The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 1 “To Race the Shadow” dramatizes one of the most chilling sequences in all of Robert Jordan’s beloved fantasy series: the “bubbles of evil.” First appearing in the earliest chapters of Book 4, The Shadow Rising, the bubbles of evil refers to a twisting of the Pattern, wherein magic seizes seemingly ordinary objects to prey upon our heroes and heroines.

Prime Video‘s version of the bubbles of evil captures the visceral essence of what attacks Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski), Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn), and Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) in the books while adding a terrifying new context. In Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time, specific Forsaken are responsible for creating these bubbles and one of them is actually working with Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) to tear the Two Rivers gang apart.

**Spoilers for The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 1 “To Race the Shadow,” now streaming on Prime Video**

The Wheel of Time Season 3 opens with our protagonists returning to Tar Valon just in time to watch the Black Ajah reveal themselves to the Tower. While Moiraine tells the likes of Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Nynaeve (Zoë Robins), Elayne (Ceara Coveney), Aviendha (Ayoola Smart), Loial (Hammed Animashaun), Bain (Ragga Ragnars), and Chiad (Maja Simonsen) to lay low, the Aes Sedai is secretly entertaining an alliance with none other than Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe).

Both Moiraine and Lanfear want to help Rand become as powerful as he possibly can be to face the Dark One in the Last Battle. Moiraine wants Rand to save the world, while Lanfear wants to rule the world with Rand. For now, though, the two women can agree that the sooner Rand sheds the trappings of his youth, the better. Those trappings include his friends.

Towards the end of The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 1, Lanfear sends “bubbles” of evil to terrorize Rand and his friends. Rand and Egwene are attacked by mirror versions of Rand while Perrin, Bain, Chiad, and Loial have to contend with an axe with a mind of its own.

Wheel of Time star Marcus Rutherford told DECIDER about the work that went into bringing the “really gruesome and dark” axe scene from The Shadow Rising to life.

“There was a lot of choreography involved,” Rutherford said, describing the “miming” he would do reacting first to nothing and then to a stunt man hopping in.

“Some of the action that Hammed, he plays Loial, did, that is all his own body work to make it look like the axe is kind of taking control of him,” he said. “Which is incredible, to do that with everything he’s doing already when he’s doing that part.”

For Mat, the bubbles manifest in a bit more of a psychological way. Characters on the cards he’s playing with begin to come to life, transfixing a young man who is dealing with the fallout of blowing the Horn of Valere in the Season 2 finale. “The cards are people that he recognizes as Heroes of the Horn,” Dónal Finn said.

“I think there’s more at play than what seems to be happening in that individual scene,” Finn said, not even referring to the Grey Man attacking Nynaeve. “Because it’s tapping into something that’s in his psyche anyway, this kind of vulnerability that he has.”

Finn explained that blowing the Horn of Valere has put a “kind of hold” on Mat, giving “direct access into his psyche.” If someone wanted to manipulate Mat, they’ve now got “a really direct route.”

The show’s version of “bubbles of evil” are depicted as the machinations of more than one Forsaken. At first it seems that only Lanfear has attacked Rand, Mat, Perrin, and their pals, but with Moiraine’s approval. You’ll noted that Moiraine refuses to come to any of the Two Rivers kids’ aid. Lan (Daniel Henney) finally comes to Nynaeve’s rescue because he can’t bear to hear the woman he loves call for help.

When DECIDER asked series star and EP Rosamund Pike about the show attributing the bubbles of evil specifically to Lanfear, she pushed back.

“I don’t think it necessarily is attributed to Lanfear,” Pike said “If you notice when Lan and Moiraine approach Lanfear and say, ‘Hey, you know, you went a bit far,’ she is just as shocked as they are.”

“It’s so Moiraine to downplay Lanfear’s influence! So Moiraine!” Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins exclaimed when we asked him about the bubbles of evil. “I can confirm officially that it was all Lanfear all day long.”

“Lanfear loves a bubble,” Natasha O’Keeffe quipped.

Judkins explained that when adapting the “iconic bubbles of evil scene” from the books, the show wanted to give “emotional stakes” to the sequence. “Having it really come from one of our characters, and in some way be the plan of both of those characters, was a great way to kind of get the emotional intensity of that sequence and, and understand how far these two women are willing to go to get Rand to do what they want him to do.”

Of course, Lanfear and Moiraine are the only women interested in Rand and the people around him. Moghedien (Laia Costa), a member of the Forsaken we met in the final moments of Season 2, is also drawing the Dragon Reborn into her web. It is Moghedien who sent the Gray Man assassin. This is another slight departure from the books where it’s once again more vague on the page which servant of the Dark One is pulling said strings.

“In the books, [the Forsaken] do all have kind of their own little thing that is their special weave that they’re good at,” Judkins said. “So having the Gray Men be attached to Moghedien — because she is an assassin, as well, and someone who strikes from the dark — it felt like a very natural connection for us.”

Giving Moghedien power to create and control these shady slayers also solved another issue that arose in adapting the infamously shy “spider.”

“Moghedien’s a character that likes to be not seen, which is difficult on television,” Judkins said. “So it gave us a way to have her be active in the sequences without having to physically reveal herself.”

“Because we like the idea that every time Moghedien is on screen, most of the time the other character in that scene is dying.”

Does this mean Nynaeve only survived because Moghedien herself wasn’t there to do the deed? And what might happen once Moghedien slinks from her shadows to share the screen with any of our Wheel of Time faves?

The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episodes 1-3 are now streaming on Prime Video. The Wheel of Time Season 3 Episode 4 premieres next Thursday, March 20.