This might be my standout in terms of episodes that we’ve seen thus far. It’s also, on IMDb one of the lower rated ones. Why, because Blood Calls Blood is a slower episode. However, it is needed. Wheel of Time is not a fast series, and they have rushed some of it up to this point. I think there is some reason for that, like I said, it is slow, but now we finally get to see some more character development and world development all in this epside.

As always, spoilers for the previous Episodes which you can read the non-spoiler reviews of them here.

Blood Calls Blood

Mat and Rand work on completing their journey. But Mat continues to fade with the taint of Shadar Logoth on the dagger that he has. Meanwhile, Lan, Moiraine, and Nyneave work their way towards Tar Valon with the other Aes Sedai. And Stepin struggles with the loss of his Aes Sedai and the pain of that bond breaking. Finally, Egwene and Perrin travel with the tinkerers, trying to decide what to do next when they come across an old face, but not a friendly one.

What Doesn’t Work?

I don’t have a problem with anything, really, in this episode. I think that they do a solid job of creating a story that feels like what I’d expect from the books. Where everyone meets up might be confusing to some people, the characters don’t all get there for a long time. But I think that it works pretty well. It makes sense, though, some of the parts of the book that are more fun are missed because of locations that have been skipped over.

What Works?

Mat and Rand manage to meet up again with one of the more iconic book characters. I won’t spoil who, now, but I will later. And while I think that the look of the character might not be quite right, I do think that they were able to pull off the character well. The mannerisms are great, and the voice work is perfect on this character.

I also think that the stuff with Stepin, the majority of this episode works well. In the book we get conversations of Moiraine and Lan about the connection between a Warder and an Aes Sedai. We know that when an Aes Sedai passes, it’s like part of the Warder passes with them. I’m not sure they nail it perfectly of showing that with Stepin, but they get it very close. And it works as well as it can for the show because in the book it’s conversations, which don’t provide much action.

Final group, I think that Perrin and Egwene’s story works as well. Now, they meet up with an antagonistic group, and not the people they do in the book, but it helps set-up some things. And it shows who the Tinkerers really are, I think the Tinkerers have been portrayed very well. And this is the first real time we get to see some things hinted at from Perrin before.

Final Thoughts on Blood Calls Blood

This feels like The Wheel of Time to me. Yes, there are massive changes that get highlighted in this episode. But I don’t think they weaken the story much. I still have some characters I like a lot that I want to see when they show up. But I feel like we are getting close to seeing some of them, and I’m excited for that.

What I really want to know is how the scenes with Stepin play out for non-book readers? To me, it’s like a lot of the Perrin set-up, I can get why they do it and it makes sense. In this case, it feels much less heavy handed than the Perrin storyline, because the story is given a lot of room to breath throughout the episode. And I like that Nyneave is there to witness it because she’s kind of the audience, not knowing everything.

Like I said, this is probably my favorite episode. I’d give it a 9 out of 10. Did the story need to slow down after a lot of action, I think so. While The Wheel of Time has action in it, and considerable amounts at times, it is a story that builds slowly to action and then slows, and builds again. This feels like one of those building moments as we get to know more of how the world works.

Spoilers

We get to meet Loial. And I was a bit concerned when we did. Now, they nail the setting for Rand and him meeting. And I liked Rand’s reaction Loial. The look is a little bit off, but the mannerisms are just amazing. And the voice is perfect, it is going that slowly and just that thought that is put into everything, and Loial is a hasty Ogier.

I also think, and I couldn’t talk about this too much in the negatives. that they are trying to play the shell game too much with who is the Dragon still. The whole Logain looking as if he was staring down Mat instead of Rand, conversations with Nyneave from the other Aes Sedai. It’s a bit too obvious who they aren’t suggesting might be the Dragon out of the whole group.

And let’s talk a little bit about everyone meeting in Tar Valon instead of Caemlyn. It’s an interesting choice, but I get it. They are trying to limit the massive locations that we need to know right away. And I think it kind of works in that we get to meet Loial, seeing them take Logain there makes sense. For me, it’s a bummer, though, because I love the scenes of Rand trying to see Logain in Caemlyn and just what that leads to. It’s such a great introduction of a few characters. And we miss out on that, though, with the characters being older, I get some of that change in terms of tone.

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