand al’Thor emerging from the fog of Rhuidean, Moiraine in his arms, while pinching ourselves and realizing that this really just happened.
In “The Road to the Spear”, The Wheel of Time has arguably produced one of the greatest episodes in fantasy TV history.
Ratings
(Due to the bar being raised so high this season, we found it difficult to rate episodes with only half or full ratings to choose from. As a result, we have decided to add quarter ratings this season. Ratings are best compared to other episodes of the same season, versus across seasons.)
Episode 4 – The Road to the Spear (Overall: 4.9/5)
Lane: 5/5, Sara: 5/5, Eri: 4.75/5, Omar: 5/5, Cait: 4.75/5
I love books of all kinds and especially Wheel of Time (I even have a tattoo!) I also love video games and building community online. Blue/Brown ajah (don’t make me choose) and Spoiler Gaidin for the show-only crowd. Find me @feelinmyshelf.bsky.social
Lover of fantasy and other geeky goodness.
I'm a longtime SFF fan but Wheel of Time will always be my first love. I want to call myself Green Ajah, but--let's be real--I'm probably a Brown. In my spare time I enjoy cooking, writing, and getting lost in the wilderness.
Rhuidean…Wow…so remarkably well crafted…from page to screen everything I had imagined when reading before my eyes. Incredible performances cinematography writing …if this episode does not win multiple awards what is the point of them. How can decision makers see this and not greenlight seasons 4-8!
Thank you!
Excellent episode but Mat’s absence was enough of a bother to pause it and dbl check the book storyline. His Rhuidean story arc was a favorite part of the book. I hope they are just reordering it. I don’t think they could’ve fit it in the length of this episode but its absence was felt.