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Listener is the fifth episode of the television series Legend of the Seeker.

Plot Summary[]

Official logline[]

Their deepest secrets threaten to tear apart Richard and Kahlan when they rescue a mind-reading child from the clutches of Darken Rahl's deadly troops.

Episode synopsis[]

The trio come across a troop of the Dragon Corp, and decide that following them will lead to Darken Rahl. The band is actually finding their way to a merchant, however, from whom they purchase a small boy in chains.

The boy is Renn, and he is a true Listener, which Kahlan says has not happened in 700 years. By looking into a person’s eyes, the boy can hear their thoughts. As a demonstration, he picks out one of the soldiers, Masslar, who is a traitor hoping that the Seeker will succeed in killing Darken Rahl. This man is stripped of his armor and lashed to a wagon.

The trio plan to save the boy and track the troop. Zedd will disguise himself (by darkening his hair and growing a beard) and approach the soldiers as a wizard offering his services to Darken Rahl. While he has the men distracted Richard and Kahlan will sneak in and secret the boy away. While the two of them return the boy safely to his home, Zedd will travel with the soldiers and leave a trail so Richard and Kahlan will be able catch up once the boy is taken care off.

The plan is going off without a hitch until Richard and Kahlan get the boy away and discover a very big problem. Renn does not want to be saved. He has been used all his life. Given the choice, Renn would prefer to be used by someone like Darken Rahl who can give Renn a cushy life in reward for good service.

Believing that the two are kidnapping him in order to use him, Renn kicks Richard in the groin and runs away. When they catch up with him again Kahlan convinces Renn they want to help and asks where his home is so they can return him. He was kidnapped from his father in Obergon Woods, which is only a day away. Richard and Kahlan could easily return him home and catch up with Zedd afterwards.

They are able to find the boy’s home easily, but the family living there now is not his. Worse, Renn is able to read their minds and learn that most people believe Renn was not kidnapped in the first place, but sold by his father. They do not know where to find Renn’s father now.

Richard and Kahlan can’t just leave Renn, but they need to get back to Zedd before whatever trail Zedd leaves can go cold. Kahlan decides to take Renn to Thandore, a magically hidden valley where the Sisters of Light reside. Kahlan knows they take in special children like Renn and would take good care of him. It will take 3-4 days to get there, and Richard agrees. Unfortunately while they were talking, Renn ran away.

Zedd walks with a staff behind all the soldiers. Wherever the staff touches the ground a small white flower blooms. This is the trail he’s leaving for Richard and Kahlan.

Masslar, the traitor, walks beside the horses and tell the captain how bad he is. Ashgar, the Captain of the Dragon Corp, whips him for his insolence. Zedd is impressed how devout Masslar is to the Seeker, and at how Masslar is willing to suffer for his belief. When the Captain decides they should all rest, Zedd magically frees Masslar. But when Masslar makes good his escape, Captain Ashgar holds a sword to Zedd’s throat forcing Zedd to help recapture Masslar or else out himself as a spy.

Richard and Kahlan find Renn in a tavern where he is using his telepathy to cheat at a game of cards in order to make money. They drag him kicking and screaming from the town. Renn refuses to travel with them, biting Richard. Fed up, Richard decides to bind the boy’s hands. Kahlan unexpectedly panics at the sight of the rope and refuses to let Richard do it. Confused, Richard finally convinces Renn to cooperate by threatening to tell the gamblers at the tavern just how Renn was cheating.

Renn grudgingly agrees to go to Thandore, but goes out of his way to make the journey difficult. He blackmails Richard into wasting time trapping and cooking a pheasant by threatening to tell Kahlan Richard’s secret. He also threatens to run back to the D’Harans. Renn insists on resting, refusing to walk any more that day. When Richard argues with him, Renn accuses Richard of wanting to kill him. Kahlan, who is just as fed up with Renn as Richard is, notes that people often think things in anger that they don’t intend to act on. But now Renn is refusing to cooperate in any way. He begins screaming as loud as he can.

