What Happened To Moiraine? How [SPOILER] Can Help Her In WOT Season 2

Warning: SPOILERS for Wheel of Time episode 8 and Lord of Chaos.

The Wheel of Time season 1 finale suggests that Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) has been stilled, but there’s one character in particular who may be able to solve her problem. It was established in the show that it’s possible for a person to be cut off permanently from the One Power. It’s called “stilling” when it happens to an Aes Sedai, and “gentling” when it’s performed on a male channeler.

As Thom Merrilin (Alexandre Willaume) explained in Wheel of Time episode 4, this process severs the person’s connection to the True Source, meaning that they can’t touch it anymore. And without the ability to access the Source, channeling becomes impossible – forever. Regardless of whether the victim is male or female, they’re always emotionally devastated to a point where they tend to lose the will to keep going. This aspect of gentling and stilling was on full display in episode 6 when a gentled Logain (Álvaro Morte) was brought before the Amyrlin Seat. He was so deeply affected by losing the One Power that he begged to be killed.

The Wheel of Time season 1 finale gave the impression that a similar fate just befell Moiraine. She told Lan (Daniel Henney) that the Dark One did something to her. According to her, she can’t touch the True Source anymore. Her tearful reaction reinforced the notion that Moiraine’s link to the Source has been severed. While stilling is undoubtedly the worst-case scenario, all may not be lost. In the sixth book of the Wheel of Time series, Lord of Chaos, Nynaeve discovered a new method of Healing which is effectively a cure for gentling and stilling. With it, she succeeded in restoring some of the characters’ abilities to channel the One Power.

Given that this happened as late as the sixth book, Moiraine could have a long wait before what happened to her can be undone by Nynaeve. However, it’s worth noting that Amazon’s Wheel of Time show has seemingly sped up Nynaeve’s evolution into a capable One Power channeler. In episode 4, she demonstrated the ability to Heal multiple people at once. All things considered, it doesn’t seem unfathomable for the show’s version of Nynaeve to find a fix for stilling earlier than expected.

An alternative explanation for what Moiraine experienced in the Wheel of Time season finale would be shielding. A shield weave prevents a person from accessing the True Source but it can be removed. Another difference between that and stilling is that the shielded channeler can still feel the Source. Moiraine crying at the end of the episode hinted that she lost her link to it completely, but whether or not that’s really what happened remains to be seen. But if the Dark One shielded Moiraine instead, the problem would be easier for someone like Nynaeve to fix in The Wheel of Time season 2 than stilling, which could take time.

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