The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 7 Review: Goldeneyes

For the second time this season, we spend the entire episode in one location, following one storyline, which should be a cause for celebration. Unfortunately, The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 7, “Goldeneyes,” is not the time to focus on one singular storyline.

There’s so much happening this season, and all the storylines are heating up because we’re one episode away from the finale.

Rand is on the precipice of destruction after Alsera’s death, and he also just learned that Lanfear has been torturing Egwene. Elayne and Nynaeve survived an encounter with Moghedien, and there’s politicking and schemes afoot at the White Tower.

This makes the decision to devote an entire hour to the battle brewing in the Two Rivers extremely frustrating. The fight between Perrin, trollocs, and the Whitecloaks feels redundant at this point. We’ve been here before.

This occurring during the penultimate episode doesn’t do it any favors either. If The Wheel of Time Season 3 consisted of 10 or 13 episodes instead of 8, then spending Episode 7 in the Two Rivers wouldn’t be as detrimental to the arc of the season overall.

But, that’s not what happens, and whatever momentum The Wheel of Time had going into The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 8, “He Who Comes with the Dawn,” is gone.

If you ignore the placement of it, “Goldeneyes” is not a bad hour of television. The battle scenes keep you on the edge of your seat, multiple characters have some fantastic moments, and Perrin really gets the chance to shine as a hero.

This story just needed to occur somewhere other than the penultimate episode of the season.

The one main gripe with the battle itself is that it features Alanna having yet another near-death experience in the Two Rivers. She almost dies on The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 6, “The Shadow of the Night,” and now she’s on her death bed again. 

It’s hard to be concerned about her when we just went through this whole rigamarole one episode ago. One heartbreaking moment where we think she’s dying is enough.

Alanna being seriously wounded (again) is most likely done to show the seriousness of this battle. It was a gruesome fight that not even an Aes Sedai could walk away from unscathed, so obviously the townsfolk of the Two Rivers are in over their heads. The reasoning behind that decision makes sense, but the show needed to step back and realize that one of her near-death scenes needed to go.

Instead someone else we care about could have been the one to be seriously injured, and the tension could have come from whether or not Alanna would be able to get to that person in time to heal them.

“Goldeneyes” seemingly wraps up Perrin and the others’ storylines for the season. With so much else going on, it seems impossible that they would cross paths with anyone else in the finale.

 Perrin’s ending means that we’re in for another season of him and the Whitecloaks, but perhaps journeying with them to face justice will be more engaging than their other encounters.

Stray Thoughts

• Loial broke my heart. I really love his scenes with Bain and Chiad.
• Also, I’ve come to adore Bain and Chiad and their flirty little game of maiden’s kiss.
• Mat’s sisters are cute.
• It’s very cathartic to watch that one Whitecloak die a painful death.

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New episodes of The Wheel of Time Season 3 air on Thursdays on Prime Video.

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