This one got away from me a little. Lots of pics. Lots of angsting commentrary and flailing.
Oh and I should preface this by saying it's a looooong one. I find Cara/Dahlia fascinating so I talk about them a lot.
2.20 Eternity
Much like Hunger I spent a lot of time flailing this episode. Just sayin’. So we open on a Mord’Sith creeping up on the gang, Cara tackles her then realises it’s her ex and is all DAHLIA? ERM, IT’S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. They waste no time in getting down to business. Dahlia (on Rahl’s orders obviously) plays on Cara’s feelings to get her to go and save HER SON (lol wut?) who’s been kidnapped by Sisters of the Dark. When Dahlia does the reveal about Cara’s son Cara’s feelings face flashes for the briefest of moments before she controls it, and Kahlan just stares at her like YOU HAVE A SON AND DIDN’T TELL ME? Richard asks questions like he does, and Cara breaks a little all IT WASN’T IMPORTANT I DON’T CARE ABOUT HIM. Kahlan tries to reach for her hand and comfort her and Cara snaps at her because she doesn’t want her new girlfriend to touch her in front of her old girlfriend. And she doesn’t want Dahlia to know that she has feelings now (though she’s not doing a very good job of hiding her feelings face which I think Dahlia notices cuz she occasionally seems really pleased that her plan is working). Also Kahlan’s freckles are really obvious and bootiful in this scene.
They debate about trusting her - Kahlan saying she can’t read a Mord’Sith and asks if Cara thinks they can trust her. Cara looks like she would rather be anywhere than having her new girlfriend ask if they can trust her old girlfriend. She plays with her hair and I think she’s thinking about her and Dahlia’s past and how she’s changed, her hair being a really obvious outward sign of that. Dahlia just looks at her because she knows her job is to look pretty and tempt Cara away from them. Cara clearly doesn’t want to leave and is all TRAP IT’S A TRAP YOU GUYS because she can see past any feelings she might have for her son but then Kahlan interrupts all BUT IT’S YOUR SON and Cara can’t look past her feelings for Kahlan to argue (though secretly she’s still ...TRAP). Cara reiterates that her son means nothing to her but she looks at Dahlia while she says it and what she’s really trying to say is that Dahlia means nothing to her but she can’t. Finally Richard orders Zedd and Cara to go with Dahlia while Richard and Kahlan go to find the Stone. They split up and Kahlan runs her fingers down Cara’s arm before taking her hand for a long moment and they have eye!sex before they go their separate ways and it is GLORIOUS. Is there anyone else who Cara would allow to touch her like that? Dahlia.
THEN OMG. At camp Zedd is asleep and Cara is leaning on a rock, and like I said before she really knows how to lean you guys, when Dahlia starts in about loyalty and how the others trust Cara. Cara says they have no reason to question her loyalty. So Dahlia switches tracks all, ARE YOU SORRY YOU CAME WITH ME *SEXY VOICE* before kissing Cara. Cara just looks at her for a moment before GRABBING HER BY A BUCKLE AND PULLING HER IN FOR MORE AND JUST FJHDKJSF UNF. The best part of this scene is how Cara can’t help herself. Dahlia is like that one ex that you find yourself in bed with after just running into them at the store is what I’m saying. She reminds Cara of her old life, and however much Cara loves Kahlan and the others, a teeny tiny part of her will always be Dahlia’s.
So we cut to Richard and Kahlan in a cave, and Richard is trying to be sexy and awesomely, Kahlan is all I HOPE CARA IS ALRIGHT :D like not getting the mood Richard is trying to set. Then there’s some R/K cuteness about babies and I can’t turn the C/K shipper in me off so it does not make me happy like it used to, particularly when Cara is kissing girls not so far away so we’ll go back to that...
