Kahlan and Cara make a fantastic fighting duo. Their battle scene in this episode really rocked. With Richard whisked away to Wizard School by the Sisters of Light and Zedd in the clutches of Denna, Kahlan and Cara test each other even as they work together to track down the abducted wizard. The humor that results from their interaction is probably the highlight of this episode, which feels scattered because it has so many stories going on at the same time.
Let’s try to sort the stories out.
1) The Stone of Tears still needs to be found in order to prevent the Keeper of the Underworld from killing everybody. That’s the over-arching story arc for this season. It’s been slow going, and I’m concerned that this plot point is losing its urgency.
2) Denna’s story from last week had to be wrapped up. She not only made Richard really mad (that Agiel does sting!) — she made it worse by stealing the magic compass that was guiding his quest and then stealing his grandpa. I guess she had to die eventually, but I was so disappointed with how abruptly it happened. It felt tragic because Zedd was just getting through to her when the arrow burst from her chest.
3) Richard’s agonizing headaches forced him to confront the fact that there is powerful magic inside him. This new story line involves him going with the Sisters of Light to be trained as a wizard. I find this new direction intriguing, but it overshadows the Stone of Tears quest.
4) On the way to the Palace of the Prophets, Richard rescues a couple of villages from a bunch of super-powerful, invisible monsters. “No trouble, ma’am. All in a day’s work.” Fun story, cool creatures (they remind me of the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis), but this is yet another random story line that distracts from the Stone of Tears.
5) While Richard gets his B. A. in Wizardry, Zedd has to name a new Seeker to find the Stone of Tears. We’ll probably see this play out next week.
A couple miscellaneous thoughts:
Clacked by Ruby T.
on Jan 16, 2010 @ 22:51 EST5EDT
Liked the episode a lot.
For once Kahlan could fight for real without getting her white dress all dirty. The darker look really suits her.
Imo the decision to split up the group was a good one. All the time being together helping the poor gets a bit boring, even for the worst doo-gooders.
I am curious what will happen when Zedd names a new seeker. Cara should be leaving to look for Richard, but what about the other two?
I would like to see our favorite Mord-Sith with her master all alone. With Kahlan out of the way, maybe we can see some sparks between them.
The creatures that Richard kills, the Mriswith, is NOT a random story line. It is straight out of the books, including Du’ Challiu. This was actually very well done.
Jolene Blalock is horribly miscast as Sister Nicci – and I have a feeling that next week’s episode is going to suffer greatly for it.
I have only finished reading Wizard’s First Rule, so thanks for the information! Speaking strictly in terms of the show, not the books, the Mriswith felt like a random adventure, although I liked it because it gave more backstory about the wizards and their war. It’s adding to the mythology of the show.
I’m planning to read Stone of Tears, but my library doesn’t have it (unbelievable!). So I appreciate fans of the books sharing your knowledge and opinions.
Of course, fans of the show who haven’t read the books have a different perspective. Since I don’t know anything about Sister Nicci, I’m looking forward to the much-hyped guest role by Blalock. Who knows … it may suck, or it may rock.
“Jolene Blalock is horribly miscast as Sister Nicci” — i agree 150%!!! she’s not even beautiful & they got rid of the blond hair & blue eyes? Whoever this chick is, she doesn’t even come close to what the books describe Nicci as.
“Nicci was an exceptionally beautiful woman who was said to look alike to “a good spirit in the flesh”.[1] She had long blond hair, strong shoulders, and intelligent, piercing blue eyes. Nicci had a soft, silken voice and was always clothed in a fine black dress. She never grinned, though she produced disarmingly subdued smiles.” — taken from the Sword of Truth Wiki
*POST AUTHOR*
I think you may be mistaken. Jolene Blalock is very beautiful. Here’s a photo of her.
The sister in this episode was Sister Verna (played by Alison Bruce), not Sister Nicci.
Oh i know that in this episode it’s Verna. I saw a picture of what Nicci looks like in the show at the link below, & I just don’t think she fits at all.
Oh & Jolene Blalock is ok. I looked at her IMDb page when you mentioned in the article that she plays Nicci & that’s what my initial observations were from. Sorry, but she just doesn’t live up to the character of Nicci.
https://sot.wikia.com/wiki/Nicci
I guess when they cast Jolene Blalock, they thought she was beautiful enough – I mean, she played this super hot Vulcan on Enterprise. At least the Trek fans think she’s gorgeous.
As Pitbull26 said, nothing in this episode is filler of any kind. It’s all in Stone of Tears, even Du Chaillu being a captive of the Majendie for sacrifice when Richard first meets her.
I’m glad they included almost everything that the book had in reference to Richard going with Verna: the 2 sisters dying, the Majendie & Baka Ban/Tau Mana, the mriswiths, & Richard being separated from Zedd, Cara, & Kahlan.
It would be great if they had the location of the Stone of Tears like they did in the book (I won’t reveal it since you haven’t read it Ruby), but it looks like with this compass story they won’t.
Oh yeah, & I LOVED Kahlan in her new outfit. The white dress is nice, but this makes her looks so much more sexier!
I’m really not sure that Denna is actually dead. In fact, I think that there is a really good chance that she is still alive. We don’t really know what became of her after she fell into the water. As I believe Cara said: “We will never find the body.
Like the other commenters here I disagree with the review. I thought that this episode was really strong – maybe the best of the season. The only knock on it for me was Denna’s possible death. I definitely don’t think that the episode was scattered. We were only following two stories: Richard’s journey into another world to be trained as a wizard and Kahlan and Cara’s quest to free Zedd from Denna.
Clarification – I don’t think it’s a bad episode. I do think it’s busy. The episode is crammed full of story.
Rather than scattered and busy, I would call it epic and plot-dense. Each separate storyline is compelling, which only serves to increase the overall urgency as they cut between them.
Denna has both a mystical order and a former master that can raise the dead. There’s nothing preventing the producers from bringing the actress or character back again.
I liked Blalock’s performances both on Enterprise and Stargate SG-1, and think she’ll be a good fit for this show. Changing the character’s physical appearance from the book never bothers me.