My main issue with Rand chasing the kid was that he did not respectfully greet the Roofmistress and participate in the ritual of asking to enter her hold/house etc. It seemed very disrespectful to the culture and insulting to the Roofmistress. If they had had a scene with him playing with the kids after he had performed the ritual it would not have seemed so out of place.

Did anyone else find a large portion of this episode so dark that they couldn't really see what was happening on screen?

Yeah I don't quite get it - you don't even need that many extras - crowds can be quite easily made using CGI etc when you only have a few extras. Overall though this season has definitely been an improvement from the previous two.

While I really enjoyed this episode I feel they missed out on the scale of the Aiel in the visions. There should have been huge camps of Aiel moving around - but it seemed that there was only a handful of people travelling with the Tree of Life. In the vision after the Tuatha'an left there seemed to only be the grandfather and grandson and noone else which was strange. There should have been a huge number of Jenn Aiel which dwindled over time so the size of the camp should increase as they go back in time, not decrease.

I live in Western Australia and it released at 3pm Thursday here.

How much time was meant to have passed between episode 1 and 2? I was confused how Alanna made it to Emond's Field quicker than Perrin when he took a Waygate. I do feel the show revolves far too much around Tar Valon and the Aes Sedai. Sure they should be in the show but they should not be the main part.

I agree. They could have done New Spring as Season 1. It allows them to have Moiraine as the main character. Then in season 2 They jump 20 years to the Two Rivers. They could have had Rosamund Pike drop to a supporting cast member and maybe allowed her to do more directing etc.