My original plan to write up one review per week isn’t exactly working out for me, but I’ll continue to press on whenever I get the opportunity. Rest assured, I’m still enjoying this season and I’m going to see this little project through.
If last week’s episode was important filler, then this one is just plain filler, wrapped up in a Very Special Message about the cycle of violence. This is going to be a quick one.
Richard is trying to teach Cara how to hunt (though she’s acting above it all) when they overhear a skirmish and rush to intervene. After rescuing some Meek Civilians from Brutish Thugs, the woman in charge introduces herself as Roga and her people as the Minders: pacifists who are frequently targeted by slavers (perhaps precisely because they’re pacifists).
According to her, they worship and follow the Laws of the Creator, which instructs them to remain non-violent. Essentially, they’re fantasy Christians (or at least the ones that abide by that pesky “turn the other cheek” rule) though I suppose a more appropriate comparison would be the Tinkers in The Wheel of Time.
Richard and Cara are stunned at the way they live, but Roga tells them they’ve managed just fine – at least until recently, since the fall of Darken Rahl has led to chaos that various warlords have taken advantage of. So that’s an interesting little wrinkle: getting rid of a despot wasn’t necessarily good for the more vulnerable in the Midlands.
Richard notices that the compass has changed its bearing (I foresee this leading to a lot of side-quests) and offers to stick around and teach the Minders how to defend themselves. Roga is horrified, but her son Kur (who looks so much like Kit Harington that I honestly looked him up on IMDB to see if this was one of his earliest roles) and several others are keen.
Unfortunately, as soon as the training starts the recruits are overcome with a strange malady and fall to the ground, unconscious. Zed suggests that they’re all under a binding spell: something cast upon these people long ago in order to prevent them from succumbing from powerful internal forces. In this case, the spell might have been cast hundreds of years ago, and has been passed down through the generations.
He thinks this might also explain the Minders’ aversion to violence, though Roga insists that it’s to do with their belief system, not a spell.
In any case, Zed removes the binding spell and the training continues. However, Zed is sufficiently weakened that he must be looked after by Roga in a nearby cave system.
The Minders are once again attacked by the slave traders as they gather food, though Cara is with them and manages to drive them off – though not before Roga throws herself between her and a man she was clearly about to kill. Remember this, it’ll be important later.
Meanwhile, the sparring between Richard and Kur becomes unexpectedly serious, resulting in the latter being thrown off his feet and Richard’s sword glowing a malicious red. Kahlan notices his change in behaviour and confides in Zed, who agrees that something is wrong.
Richard is prepping the recruits to take back their village from the slavers, and together they sneak into the enemy camp in order to rob them of their weapons – and when one begins to stir, Kur slits his throat without hesitation. One motivational speech later, and Richard and the Minders are raging through the village, slashing and striking in slow-motion while blood is artfully splattered everywhere. Oh, the horror!
They find a weeping girl who was taken as a slave, who now insists that it was the Minders who caused the massacre outside. Cara and Kahlan naturally take the roles of the shoulder angel/devil, with one saying that Richard must be under a spell, the other that what he did was completely justified.
Zed finds some interesting inscriptions carved into the temple, and sends the women out to bring back Richard. He’s currently planning to extend the assault into the slavers’ encampment by simply burning it to the ground, when Cara and Kahlan intervene. Cara manages to use her own power to temporarily prevent the Sword of Truth from being used again her (which interestingly, also affects the other Minders) but Richard eventually gets the upper hand and knocks her unconscious.
However, seeing how he’s injured her is enough to bring him back to his senses, and they return to the village. In a nice little bit of nuance, Roga is hesitant to heal Cara – isn’t that just putting a killer back in the fight? Richard argues that letting her die is the same thing as killing her, and Roga relents.
Zed takes Richard inside the temple, where the Infodump happens. Thousands of years ago, a bloodthirsty warlord called Canton Rahl used dark magic to chain a clan of warriors to his will, and together they had the power to rampage over the Midlands. Finally he was captured and beheaded at the site of the temple, and another wizard placed a binding spell over the people that were in this thrall, to prevent them from ever again becoming chained to another master.
The spell would cause them and their descendants to sicken and die should they raise arms in violence – so of course, when Zed lifted the spell they were free to engage in brutal warfare, which they did because Richard Rahl was the one teaching it to them, channelling the magic of his ancestor. They feel his rage as though it’s their own.
We even get a nice little demonstration when Zed adds alum (representing the Minders) to water (representing Richard) and then vinegar (the Sword of Truth) that makes the concoction start to fizzle, to show how three otherwise harmless elements form a fatal combination.
Just as Richard decides he needs to learn how to use the Sword without losing control of his anger, word arrives that the warlord and his men are approaching the village. Richard is still distrustful of what the Sword might do to him (and the Minders) so instead he attempts to reach a peaceful solution with their leader, Caldor.