The screaming alerts a troop of nearby D’Harans. They are part of the original troop at the beginning of the episode who were left behind to search for Renn when he was discovered missing. They’ve been tracking Richard and Kahlan as best they could. At the sound of the screaming, they come running. Kahlan shoves Renn up a tree to be kept out of harms way (with the warning that if the D’Harans think Renn is friends with the Seeker, then they will kill him with the Seeker) and she and Richard fight. They successfully beat all the D’Harans, but Richard’s right arm is badly injured.

Away from the battle site, Kahlan tends Richard’s wound with Renn looking on. Renn is awed, the most anyone’s ever paid for him was 20,000 gold pieces, no one has ever been willing to pay their life for him. He can read the answer in Richard and Kahlan’s minds, but still doesn’t understand why they want to kill Darken Rahl but don’t want Darken Rahl’s throne or gold. He can’t believe such good people exist, and thinks that he is himself not good enough to be with such people and that therefore he shouldn’t go to the Sisters of Light in Thandore.

Kahlan tells him of the Sisters of Light. She tells the story that her mother touched her father with the power of the Confessors. But that when Kahlan was five and her sister was three, their mother died. With her death, their father was released from the power and took the two girls away. Kahlan says that their father used her and her sister, forcing them to use their touch for his own benefit. If either sister refused to do what their father wanted, he would tie them up, which is why Kahlan was upset earlier when Richard wanted to bind Ren’s hands. Richard questions why Kahlan didn’t touch her father so he wouldn’t hurt her any more. Kahlan states simply because he was her father.

Kahlan finishes the story saying that when she was eleven years old, another Confessor found her and her sister and took them away from their father. The Confessor took them to Thandor where the Sisters of Light took them in.

The rest of the journey goes well. Richard even teaches Renn some things about the woods and tracking. Then a man rides up, claiming to be Renn’s father and wanting Renn to come with him. Renn seems confused, hesitant. He reads the man’s mind and then agrees with the story and goes with the man, even though Kahlan and Richard can tell something was wrong. Richard and Kahlan now head back to catch up with Zedd again.

The man is not Renn’s father, and sells Renn back to the D’Harans who were tracking them. Renn knew this was going to happen and had decided he wanted to be returned to the D’Harans. He went with the man because he knew the man would kill Richard and Kahland if he didn’t. They take the boy with them and start trying to catch up with the other D’Harans.

Meanwhile Captain Ashgar has become fed up with Masslar because Masslar is singing a poem about how the seeker will save them from Darken Rahl. He decides to execute him. The poem that Masslar is singing is:

"When shadows long or take the day and evils have enslaved us and war and strife and fear halts way, the seeker then shall save us ... burn and kingdoms fall the seeker then shall sound his call when men call Darken Rahl their lord, the seeker then shall raise his sword days are dark and hope is lost and times cry ever weaker the springtime dies beneath the frost, ‘cause then shall come the seeker"

Zedd tries to save Masslar without revealing himself. He finally saves Masslar by turning him into a raven, but the Captain knows Zedd did it. Zedd is bound and gagged.

Richard and Kahlan run into the man who pretended to be Renn’s father and realize he sold Renn back to the D’Harans. They figure out that the D’Harans with Renn are going the same way the D’Harans with Zedd went and race to catch up.

The second troop with Renn catches up with the Captain’s troop. The Captain demands that Renn read Zedd and reveal who he is. Renn stares at Zedd before confirming that Zedd is a traitor wanting to kill Darken Rahl. But then he surprises the Captain by naming several of the other D’Haran soldiers as being in on the wizard’s plot. The D’Haran’s begin fighting among themselves. When Richard and Kahlan finally arrive on the scene they join the battle immediately. Kahlan fights well but Richard is forced to fight with his off-hand since his right arm is still wounded. The D’Harans press him mercilessly and Captain Ashgar trips him to the ground and is about to kill him when Zedd finally gets loose and kills the Captain with Wizards Fire.

After the battle, Zedd, Richard, and Kahlan take Renn to Thandore. After a teary good-bye a raven flies at them. Zedd turns the raven back into Masslar who thanks Zedd for saving his life. Masslar tells Richard that Darken Rahl has sent 200 men to Kelabra on an important mission. When Masslar departs Richard, Zedd, and Kahlan decide to go on to Kelabra, though Zedd knows that Kelabra was destroyed and buried long ago by a volcanic explosion.

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