When I first read the description of the episode, I thought there was no way the episode couldn't be good. Cara making a deal with Darken Rahl has to make an exciting story. I was wrong. The episode wasn't at all bad, but my expectations were raised too high, and it rekindled my dislike of fantasy.
Cara is killed randomly by a soldier and becomes a bainling. She has to kill one person a day to stay alive. She also can kill multiple people or bainlings, so the restrictive rules leave her with no other option that to kill real people. She struggles to hide her state from the group, and her thirst for killing becomes more and more powerful as she fails to kill a real person.
Meanwhile, Zedd's brother Thaddicus and Sebastian (Ted Raimi) are peddling shadow water to bainling. It completely cures them of their condition, but it's in limited supply and Sebastian waters down the stock. The cure-all is limited. Who couldn't see that one coming? The group arrives in the shop to save them from angry bainlings only to find a few drops left. But fear not, magic has no limits. Zedd fixes Sebastian's magical map making apparatus and creates a map to the spring where the shadow water is limitless.
Problem solved, right? Of course not. Cara needs to kill again after killing a D'haran a day early. The only choice is Thaddicus who is useless anyways. She stops herself at the last moment and decides to die, but Thaddicus impales himself on her dagger. Cara and Richard rush to the spring while Darken Rahl tortures the location out of Thaddicus. Just before Darken Rahl drains the spring, Richard gets a few drops to return Cara to normal. Cara uses the breath of life and saves Thaddicus. Everyone is all right except for the other bainlings who would have been saved. Like that trope hasn't been used before.
The writers turned to dangling the godly magic before taking it away at the last second. It's stupid and annoying beyond belief, but everywhere you turn, it happens all the time. Cara dying is a big deal, but everything reset to the beginning leaves no lasting result other than the insight we see into her character. The rest of the stuff is all superficial. It was interesting to see the depravity of people selling humans to bainlings, but when magic was at the forefront of the episode, it gets pushed to the background.
Score: 8.5/10
