Lower Decks

Legend of the Seeker
“Bloodline”
Originally Broadcast the Weekend of Saturday, March 21st, 2009

What’s this? Another episode of Legend of the Seeker I really enjoyed? That makes three in a row. Note that “Bloodline” saw the return of Zedd, a character I truly cannot stand. And yet, I still enjoyed the episode. Incredible! I don’t know what to make of this strange turn of events. It used to be a bit of a chore to write these reviews, because I had to sit and think about episodes that didn’t always entertain me. Now, however, I’m actually having fun with the reviews.

“Bloodline” marked the return of Denna the Mord-Sith (played by Jessica Marais). We were introduced to Denna, and the wicked Mord-Sith, in the eighth episode of the series, “Denna” (originally broadcast the weekend of Saturday, January 10th, 2009). I didn’t think much of that episode, calling it “my least favorite episode of the series to date,” but it did a fine job setting up “Bloodline.”

Recall that a few episodes back Zedd struck out on his own to hide the third Box of Orden, leaving Richard and Kahlan to adventure alone. At the start of “Bloodline” we see Zedd hiding the box in a field and then promptly running into Richard and Kahlan. He’s certain that the box, protected by some seven layers of magic, will be quite safe indeed. But Denna, after being tortured by Darken Rahl, isn’t going to be stopped by even one layer of magic, let alone seven. She’s nutty like that.

After tossing wave after wave of D’Haran soldiers at the field — they are all burnt to a crisp by Zedd’s magic — Denna forces a young woman named Jennsen (played by Brooke Williams) to help her by threatening to kill Tarralyn, her mother (played by Judy McIntosh). Jennsen, it seems, is totally immune to magic and can simply walk into the field and pick up the box. She does so despite her mother’s warnings and gives it to Denna. Has there every been a case of a child listening to their parent’s warnings when said parent is in danger?

Thanks to a warning spell placed on the box, Richard, Kahlan and Zedd are able to intercept Denna, grab the box and free Jennsen (who also can’t use magic, unfortunately, so she can’t use Denna’s weapon against her). But Denna gets away with Tarralyn who we learn is Zedd’s daughter, making Jennsen his granddaughter. And because Zedd is also Richard’s grandfather (as we learned in a previous episode), he and Jennsen are half-siblings. Phew! Good thing they didn’t get too close before finding that out.

There’s an understandable amount of anger from Richard, who is only now learning that he’s related to Zedd, but the family gathering is cut short when a D’Haran soldier rides up with a message from Denna: she’ll kill Tarralyn if she doesn’t get the third box. In an interesting twist, Richard and the others decide to offer Denna a compromise: they’ll give her the third box only if she’ll help them steal the other two from Darken Rahl.

Denna agrees but kills Tarralyn, promising to bring her back to life only when she gets the third box (she has until sunset to do so). Jennsen is able to sneak into Darken Rahl’s fortress and sneak right out again with the other two boxes. When they arrive to make the switch, Denna double crosses them (surprise, surprise) and asks for all three boxes. Instead, Richard arranges all three and absorbs the powerful magic of Orden himself.

Now unstoppable, Richard disarms all the D’Haran guards. Sadly, Denna was lying about being able to bring Tarralyn back to life. She’s quite dead. Richard has Kahlan kill Denna slow while the D’Haran guards fight amongst themselves. Zedd tries to talk Richard out of using his new found powers for evil but Richard tells him to shut up. He can’t stop Jennsen, though, and she pulls the boxes apart. Hurrah!

Tarralyn is buried, Richard is upset about what he almost did, and Zedd decides to leave two of the boxes of with Jennsen for safe-keeping. Denna, after begging Richard to kill her, instead is sent running. I hope we see her again. She’s become an interesting character, much more than the simply dominatrix we were first introduced to. I also hope to see Jennsen again. But most importantly, I hope the revelation that Richard is related to Zedd (well, it was a revelation for him) and has a half-sister isn’t ignored in future episodes.

Zedd was right to be worried about Richard not wanting to sacrifice his own grandfather should the need arise. We’ve already seen Richard risk his mission in order to save Kahlan. Have we seen him do the same for Zedd? If not, although I always assumed he would, now it’s a certainty. Too bad Richard’s mother had to die before the two could meet. That’s sad.

At the end of the episode, Darken Rahl issued a proclamation: until the Seeker, his Confessor and his Wizard are captured, he’ll be cracking down on his people. In other words, things are about to get even more depressing and dangerous for the folks in the Midlands.