REVIEW

"Brennidon"
Reviewed by BlackDaemon
blackdaemon@ausxip.com

While the Seeker has come to understand his role in the war against Darken Rahl, he has yet to comprehend his own personal importance. Richard knows that Darken Rahl and the D'Harans want him dead. He knows that he must trust no one but his companions, but he hasn't learned that, for the greater good of defeating DarkenRahl, he cannot take unnecessary risks with his own life. Richard is not yet willing to sacrifice his own freedom.

"Brennidon" begins with a view of the long line to see the Confessor. In this episode, we see Kahlan's role as Confessor and its significance to the citizens of the Midlands as the "highest level of authority" in everyday disputes. Richard is, of course, bored and wants to go hunting with the local men as he did in his previous life.Zedd tries to tell Richard that he can't walk through his life the way he did all those years in Heartland, but Richard just wants his freedom.

This brief introduction shows us how much Richard chafes at his new role. He is eager to defend those who need defending, but doesn't want to sacrifice the freedom he has known his whole life. When the hunt takes him far from where he said he'd be, he continues onward. When he finds himself near his birthplace of Brennidon , he seems to know that it isn't the best plan to venture off on his own. Yet Richard goes where he wills, and does as he pleases, so off toBrennidon he goes.

Naturally, as is the way of troubled heroes, he gets far more than he planned.

Of course he can't resist visiting Brennidon. Richard has been led to believe one story of his origins his whole life - that he was raised by simple farmers in Heartland - and has only recently been told of his greater destiny. Here's his chance to find out where he really came from, who his parents really were. How can he ride away from the answers to such immense questions? It's clear that he cannot. And some of the answers come quickly.

He gets his first taste of Darken Rahl's butchery at the Brennidon cemetery. Hearing a story and seeing the gravestones of first-born babes are completely different things, and Richard gets a hard dose of reality. He also hears another suggestion that the legend of the Seeker is exactly that - just a legend, and of a coward at that. So he continues to the village gates.

As expected, Richard can't keep his mouth shut when someone innocent is about to be executed - he is a hero, after all. Soon, the entire city guard is after him and he must escape the town square and hide.  So hungry is he for some continuity, some emotional bond to which he can attach himself, that he makes a leap in logic and assumes he has found his mother.

In this episode, we also see the madness that common folks have come to accept as the norm - the butchering of their children, the terrorizing rule of theD'Harans, the insanity of Darken Rahl. Richard's task is not just to eventually defeat Darken Rahl , but to restore the faith of the Midlands' inhabitants in each other and themselves. It is his one redeeming quality - while he constantly makes poor choices for his mission and himself, he always chooses what's best for the people.

Through a series of near-predictable circumstances, Richard ends up captured by the D'Haran soldiers along with the woman he believes to be his mother, and finds himself at the mercy of the one person in Brennidon who will gain from Richard's death: his supposed brother, Mark. Mark has - much like Richard - been led to believe one story his whole life, that his brother died in the massacre that killed so many first-born sons ofBrennidon . Richard's arrival upsets not only Mark's family dynamic, but puts his mother's life in danger. Will he choose the greater good, or the path theD'Harans have set for everyone? Mark has known his mother all his life, but Richard is new on the scene, and the cause of much controversy inBrennidon, so it appears that Mark chooses against Richard.

In the first episode of the series, Richard was cast aside by one brother, so he must consider Mark's treachery a possibility. For a moment, we see it in Richard's eyes. Mark has, after all, already betrayed Richard once by leaving him in a cellar and fetching the city guard. Still, as it has before, Richard's faith in people inspires their belief in him as the Seeker, and Mark aids Richard in his plan to free Mark's mother - andBrennidon as well.

This episode also reveals another secret, albeit very clumsily: Zedd is Richard's grandfather.  Zedd would rather that Richard continue to believe that he is alone in the world than provide some small measure of comfort to a man who believes he has no family left. While this was explained extensively in the book, this revelation just hangs in the air in the television series.Zedd says that he fears Richard would sacrifice his own life for Zedd's, and that Richard is far too important, but this seems rather tidy. Hopefully, future episodes will explain Zedd's reticence, otherwise this is a rather large plot hole.

In the end, as the companions ride off toward their next adventure, we see a glimpse of a possible chasm between Zedd and Richard. Richard has just been dealt another crushing blow - the woman he thought was his mother is not - yet he holds some optimism for finding his real mother.Zedd , as is the way of wizards, believes that he knows what's best for all, and that is clearly not what Richard thinks is best for himself. What will happen whenZedd realizes that the Seeker is far more important in the long run than a wizard of the First Order? Time will tell.

--

SYNOPSIS:

Richard returns to the town of Brennidon, where he was born during Darken Rahl's massacre of every eldest son to avert the prophecy of the Seeker. He finds that the townspeople have given up their freedom under Rahl's rule, and discovers a secret from his past.