Lower Decks

Legend of the Seeker
“Reckoning”
Originally Broadcast the Weekend of Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

Please note that my delay in posting this review has nothing to do with my response to the season finale of Legend of the Seeker. I quite enjoyed the episode. Believe me, no one was more surprised than I was when, starting with the fourteenth episode of the season (“Hartland”) the show got really, really good. Until that episode the series was rather bland, with a few good episodes thrown in the mix.

Kahlan confesses Richard

For some reason, though, Legend of the Seeker turned a corner with its 14th episode. I don’t know why; did it take the writers that long to get comfortable with the show’s mythos? Did the actors and actresses finally connect with their characters? Whatever the reason, the show suddenly became enjoyable and, more importantly, a lot of fun to watch. I will say, however, that while “Reckoning” was an excellent episode it wasn’t exactly the ending I was hoping for with regard to Darken Rahl.

After everything that happened during the first 21 episodes of the season I was expecting to see an actual confrontation between Richard and Darken Rahl. Or maybe Richard would use the Boxes of Orden and the Book of Counted Shadows to somehow destroy Rahl and his mighty D’Haran armies. Instead, Richard was sent decades into the future, Kahlan was forced to marry Rahl and Zedd was killed. Obviously, Richard was able to return to the past/present and save the day. And then, in what felt like an afterthought, Darken Rahl showed up at the end of the episode and was promptly killed.

The magic that sent Richard to the future was impressive, I’ll admit that much. It took the convergence of the Boxes of Orden, Kahlan’s Confessor ability and a Mord’Sith’s Agiel to somehow fling him 50+ years into the future. Tagging along for the ride was a Mord’Sith named Cara. The two decide to team up. In the future, Darken Rahl’s son Nicholas rules the land. His mother? Kahlan. That means Nicholas is a male Confessor, both incredibly powerful and incredibly insane.

Kahlan in the future

Kahlan marries Darken Rahl and charges her handmaiden, Alice, with staying alive long enough to tell Richard everything. Everything changes when Kahlan gives birth to a baby boy named Nicholas. He grows up evil. Kahlan tries to kill him but fails. Alice has her throat slit in a gruesome scene and then Nicholas asks to be allowed to kill Kahlan himself. He later has his father killed as well.

Thankfully, an elderly Shota meets Richard and Cara in the future and tells them what to do. When Nicholas comes to confess Richard, he’s able to activate the Powers of Orden and Cara, despite being shot several times by crossbow bolts, manages to hit him with an Agiel. The two are sent back in time where Cara turns on her Mord’Sith sisters so Zedd is not killed.

Cara the Mord'Sith

At this point I assumed that the episode would end on a cliffhanger. There didn’t seem to be enough time left for anything substantial to happen. The episode surprised me, though, by having Darken Rahl show up in the last five minutes. He shoves his sword into the Boxes of Orden in an attempt to disrupt the transfer of power to Richard. Instead, the power consumes him. Darken Rahl is dead.

So there was no final battle between Richard and Darken Rahl. He never had a chance to use the power of Orden. Darken Rahl was killed by pure chance more than anything else. That was disappointing. I don’t know if that’s how Darken Rahl was killed in the book or not. If so, I wonder if readers found it just as frustrating.

Otherwise the episode itself was very good. It was interesting to see Kahlan married to Darken Rahl, scheming to get word to Richard and desperately trying to convince herself that her son isn’t a monster. And while it’s a little unbelievable that everything would fall into place so perfectly for Richard in the future (Shota being where she was, Cara agreeing to partner up, Nicholas Rahl not simply having the Seeker killed) that storyline was interesting as well.

I’m excited to see what Legend of the Seeker holds in store for us next season. Darken Rahl may be dead and gone but evil still exists. And as long as there is evil there will be the Seeker.