When this episode began, I worried that it was going to be one of those “false reality” episodes. You know what I’m talking about — the hero wakes up in a nightmarish version of his world that is obviously not real but that we must nevertheless endure for a whole hour. Fortunately, “Perdition” didn’t stick to the formula. We learned early on that Richard was stuck in the Valley of Perdition, and thankfully we didn’t have to spend too much time in his false reality. Instead, the episode wrapped up Sister Nicci’s story from last week and the Cara-Leo story as well. The question is, how successfully were the stories resolved?
As I learned from your comments last week, many of you who have read Stone of Tears do not like Jolene Blalock as Sister Nicci because she doesn’t look or act like the character in the book. I’m guessing you probably hated this week’s episode too. A lot of the focus was on Kahlan because of the new prophecy that the Keeper would not be victorious as long as the Mother Confessor lives. This created a scenario for Sister Nicci to go after Kahlan with the powers that she stole from Richard.
Here’s what I don’t get: if Sister Nicci was in possession of the most powerful Han in the world, how could she possibly fail to kill Kahlan? Come on. I was also getting tired of that ridiculous Prelate, constantly lying and manipulating everyone. I was hoping that Sister Verna would leave that blade in her.
The most disappointing thing about the story line was that there was no indication that Richard got his Han back after Nicci was destroyed. Richard needs his Han! How cool was it to see him throw wizard’s fire at the baneling army? I want to see him become a wizard and do wizardly things with Grandpa Zedd. (Speaking of Z, I wish they would make better use of him – he’s been relegated to the background lately.)
There are a couple good things about this story line. 1) The action scenes were pretty cool (maybe a bit heavy on the slo-mo). 2) Since Nicci went up in flames, if the writers ever decide to bring the character back, she can be reincarnated as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed chick in keeping with the book’s description.
The Cara-Leo story came to a nice conclusion. After all the flirtation, Cara finally jumps Leo (did you like that scene?). It takes some girl talk with Kahlan, but she eventually musters the emotional maturity to admit her feelings for him. I knew Leo would have to die so that Richard could become the Seeker again, but I still felt sorry for him and for Cara.
You know what I really appreciate about the depiction of Leo’s death? They actually showed his blackened corpse. I hate it when a character meets a gruesome end, but all we see on the body is a little splotch of blood and some dirt. I appreciate the attempt at realism — since Leo was burned to death, he’s not going to make a pretty corpse.
So, what did you think of “Perdition”? Leave a comment, and let me know!
Clacked by Ruby T.
on Jan 30, 2010 @ 22:08 EST5EDT
Perdition was one of the best episodes in my opinion, mainly because it was very touching. I think almost all of the episodes in season 2 were awesome. I never finishd the second book so I wouldn’t know what Sister Nicci is supposed to be like. But, I did enjoy Richard using Wizard’s Fire. It was way too sad seeing Leo getting burned. It was real touching when Cara finally said, ‘I do care about you.’ And I was looking for later episodes, and there is one called ‘Hunger’ which is 2 episodes later, Cara dies and becomes a baneling. However, Zedd seeks help to cure her. I heard from somewhere that some guy named Sebastion is supposed to have a cure for banelings?!
i’m about a 3/4 of the way through this episode but i wanted to comment & say this episode just further screws with the books. excuse my language, but they really need to stop fucking up the story so much.
sorry, but i’m finding it extremely hard to think of the books & series separately.
I enjoyed the episode, but I too was annoyed with the Prelate and I did not like the Cara/Leo pairing no matter how short-lived it was. I haven’t read the books so I have the pleasure of not having to compare the two.
wow chrisotfrr, thanks for the fricking spoiler… !@#$#@!@#$%%#@%^!^@##$!@ what the hell
“The most disappointing thing about the story line was that there was no indication that Richard got his Han back after Nicci was destroyed.”
Agreed. I wonder how likely it is now that he will ever get his powers back. That would be a terrible writing decision if he doesn’t.
“Since Nicci went up in flames, if the writers ever decide to bring the character back, she can be reincarnated as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed chick in keeping with the book’s description.”
That would be a really bad thing to do. We already have one person reincarnated in another body: Dennee.
Yes. I was just being facetious.
I don’t mind the way Jolene Blalock looks because I haven’t read Stond of Tears yet, but her acting in some places is just so bad. When she’s tortured and chained by the Prelate and she says, “You will regret this!” I just can;t help but laugh and embarrassed. But she’s hot and I do like all of her scenes in the episode.
I know what some people may have been annoyed with the Prelate but I find myself sympathizing with her. Most of her entire live (600 years) has been devoted to the sisterhood and the prophecies. To her they’re not just silly writing on a wall and from what we have seen on the saw everything that has been written has come to pass. If you think about it she has fate and prophecy on her side and it makes our heroes look pretty silly thinking they can shape their own destinies.
“That would be a really bad thing to do. We already have one person reincarnated in another body: Dennee.”
Don’t remind us!
So by the shows explanation of the Palace’s time spell, wouldn’t Anna (Prelate) only be 60 years, even though she’s been around for the equivalent of 600 years outside the Palace? They said that the Palace is spelled so that 1 day there is 10 outside, so in truth, she’s really lived only 60 years inside the Palace. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t equal her really being 600 years old.
They should have kept the original spell from the books where it’s an aging spell & not a time spell. Then she’d really be 600 years old because she would have lived that long. (she’s like 900 years old in the books)
This was a pretty epic episode and it leaves the ground open for either major plot development or epic failure in adapting the books. Still, as an individual episode it was pretty good; the fight scenes were pretty well done and we even got to see a little bit of the human side of Cara…. right up until Leo gets extra crispy and then she shuts down again after the funeral pyre. The debate going on over at https://www.legendseeker.net is pretty fierce about whether or not Nicci should have been disintegrated this early in the show and there are two clear camps on that school of thought.
I didn’t mind Nicci as much this week- I kind of made peace with last week’s episode. HOWEVER the writers killing Nicci while she had Richard’s Han is UNFORGIVABLE!! I’ve said this before- Richard’s power is CENTRAL to the books! He’s a WAR WIZARD and this episode threw out his wizard powers!! They can barely follow the storyline of the books if he doesn’t have his Han anymore. Come ON!!
*deep breath* I still love this show and, hey, maybe this’ll open up some new story lines or something. It still bothers me though!
Hey I’m not sure if my comment went through or not but I’ll just repost. I didn’t mind Nicci this week since I sort of made peace with the last episode (and maybe over-reacted…) but this week the writers killing Nicci while she still had Richard’s Han was UNFORGIVABLE in my eyes. I’ve said this before: Richard’s power is CENTRAL to the books and make up pretty much the whole storyline after the first book. He’s a WIZARD, not like Zedd, but a war wizard, extremely important. I really hope they have something planned to undo this.
I was sad they killed off Leo but I guess we all knew that it had to happen. Cara broke my heart though. I felt like they could have made this story line play out over more than 2 episodes, I mean I think the Sisters of the Light storyline took about a year in the books.
All in all a good episode, just wish Richard got his Han back before Nicci died. (Oh yeah, Nicci dying is pretty weird since she’s also a HUGE part of the books, like Cara.)
Thanks for putting up with my rants, Ruby. :)
I love your rants, Teleholic.
Thanks, and sorry for the double post :)