Legend of the Seeker: Hunger

Welcome to the most tonally dissonant episode of the season thus far! It’s also something of a minor Continuity Cavalcade, what with two prior guest stars returning from separate episodes in season one: Ted Raimi as Sebastian and Jon Brazier as Thaddicus. You know, Zed’s brother? It’s okay if you don’t, as I kinda forgot about this guy too, and initially wasn’t even sure if they’d brought back the same actor (they did). Given the content of this episode, I half expected the con-artists from “Mirror” to return as well.

And remember the Banelings? How they were introduced as a pretty big deal in the first handful of episodes? They’re back too, and the horror of what’s required of them to maintain their existence sits extremely uncomfortably next to the hijinks of Sebastian and Thaddicus, two greedy rascals who deliberately water down a cure for the undead so they can make more money. A fair portion of this is played for laughs, and they’ve gone right back to selling snake oil in the final scene. Hah... hah?  

And that’s not even touching on what Cara goes through in this episode. Holy tonal shifts, Batman!

The last two episodes having focused on Richard and Kahlan’s interiority, it’s now Cara’s turn to step up into the spotlight... though she has to share a little of it with Zed considering his brother is guest-starring.

Our merry band of heroes are traversing the countryside when a tearful woman approaches them, begging for assistance. We got ourselves another detour! Cara is not impressed, but after the requisite opening-act fight scene with a gang of ruffians, she runs after the one who flees the field, and... yikes, he leaps out of nowhere and slits her throat.

She dies, really and truly dies. And you know what that means – she wakes up in the weird orgy that’s currently taking place in the green fires of the underworld, to be offered the chance to return as a Baneling by Lord Rahl himself. While completely naked.

This is a good scene between Craig Parker and Tabrett Bethell. These two clearly have history (we saw a glimpse of it in the final episode of last season) and so have each other’s measure. But who is playing who in this situation? Cara has never been anything but utterly honest and straightforward in all of her dealings, and is fearless in the face of Rahl. She doesn’t hesitate at the opportunity to become a Baneling so she can return to the world of the living – in fact, she’s the one who demands it.

Seeing how gung-ho she is, Rahl holds back in order to carefully spell out the terms of the deal (which helpfully reminds the audience about what’s going on as well). As a Baneling, she must kill one person every day if she wishes to remain “alive.” She cannot kill two and expect to gain forty-eight hours, as every time a life is taken, the clock is reset. The undead lives of Banelings don’t count, and neither can she kill anyone and then revive them with the Kiss of Life.

In an interesting exchange, Cara points out that even though she’s helping the Seeker in his quest (which Rahl is hardly pleased about) she’s already killed plenty of people to protect Richard, thereby filling the Keeper’s coffers. She’s nothing if not a rationalist, and Rahl clearly has all the advantages of this bargain, especially since he can just recall her to the underworld if she fails to uphold it. 

Seeing no real downside to any of this, Rahl agrees, and Cara instantly wakes up in the same place she died.

Rejoining the gang, she learns that the woman who approached them wants their help in rescuing her husband and several other villagers that were taken by a group of men who plan to offer up their lives to the Banelings. Essentially, they are stockpiling people and charging money for their executions to those who are desperate to keep up the “one person per day” quota to stay alive. And holy shit, is that dark.

(Taking that into account, and the fact that everyone who is killed is offered the same deal in their turn, how the hell are Banelings not overrunning the countryside by now?)

In any case, there’s no way anyone is prepared to leave these people to this gruesome fate for the sake of the overarching quest – seriously Kahlan, why’d you even bring it up? – and so Cara’s ruse begins.

It’s not off to a good start, as Kahlan doesn’t let her murder the very-bad man who was part of the kidnapping ring (though the opportunistic look on her face when she spots him is grimly amusing). We’re then treated to a genuinely disturbing scene in which a cluster of Banelings line up to murder bound-and-hooded villagers for a fee – and the kidnappers have even set up a strangulation device to make it all as efficient as possible. Like I said, dark.

