Wheel of Time: A Taste of Solitude Show Only

September 1, 2023 9:10 AM - Season 2, Episode 1

Moiraine, Lan, Nynaeve, Egwene, Perrin, and Mat find themselves more alone than ever.

There is an excellent recap of Season 1 that does not spoil Season 2 here. [Youtube 19min 20 seconds].

Note: The character of Matt Cauthon was played by Barney Harris in Season 1 - but the actor had to leave the series. The character has been recast for season 2 with actor Dónal Finn in the part.

Avoid the Amazon Prime official Youtube recap, it's minimal viable product, boring, missing information, and contains spoilers for Season 2.

posted by Faintdreams (9 comments total)

Ooh wish I'd seen that recap before I watched the episode. Maybe should watch it next.

Did the episode seem rather slow to anyone else? Probably I shouldn't have watched it so tired, late at night, but could not bring myself to wait.

First reactions: Poor Lan! And Red Ajah baddie, stay away from our Nynaeve!
posted by Coaticass at 7:10 PM on September 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Just rewatched season 1 ep 1 in preparation for this, and it was so good. Glad season 2 finally rolled around, and I'm looking forward to watching it.
posted by natteringnabob at 7:48 PM on September 1, 2023

Did the episode seem rather slow to anyone else?

Appropriate, noo?
posted by sammyo at 8:35 AM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Oh!
It's the ornate doors and windows and benches and chairs and tables and unattended bits of wall show!

I read all the books, I enjoy this retelling of the story and the acting etc, but... Those sets!!
posted by Acari at 8:34 PM on September 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

This was a good episode but I wish I had done more to refresh my memory before watching, especially as I feel like I've gotten bits of the Rings of Power series mixed up with it now. I'm glad with the Mat reveal, I thought they were just going to write him out somehow but recasting is a much better choice. Also boo to Liandrin for editing out mention of Mat from Perrin's letter. What's her game here and what is Mat doing behind that cupboard? Is he going to pull his own Shawshank Redemption escape?

How was Moiraine able to channel at the end? That is what was happening before they got saved right?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:31 PM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

> It's the ornate doors and windows and benches and chairs and tables and unattended bits of wall show

That's how I tell it apart from all the other shows I'm watching that feature women with ridiculously long hair, wearing floor-length dresses made from beautiful fabric, standing in ruined buildings, waving their hands around to do magic: the doors, so many doors.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:49 PM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yeah, is there some kind of conspiracy to create recaps that cover like 90% of what nobody's asking? "Wait, why doesn't she have her magic? who's this guy? why are they pining for someone else? Like, have we seen him at all? Wait, is she bad or just ruthless?" etc etc etc. Instead the recap seems to cover a while bunch of flashy scenes that don't seem to tie into anything that we're about to see in the first episode of the season. Writers / editors, please take a step back and have normal people help out?

It's sort of wild to me, still, in these modern 10 episode seasons, how there can be so much going on that recaps have been almost universally useless this season when there's only so much plot to re-cover.
posted by Kyol at 12:18 PM on September 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Whewwww, if they wrote Mat out there would be such a riot amongst the fans
posted by Jacen at 6:29 PM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

The recasting seems not so bad - even with the “previously” scenes it’s not too jarring. I suppose it helps that he hasn’t been doing too much and doesn’t have anyone he needs chemistry with or anything like that.
posted by corb at 5:33 PM on October 9, 2023