We open on an extremely pregnant veiled woman who is kicking the shit out of a bunch of soldiers on a snowy mountainside. Did I say extremely pregnant? I meant in active labor. She takes a knife wound in her side during a contraction… I mean, give her a break. As she sits down, preparing to give birth, another soldier appears and holds his sword to her throat.
Moiraine and Lan walk into the Ways, refusing to reopen the Waygate for Mat. Loial tells them there can be no channeling in the Ways, or they will summon Machin Shin. Reluctantly, the others follow, Nynaeve promising they will find Mat when this is all over.
Lan wonders if Mat could be TDR, and Moiraine says if he is, it’s best he stays away from the Dark One, rather than join him.
Loial laments about how the Ways used to be filled with trees. Perrin sees a guiding stone ahead, in the pitch blackness. It has been defaced by someone, but Loial still thinks he can read it. Moiraine tells the others to rest while he does. Lan mentions that something is following them.
Egwene awakens to a distinct whistling sound. A Trolloc appears from the blackness and is blasted back by channeling and into a bottomless pit. The group runs for the closer Waygate to Fal Dara as Machin Shin, a sentient black wind, chases after them. It surrounds them and each of them hears their worst fears repeated back to them in their own voice. Except Loial, because apparently, we don’t care about him enough yet? Nynaeve explodes in a blast of channeling again, holding Machin Shin off long enough for Moiraine to open the Waygate, and they all escape.
Inside the fortress city of Fal Dara they are brought before Lord Aglemar and his sister, Lady Amalisa. Some soldiers refer to Lan as Dai Shan. Moiraine warns Aglemar about Trollocs using the Ways and advises that he seal up the Fal Daran Waygate.
But too late, because Whistly McGee himself, Padan Fain, has come sauntering out of the Waygate and toward Fal Dara.
Moiraine talks to Amalisa about visiting Min, a seer. She asks Amalisa, a tower trained channeler, but not an Aes Sedai, to send a message to the Red Ajah in Tar Valon, to find Mat.
The group walks through the city, while Rand is still brooding over what he heard in the Ways. Perrin thinks he saw Padan Fain. Spoiler alert: he did!
In Min’s bar, Moiraine asks her if she sees visions around the Two Rivers folk. She does: Perrin’s yellow eyes, Rand holding a baby, a white flame, and a gold ring around Egwene and Nynaeve. She tells Moiraine that around her, she sees the Amrylin Seat, and that she will be Moiraine’s downfall.
That night, Moiraine tells them they will leave at dawn for the Eye of the World, and that whoever is not the Dragon will die there. Nynaeve tells her they will all choose whether or not they will go with her. Egwene wants to go and thinks Nynaeve would too if she didn’t hate Moiraine. The discussion goes downhill, starting with Rand defending Mat and ending with Perrin and Rand arguing over Egwene.
Moiraine and Lan discuss when they first met, and she says she feels like she has taken everything from him. Lan assures her she has given him something to live and die for. Moiraine tells him she likes Nynaeve, but he says nothing, per ush.
Nynaeve follows Lan through the city, where he sits down to dinner with a family, the men also wearing hadoris, and calling Lan Dai Shan. Lan catches Nynaeve peeping outside and invites her in to join them.
They walk back to Lan’s room together afterward, but he leaves her in the hall. Rude. Nynaeve waits until he’s had time to take his shirt off, then goes in anyway. More making out, more cameras panning away.
Egwene approaches Rand in the archery pavilion, and they make up. They both cry, then Rand agrees to be her Warder once she’s an Aes Sedai. Second make out, a new record! Egwene promises to stand by Rand no matter what if he’s TDR.
Nynaeve is getting ready to peace out on Lan, but he wakes up. She asks him what Dai Shan means, and Lan tells her that he should be the king of Malkier, a land overtaken by the Blight. The older man at dinner saved Lan from being slaughtered along with his family and brought him to Fal Dara. Nynaeve understands why he wanted to belong to Moiraine, but Lan insists she does not own him, and invites Nynaeve to stay.
Rand lies in bed with Egwene and thinks about Bel Tine, and his father’s feverish ramblings in the woods about a baby. We see a montage of Rand channeling- WHAT? - and hear Machin Shin telling him he’s TDR. Rand goes back to Min, who tells him when she was a kid, she saw a vision around a soldier with his heron-marked blade. Tam was the soldier who helped the veiled woman give birth on Dragonmount. The woman died and Tam raised the baby as his own. Now, around Rand, Min sees rainbows, carnivals, and three beautiful women. She won’t answer whether or not he returns from the Eye.
Egwene, Perrin, and Nynaeve meet up in the morning, all having decided to go to the Eye. But where’s Rand? He’s gone to Moiraine and told her he’s TDR, and, after masking her bond again, the two have taken off alone into the Blight, and the Eye of the World beyond. By the way, where’s Loial?