WOT on Prime Episode 7 - SPOILERS

[Marcus DuBois]

If they do pursue it any further, I'll admit I'm wrong and join you being grumpy about it though.

I HOPE they don't pursue it any further. But regardless, it seemed a completely pointless addition. Adding, at most, a potential crush on Egwene to Perrin who already got and killed a wife just seems one thing too many. It really felt completely off and manufactured (I use that word a lot because it truly does not feel organic. It feels put in in order to play up the tension or angst or give them something to argue about. But they could have done it without something so needlessly stupid and childish and cliche. Fridging Laila, as important as that is, is enough cliche.) I don't think they can write their way out of this, for me. It was just stupid.

Rand might have realised sooner. I've watched it twice but didn't look out for that the second time. If he does realise before the scene with Egwene though, I think him telling her to go to the Tower is the tell. Being her warder is a pipe dream, he just wants to make sure her future is secure. As a channeler, the WT is the best place she can be and he wants her to promise she'll go. If he thought she might be the dragon, that's a pointless assurance -- she'll be the dragon. If she's not the dragon, chances are she'll be dead (IF she does go to the Eye, which she has already adamantly said she wants to before this scene). It reads to me like he might already be planning to go to the Eye alone at this point, and is reassuring himself that Egwene will be all right without him. Not that they make it obvious, but he must be using the flame and void when he's shooting the arrows, so you wouldn't expect him to show any emotion at least at that point. 

I can't remember what he says during the triangle scene, and if there are any possible tells there. My feeling is he probably began to realise after machin shin, which was why he was crying when they came out of the gate. The bit before the triangle scene, when Moiraine tells them whoever is not the dragon will die at the Eye, is I think the point he decides he must act on his doubts -- this is the first time there is a definitive consequence to them all going to the Eye, Moiraine's evasive before then. He might not be sure at that point, but he won't allow his friends to die for him. He mulls it over some more, gets his promise from Egwene, and goes over all the reasons it might be him -- but I only think he's completely sure after he speaks to Min.

This may be. WIth a rewatch, watching for tells that Rand is worried about it being him will help. I thought he was crying because what we heard, up to that point, of Machin Shin was about his relationship with egwene. The flashback shows the other half. I'm not a fan of creating mystery by witholding part of a scene. In general, I like what happened, but honestly, those kinds of mysteries (where they edit out the crucial info until later- Mary Higgins Clark used to do it all the time. James Patterson too.) annoy me because clearly they were cut around.

But my complaining makes it seem like I had major issues. I didn't. I loved it over all.

EDIT:
Oh God, I think I can see a reason they *MIGHT* have implied a triangle. Maybe it's what drives Rand and Egwene apart. I hope no. Please, I hope not. That makes me want to puke.