Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Legend of the Seeker through the current episode, “Denna,” originally broadcast the weekend of January 10th, 2009.

After four weeks of repeats, Legend of the Seeker returned this past weekend with a new episode that may top “Listener” as my least favorite episode of the series to date.  I don’t really have the will or desire to write a full review of “Denna,” which I think can be summed up in a single sentence:

The Seeker is abused by an evil dominatrix and Kahlan is forced to confront her feelings for Richard.

No, I can do better than that.

Kahlan and Richard kiss and rather than tell Richard the truth (that should they ever become intimate her Confessor powers will bind him to her will forever) Kahlan runs away. Shortly thereafter Richard is kidnapped by a Mord-Sith named Denna (a powerful woman with a penchant for leather) while Zedd looks on helplessly. Denna abuses Richard with her pain stick (it has a name but I can’t remember it) that, oddly, also hurts her every time she uses it.

Kahlan tries to convince a fellow Confessor to take over her role as Confessor to the Seeker but is shocked to learn that her friend has confessed an entire town. Zedd arrives to tell Kahlan of Richard’s latest troubles and she decides to head into Denna’s lair alone to save Richard. Zedd and the other Confessor have a backup plan that involves sending the townspeople to attack Denna.

Richard, who is slowly losing his free will, attacks Kahlan when she arrives but then reveals that he isn’t entirely under her control. Long story short, Richard manages to kill Denna and escape with Kahlan, who tells him the truth about her power and why they can never be together. But Denna survives thanks to one of her underlings. Uh-oh.

Unless I somehow missed it, we never learn exactly what sort of power Denna has, aside from being able to turn someone’s power against them. Was she trying to bind Richard to her through a combination of torture and Stockholm Syndrome? Or does she have some other ability? And just how does she take someone’s power? Zedd indicated that if Denna had absorbed/taken his powers he would just be an old man in a cloak, suggesting that his powers would be gone forever. But Richard apparently got his Seeker abilities back when he picked up the Sword of Truth. is that because Zedd’s powers came from within and Richard’s from without? Who knows.

Now that Kahlan’s “secret” is out in the open, how will her relationship with Richard be affected? They obviously have feelings for one another — that much has been clear from the first episode — but if they can never act on those feelings are they now forced to endure months of sexual tension while they trek toward Darken Rahl’s fortress? Or will Zedd come up with some sort of potion they can take to make their feelings disappear (or ensure that Kahlan won’t destroy Richard’s free will if they get together)? I’m not sure I really care to know…