The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Daughter of the Night

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 4, “Daughter of the Night,” reveals what was in that secret letter Lan stole from Moiraine and introduces us to another member of the Forsaken.

Unfortunately for Rand, the woman he has fallen for, Selene, is not who she claims to be, but on the bright side, he and Moiraine have been reunited!

It is a relief that Selene/Lanfear has ulterior motives because her and Rand’s storyline has been boring. We’ve been biding our time watching their scenes, waiting for something to happen to bring him back into the fold, and Selene does deliver that.

As for Selene herself, there’s no need to delve further into whether everything between her and Rand was an act or genuine.

It’s seemingly inconsequential to the narrative. There’s not a chance that somehow Rand will abandon everything he knows and switch sides to be with her (and it’s doubtful she’d turn good), and that’s the only way spending more time on their relationship would matter.

The Forsaken twist is cool, but it doesn’t cause us to be more invested in her and her story.

Now, there is one character who, after the events of this episode, I’d love to continue to explore her motives and follow around more — Liandrin.

We learn that Liandrin reached out to Ishamael to help Min get rid of her visions, suggesting that Liandrin’s a member of the Black Ajah and serves the Dark One. It’s a fascinating twist that has the potential to cause so much chaos once everyone (or at least Moiraine) learns about it.

While Liandrin has been anything but trustworthy, she was slowly worming her way into our good graces through her scenes with Nynaeve, before her attacking Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne, of course.

Now, everything she’s done is being brought into question, especially her scenes with Nynaeve. Did Liandrin push Nynaeve to undergo the arches trial to prime her for recruitment to the Black Ajah, or does Liandrin have more sinister plans?

Hopefully, The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 5 will feature Liandrin addressing or at least hinting at her motives.

Now, we have to talk about Nynaeve and Egwene and their friendship rift.

The two of them need to sit down and talk through their issues. Their scenes are frustrating because all this tension would be resolved if they would simply take the time to speak to each other. It’s not as if one of them has committed some grave offense to the other one or anything.

Instead, we get Egwene opening up to Elayne about her feelings, while Nynaeve refuses to let Egwene in on what’s going on. Maybe there will be some downtime as they come to after Liandrin’s attack, and the two of them can have a conversation.

Stray Thoughts

• I wonder if/how our original group will ever be in the same place this season, or if the most we’ll get is just a handful of them together again.
• Min and Mat still aren’t the most engaging storyline.
• Moiraine and her sister have quite an unusual dynamic.
• Poor Lan is slightly betrayed by his buddies. Snooping is not nice, but then again, Lan did the same to Moiraine.
• I’m surprisingly invested in Egwene and Elayne’s relationship.
• Do we think Moiraine will ever get access to the One Power again?
• So, is Nynaeve suddenly unblocked from her channeling issues now that she’s an Aes Sedai, or is that not a concern just because she passed the arches trial?

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“Daughter of the Night” is written by Dave Hill and directed by Sanaa Hamri.

What did you think of this episode of The Wheel of Time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of The Wheel of Time release on Fridays on Prime Video.

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