The Wheel of Time 3×08 Review: “He Who Comes With The Dawn”

Season finale “He Who Comes with the Dawn” has a bunch of satisfying moments that are overshadowed by a controversial death.

Despite the penultimate episode “Goldeneyes” focusing on Perrin (Marcus Rutherford), we don’t get to see what happens to him after turning himself in to the Whitecloaks. Instead, season finale “He Who Comes with the Dawn” splits its time between the remaining storylines. While there are many great moments in the finale, the final casualty of the season brings a lot of controversy to the series and its still uncertain future.

Upon learning that Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe) has been haunting Egwene’s (Madeleine Madden) dreams, Rand (Josha Stradowski) ends his relationship with her and teams up with Egwene to banish her from their dreams. Seeing Rand and Egwene team up together against Lanfear is enjoyable to watch, even if their relationship is likely over for good. Lanfear is infuriated by Rand’s rejection and has a newfound desire to stop Rand and his plans.

In Tanchico, Mat (Donal Finn) and Nynaeve (Zoe Robins) find Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood) and go with Elayne (Ceara Coveney), Min (Kae Alexander), and Thom (Alexandre Willaume) to retrieve the bracelet that Moghedien (Laia Costa) stole from them. In one of the episode’s weirdest moments, Mat gets sucked into a parallel doorway where he meets a strange creature Eelfinn (Robert Strange) that offers him three wishes. Mat returns to the other side hung from a noose in the doorway, but Min revives him. Once he regains consciousness, he realizes that he has lost the voices that had been haunting him, but unfortunately seems to have lost some other memories as well.

Meanwhile, Elayne has an interesting exchange with Thom, as he reveals that he knows quite a bit about her and warns her that her mother’s consort is working with the Dark One. Nynaeve also confronts Liandrin, which ends with Nynaeve chained and thrown to the bottom of the nearby river. In one of the episode’s most satisfying moments, Nynaeve regains her blocked powers and saves herself from drowning by parting the river. However, the Tanchico storyline feels unresolved as there are no further moments between the group other than a shot of them sailing away.

Resigned to her fate of potentially dying that day, Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) has a great conversation with Rand as they come to an understanding and resolve their disagreements. Rand finally realizes that Moiraine has always been on his side, and he goes to reveal himself to the Aiel people while Moiraine and Lan (Daniel Henney) confront Lanfear.

The most devastating storyline of the episode happens at the White Tower, where Elaida (Shohreh Aghdashloo) successfully usurps Siuan (Sophie Okonedo) from the Amrilyn Seat. Not satisfied with merely stripping Siuan of her power, Elaida and her ally have her beaten, accuse her of being a Darkfriend, and ultimately kill her. Siuan makes an impassioned speech revealing her love for Moiraine and how they need to do the right thing and help the Dragon Reborn with his mission, but it ultimately doesn’t change her already decided fate. Okonedo shines with the material that she’s given, and it’s unfortunate that we won’t get to see more of her or her relationship with Moiraine.

While my first instinct is to label Siuan’s death as another example of the “Bury Your Gays” trope, I understand that the context here is more complicated as Siuan is a character that ultimately dies much later in the books, and Okonedo wanted to exit the series. The Wheel of Time has done a great job incorporating a diverse cast, and thankfully there are other queer characters on the show despite Siuan’s unfortunate loss.

However, the optics of the one of the most brutal deaths of the series being a queer black woman looks terrible, particularly in today’s current climate. The series creators clearly know how much Siuan and the other queer characters mean to the audience, and the decision to drag out the moment and show Siuan’s severed head is unnecessary and downright cruel to a marginalized group of fans. In addition, post-episode interviews where creators mention the trope while defending the decision to use the trope remain a frustrating trend.

Because of the shocking and brutal nature of Siuan’s death, it’s hard to enjoy the triumph of Rand proving himself to the Aiel people over an imposter by bringing rain to the desert or Moiraine surviving and defeating Lanfear after sensing Siuan’s death. The lasting images of Siuan’s death and Moiraine’s subsequent grief overshadow the ending of an otherwise triumphant finale, “He Who Comes with The Dawn.”

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Here’s Farid’s recap/review of the finale on The Geekiary YouTube channel.

Author: Jessica Wolff

Jessica Wolff is a graduate of Drexel University with a BS in Film/Video. She has a passion for entertainment and representation in entertainment. She currently resides outside of Washington, DC.

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