Four and a half Torches (Out of Five)
Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the Extinction episode of Legend of the Seeker.
It’s a strange thing to review Legend of the Seeker now, a show that I’ve grown to love over the past two years, given what we all learned last week. Even if they aired one of their great comedy episodes, there would be an overlying sense of sorrow, as we know that each minute that ticks by is one less that we’ll have to spend with our heroes.
But the latest episode, “Extinction,” wasn’t a comedy episode. Rather, it was an ep with an exceeding amount of action and adventure, as well as some fantastic character moments, particularly for Darken Rahl and Cara.
Oh, what a fantastic villain is Craig Parker’s Darken Rahl. He was, of course, the big bad of Season One, and in this season has mostly been relegated to featured cameos. But as events hurtle towards the finale and the discovery of the Stone of Tears, Darken Rahl has been restored to life (in a different body … that looks exactly the same) and we’re all the better for it.
Last week, we learned that the Night Wisps, Kahlan’s Tinkerbell-esque buddies, are needed to decipher the instructions for how to use the Stone of Tears. But Darken Rahl also knows this, and sends his D’haran officers to burn down their forest home. This leads to a fantastic fight scene showcasing the rarely seen, utterly brutal side of Kahlan. We’ve seen her kick all sorts of ass over the series, but watching her rip the D’harans apart was something else.
Darken Rahl has saved one Wisp, however, which he uses as a bargaining tool — he wants to join their band and be the one to save the world. And here is one more example of the quality writing on Seeker: their main villain is coercing himself into their company … so he can save the world. But he is only doing that, we learn, to secure his place in Heaven.
Wait, what?
Celestial aspirations aside, this is a great twist on the old mustache-twirling villain who always acts in his own best interest, because the side effect is to everyone’s benefit. So do we want him to fail? Kinda. It’s complicated.
But the big example of the quality writing occurs late in the episode in a quiet moment between Darken and Richard, when it seems that Darken is once again at death’s door. He tells Richard that before Richard killed him, he killed himself years earlier, and made a deal with the Keeper: if he was allowed to live again, he would kill at least one person each day.
Darken Rahl was the world’s first Baneling.
That’s great writing, because not only does it bridge the first season with the second, it also makes you want to rewatch Season One armed with this knowledge. Bravo, Seeker writers.
The other great moment is also a quiet one between Cara and the one surviving Wisp, who gets her to admit that she loves Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd. Cara’s been such a great character this season, and when I think about how she started the season off, this moment had such emotional payoff. So much so that you can overlook the fact that it was really just Tabrett Bethell talking to her hand for three minutes.
I’m going to miss this show so much when it’s over. It’s the only true high fantasy show that I’m aware of on television right now, and its loss will leave a gaping hole. I know there’s a fan campaign that’s attempting to reverse this decision, and while I obviously hope it’s successful, the outlook is grim.
But on the bright side, we still have a small handful of new episodes left, and I, for one, am going to revel in them.
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Amazing acting from everyone and great character development. Kahlan was so pissed off, I thought she would go into the Con Dar. Tabrett Bethell has to have the best facial expressions in TV right now!
Overall a wonderful episode. But the whole time I was watching I kept thinking: “Only three more to go”.
Shakespeare said it best: “Parting is such sweet sorrow….”
(Although I’m still hoping for a miracle to happen.)
Good episode. The more Craig Parker the merrier and it was good to see that his sudden character overhaul had little to do with saving the world and a lot to do with saving his own soul.
Seeing Kahlan run, trip and sprain her ankle was incredibly groan inducing, but it was almost worth it to watch Cara talking to herself for far more minutes of screen-time that what would seem to be viewer friendly in a script.
Zedd’s little moments of kick assery were also cool. Having “grandpa” along for the ride in most shows would cause all sorts of boredom, but Zedd really makes a good argument for writing a letter to your Wizard’s Fire wielding grandparent.
Looking forward to the next episode, even though it will mean one less “new” episode to look forward to.
