Four and a Half Torches (Out of Five)
Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the “Touched” episode of Legend of the Seeker.
Okay, that episode didn’t go where I thought it was going to!
Kahlan visits the Forest of the Night Wisps to find out if there are, in fact, any more confessors in the world and, sure enough, there is one who is being held captive, Rapunzel-like, in a tower by her confessor-hating father.
Indeed, when the would-be confessor talks of traveling to distant lands and falling in love, the father comes right and says flatly, “That’ll never happen Annibelle!”
Um, harsh!
But what was interesting about the episode — what, for me, brought it up a notch from the series’ steady stream of “good-but-not-great” episodes — was that sweet innocent Annabelle doesn’t want her powers. She wants travel and adventure, sure, but she has no interest in joining Richard and Kahlan’s medieval Scooby gang.
So, after being rescued by Richard and Kahlan, she runs. In short, she becomes the episode’s antagonist (sorta), even going so far as to confess Richard (in a terrific plot-twist that I totally should have seen coming!).
And was Kahlan really going to kill her to get Richard “back”? Wow. Again, harsh!
All is more or less made right in the end — though I was disappointed by the “deux-ex-machina” way they got both Richard de-confessed and Annabelle un-confessored (it was like a line from a particularly hackneyed episode of Star Trek: “That’s never been tried before — but it just might work!”)
I’m thinking they should have kept Richard confessed a while longer — it was a great plot complication. Then again, that would’ve allowed Richard and Kahlan to be “together” — and they can’t have that happen, can they? The conventional TV wisdom says that when the main characters on a show finally sleep together, it kills a show — like Sam and Diane on Cheers. I suppose that really is true. (Plus, it gave Annabelle an opportunity to say, “Being a confessor is a lot like being locked in a tower, isn’t it?” And in the context of the episode, it worked perfectly.)
In general, I’m also really starting to dig the central relationships on the show. Richard is still the least interesting character for me (by far), but I’m intrigued by Kahlan’s practical side, and Cara is a terrific addition to the cast.
Speaking of Star Trek, Cara is reminding me a lot of Star Trek: Voyager’s Seven of Nine, in that, yes, she’s basically decent (probably), but she’s coming from a totally alien perspective that challenges the perspectives of all the other characters.
It also doesn’t hurt that, like Seven of Nine’s Jeri Ryan, the actress who plays Cara, Tabrett Bethell, is smokin’ hot.
Anyway, so far, Cara has been very, very good for the show, and I’m looking forward to learning whatever ulterior motive she clearly has for helping Richard.
A couple of other hopefully-interesting observations about the episode:
- Isn’t it interesting how whenever Richard and Kahlan decide to rescue or visit someone, it just happens to be the most eventful day of their lives, even before the two of them arrive?
- It’s good to see that Rob Tapert and company are reusing the Xena campfire set.
- Is anyone else as creeped out by the whole “confessor” power as I am? I mean, can using that power ever really be a “moral” choice?
- I’m loving the “exposition” characters like Annabelle’s nurse and the Prioress near the Tomb of Pamora. I know that fantasy in general often requires a fair bit of exposition, but I’m always amused when a character is wheeled onto give a long monologue that sets up the story somehow — and then we never see them again.
All in all, this episode was a cut above, if only because I didn’t predict that Annabelle was going to confess Richard, and I totally should have!
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Have to agree that this was one of the best episodes of the new season, and Bridget’s Kahlan is perfect, such a great balance of a gentle nature forced to do violent things for the greater good.
My only quibble with this is how they took Annabelle’s powers away at the end. They’ve always held that confessor powers are above even a wizards and not subject to the same rules so why shold the crystal work on her like it did on Zedd back in season 1?
They also seem to forget Cara’s convenient breath of life. Surely it would have been more shocking for Kahlan to kill her, wait for the confession to be taken away and hen have Cara revive her? It would be the perfect lesson for her to keep her hands to herself in future.
Tabrett Bethell is AWESOME. She is perfectly cast in the character of Cara. And Bridget Regan is great (and perfectly cast as well) as Kahlan. Ditto for Bruce Spence. (And I’m happy that awful Flynn character, as well as the actor who played him, is gone)
Like you, though, I’m befuddled on Richard. I like Craig Horner. I like his look, I like his abilities as an actor. But he’s not anything like the Richard created by Terry Goodkind. The TV people have created a completely different character and they don’t appear to know what to do with him. They just have every set of people on every episode attack him so they can do some cool swordplay. Your point was perfect in that he seems to have to kill a bunch of locals who always attack him in every episode even though he’s the Seeker with the magic sword (they are REALLY dumb, aren’t they?).
I hope they give him something better to do or some personal battle to wage. I thought he was best in situations like when he was captured by Denna.
It was really smart to stick with the books in that Cara was added, and we are also seeing Kahlan’s more violent side as a Confessor. Brent, I agree with you about Richard being the least interesting character. It seems that his rage is released by the Sword of Truth, but why can’t we see some real rage, without the sword having an effect. Bruce Spence is perfect as Zedd, but not enough to carry the show. So things are looking better. At least for now.
Episode 6 is called Fury. It’s going to be more about Richard then the last couple. I think that they wanted to get a solid base for Cara before moving onto more about the sword and rage, Because that hasn’t completely been explored previously in the show.
This was one of my favorite episodes. And I really like a lot of them. The first time i watched it I wasn’t sure about it. BUt after watching it again, and not being shocked by the almost love scene with Confessed!Richard and Kahlan, I could really get into it. The depth of Bridget Regan’s acting skillz were really exposed. Man can that woman bring it! When she walks away from her, what she sees as, only chance with the man she loves. Her expression and actions just show how hard that was.
Anyway I loved this one. I thought it was 5 stars. Richard has been the least explored character this season. BUt wait for Episode 6! Next is a Zedd centric one called Wizard!
Yeah, Bridget is much better than I originally thought.
I’m hopeful they can do SOMETHING to make Richard interesting…