Legend of the Seeker: Puppeteer

The one with the puppet show...

The placement of this episode is puzzling for so many reasons: after all the tension and anguish of Denna, we get a largely comedic episode involving two precocious little girls that nevertheless contains some real darkness. Furthermore, it’s the first episode to feature to Darken Rahl since the premiere, and it involves him... watching puppet shows and cutting birthday cake.

That’s certainly a choice when it comes to reintroducing your terrifying Dark Lord.

Even he's not convinced...

Having seen Craig Parker recently in the latter seasons of Reign, it’s difficult to recalibrate my brain into accepting him as Darken Rahl, but all things considered, I think he does a good job with the role. He doesn’t play the character as a tantrum-throwing, moustache-twirling monster set on world domination (which is essentially what this guy is) but turns the character inwards, giving Rahl a quiet menace with more intelligence, patience and observational skills then one would usually expect from an archetype such as this.

Of course, he’s still not a particularly well-written character. What motivates him? What’s he actually trying to achieve? The show never lets us in on the secret, so the considered performance is really all we have to make him the least bit memorable, and Parker does what he can to make it work.

But for all intents and purposes, this episode is a showcase for Zed. It demonstrates his cunning, his kindness and his array of powers – though in that last case, his abilities fluctuate wildly depending on what the plot requires (as is usually the case with on-screen wizards – remember when Merlin couldn’t save Arthur’s life because he still hadn’t mastered the transportation spell that a one-off guest villain could manage in the very first episode?)

In this case, Zed has the power to make inanimate objects move and talk, but the moment he comes across a locked door, he’s stumped. Also, we watched him turn invisible in the last episode in order to escape the Mord Sith, so why on earth doesn’t he do the same here? Ah well, that’s television for you.

This episode returns to the MacGuffin quest for the Boxes of Orden, the third of which is in the possession of Queen Milena (played by another well-known kiwi actress, Geraldine Brophy) who seems to have based her character on the Queen of Hearts. I’m not sure she ever yells “off with his head”, but the vibe is definitely there.

Naturally, our intrepid team of heroes need to steal box first, or else Rahl will have the complete set of three and the incredible power that goes with it. The plan is for Richard and Kahlan to divert the emissary that’s been sent for it, while Zed gets close to the vault where it’s hidden by presenting himself as an entertainer for Princess Violet’s birthday, the only daughter of Milena.

Children seldom exist in fantasy stories, and it’s for good reason – they’re usually awful. We already had a brush with disaster with the inclusion of Renn in one of the earliest episodes, and though it seems a little too soon to be going back to the well of precocious children, the likes of Violet and her servant girl Rachel are at least played by decent little actresses that know what’s required of them.

That is, Rachel has to be sweet and shy, and Violet has to be a total monster, a mix of Veruca Salt and Joffrey Baratheon. Likewise, the writers know how to depict actual children, as opposed to miniature adults or barely functional infants in the bodies of ten year olds, and you can tell that the likes of Violet and Rachel are real people, with lives that exist outside the confines of the story.

It’s easy enough for Zed to use a mix of magic and flattery to get into Violet’s good graces, and his interactions with both girls are quite charming – though perhaps it’s a little questionable that his gentleness with Rachel, and his gift of a rather hideous doll that magically talks to her, are both in service of manipulating her into stealing the key to the treasury from around Violet’s neck. Again, why doesn’t Zed just use those powers of invisibility he utilized last week and go get the key himself? And if he can make a sock move on its own accord, why not the inner workings of a lock?

Meanwhile, Richard and Kahlan screw up royally when they end up killing the advance party of D’haran soldiers sent to scope out the area. According to Kahlan, this is because Richard is now hyper-aware of her safety in any combat situation, though from a Doylist perspective, it’s clearly done to get around the narrative easiness of her Confessor abilities bringing any high-ranking D’haran under her control.

As a consolation prize, Kahlan and Richard get their hands on a journey book, which we’ve already seen used in previous episodes (so nice continuity). Basically Rahl and his commanders communicate across long distances by writing messages in blood on the pages, which then appear in the other’s book. On realizing that Rahl himself is coming to claim the Box of Orden, the two come up with a plan to send him to a location of their choosing so they can easily dispatch him.

Of course, no one believes that Rahl is going to be dispatched this early in the season (especially after Kahlan makes the mistake of ruminating about what it’ll be like after he’s gone), and once Zed gets his hands on the Box of Orden, he passes it on to Rachel in order to get it out of the castle safely. One mishap follows another, and Rachel ends up hiding it in the batter of Violet’s cake right before it goes in the oven – the cake that Rahl is later invited to cut as part of the birthday celebrations after a gay-coded chef insists that the decorated cake go to the banquet hall right now.

I mean, was this really the right creative choice when one is attempting to strike fear into the audience’s hearts?

Craig Parker does his best to try and make this seem intimidating...

Whatever, Zed uses another stringless puppet show to distract Lord Rahl while Rachel whisks the Box of Orden away, and she’s nearly caught by soldiers before Richard and Kahlan swoop in to rescue her. All’s well that ends well after Zed escapes, and Rachel goes off to live with one of the castle cooks.

It’s a tonally unique episode, and one that feels more like a morality play or a fairy tale than the show usually delivers (undoubtedly because children are involved). As Zed says: “The great Darken Rahl, master of D’hara, was defeated not by the Seeker, nor by the First Wizard, but by a ten year old girl.” Along with the talking doll, and the precious necklace that Zed steals so that Rachel and her new family will have money to live on, everything has that storybook quality to it.

Yet even within the bounds of a fairy tale, some things were quite jarring: Princess Violet is suitably punished by Zed when he conjures up warts all over her face, but did she really deserve the fate that Rahl dishes out to her: making her a slave in the deepest mines he can think of? That’s a bit much for someone who is still technically a child.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Remember Sleepy Hollow, when Katrina gave her newborn son that hideous poppet to keep with him as he grew up? Well, Zed gives that one a run for its money...

There’s an interesting bit of characterization at the beginning of the episode: one of Rahl’s generals ask him why they don’t just take the third Box of Orden by sending a battalion to claim it, only for Rahl to state they don’t have to, as Milena’s demands will be meaningless once all three are in his possession. Whatever else he is, Rahl isn’t one to show strength of force when it simply isn’t necessary.

Unfortunately, we still don’t know him well enough to really gauge his reactions to the events of this episode. When he starts laughing at the puppet show, does he do it because she’s genuinely amused, or because he’s realized a wizard is in his midst? We can’t be surprised by his reactions, because we don’t really grasp him as a character.

When Richard and Kahlan sent their fake message to Rahl, was anyone else expecting the change in handwriting to be an issue? Is that how he realized it wasn’t from one of his own men?

Thankfully the child actresses were good: Rachel was cute without going overboard, and Violet was suitably horrid (kudos to the hairstylist, as everyone knows that a little girl with ringlets is bound to be a complete nightmare). I wonder where they are now... they’ll be all grown up at this stage.

It was very much Zed’s episode, from the trick he pulled with the sock to the final flourish of making himself a life-sized puppet that was beheaded in his place. At times you feel he didn’t actually need the Seeker, as he’s so powerful on his own – and yet there are episodes both before and after this one in which the talents he demonstrates here would have come in very handy – and yet aren’t utilized.

As episodes go, it’s an odd duck.