‘Wheel of Time’ Stars Josha Stradowski and Rosamund Pike Break Down That “Ruthless,” Sexy, Bloody Selene Reveal

The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 4 “Daughter of the Night” begins and ends with the reveal of an iconic villain from Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series. We finally meet the slippery and seductive Lanfear…only to discover that we’ve already met her before on the Prime Video show…

**Spoilers for The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 4 “Daughter of the Night,” now streaming on Prime Video**

The cold open of this week’s installment of the Prime Video series sees Ishamael (Fares Fares) waking yet another one of the Dark One’s lieutenants up from their infernal slumber. It’s a scene ripped out of a horror film with a ghastly female figure soaked in blood coming to unholy life. And by episode’s end, we learn that we’ve already met this formidable foe…and it’s Selene (Natasha O’Keeffe).

Yes, Selene is Lanfear and Lanfear is Selene. It’s a “twist” that readers of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time books would have seen from a mile away (and even speculated on this summer).

Lanfear is unique among the Forsaken, i.e. the millennia-old evil lieutenants in the Dark One’s inner circle, insomuch that she was madly in love with Lews Therin Telamon (Alexander Karim) in the last Age. Her unhinged obsession with him pushed her to join the Dark One’s army and to name herself Lanfear or “Daughter of the Night.” Selene’s seduction of Rand (Josha Stradowski) isn’t so much an evil gambit but a goal in and of itself because he is the reincarnation of Lews Therin Telamon. As you can see, Selene’s whole personality changes as soon as Rand reveals that he loves her. She begins to refer to Rand’s ability to channel as part of his nature and then leads him into a cabin to tie him to a headboard and have sex.

After Rand is bound to the bed, Selene says, “There’s something you should know, Rand. I’m a monster, too.” As she begins to channel, frightening Rand, a sharp blade stabs Selene from behind. Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) has arrived to save Rand and to reveal the truth: Selene is Lanfear. And they need to run.

“Obviously, Lanfear is one of the Forsaken and Lanfear is a huge rival to Moiraine, because Lanfear and Moiraine have different designs on the Dragon Reborn,” Wheel of Time star Rosamund Pike said in an interview with Decider conducted before the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike. “They both want to control him. One seemingly for her own ends — not me — and one for, you know, the good of mankind, which is Moiraine.”

In the same interview, Wheel of Time star Josha Stradowski revealed that filming the final pivotal sequence in Season 2 Episode 4 was a harried affair helped by Pike’s past experience with blades in films like Gone Girl, where she murdered Neil Patrick Harris with a flick of a wrist, and the James Bond flick Die Another Day, where she got to fence Halle Berry on a crashing plane.

“I remember that was a night shoot actually. We didn’t have much time, so I feel like we didn’t need much time. We just, we shot it in one hour, I think, and it was very quick,” Josha Stradowski said, before turning to Pike. “But I feel like what you did in that scene – you were quite experienced with what you’ve done in the past and your work with knives and killing. So it was very, you know…”

“Ruthless, succinct,” Rosamund Pike said rather cheerily.

“Yeah, you just nailed it. Very efficient,” Stradowski said.

Pike went on to explain that Moiraine’s devotion to her mission to help the Dragon Reborn is what unlocks the Aes Sedai’s “ruthlessness.”

“We see that she will sacrifice anything in the way of completing her mission or managing it successfully. And that will include people she cares about,” Pike said. “She will happily take collateral damage.”

“If it was the train conundrum… You know, if the train is continuing on the track and it will kill four people, and you could divert it onto another track and it would only kill one, what decision do you make? Well, Moiraine would without question kill four people if it could protect the Dragon Reborn. I mean, there is no way she will prioritize him above everything.”

Pike went on to tease that Moiraine’s ruthlessness might actually have met its match in Lanfear. “Lanfear, we presume, is also a rather ruthless character. So two ruthless women head to head — that’s where you get interesting drama.”

The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 5 will premiere on Prime Video on Friday, September 15.