Will the slow pan starting from the feet, while the subject buckles up her/his armor ever get old? And look – no cleavage, for once! Denna’s voice seemed a bit girlish for the part, though. I could have done without her Lara Croft hair, too – wouldn’t short hair have been more effective?
Kahlan’s dream was very well done. Her response (kissing Richard, and then leaving) made sense too, but I couldn’t help but wish that they had built up to this point a bit more gradually. It still worked very well.
I was quite surprised at how dominatrixy Denna turned out to be (especially in terms of vocabulary, etc.) Not something that I’ve ever seen on TV, certainly. Is this is a good thing or not? I don’t know – but it was certainly different! And very creepy. Not quite, say, Callisto creepy, but getting there.
It seems they could show more of Darken Rahl. I know, I know – they’re trying to make him all mysterious and such, but it’s hard care about someone who is never seen at all. I’m starting to become very curious:
How did he get to be super-evil-guy?
What’s the organization of the world, the government? How big is DR’s domain vs. the size of the world?
Are all of the evil-types directly derived from Darken Rahl – is he some sort of ultimate evil? Or his he just in charge of all of the warlords, Mord’Sith, etc. (a la the ‘Source’ in Charmed) with only a tenuous grip on power?
Is he really just a cookie-cutter bad guy, or is he more interesting than that?
Anyway, the best part of the episode, by far, was Kahlan and Zedd’s moral dilemma over the other Confessor’s enslavement of the villagers. They all agreed that the whole situation was wrong, but were willing to use the confessed if they really had to. Finally a ploy that’s really not all black and white. It seems that the whole ‘confessor morality’ issue isn’t going away, either. Excellent job.
I don’t really have very much to say about the final few scenes, except that they were very uncomfortable to watch, and that the whole dominatrix theme was played up just a little too much to be really believable. Also, where were Constance and her friends during the last fight? You would have thought they would have stuck around for extra security, instead of going to the club, or wherever they were!
In any case, LotS just became much, much darker.
Random thoughts:
In a moment of weakness, I read a bunch of the Hulu comments, and while they were mostly inane (“I love this show!” “This show sucks!”) I noticed an interesting pattern among people who are fans of the book series. They have two complaints: 1. Not enough torture and rape (thank heavens they don’t get their wish!) 2. Doesn’t exactly agree with the world mechanics and minor plot details. The latter complaint is interesting – why does it matter? Apparently Kahlan is supposed to be the last confessor, not just a confessor, Richard was supposed to stop Kahlan from kissing him, not vice versa, Kahan didn’t tell Richard what she was nearly so soon, and on and on and.But so long as we become emotionally invested in the characters, and care about what happens to them, and as long as they tell an interesting story, does it matter? Really?
Damn fanboys!