Lower Decks

Legend of the Seeker
“Fever”
Originally Broadcast the Weekend of Saturday, May 16th, 2009

The penultimate episode of the season, “Fever” was exciting from beginning to end.  We learned at the end of last week’s episode (“Sanctuary”) that the only way for Richard to defeat Darken Rahl is to use the power of Orden. That power is split between the three Boxes of Orden (recall the events of “Bloodline”) and those three boxes have been scattered for safekeeping, with Richard’s sister Jennsen holding on to two of them.

Jennsen, who has been living with a nice family, is captured by D’Haran soldiers. She is able to toss the Boes of Orden into a lake before she’s savagely beaten. Elsewhere, Richard and Zedd realize that if Kahlan confesses Richard before he attempts to use the Boxes of Orden, he’ll be able to control the power and use it against Rahl. When Richard, Zedd and Kahlan arrive at Jennsen’s village they learn that it has been stricken with a deadly plague.

Richard and Kahlan leave to capture a local D’Haran commander so Kahlan can confess him. Zedd stays behind to help the villagers. He can cure a few at a time but must rest or else risk infection himself. Richard and Kahlan are successful in capturing the D’Haran commander but he is infected. Zedd has to cure him before Kahlan can confess him; Richard then takes the commander to search for Jennsen.

The villagers, frustrated with Zedd, attack him and Kahlan is forced to wade in. She saves Zedd but they’re both infected. Jennsen, meanwhile, has been brought to Darken Rahl with amnesia and he tells her that Richard is the one who beat her. Richard finds the Boxes of Orden in the lake and is attacked by D’Harans. The commander is killed and Richard takes a bolt to the shoulder but survives.

At the village he finds Zedd and Kahlan in bad shape. He decides to use the Power of Orden to kill Rahl and take poison to kill himself so he doesn’t use the Power of Orden for evil. Rahl, however, has sent Jennsen with a cure for the fever and instructions to steal the Boxes of Orden. Richard gives the cure to Zedd and Kahlan and then races after Jennsen. She soon remembers everything and the two share an emotional reunion.

As the episode comes to a close Rahl is notified that the Seeker has the Boxes of Orden. He orders his armies pulled back. There will soon be a reckoning. I’m hopeful that said reckoning doesn’t end with a cliffhanger. There’s a good chance it will, though, because that would be par for the course with action/adventure shows like Legend of the Seeker. I wonder if Rahl will actually be vanquished in the season finale and/or next season’s premiere.

I’ve been told that in the novels, even after Rahl is defeated there is still plenty of evil for the Seeker to battle. So it stands to reason that the television series can continue long past Rahl’s downfall. I’ve never found Rahl a very compelling villain so I’m rooting for him to be killed by Richard sooner rather than later.