Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Wheel of Time's Season 1 finale, "The Eye of the World."

The Wheel of Time, which finally premiered on Prime Video in November, is adapted from the long-enduring fantasy novels by the late author Robert Jordan. The series takes place in a world where magic is ever-present, though it is typically wielded by an organization consisting of women known as the Aes Sedai. One among their ranks, Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), has been on a secret quest of her own for many years for someone called the Dragon Reborn, an overwhelmingly powerful individual who is prophesized to either save the world or lead it into destruction. Accompanied by her loyal Warder Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney), Moiraine travels to the region known as the Two Rivers, where it's possible that the reincarnation of the Dragon might exist from within a small group — sheepherder Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski), blacksmith Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford), innkeepers' daughter Egwene al'Vere (Madeleine Madden), gambler and thief Mat Cauthon (Barney Harris), and town Wisdom Nynaeve al'Meara (Zoë Robins). After the Two Rivers are attacked by a band of vicious creatures called Trollocs, the group finds themselves on the run with one destination in mind — the city of Tar Valon, where the White Tower and the rest of the Aes Sedai might be able to help.

Ahead of this week's episode, Collider had the chance to chat with showrunner Rafe Judkins about some of the most pivotal moments in "The Eye of the World," including the cold open that finally establishes when the world of The Wheel of Time takes place, staging the finale battle as an ensemble piece rather than giving all of the biggest moments to one character, and what those new arrivals at the end of the episode tee up for Season 2. He also talked about the evolution of the Lan/Nynaeve relationship and the consequences of Moiraine's decision to turn off the Aes Sedai/Warder bond between her and Lan, especially in the aftermath of the battle with the Dark One.

Collider: I feel like my fan reaction to this finale is way less eloquent. Which is just... holy crap. But I have actual questions for you, I promise.

RAFE JUDKINS: (laughs) That's okay. Holy crap is fine.

I do want to start at the beginning, with the cold open flashback that we get with who's revealed to be Lews [Therin Telamon], the first Dragon — but then also the reveal of where the show takes place, and what the breaking of the world did to this almost futuristic society, which I think is going to surprise a lot of people. Why spool out that narrative thread at this stage in the show, so to speak?

JUDKINS: Well, we wanted to try to get across in the first season the core things that make people love The Wheel of Time book series and that make it different and unique from other fantasy series. So a lot of the adaptation choices we made were to bring those things up sooner. TV audiences aren't necessarily ready to wait, like, six seasons to find out the coolest thing you've got in your back pocket in the same way they sometimes will for books.

And so to me, one of the things that's most unique about Wheel of Time is that it is about a world that is, has been broken, and that it was actually more futuristic than our world. And that it broke because of what transpired and that is the threat of what can happen again. I think that's a really important core concept of the series. So I thought it was important to get it out in the first season so that you could at least see it on screen.

And then I also think that this idea of the break between women and men in the world of Wheel of Time is such an important one that drives so much of what happens in the series. I wanted to see the moment that happened, even if it's not in some big battle. Just the conversation between the two people [and] how the breaking of the world, and also like the breaking of these two people, happened.

It's even something that's referenced in the scene, that the divide is going to happen in a nursery as opposed to a big, epic event. It feels a little quieter, which is really fascinating.

JUDKINS: I loved doing that. I was really glad that Amazon let us do that first scene and do it in Old Tongue, which is a big swing for audiences. All that kind of stuff, I was just really happy that we were allowed to do that.

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Image via Prime Video

RELATED: 'The Wheel of Time': Daniel Henney on Episode 6, Lan & Moiraine's Relationship, and What That Loss Means for the Group

I want to narrow in on one of the things that I love about the show the most, on a personal note, which is the growing romance between Lan and Nynaeve. They have a big moment in last week's episode. But in the finale, there's more of the emotional follow-up to them culminating the relationship, so to speak. And of course, Daniel [Henney] gets to say the iconic Lan line. But looking ahead, now that we know Season 2 is happening, how is that relationship going to be tested? Especially considering the Moiraine factor.

