I agree with you there, I can see the justification for tea as a method of imparting the info but what the heck *was* the info?? It was very weird and chaotic to me and hopefully I'll pick up more when I rewatch but eesh.
The Aelfinn/Eelfinn would take a lot of screen time to set up and explain, plus potentially a special set, more actors, costumes, make-up, etc. But tea? Drugs that lead to hallucinations that might be foreshadowing or somehow meaningful in other ways? It only took a brief explanation from Ishy...
I feel like there were a lot of really great lines in this episode:
- Siuan telling Rand "this would be so much easier if you were a girl" before it cuts immediately to Egwene
- Mat's "is this a sex thing or a murder thing?"
- Lanfear's "back to this"
- Egwene's "I'm going to kill you"
and...