THE MORNING AFTER. Cara is TIGHTENING HER BELT (UNF) while Dahlia puts her armour back on and you guys they totally just slept together and it’s canon and omg. Dahlia reaches over to help Cara and Cara grabs her hand to stop her and says they need to get moving. Dahlia asks if Cara will go back to the Seeker and his quest (and there’s just a hint of feelings there like she’s playing on Cara’s newfound feelings to get Cara back with the Mord’Sith) and asks Cara to stay with her. Cara shuts her down and Dahlia asks what happened to her and there’s a long pause while Cara thinks of Kahlan but then says “...Richard” like it should be obvious (and the way this works is you don’t talk about your feelings for your new girlfriend in front of your old girlfriend who you just slept with for some reason you can’t understand. You make it about duty because that’s something you both understand. Never mind that duty has always meant love to the two of you, a connection forged in a dungeon when all you had was each other to ward off the agiels, something they couldn’t train out of you no matter how hard they tried. Never mind you’ve never been able to keep the two separate even after all this time. Feelings make you weak. Duty makes you strong.) Then Cara asks Dahlia to come with her and the others but because it’s Cara she makes it about duty and tactics (“The Seeker could use a fighter as strong as you”) instead of that thing they never talk about that’s always been between them. Dahlia pushes her away and they stare at each other for a long moment before Cara slinks off to wake Zedd. Dahlia just stares; this is the moment she realises she’ll have to break Cara to get her back. The thing I like about this scene the most is that it’s clear Dahlia has feeeelings too. Through everything that happened to them they kept that tiny spark of feeling alive in each other, whether they acknowledge that or not.
In the other plot, Richard and Kahlan finally find the Stone and end up trapped in a magical valley where a creepy cult expects them to repopulate the earth SINGLEHANDEDLY when the dust has settled in the outside word. AND THERE ARE SO MANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS THAT I WILL NOT EVEN GET INTO THEM.
So Cara and Zedd are ambushed by several Mord’Sith which Cara awesomely fights off for a while before they manage to capture her while she’s distracted by her feelings and fighting with Dahlia. What breaks me most about this scene is the way Cara asks, “Why are you doing this?” with such betrayal in her voice. I JUST WANT TO GIVE HER A HUG YOU GUYS.
So Cara wakes up black and blue CHAINED TO THE CEILING OF A MORD’SITH TEMPLE and Rahl is there obvs because this was his master plan and for one brief moment Cara looks truly scared. And then she gets angry WHAT DO YOU WANT? Rahl says he wants her back on his side. He basically says it was all his plan because he knew of her SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP (he sneers over the words; feelings make you weak) with Dahlia. Cara just laughs, like she can’t believe she fell for it and “my son was never captured was he?” And then Rahl tells her that her son was killed the day he was born so he couldn’t grow up to be a threat and Cara’s face FALLS and Rahl notices, “Oh Cara, has that made you sad?” (Feelings make you weak) Rahl starts to train her then, and Cara shakes when the agiel touches her not because she’s scared or because it hurts (she is and it does) but because he knows about her feelings and she feels like she’s been cut open and exposed. Her face is just heartbreakingly vulnerable right now as she stares ahead and takes the pain. (Also, I don’t know how she manages it but Tab looks fucking amazing in this scene.)
Cara decides that what she really needs to do while Rahl is torturing her is FUCKING TAUNT HIM so she’s all RICHARD WILL FIND ME AND YOU WILL FAIL. Rahl has been reading these recaps and knows about Cara’s Achilles heel and says Richard will never come for you because YOU’RE WORTHLESS AND HIS QUEST IS MORE IMPORTANT. Dahlia interrupts and she clearly doesn’t like seeing Cara like this, so she asks if she can continue Cara’s training framing it like Rahl has been exerting himself and needs a break and Rahl agrees AND THIS NEXT BIT IS WHAT BROKE ME OK JUST FOR THE RECORD. If it didn’t break your heart probably you are dead inside.
Dahlia decides to try and break Cara by appealing to her sense of duty - and like are they exes or what? Dahlia knows to hit Cara where it hurts right? - and says she wishes there was another way. Her hands are all over Cara’s face and she kisses Cara and Cara has nothing to defend herself with so she just lets herself feel and says in this tiny voice, “Why did you lie to me?” And she’s falling again and we all know the further she falls the more she feels. “Do you remember when we were little girls? How terrifying the agiels were then, how much they hurt? You held my hand so tightly it was the only thing that kept me from crying. We knew if we cried they’d just torture us more. We survived because we protected each other from our weaknesses. That’s what I’m doing now. The Seeker has made you soft, he’s poisoned you against your family.” Throughout this whole speech Cara has had her feelings face on and she just looks so broken and vulnerable but at this last bit she gets some of her old resolve back (and really it’s not about Richard, this is about an old girlfriend being jealous of the new girlfriend because Cara’s weakness is not her feelings but women and since this was the basis of the plan Dahlia knows this - has always known this - and she saw how Cara and Kahlan were looking at each other earlier). Cara says, “Richard, Kahlan and Zedd are my family” and her voice breaks a little when she says Kahlan’s name I SWEAR TO GOD. Dahlia snorts THEY HARDLY KNOW YOU (they don’t your weaknesses like I do, don’t know all the places to make you hurt) THEY CAN’T LOVE YOU LIKE I DO. Dahlia kisses her and in spite of herself Cara’s lips move a little and she knows she’s losing so she does the only thing she can do and headbutts Dahlia because wasn’t their love always tempered with violence and Dahlia snaps and punches her in the face.
