The Wheel of Time Season 2 throws quite the curveball at Robert Jordan fans when it introduces Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn) to none other than Min Farshaw (Kae Alexander). The two reluctant heroes — Well, are either of them heroes yet? They’re both certainly reluctant… — discover that they are in adjoining cells within the Red Ajah’s base in Tar Valon. The two quickly strike up a friendship that doesn’t happen in the books. It’s yet another way in which the Prime Video show plays fast and loose with Wheel of Time canon to delightful effect. Sure, Mat’s supposed to be gallivanting around with Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) and the Shienarans on the Great Hunt for the Horn of Valere and Min’s, uh, not at Tar Valon yet, but the two characters bounce off of each other in such a delightful way, we can’t complain.
For his part, Dónal Finn loved working with Alexander on The Wheel of Time Season 2. He gushed about Mat and Min’s friendship when Decider spoke to him before the SAG-AFTRA strike began.
“It was great, you know? I love acting with Kae,” Finn said. “I think those characters are drawn to each other because they slightly recognize themselves as outsiders. Even though you could say that Mat has a great social circle, I think he has the behavior of maybe distancing himself from that.”
Finn went on to say that there was another reason why he thought Mat was drawn to Min that we might see bare out later in The Wheel of Time Season 2.
“There’s a lesson in what Min does that I think Mat is learning from, which has something to do with acceptance, and to do with the notion of, there are elements about ourselves that we can change and that there are elements about ourselves that we can’t,” Finn said.
“Min, you know, understands that because of her gift of seeing further down the line. I think Matt is avoidant of that and prefers to bury his head in the sand and ultimately try and enjoy the moment for himself and also for the people around him. I think they are maybe teaching each other or some kind of balance.”
Of course, there’s something else Mat and Min have in common, and I’m not talking about having three-letter names that start with the letter “M.” They both have keen senses of humor.
“I think they are people that are trying to seek out fun in a land that has so much peril and danger and chaos,” Finn said. “I think there is an element of just trying to enjoy the evening for what it is like trying to carve out your own sense of peace. You know?”
Will Mat and Min help each other find peace? Or are they doomed to get pulled back into the peril that is The Wheel of Time?