The Wheel of Time Season 1 Episode 5 review: It gets interesting after Perrin, Egwene are captured by Whitecloaks

Story:

Based on Robert Jordan’s best-selling fantasy novels, The Wheel of Time stars Rosamund Pike, Josha Stradowski, Marcus Rutherford, Zoë Robins, Barney Harris, Madeleine Madden and Daniel Henney. The story of the latest episode picks up from where it left in episode 4. Kerene is buried and Stepin is seen struggling to come to terms with it, all the while the hunt for the actual Dragon Reborn continues. The friends from Two Rivers village try to reach White Towers to reunite.

Review:

The episode begins with a funeral for Kerene by the Aes Sedai sisters. While Stepin is seen trying to cope with Kerene's death, Lan ponders about Nynaeve who channels to save his life during the attacks by Logain's army. A month passes and everyone packs up from the camp and moves towards the White Tower. 

Rand and Mat also manage to reach White Tower. The episode has a lot of guilt-tripping by Mat, Stepin and Perrin, so much so that instead of striking a chord with the audience, it kind of annoys them.

The entire episode lags until Whitecloaks arrive. The children of light are known to hate and hunt Aes Sedai as they believe they are 'dark friends'. Valda, the questioner of Whitecloaks, meet the nomads who have Perrin and Egwene tagged along with them. When the Whitecloaks ask them to give them Perrin and Egwene and the nomads refuse to let them take them forcibly, a fight breaks out. The episode then picks up the pace with some action. The background score adds to the intense scene and gets you on the edge of your seat.

Perrin and Egwene get captured and Valda tortures Perrin to get Egwene to channel. As he runs his knife through Perrin's back, his eyes turn golden, hinting that he could be a werewolf and hence, he was let go without any harm by the packs of wolves in the earlier episode, even though he was bleeding profusely. Perrin tries to convince Egwene to channel and save her life as he believes he deserves death for killing Laila. The dialogue and this particular scene between the two after Valda leave them to discuss whose life is more important gets a bit too dramatic. Egwene channels and manages to attack Valda and escape their camp with Perrin.

Meanwhile, Mat is seen guilt-tripping after killing the Grinwell family. He confesses to Rand that he wants to lead a normal human life and doesn't want any power after he has a vision of Logain hysterically laughing at him during his procession. It leaves you wondering if Mat too has turned a dark friend like Logain after he took the mysterious knife in his possession. Nynaeve reaches out to them and she is seen trying to sort out a plan with Rand to save Mat and get back to their village with Perrin and Egwene. Unable to bear the pain of loss, Stepin commits suicide after having a heartfelt conversation with Lan about Nynaeve being in love with him.

The episode piques your curiosity to know especially about Perrin's power and what it would mean if he turns out to be a werewolf.

Verdict:

The story seems to be getting better and more interesting. The episode leaves you with many questions and piques your curiosity.