But that’s the cue for our heroes to arrive, though Cara is unable to find a living – and deserving – victim in time. In a nice touch, she’s forced to choose between pursuing one of the fleeing “entrepreneurs” and saving Richard from a Baneling, but of course she goes with the latter since protecting Richard is the very reason she came back in the first place.

This sentiment carries on to the next scene, when the rescued villagers are ushered to safety (the woman that begged for help is reunited with her husband and promptly exits stage left) and Cara takes a middle-aged Baneling woman into custody. She makes for a rather pitiable figure, as earlier she was seen handing over money and preparing to kill one of the hostages, asking forgiveness from the Creator as she did so.

Now she immediately notices Cara’s condition and divulges that she took the deal in order to care for her sick daughter, stating: “everyone has a reason, and when you have to kill, it’s good to remind yourself why you’re doing it.” Her words clearly hit a nerve with Cara, who obviously doesn’t want to hear the justifications of someone in the same position as she is, doing what they both know is wrong.

This kiwi actress is Elisabeth Easther, who had to get across a lot in extremely limited time, and yet managed to make me feel the horror of the dilemma she was in. Sure, it would have helped if we’d actually seen the daughter she was so desperate to care for, but in her final moments she tells the Seeker (and surreptitiously Cara as well, whose secret she keeps) that there might be a way to get out of the Baneling bargain; rumours of a man selling an antidote to their condition.

***

While all this has been going on, the episode’s subplot has been depicting Zed’s brother Thaddicus trying to sell off some old junk to Sebastian, the amoral trader who was selling magical maps that led to the Seeker to bounty hunters back in the show’s third episode. And what do you know? Among Thaddicus’s stash he finds a vial of something called Shadow Water that cures the Banelings of their affliction.

That there’s an antidote that essentially brings the dead back to life, which involves nothing more than swallowing some magic water, is an easy out for this storyline and negates most of the horror away from the concept of the Banelings and what is required of them to remain in the land of the living. I mean, can you imagine this remedy being used against the undead in Game of Thrones?

In any case, Sebastian ends up watering the substance down so he can sell it to more customers, which only results in temporary alleviation of the Banelings’ condition. It’s a bit of a stretch to believe the Banelings didn’t simply tear down the store to get their hands on the cure right from the start, and completely monstrous that Thaddicus didn’t insist on just giving it away to stop the suffering of all these people (both the Banelings and their victims) but these scenes are played very lightly. Not exactly for laughs, but not taking into account any of the horrific implications of what Sebastian and Thaddicus are doing either.

Did they even realize that this choice to withhold a cure put them on a near-equal footing with the men kidnapping innocent villagers to “save” the Banelings?

Also weird: that rumours of what they’re up to have reached all the way to wherever Richard and his posse are situated, even though there’s been nothing to indicate that what’s going on in Thaddicus’s plot was occurring at an earlier time than Richard’s. The scenes have been interspersed with each other, suggesting concurrency.

Again, the team wonders whether they should put the Stone of Tears quest on hold in order to pursue the rumours of a Baneling cure, and for the first time ever, Cara is keen on the first option. Night falls, and she makes an excuse to leave the campsite so she might double-back and kill the man who was kidnapping Baneling victims. He completely deserves it.

Sebastian is rumbled when Richard’s team break into his store, and Zed is naturally angry-disappointed to discover his brother’s role in all of this. Recriminations commence.

It’s worth saying that this is an episode full of “exposition characters” or “plot-point characters.” We’ve had the woman that commissioned the Seeker’s help in finding her husband, the middle-aged Baneling woman who directed them towards Sebastian and his cure, and now a D’Haran Baneling soldier who was killed in the skirmish in Sebastian’s store, and now awakens in the underworld to conveniently update Rahl on what’s going on upstairs.

Rahl wants to know how he managed to stay among the living despite not delivering a soul to the underworld in the past few days, and so discovers that Shadow Water has been rediscovered. From this, he reaches a logical conclusion: the Seeker knows about it, Cara doesn’t have any, and so they’ll soon be looking for the water’s source. 

