There is a rule about episodic TV shows that feature child guest stars. Namely, kid episodes are almost always horrible. I can count on one hand the number of kid-guest shows I've ever watched that weren't shrill, poorly-written wastes of time. Sadly, "Listener" does not escape the many, many pitfalls of the style.

Our annoying brat for this hour of Seeker is a pretentious psychic named Renn. He was born with the ability to read people's thoughts by looking into their eyes. That's right, his power is primarily visual and yet they call him a "Listener". Whatever. Logic is definitely not this episode's strong suit. Darken Rahl has dispatched the Dragon Corps, what will turn out to be one of many special, super-elite forces in his army, to procure this young, very irritating Listener for his own unsavory purposes. Enter our heroes who free the kid with a combination of magical deception and quick thinking.

But really, this is all just an excuse to get Richard and Kahlen alone with a child so they can have an uncomfortable, mystical family. While Zedd infiltrates the Dragon Corps by sporting an unconvincing disguise, Richard and Kahlen intend to spirit Renn away to a secret realm for magical children that is in no way a sword and sorcery ripoff of Hogwarts and/or the Xavier School. Because they rescue Renn from the bad guys so early, it's not going to be as easy as that.

See, after years of being forced to abuse his powers for evil people, Renn's grown into kind of a little jerk. He demands rich food even though it could end up getting people killed and he threatens his caretakers with their own secrets. Because we're talking about Richard and Kahlen here, this means more time-eating love of the unrequited sort. Yippee.

When Renn's stepfather shows up, the same guy who sold him into slavery in the first place, Renn decides to go with him anyway. Of course, the guy's working for Rahl. Later Renn explains that he sacrificed himself because his stepfather had men waiting to ambush them. That's right, the kid who witnessed Richard and Kahlen kill an entire squad of the most elite soldiers in Darken Rahl's army didn't think they could take on a soft, middle-aged man and his hired goons.

After turning the entire Dragon Corps against itself (because apparently "elite" doesn't include intelligence of any sort), Renn gets rescued again. This time he's more than happy to go to Convenient Plot Land while his caretakers bombard him with what I guess amounts to schooling in the Sword of Truth world.

So, here's my question about Thandor, the magically protected realm for super-children. We know for a fact that it's not a new development because Kahlen spent a portion of her own childhood there. So, if the Sisters of Light basically have an army of kids with world-bending abilities, why have they not developed some kind of uber-powerful resistance force? I mean, sure, Richard's good with a sword, but these kids can predict the future and probably do all sorts of crazy stuff. I know Legend of the Seeker doesn't have the budget for that sort of thing and that's definitely not where the novel series went, but it's just a big, unnecessary plot hole in the show.

This wasn't an entirely bad episode, but it was definitely my least favorite so far. The only good parts were the D'Haran traitor and the little bit of Kahlen's backstory. Were either of those things worth an annoying kid and a Swiss Cheese Plot? Not by a long shot. On the upside, this is the low point for the first season of Seeker. It'll never be this bad again (until maybe next season).