I thought this was another really great episode as well. I have a feeling the rest of them will also be slam-dunks.
I agree that Craig Parker is fantastic in this role. Nobody, but NOBODY could play the part of Darken Rahl as well as he has. He’s simply incredible. I tip my hat to him..
And Cara…her laugh when she realized she could understand what the Nightwisp was saying to her was a beautiful thing to hear…it wasn’t touched by the sarcasm that is the norm for her.
It’s kind of getting difficult to watch now, knowing it’s about to end, but I wouldn’t miss the remaining eps for anything in the world…and you just know it’ll end “hanging us off a cliff.” RATS!! It MIGHT not be so bad if they’d at least end it with a bit of finality….
Nah, it’s still gonna be rough….
I was almost hoping that this episode would suck so I could convince myself that no more seeker won’t make me cry-worthy-sad, but I’m pretty sure it was my favorite yet. Every moment was great - no scenes were wasted, and every actor delivered, every time. (although crazy iron fist guy? didn’t see that coming)
Cara was especially fabulous this time around - here’s predicting a brilliant career for her! That moment with the night wisp babies will stay with me for a while.
I will miss this show terribly. It introduced me to some incredible characters that I loved seeing each week. And this episode just made everything good about “Seeker” so prominent. Ahhhh. So bittersweet.
studio execs really need to hang their heads in shame if this great show disappears
You said it !!!!
Before I write anything else: OMG, Cara’s scream in the preview! It sent chills up and down my spine… Tab will shatter my heart into a million little pieces, again.
Great review, like always, Tim!
“So much so that you can overlook the fact that it was really just Tabrett Bethell talking to her hand for three minutes.”
Look, I could watch Tabrett talking to a stone, or hell staring at a stone for three days… But that’s just me, I’m crazy (for her), nevermind me. :D
Awesome episode, I loved every minute of it!
PS: The anti-spam word was seeker. Yay! :D
:)
Please don’t give up hope yet!! http://www.saveourseeker.com/
I agree completely — it’s really bittersweet to watch these amazing eps, with a vibrant chemistry between all the leads, only to know that they’ll soon be going their separate ways.
I seriously hope the finale at least gives us some closure regarding some/all of the story lines.
Totally agree with Luciana. I normally hate fantasy shows. don’t like Harry Potter or things like that either. But LOTS is something else. Everything about it is just great.
This week’s episode was so good. I love Cara’s development. She’s been my favorite character since season 2. the talking-to-her-own-hand scenes were great and her interupting the Richard/Kahlan-goodbye-scene was funny and so typical Cara.
I’m really excited about next week. I can see in the trailer that Cara’s going to have an interesting part in it. Can’t wait!
This episode had such an epic tone to it that it almost felt like a season finale. I was devastated last week when I heard the news that LotS was being canceled. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a huge fan of fantasy shows and never, in a million years, thought I’d love a show so much as I Seeker.
Everything, from the script to the acting is so unbelievably good that it really is a shame if it does end up being canceled.
Here’s hoping the fans campaign pay off.
This week’s episode, however, was so good in every aspect. I really did love every aspect of it, but I loved Cara’s plot in particular because it showed such an imense character development that I wanted to give the writers a standing ovation.
I started the season hating Cara’s guts and now she’s almost topping Kahlan as my favorite character. Tabrett Bethell really did a marvelous job in that scene that was essencially her talking to her hand.
Kudos to both Craigs, who delivered the strained sibling relationship they have perfectly. Also the reveals about Darken Rahl (him being the first ever baneling) were pretty awesome.
And of course, I can’t leave out the first fight sequence. Dude, you just do not piss off a Mother Confessor. Kahlan kicked some major ass in that scene, especially when she stabbed the same guy THREE times! It was brilliant!
Caras moments in this ep was fantastic. Her developments through this season have been so much fun to watch…but next ep does not look to bright for her…I just hope she will not betray Richard and Kahlan…