***

In a nice bit of continuity, Zed comes up with the idea to use Sebastian’s magical printing press, the very one that was making maps which pinpointed the Seeker’s location back in “Bounty,” to instead determine where the source of Shadow Water is located. Thaddicus seizes the chance to redeem himself, asking to join them on their search for the water so that he can distribute it while Zed and the others return to their larger quest.

Which is all very noble, but Cara needs a new victim soon, and when one of her travelling party is a guest-star instead of a regular, the choice is somewhat clear. Luckily she happens upon a group of D’Harans camping nearby, which buys her another twenty-four hours, but the following night Rahl appears to her in the flames of the campfire for some evil mocking and prodding. He offers to lift the terms of the Baneling agreement in exchange for the location of the Shadow Water, and when she refuses, points out that Thaddicus is the obvious contender for her next kill.

She goes so far as to wake him up and lead him into the forest for the sake of collecting firewood, but when the moment comes, she can’t go through with it. The others respond to Thaddicus’s cries for help, and the truth is out.

Tabrett Bethell nails this next scene, and it’s the most emotional we’ve ever seen Cara as she recounts what happened to her and why she chose to not just take the deal, but demand it. She did it for Richard of course (and do I detect a slight hint of resentment in her voice, knowing that his determination to help everyone that crosses their path resulted in her death?) but now she’s no good to anyone. Richard insists they can make it to the Shadow Water in time, but she’s fading too quickly, and asks that she be left to die in peace.

Zed and Kahlan accept this outcome pretty damn quickly, but moved by her restraint, and still looking for a way to redeem himself, Thaddicus grabs her hand and the dagger it’s still holding, and stabs himself with it.

Now the race is really on – for Richard and Cara to get to the Shadow Water, to let Cara drink enough that she’s cured, and then have her use the Kiss of Life on Thaddicus so he’s also restored to full health. Naturally, he’s gone straight to the underworld, and he immediately leaps at the opportunity to take the Baneling deal, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before the others reach the water and Cara can revive him. He wasn’t born yesterday, but neither was Rahl, and Thaddicus is tortured into revealing the location of the Shadow Water.

(Also, in the previous episode Cara wasn’t able to administer the Kiss of Life to Silas mere seconds after his death. Now you’re telling me there’s a chance she can save Thaddicus after his body has been dragged cross-country by Kahlan and Zed over the course of an ad break?)

In the midst of Rahl destroying the small pool of Shadow Water with earthquakes and fire, Richard manages to reach down and get some drops on his fingertips, which Cara then licks off his hand. Wow. I mean, I’ve no idea where the chips fell when it came to shipping those two, but I’m sure fans of that pairing were pretty pleased with that particular scene.

I actually wasn’t sure whether Cara was going to get back to Thaddicus in time or not, as it would have been a fairly appropriate send-off for this character if his sacrifice had been permanent, but they go for the happy ending and let her bring him back. On the other hand, the easy fix of the Shadow Water has been removed from the board, which (as much as I liked the idea of Thaddicus finding purpose and redemption by distributing it freely) is probably for the best.

But then we get a very strange ending. First of all, Thaddicus is guilt-ridden and tearful over the fact he gave away the location of the Shadow Water to Rahl, claiming that he’s a selfish old man who has lived a meaningless life. Thanks to him, the Baneling threat is still loose on the world.

 But then the final scene depicts him once again in cahoots with Sebastian, selling soil from around the pool of Shadow Water as a hair tonic. So... nobody has learned anything. Okay then.

Aside from the bizarre tonal whiplash, this was a decent episode, especially if you’re a fan of Cara. From the woman who fearlessly strikes a bargain with Rahl at its start, to the Baneling struggling to hold onto her newfound humanity and forced to rely on her friends to provide succour by its end, this was a great showcase for her character, who has more than proven her worth to the others by this point. As ever, she is motivated by one singular goal: protecting Richard – but close proximity to him has allowed things like compassion and mercy to creep into her system.

