#but I think that plotline was the distraction rather than the main event anyway

[billpottsismygf]

God, what an interesting finale. I've loved this show so much and I wasn't sure how on earth they were going to end it in a satisfying way, especially after a run of episodes that were maybe not the best, but I think they stuck the landing. I love the meta approach with Guillermo struggling to come to terms with the documentary ending and all the tributes to previous episodes. I also love that I was right about the documentary getting addressed somewhat. With all their previous documentaries that never aired and the "I hope not" about it being on television, I wonder if the documentary will ever even come out.

I haven't looked at anyone else's reactions yet, but I'm guessing there will be people angry that we didn't get canon Nandermo and I can also imagine that the hokey little hypnotism married bit will rub some people the wrong way. However, that all worked pretty well for me. Personally, I felt that the romantic tension of Nandermo fizzled out a couple of seasons ago and they would have had to dedicate a lot more time to building that back up this season for a kiss or anything to feel justified. My heart was absolutely beating a mile a minute during that goodbye scene, though. Still, I was ready to accept that pretty tragic ending of Guillermo walking out, never to return, since the notion of these two as star-crossed is achingly romantic in itself. The reveal that that was a fakeout was absolutely huge emotional whiplash, but it is probably a nicer ending for the two of them to continue being friends.

And they really will be friends. Although I adored Guillermo calling Nandor 'Master' again and his line that 'you'll always be Master to me', I think the point of the fakeout is that their relationship really has changed. Nandor is letting him share his coffin; they're sitting as equals and diving into an elaborate lair that Nandor built by himself, without expecting Guillermo to do all the work. At this point, while I still ship them romantically to some extent (and the show absolutely leaves you to imagine that that could develop at some point), I truly only care at this point that they care about each other and spend time together, and that's where we leave them. They're going to keep getting up to shenanigans as they fight crime or whatever, and they're going to do it together.

[markantonys]

it seems like 3x07 will be set entirely in the battle of two rivers, which means there's not a single character who has appeared in every episode of wot. It seems understandable as 3x07 would focus on Perrin and any additional subplots might take away screentime and attention from the battle of two rivers

so it seems, yes! and i agree, i think they kind of had to do it this way, because multiple subplots in one episode when one of the subplots is A HUGE-ASS BATTLE doesn't really work, flow-wise. the Huge-Ass Battle Episodes in the first 2 seasons (fal dara & falme) were both full-cast affairs, so that worked out great. we could cut around to different sub-areas of the battle to visit all the different characters, but it was still the entire episode just showing the one battle in the one location.

but us on the edge of our seats watching perrin leading an army and battling for his life in the two rivers, and then smash cut over to mat and elayne drinking up a storm in a tanchico tavern? that would not work hahaha so in order to create the best story flow, they really did have to isolate the two rivers battle into its own episode with none of the other storylines/locations popping up to distract from it and disrupt the dramatic tension.

meanwhile, i'm guessing the tanchico/waste/white tower finale climaxes will be much smaller-scale action-wise compared to the full-on Battle Of Armies in the two rivers, so all those climaxes are fine to coexist in 3x08 together, and we can also briefly check in with perrin during his denouement in 3x08 so that we still get to see him in the season finale. overall, probably the most logical structure they could've done for the back half of s3! but this is the first time when the season's different subplots do end in separate scenes & locations instead of everybody coming back together for one joint climax ([michael scott voice] that's what she said), so it'll be interesting to see how that ends up feeling.

additional book spoiler thought below for potential s4 events

these 2 unofficial TV Rules i've considered here - 1) Big Battle Episodes should not contain additional unrelated subplots in different locations to distract from the Big Battle, 2) season finales should touch base with all main characters rather than only showing a small subset of them and having everyone else finish everything up in the penultimate episode - are additional reasons i'll give in favor of dumai's wells being expanded to a full-cast event in the show. i've been saying i wanted this literally since the day i read the scene in the book for the first time, so this is not a new take from me, of course!

while the two rivers battle works well as a Penultimate Episode event, in my opinion, dumai's wells has to be a Season Finale event. it's a huge turning point tentpole moment for the series! gotta be finale episode material.