JUDKINS: Yeah. It was really important to me, that scene, the iconic Lan/Nynaeve scene that's in the books. We really wanted to give the lead up to that in terms of seeing it as an ensemble show. What were the scenes that led up to that moment? And sort of giving the audience that backstory so they can see them come together. And then [I] actually ended up having to fight really hard to get that scene to screen, but I think it's worthwhile. I really think it's important that that scene from the books, that sort of defines those two characters, is in the show. It was really important to me. So I was happy to fight that fight.

Moving forward for them, what's cool about their relationship in the books is that it's not one you're used to seeing. It's almost like a love triangle and a business triangle laid on top of each other. And there's something really interesting about that dynamic between Lan and Moiraine and Lan and Nynaeve. And then Nynaeve and Moiraine and the growing respect that those two women also have for each other. And both of them almost trying to pawn Lan off on the other one because they're both martyrs, in their own way. (laughs) They... I think those characters actually have a lot more similarities than those characters would like to think they do. And so I love that triangle and sort of all the different ways it plays through the whole series.

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Image via Prime Video

One of the things that I really liked about the finale that I know is kind of a change-up from the book is that in the battle at Fal Dara, it's Egwene and Nynaeve fighting the Trolloc army. And I'm curious what the thinking was between giving that to the two of them?

JUDKINS: The whole guiding purpose of a lot of what we've done with the adaptation has been to make that first book feel more like an ensemble piece than just Rand's story. And so we try to do the same with the end as well. in the books, everyone else basically gets knocked out and Rand fights the Dark One. He teleports to Tarwin's Gap and levels the whole Trolloc army. He gets the Horn of Valere. He does it all, essentially.

And we wanted to take that and split it amongst our core characters, sort of have each of them fulfill a piece of what Rand did at the end of book one, in as believable a way as possible, and also to set up their stories moving forward. So Perrin is now connected to the Horn of Valere and we can see where that story's going. With Nynaeve and Egwene, much of their story in the books is about the power that they have inside of them. In a book, you can hear people talk about the power you have inside, and it can make sense. But for the show, we needed to see it, to see where they're headed so the audience can really feel, fundamentally, the amount of power that not just Nynaeve but also Egwene has inside of her as they continue their journeys off in the future. And then it felt like Rand's confrontation with Ba'alzamon was the most important piece for Rand. So we tried to find a way to split out that finale amongst all the characters, instead of having it be all Rand.

Obviously, a big consequence of Rand and Moiraine facing off with the Dark One is she has not only blocked the bond between herself and Lan, but now she has been cut off from the Source. She can't tap into the One Power anymore. So how is that consequence going to play out for her and Lan heading into Season 2?

JUDKINS: [In] Book 2 for Moiraine and Lan, they don't have a lot to do in that book. So we try to dig into what is in there and then figure out a way to expand it out. And a lot of what happens in that book between them is this exploration of their relationship that I think is super interesting. And they go way deeper with it than you would expect them to go and you see the dark sides of it, too. And so we wanted to set up a way to really get at that in Season 2, so the way you see them in Season 1 sets them on this course for Season 2 that really will delve into that relationship and what makes it tick.

I feel like I have to talk about the ending scene, which raises just as many questions, as much as we've gotten answers at this stage. And that's the arrival of... I'm assuming this is the Seanchan showing up.

JUDKINS: Yeah.

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Image via Prime Video

How is this group, in particular, going to have an impact on the show in Season 2?

JUDKINS: One thing I loved about the books was that you kind of feel like everything's following this traditional fantasy format coming out of the first book. There's differences in it, but it's following the storytelling structure. And then in the second book, the Seanchan come out of nowhere and slap our characters, but also the whole story and the way it's told, in the face. And it felt so fresh and new. And it's such a cool way of telling story and shows how big the world is, and reveals that you don't even know how big the world is outside of what we've seen of it already. So we really wanted to have them function the exact same way in the show. We get this nod to them at the end of the season, but... Season 2, the Seanchan arrive and they affect the story. The Seanchan, the way they came together with our production design team, is really cool.

Season 1 of The Wheel of Time is currently available to stream on Prime Video.