This episode was also impressive in the way it worked within the magical rules the show set for itself, namely the conditions surrounding the Banelings and the Kiss of Life; even the making of the magic map. It’s more difficult than it looks to keep track of this kind of thing while not getting boxed in by narrative requirements, and (other than giving Thaddicus considerably more time than poor Silas to have the Kiss of Life administered to him successfully) the writing remained consistent within the established world-building.

Miscellaneous Observations:

I felt that Cara was perhaps a bit too confident throughout her first encounter with Rahl, though it provided a comparison to her demeanour with him later in the episode (when she’s more broken) and raises an interesting implication. That she asks for the deal so unhesitatingly suggests she’s thought about what she would do if this situation actually presented itself – though at the same time, she obviously never considered the toll that killing people in cold blood would take on her, or of sharing her condition with the others.

Yet at this point she is driven so completely by her mission that it’s initially an easy choice for her to make – it’s all about keeping her innate sense of purpose by protecting Rahl’s bloodline, which now resides with Richard. Her key motivation is to protect him, she makes no bones about it.

But by brushing past her motivation with Rahl, she drives home just how much is truly at stake. As Rahl points out, the Keeper isn’t interested in anything but wracking up a body count, and in this pursuit, it’s the Seeker and his allies who are tallying up the most kills. They might be destroying enemies in the name of defeating evil, but that hardly matters to the Keeper, in which every death only swells his ranks.

Also, you can’t help but notice Cara and Rahl’s rapport. She goes full sultry mode and is not remotely self-conscious about standing there completely naked. Yup, they have a history.

I’m still very confused on the nature of the underworld and the fact that it’s filled with torment and pain. Is this where everyone ends up? The bad and the good? Because that should be triggering a full-blown existential crisis in our heroes, knowing that nothing they do in life matters if a hellish afterlife is the only thing that awaits them when they die. Has the Keeper somehow hijacked the natural order of things? Where is the (presumably benevolent) Creator that everyone keeps mentioning during all this?

Kudos to that random nobody who managed to get the drop on Cara and successfully kill her. Not everybody gets the chance to take out a main character, even if it was temporary.

On that note, it would be nice if in coming episodes, everyone feels a little twitchy that this actually happened. All the skill in the world can’t prevent someone from getting in a lucky shot, and like I said, it’s a shame they never touched on the possibility that Cara might feel resentful that Richard’s saviour complex is technically the thing that got her killed.

Also, if the gang had discovered that Cara was a Baneling sooner, what would they have done? This show has occasionally touched on the issue of trading lives for the greater good, and there was always the possibility that they would have helped Cara find appropriate victims, ranking her life above theirs. Heck, in order to make sure she has a surplus by having Kahlan confess a number of men and ordering them to travel with the group could have provided a disconcerting parallel to the kidnapping of the villagers to sell to the Banelings. Just a thought...

Cara’s Baneling makeup was fantastic. Tabrett Bethell has amazing skin, so seeing it “zombify” was suitably appalling.

We did not need Rahl’s voiceovers reminding us of the Baneling requirements once Cara returned to life. We were paying attention the first time he explained it!

I know we’ve seen this get-up plenty of times, but what is Kahlan wearing? Yes, it’s fantasy, but it really bugs me when women are put in outfits that they clearly have trouble moving in. I mean, what is the function of those big flappy flaps flapping around her legs? They would drive me up the wall!

Still, it was nice that Kahlan offered Cara some words of comfort in their final scene, especially when she seemed relatively blasé about her impending death earlier on. I think Cara is at the stage of her development when she’s acutely aware that Kahlan and Richard have a slightly more elevated moral compass than she does – and for the first time, is concerned of what that might mean for their relationship.

In all, I feel that this episode served to gather up a few story threads, remind the audience of some important seasonal plot-points, and get us ready for the back-half of the remaining episodes.