and if it's in the finale, imo it would work better if as many main characters are there as possible, so that we don't wind up with any mains feeling neglected or like they had a lame conclusion in comparison to this huge event going on in rand's plotline. and we can get to that pretty easily by having the tanchico crew join up with rand in tear to spend the season with him (since mat's story is with rand in this portion of the books anyway, whereas elayne & nynaeve are on cuttable sidequests basically the entire time between tanchico in book 4 and the succession & cleansing in book 9, so there's more than enough space to give them s4 arcs within rand & co's plotline instead) + perrin join up with rand partway through the season as he does in the books. that gives us perrin, mat, nynaeve, elayne, aviendha, lan, and rand all potentially together to participate in dumai's wells.

which just leaves egwene, who would most likely have been called away to become amyrlin at that point. that could be the big event of 4x07 and her season climax, and then, so as not to violate either Rule #1 or #2, we could have a quick post-raising checkin with her in 4x08 either before or after the battle has happened (because the actual book battle is pretty quick, they might not need the WHOLE episode on a battle sequence - the beginning portion could still be rand in captivity and the others en route trying to catch up with him - but once the battle sequence begins, of course, it should not be interrupted by salidar until it's finished). but us having basically just 2 main plotlines by the end of s4, rand's group and egwene's group, would make it a lot easier to give dumai's wells Finale Focus without having to sideline a ton of other stories & characters in the season finale! Make Dumai's Wells A Full-Cast Event!!!

[quibliography]

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis 🎣

Synopsis: This novel is about a half-drowned cat which is accidentally brought forward in time and a 21st century Oxford history student who has to be sent back in time to Victorian England to fix the incongruity. Ned Henry, time-lagged from too many jumps and desperately avoiding Lady Schrapnell, is sent to Coventry to deliver a package to a fellow time-traveler and get some much needed rest. Instead he accidentally ends up on a train platform where he meets Terence St. Trewes and starts a series of events that twists history further away from how he knows it. Possibly, accidentally leading to the Allies losing WWII! With the help of Verity Kindle, they try to nudge events back in place, but quickly realize keeping track of the continuum is about as easy as herding cats.

My Quibs: I love almost any book about time travel and I will definitely add To Say Nothing of the Dog to the top of my list. One of the biggest reasons being that it’s a time travel book with a foundation in history and philosophy rather than science. It’s a nice deviation from all the nerd-speak. Don’t get me wrong, I love the nerd-speak. But there’s definitely an over-saturation of science in science fiction. (Go figure.) Anyways, this defining feature though threw me initially. Because, much like a time-lagged British historian, the first symptom was disorientation (maudlin sentimentality, distracted by irrelevancies, difficulty distinguishing sounds, and blurred vision). I was thrown right into a demolished church searching for a stump(?) struggling to grasp when or where or who. But once I was properly oriented to the world, I found all of it really fascinating. I loved the main characters, both Ned Henry and Verity Kindle are flawed but lovable (almost in a Tom Holland and Zendaya kind of way). But especially Ned’s internal dialogue to the reader: clumsy yet reliable with a touch of British dry sarcasm. 😍 And I loved Verity as his counter-balance: direct and competent with an underlying vulnerability. I totally ship Ned and Verity and doubly so due to Willis’ slow burn of their romance masked by professionalism. I also have zero clue about 1940 Victorian England so scenes of boating down the river or massive fetes with jumble sales were very picturesque. It had Downton Abbey or Jeeves and Wooster vibes. Plus it tends to be more humorous when a time-traveler has to bumble about trying to fit into history. And the final kicker that made me love this novel is that it’s secretly an homage to classical mysteries. Ironic, since I just finished one ode-to-Agatha novel. This time, Willis references three legends: Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Dorothy L. Sayers. (Good thing I’ve picked up at least one Lord Peter Wimsey novel. Enough to get the gist of her references.) But suffice it to say, a classic mystery novel inside a time-travel novel gets my vote hands down.

Should you read it? If you like history with a base layer of the time travel sprinkled with British humor.

Similar reads? I couldn't say. It was a refreshing read precisely because I don't know of anything similar.

(Spoiler Alert!)  One of the things I liked about TSNOTD was that I didn't even know there was something to spoil. There's a very subtle mystery plotline or maybe I didn't really care so much why the timeline was off but just more focused on how they would correct it. And I could very easily just drift along with Ned watching him bumble each decision like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. I guess I could kinda sense the "self-correction" of the continuum but also I just had faith in the author that she would correct everything in the end anyways. There wasn't tension; You know it will work out in the end. Like a roller coaster, you're surprised at each turn and dip but you don't fear it will crash. And I was always presently surprised. Even to find out the butler did it.

What did you think of To Say Nothing of the Dog?