Brennidon is the fourth episode of the television series Legend of the Seeker.
Plot Summary[]
Official logline[]
A city under siege and a shocking discovery about his past confront Richard Cypher when he returns to his birthplace.
Episode synopsis[]
Upon entering a small town in the Midlands, Kahlan’s services as a Confessor are required, and Richard is dismayed to see that it will take her a long time to work through all the people’s disputes. However a distraction is immediately offered in the form of two hunters, Gavin and Matthias, who ask Richard to help them track and kill a 14 point stag. Zedd doesn’t want Richard to go and argues with him when a robust woman (Sylvia) who is obviously familiar with Zedd approaches. While Zedd is pleased to be reacquainted with a former lover, Richard is able to cheekily slip off with the hunters, calling a promise over his shoulder to be careful.
The stag proves a tricky catch, and leads the three hunters much further away than they had expected to travel. In fact, they’ve gone so far west they can now see Brennidon in the distance. When Richard realizes it’s the town he was born in, he decides to go and visit, promising to catch up with the other hunters later. Outside the village he comes across a graveyard, and learns that Darken Rahl had all the firstborn sons of Brennidon killed in order to kill the Seeker.
Once in Brennidon, Richard discovers one of the townswomen is to be publicly executed for speaking against Darken Rahl. When he tries to stop it, he is forced to draw the Sword of Truth, which the guards recognize. They then chase the Seeker as he flees. Brigid, another townswoman, catches Richard first, and hides him in her house. Once the soldiers are gone, she marvels at Richard, remembering how she held him when he was born, before the wizard took him away. Richard is stunned, and questions if she is his mother. She answers yes.
Meanwhile, Zedd goes with Silvia to her tent and is reminiscing happily with her when she springs a surprise on him. She brings in her teenaged son, Allard, and announces that Zedd is the boy’s father. Zedd viciously denies any such thing, while Silvia insists that Zedd needs to help train the boy in magic. When Zedd protests that Allard is already mostly grown, Silvia seems to think Zedd should take Allard with him for training. They decide to take the dispute to Kahlan and see what she will say.
In Brennidon, Brigid introduces Richard to her second son Mark. Mark is shocked and uneasy at Richard being his brother, and is persuaded by his mother to help Richard escape. However, instead of helping, he lures Richard into an abandoned cellar, and locks him in before running to fetch the guards. Richard is able to escape the cellar by using flint and straw to burn the door down.
Zedd and Silvia tell Kahlan their problem, and Kahlan gets Silvia to admit that there is another man who could have been Allard’s father. Zedd insists he can’t be the father because he used “magical protection” when he was with Silvia. However, when Kahlan asks if he cast the magical protection every single time, Zedd hesitates. Finally he tells Kahlan that he needs to speak with her in private.
The village guards have already alerted the D'Haran's to the Seeker’s presence so the D’Harans decide to hold the Seeker’s mother hostage in order to force the Seeker out. When all the village women are rounded up in the village square, Brigid calls out that she is the Seeker’s mother, and that the other women should be left alone. Understanding what’s going on, all the other women then get in on the act, each claiming that she is the true mother of the Seeker. Fed up with them, the D’harans take all the women hostage.
Kahlan tells Silvia that Zedd is not Allard’s father, but won’t reveal what Zedd has told her privately. Accepting this judgment, Silvia tells Zedd that she thought Allard would be happier with Zedd. Allard ashamedly steps up and explains: when he was eight, he went boar hunting without telling his mother. There was an accident during the hunt, and as a result Allard is now too scared to hunt. This will bring him great shame in their village, so Silvia wanted Allard to be able to go with Zedd, knowing that wizards are renown for their mental strength rather than physical courage. Zedd considers and then claims he knows a spell which will take the fear out of Allard.
Learning of the hostage women, Richard goes back to Brigid’s house and finds Mark upset that all the mothers will die. Richard convinces Mark that turning him in won’t solve the problem, and the two get down to plotting.
At the guard house, Mark shoves a bound Richard through the door. He talks coldly to the D’Haran leader that now he has the Seeker, he should let the women go. The D’haran decides that he has no reason to, since after all, the women were going against Darken Rahl’s orders by trying to protect the Seeker. Brigid speaks up that she really is Richard’s mother, and Mark confirms this. The D’Haran releases the other women and declares that Richard and Brigid will die in the morning. Mark wants to be there when they die, and the D’Haran agrees.
Meanwhile, Zedd performs the spell he claimed would cure Allard. It goes off with a lost of showy flashes and bangs. When it’s done, Zedd pronounces that Allard is healed. Later Kahlan asks if it was a real spell, and Zedd answers “no.” But Zedd was confident that if Allard thought he was fixed, then he would in fact become less fearful. Zedd then reminds Kahlan of her promise to not reveal what he told her to Richard.
In a dirty cell, Richard comforts Brigid by telling her that it’s all a plan and that Mark will help them trick the D’Harans, but Brigid doesn’t trust her son anymore, and thinks that it is Richard whom Mark has tricked.
When Gavin and Matthias turn up empty handed, Zedd demands to know where Richard is. The hunters tell him about Brennidon and Zedd and Kahlan ride out. When they reach the gates of Brennidon, a guard tells them the Seeker is to be executed that morning.
In the town square, Richard is kneeling with his head on a block as the D’Haran leader prepares to run him through with his own sword. Suddenly Mark unsheathes a sword of his own and kills the D’Haran. Richard cries “Now!” and the watching crowd began to throw stones at the guards. Mark saves his mother, just as Zedd and Kahlan join the fray.
When the fight ends, Richard introduces Zedd and Kahlan to his mother. After seeing Zedd, Brigid finally admits to Richard that she’s not his mother. She was simply the midwife at his birth. When she saw Richard, he reminded her so much of her son Owen who died, that she pretended he was and went along with the story. When Richard asks about his real mother, Brigid doesn’t know, saying that she simply vanished.
As the trio leave Brennidon, Richard announces his belief that his mother is still alive, and he intends to find her one day, for then he'll have a family again. As he rides off ahead, Kahlan confronts Zedd. Zedd tells her he also hopes Richard’s mother is alive, but that Richard must not know his secret, namely that he is Richard's grandfather, because Richard would risk his own life for Zedd's while his is far more important.
Cast[]
- Craig Horner as Richard Cypher
- Bridget Regan as Kahlan Amnell
- Bruce Spence as Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander
- Rachel Nash as Brigid
- James Davies as Mark
- Eryn Wilson as Andrew
- Nicola Kawana as Sylvia
- Peter Feeney as Otto Nyth
- Winston Harris as Allard
- Fasitua Amosa as Gavin
- Timothy Adam as Gatekeeper
- William Johnson as Caretaker
- Christopher Page as Patrolman
- Elizabeth Baldwin as Mother #1
- Sheryl Morris as Mother #2
Appearances[]
Characters[]
- Kahlan Amnell
- Allard (First appearance)
- Andrew (First appearance)
- Brigid (First appearance)
- Richard Cypher
- Mark (First appearance)
- Otto Nyth (First appearance)
- Sylvia (First appearance)
- Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander
Creatures[]
Events[]
Locations[]
- Midlands
- Fire Spring (Mentioned only)
- Brennidon
Organizations and titles[]
- Confessors
- Wizard
- Seeker of Truth
- Lord Rahl (Mentioned only)
Miscellanea[]
Behind the scenes[]
- It is implied in this episode that Richard Cypher's mother is alive, though in the Sword of Truth series it is a well documented fact that she died whilst he was a child. The episode changes Richard's birthplace to a town in the Midlands as well, when in the books he was born in the Westland.