He knows he’s lost too many men for any battle to go in his favour, but Caldor points out that the Minders’ word that they won’t come after him doesn’t mean much after the massacre at the village. Roga assures him that there will be no retaliation, and the man that she earlier showed mercy to (told you this would be important) vouches for her honesty.
Caldor and his men leave, and there are cheers all around.
Now comes the problem of the Sword of Truth and Richard’s newfound connection with the Minders. Those who had the binding spell lifted from them are tied up in the temple while Richard attempts to master his anger, and Zed goads him into getting angrier and angrier to find the root of his rage. Richard goes through a litany of things that make him mad (Darken Rahl, the Keeper, losing his family, not being able to be with Kahlan) until they finally reach his anger at Zed: that he kept their relationship a secret, that he lied to him for so many years, that he dragged him into this fight in the first place...
Honestly, this all comes a little out of nowhere, as there’s been no indication thus far that Richard has ever harboured any feelings of resentment towards Zed, but he finally loses it, goes to attack him, and then regains control of himself. Meanwhile, all the Minders in the temple have been screaming and raging along with him, which is pretty funny in a way, especially since this little activity been going on all night.
Morning comes, and the compass is now pointing east again, the direction it was leading them until this little detour. They say their farewells to the Minders and head off, though Zed and Kahlan hang back a little, and Zed shares his thoughts: that he’s seen darkness in Richard for the first time. Kahlan denies this, saying that it was just magic; that Richard’s true father was George Cypher, not Panis Rahl.
But Zed claims that the Rahl bloodline comes with powerful magic, and Canton wasn’t always a tyrant – he was once benevolent and protective, like Richard. It was only when his magic started to grow that madness and bloodlust overtook him.
So we’re back to the theme that was laid down in the premiere: that Richard is not always good – like everyone, there’s capacity for evil in him, and the magical Rahl bloodline is something that he’s going to have to fight if he wants to stay on the side of the angels.
With this portentous ending, the episode weaves itself back into the larger tapestry of this season, though for the most part the show’s attempt at a Very Special Episode (violence is bad) falls into the trap that these sorts of episodes always do: it takes an incredibly complex issue and tries to make it simple.
Pacificism as a subject turns up a lot in these sorts of fantasy shows: the aforementioned Tinkers in The Wheel of Time, but also Aglaine in Merlin, Satine in The Clone Wars, and Eli in Xena Warrior Princess – all of whom advocate for non-violence and in finding peaceful solutions. Unfortunately, there’s never really a place for them in sci-fi or swords-n-sorcery contexts, as such shows are pretty much built on cool sword and/or laser fights. It’s not a coincidence that Satine, Aglaine and Eli end up dead, after all. There’s simply no room for a pacifist in a story in which the answer to nearly all the plot’s problems comes down to who has the best sword or the most prowess in battle.
This did better than usual since there was some debate and uncertainty among the Minders when it came to their belief system (Kur choosing to fight; Roga being hesitant to heal Cara) and a solution that did justify Roga’s earlier decision to save one of her enemies. It reminded me of the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode in which Sokka prevents an elderly Fire Nation man from getting mugged, who later vouches for him when he tries to save the village from a flash flood.
And of course, the pacifism here was linked to the fact that any act of violence would lead to the Minders falling into a coma, which is probably the only decent justification they had to not fight back against slave traders. Because killing and violence is bad... but if it’s against people who partake in slavery, then go nuts. The world would be a better place if all such people – past and present – were dead.
Miscellaneous Observations:
The headscarfs on the Minder women were an interesting costume choice. They inevitably brought hijabs to mind, and it was a nice cultural touch. Ditto the fact that both men and women were invited to train with Richard, without commentary.
I also liked the set-dressing on the temple.
Inadvertent laugh of the episode was one of the Minders saying Caldor had brought “dozens” of men, though there are only about ten (valiant attempt at camerawork to hide these numbers though).
Cara is disgusted to learn that the Minders are also vegetarians, and... yeah. How are these people still alive? They won’t defend themselves against slavers and they have no decent iron intake? Am I seriously meant to believe that they all survive on foraging berries?
So Zed tells Kahlan: “The magic of the Sword is fuelled by the Seeker’s anger and with it he is able to fight with the strength of many men. But the Sword only glows when the Seeker’s anger turns to rage.” Um... has this come up before? Because I’m pretty certain we’ve never seen it glow before, or if we have, it hasn’t been explicitly connected to Richard’s rage.
Still, Zed gets a cute line at the end: “Lying to a Confessor, when will I learn?”
Finally, the discussion about how the compass changed direction and Zed’s conclusion that it led Richard to a place where he had to learn something before reaching the Stone of Tears, is a cute way of justifying filler. Something tells me there are going to be several more detours before we get to the season’s MacGuffin.
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