Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Wheel of Time.
The Big Picture
- Mat’s storyline in Season 2 of The Wheel of Time is completely new, but it improves the character by emphasizing his struggle with self-doubt and allowing him to investigate his past lives.
- Behind-the-scenes complications led to Mat’s story being changed, but this change puts him in a different place and sets him on a drastically adjusted path that serves his character well.
- Mat’s new trajectory in Season 2 forces him to overcome new obstacles and pairs him with a new character, Min, with whom he develops a friendship that brings out the best in him.
Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time adapts Robert Jordan‘s epic fantasy series about Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and his friends as they take up their roles as ta’veren and shape the world. But before making it to the screen, the story has undergone some significant changes. Though, understandably, the show doesn’t have time to include every moment from the fourteen-book series, many of the differences are more than cutting a plot point here and there. Some of these changes make little sense, but others improve the story and the characters. This is the case for the journey of Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn), who takes a different path in the show.
Fueled by behind-the-scenes complications, Mat’s story throughout The Wheel of Time‘s second season is entirely new. Season 2 largely adapts Jordan’s second book, The Great Hunt, which features a Mat not fully healed after his experience with the dagger from Shadar Logoth and traveling with Rand and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) to recover the Horn of Valere and the dagger needed to save him. Yet the adaptation makes him a prisoner in Tar Valon, forced to dwell on his mistake of leaving his friends and escape with a new friend. This change emphasizes Mat’s struggle with self-doubt and allows him to investigate his past lives. The result is a better-developed Mat at this point of the story. Though it initially seems odd for Mat to abandon his friends, the show works it out for the better.
Behind-the-Scenes Factors Required Changes to Mat’s Story in ‘The Wheel of Time’
After Barney Harris left the show during Season 1, Mat was recast, but this also meant that the character wasn’t present in the last two episodes of the season aside from archival footage. So, while the books have Mat travel with his friends to the Eye of the World, the show couldn’t do that. Instead, in the first season, Mat leaves his friends after being cursed by the dagger from Shadar Logoth, returning to Tar Valon, where Liandrin Sedai (Kate Fleetwood) takes him after Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) sends a warning to her sisters of the Red Ajah. Mat leaving his friends to continue on their dangerous path alone is out of character, but a lot can be blamed on the dagger and how it affects him.
Yet the sudden disappearance of Mat in Season 1 puts him in a different place at the beginning of Season 2 as Finn takes over the role. Freed of the dagger, Mat is trapped in the White Tower at the start of the new season, regretting his actions and believing his friends hate him. This beginning requires further changes, as the next part of Mat’s plot revolves around the dagger being stolen before he’s healed and a race to find it. Yet his imprisonment gives Mat time to dwell on his mistakes while slowly devising his escape. It also highlights Liandrin’s connection to the Black Ajah as she manipulates him. Though this significant departure from the original plot sets Mat on a drastically different path, it serves his character well.
‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 2 Takes Mat on a New and Improved Path
Because he starts the season healed from his connection to the Shadar Logoth dagger and isolated from his friends, Mat is forced onto a different trajectory. While Perrin follows the book’s story for all three friends by hunting for the Horn, Mat must overcome new obstacles. This twist pairs him with Min Farshaw (Kae Alexander), the seer who hates her powers. Mat and Min work well together as they quickly develop a friendship that allows Mat’s humor a chance to shine. Min is more accustomed to being used for her visions of the future, and Mat’s carefree attitude offers her a break from that, while Mat needs company to focus on something other than his failures. Their interactions bring out a better side of Mat, which gets lost in the dagger’s curse. It also sets up important tension as Min has a vision of Mat killing Rand, which foreshadows the events of the Season 2 finale.
After the long separation, Mat gets a heartfelt reunion with Rand after both have been out of contact with their friends for months. They discuss what’s happened to them, and Rand assures Mat that no one blames him for leaving, though Mat remains unconvinced. Yet again, this shows Mat struggling with guilt while his relationship with his long-time friend demonstrates the best in him. But the friends’ time together is short-lived after Mat learns of Min’s vision and runs away, this time believing it’s the right thing. Mat’s journey continues in circles as he is imprisoned again, when Ishamael (Fares Fares) attempts to change his loyalties by offering him a glimpse at his past lives. Mat is curious enough to seize the opportunity in front of him but sees only terrible things, confirming everything he hates about himself.
In the end, however, Mat doesn’t change sides. Instead, he fights to save his friends when given the chance, even overcoming the temptation of the Shadar Logoth dagger. During the battle in Falme, Mat sounds the Horn of Valere and summons the Heroes of the Horn, reconnecting with his plotline from the book. This action allows Mat to finally recall his true past lives, remembering that he is a hero of the Horn rather than the worthless criminal Ishamael led him to believe. Mat’s journey of self-discovery ends in a similar place to his story in the books, but the middle is entirely new and makes his character better.
‘The Wheel of Time’s Changes Make Mat a More Developed Character
Mat’s plot in The Wheel of Time Season 2 is unfamiliar even for book readers, but it serves his characters well. The story develops Mat aside from the dagger’s possession and lets him grow while showing off the comic relief aspect that Finn does so well. While Mat was under the dagger’s influence, the lovable aspects of his character were lost. Yet Season 2 returns him to who he was at the beginning of the series and proves that the characters can remain the same at their core even when the story changes. Though his book plot at this point in Jordan’s series was changed almost entirely, the show creates a strong arc in its place that only improves the character of Mat Cauthon.
Both seasons of The Wheel of Time are available to stream on Prime Video.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