Cara is doing the thing Richard did in the books where he divided his mind to escape the torture and thinking of KAHLAN and Zedd and Richard. SRSLY SHE THINKS OF KAHLAN FIRST. WHY ELSE WOULD SHE DO THAT UNLESS SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH HER? (In her mind her love can come before duty, which is why Kahlan is first and Richard is last.) Rahl calls her on it and says it won’t protect her and Cara AWESOMELY BECAUSE SHE MAY BE TIED UP AND HALF DEAD BUT SHE’S STILL CARA says it always has protected her and if Rahl was half the Lord Rahl Richard is he wouldn’t have to break people to follow him which is, I think, the main thing that Cara has learned this season. He gets mad and agiels Cara harder and though she does choke a little she manages to remain mostly silent and then grins while he stares at her angrily.
Then the Sisters of the Dark are coming and Rahl hatches a plan for them to help break Cara and Dahlia looks a little uncomfortable like she just wants things back the way they were and doesn’t want to see Cara get broken again. Rahl bargains with the Sisters and they imbue an agiel with THE PAIN OF ALL CARA’S VICTIMS. And really I should be talking about the symbolism of how the only thing that can beak Cara is the pain she’s caused people but all I can think is DEAR LORD SHOW WHY DID YOU SHOOT IT LIKE THAT IT LOOKS LIKE A THEY ARE WORSHIPPING A SEXTOY. Rahl touches the agiel to Cara’s stomach and she screams and this is the only thing that can break her and it’s doing its job (feelings make you weak).
So in the plot Kahlan and Richard are trapped in the magical valley and Richard seems pretty jazzed about staying so they can have babies (and comes close to the books’ reason why he’s immune to Kahlan’s confession - he can’t love her any more than he already does - so take note cuz this is Foreshadowing) and they find out that one of the cult members has a way to communicate with the outside world, and they manage to ask someone to go get Zedd and give him the communicating ring so they can ask his advice.
So Cara has been broken and is back in her Mord’Sith leather and Rahl asks her to kill Zedd. Zedd talks her out of it, we think, and they escape by knocking out Rahl and Dahlia. Cara goes to kill Rahl and Zedd stops her because he’ll tell the Keeper that Richard and Kahlan have the Stone and know what to do with it. Also Cara kicks Rahl when he’s unconscious like we’ve seen her do before. And part of me hopes this is a subtle nod to the audience that she’s not broken but really it might just be to fool Zedd LIKE I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS IS GOING TO PLAY OUT OK. omg Cara plz don’t be evil.
The guy Richard and Kahlan sent finds Zedd and gives him the ring so he can talk to Richard. Zedd does a spell to transport the Stone of Tears to him so the compass will work for Richard and Kahlan and they can escape the valley. AND THEN CARA AGIELS ZEDD AND TAKES THE STONE. (Isn’t it hilarious how after three seconds of it being Cara’s job to get the Stone she does actually get it? As opposed to like months and months of questing. CARA GETS SHIT DONE.)
So Cara goes back to the temple, struts in all evil and shit - dear lord HER SWAGGER - grabs Dahlia and starts making out with her. UNF. Rahl interrupts because he hates me and Cara LICKS DAHLIA’S LIP BEFORE GIVING RAHL THE STONE AND I NEED TO GO AND TAKE A COLD SHOWER SO THAT’S ME DONE WITH THE RECAP UNF. And... is she evil? Isn’t she evil? I can’t believe there are only two episodes left. (And when I was putting the pics together for this scene I noticed how smiley Dahlia is in the background now she has her lady back. If a Mord’Sith smiling when she’s not torturing someone isn’t love then I don’t know what is.)
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