Legend of the Seeker: Bounty

The one with the bounty hunters.

I have a long-held theory that the second episode of any multi-episode television show is always… kinda naff. The writers have thrown everything they’ve got into the premiere: the character introductions, the main premise, the threat the villain poses, the underlying themes and storylines, and enough explosions or swordfights or sex scenes to get the viewer’s attention…

And then the second episode rolls around and they’re in a bit of a slump. Most of the hard narrative work has already been done, but it’s still too early to delve into the deeper nitty-gritty of the plot or world-building.

The episode, almost by necessity, has to be mediocre.

So this episode goes with that tried-and-true archetype of the fantasy/sci-fi genre: the bounty hunter. It’s actually pretty solid world-building that Darken Rahl would immediately promise a reward for the capture/death of the Seeker after hearing of his return, so this feels like an obligatory nod to fantasy realism… at least until we get to the extraordinarily detailed posters of Richard that include the tooth pendant around his neck.

A wizard did it.

Shenanigans ensue: the gang gets caught in Ewok traps, there’s a tavern brawl (that other staple of fantasy, along with a fight on a moving cart, which this episode also includes), a girl called Lilly enlists their help in saving her brother from something called a Shadrin, and two burly bounty hunters with threadbare characterization and a guitar riff for a musical cue use magical maps to track down Richard, whose supplier is a familiar face…

Nope, it didn’t take long for Ted Raimi to turn up, though I’m surprised he was given such a lacklustre role. Basically he plays a mapmaker who conveniently managed to find Richard’s pendant in the forest, after Richard conveniently lost it, and due to the conveniently detailed wanted posters that depicts said pendant, uses it to concoct a spell that will conveniently lead anyone to Richard by following a glowing spot on a map. It’s good to keep it in the family, but what an odd role for him.

On teaming up with Lilly we get our first, and likewise inevitable, moral conundrum of the series. Richard wants to stop and help the girl rescue her brother, while Kahlan urges that they focus on the bigger picture. Again, anyone who has ever read any sort of fantasy book, ever, will know how this goes: give or take a betrayal from Lilly, Richard will make the right call in helping the common folk not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because their support will result in long-term dividends.

Despite my snark, there are some elegant storytelling choices here. The cold open is a young man getting arrested by D’Haran soldiers, and the viewer is likely to forget about him until Lilly admits that he’s been arrested for a crime that she committed, neatly giving her the motivation she needs to lure the Seeker in to a trap. And as a magical MacGuffin, the writers have some fun with the maps: letting the good guys repurpose them for their own advantage, having one tear in half so that the bounty hunters are forced to work together, and eventually realizing their limitations when the map’s target wanders outside its borders…

Thematically the show falls on the side of helping the individual before the greater good, which is the stance most stories of this nature will adhere to. They try to muddy the waters a little, first by having Lilly reveal herself as untrustworthy and Richard rise to the level of suitable messianic hero by insisting they help her despite her betrayal, but this early on, it’s clearly going to work out well for our heroes (like I said, there’s an added bonus in doing the right thing: now Lilly can spread word of the Seeker’s heroism and inform villagers that the D’Harans have no intention of paying any bounties for his capture).

Destiny is put on the backburner for the sake of one person, and that’s the way this show plans to continue – which incidentally, is the reason I’m watching it. Isn’t it nice to see characters just… do the right thing? In these dark and edgy times, when was the last time a show committed to that tone?

It’s still a pretty mediocre offering though: they pad out the runtime by having Kahlan wander around in a cave for an inordinate period of time, and despite the reality of bounty hunters existing across various villages and settlements in this world, this is the first and last time the gang will have to deal with them. Box ticked, people.

Sadly we don’t ever see Lilly again (this show is incredibly good at one-shot female characters) but she introduces another minor theme: that of belief. She didn’t believe in the Shadrin anymore than she believed in the Seeker, but the former is proved to be real and she ends the episode as the latter’s strongest advocate. He rode into a D’Haran garrison to help a thief’s brother, and choosing humanity over the bigger picture pays off in this small but meaningful way.

Miscellaneous Observations:

There are actually some nice little bits and pieces of world-building in this episode; nothing drastic, but touches like the gang commenting that game in the forest has dwindled due to the D’Harans’ overhunting, and that common folk (or at least those with guilty consciences) are likely to react with fear at the sight of a Confessor, are good details.

Where do they (and by “they” I mean anyone in a fantasy show) get these flaming torches?

In a line that reminded me of a similar theme in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Seeker is accused of abandoning his people for having been absent so long. Which is a problem since I still have no real idea of how this whole Seeker thing works. We find out later in the series that there have been past Seekers, but how do they get chosen? What are they meant to do? What are they actually seeking?? We never really get any clear answers on this.

Zed had a great moment in realizing that to make a map to track a bounty hunter, they would have to use something that was of value to said hunter. That’s how the magic works, and that’s how Richard’s pendant was used – so Zed realizes that the gold coins sitting on the mapmaker’s table are the solution, as what could be more precious to a bounty hunter than his gold?

And then he manages to bring the pendant back to its original form after being crushed into powder (later he’ll do the same to a woman’s entire hand). As you might already be wondering, Zed’s powers are indeed this arbitrary – occasionally he’s way overpowered and usually incredibly specific in what he’s able to achieve. There’s a reason he’s usually off on a side-quest when things get really bad for Kahlan and Richard.

My distant memories of watching this years ago told me that there is at some point a depiction of a decent D’Haran soldier, and so when one approaches Lilly’s brother with a plate of food I wondered if it was him – though it seemed rather early to start humanizing the enemy. But nope, he was just a dick who wanted to taunt a hungry prisoner with food. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the nuance in good time.

But my favourite part would have to be when Richard thanks Kahlan for looking out for him, and Kahlan responds by admitting that he had the right idea in saving those in need. I know I’ve said this a million times already, but this is why I’m here: for main characters who are mature enough to extend and accept apologies, communicate their points-of-view properly with each other, and to whom the concept of “emotional manipulation” is completely unheard of.