Their pleasant days sailing is interrupted by something
hitting the ship and breaking a small hole in her. Everyone flails around a
bit, but Sinbad ties a rope around his waist and jumps in the water to see what
they hit and how bad the damage is. Cook is horrified at the idea of someone leaving
eh boat while they’re at sea, but Sinbad jumps in. Soon after, they see a shape
in the water – and the rope is severed.
Sinbad is revived, on shore, by a beautiful blond woman
wearing gauze and sequins who gives him CPR and takes him to her little beach
house full of medicine to treat his wounds. She claims it was coral, he says it
was a shark or a sea beast, but she says there are none in these waters. He is
on the island of Rocheen Moore (her) and she’s the only one there.
On the ship, Cook finds it was a sharp point that was
forced through the ships planks. Nala and Gunnar go to shore, since the current
carried their boat to the island and they assumed it could have done the same
to Sinbad – though Nala is disturbed since she saw the scaled tail when the
rope was cut. They find Sinbad – and Rocheen.
Gunnar is affable enough, but Nala is cold to Rocheen (is
that a spike of jealousy I’m seeing? Oh dear, do we have to play this game?) Nala
encourages Sinbad to leave and Rocheen even agrees – but Sinbad is determined
to stay. Nala confronts him, telling him Akbari will be following them and they
need to move, but Sinbad complains about running and his curse and just wants
to stop. Sinbad begs for just one night where he doesn’t have to worry. Nala
and Gunnar return to the ship, with Nala warning him to be back by sunrise.
Unsurprisingly, Sinbad and Rocheen end up in bed (while
there are shadowy figures on the beach). Rocheen asks about his ship mates
(Sinbad’s descriptions of Nala are more than a little romantic). The next day,
as dawn begins, Rocheen reminds he has to return to the shop, to Gunnar and
Nala. But he can’t remember them and returns to sleep. Then his curse kicks in
and he staggers from the house, unable to breath as his necklace tightens.
Rocheen urges him to tell her a happy memory about his grandmother. He recounts
a memory of her telling stories to him, but then adds that he broke her heart,
causing Rocheen to stagger, breathing black smoke, demanding he only tell good
memories not bad. But the curse stops, Sinbad can breath – but he can no longer
remember his grandmother.
In the ship, Anwar and Cook examine the spike that was
forced through the ship, but can’t identify it. Cook is wary and superstitious
and warns them to stay away from the see. The next day when Sinbad doesn’t arrive, Rina
is determined to go find him. But Nala says Sinbad has clearly made a choice
and Gunnar protests that he knows his own mind – but so does Rina so he tells
her to go find Sinbad.
On the shop, Cook finds another long bony blade in the
mast and realises they’re fingernails (much to Nala’s incredulity) from a
Siren. A creature that seduces sailors and then steals their good memories
until their mind is empty and they’re reduced to husks
Rina and Anwar arrive on the shore, go to the hut but run
from the shadowy ghost of Sinbad’s bad memory of his grandmother. They run and find
a pit full of skeletons – presumably Rocheen’s old victims. Anwar examines the
bodies with his medieval CSI and concludes they’re all men in their early 20s –
and they’ve all lost teeth which he doesn’t understand; until Rina shows him
the many golden teeth she stole from Rocheen’s house. They leave the pit and
see a full herd of Sinbad’s bad memories, which is what Anwar concludes looking
at them (it would help if he had heard Cook
talking about the Siren –because this feels like rather a huge leap of
logic).
Rocheen is trying to move Sinbad across the island to
escape the mysterious black smoke – and tried to feed on a memory of Sinbad’s
brother. Again, it starts good, but then Sinbad remembers his death and Rocheen
is staggered, coughing by another bad memory. She takes him to an old, abandoned
temple but Sinbad is struggling. He knows he’s not alone like she says, even
though he can’t remember anyone. Eventually as he becomes more agitated,
Rocheen bludgeons him into unconsciousness.
On her altar she lays Sinbad out and asks for his last
good memory – his mother who he mentioned in his confusion. But his mother has
been catatonic since he was born, he has no good memories of her. Rocheen
decides it’s time to kill him since he has no more good memories to share, and her
finger nails curve into massive claws.
This is when Anwar and Rina arrive and Rina offers her
good memories for Sinbad’s life. Rina approaches the altar and recites the
story of her childhood, how her parents loved her, how they took her to the
house of an incredibly rich man. Now close to Rocheen, Rina springs the rest of
the story – the man bought her for a slave, he wanted a living thing to own,
sold by her family never to see them again. The strength of the bad memory kill
the Siren, Rocheen and frees all the good memories she stole, restoring Sinbad.
As they leave, Sinbad sees his bad memories and insists on reclaiming them – he
wants his whole life back. The curse kicks back in and Rina and Anwar hurry to
get him off land.
At Team Evil, Taryn is confident she can find Sinbad by
tracking his curse, but first she has to find his grandmother. She captures her
and brings her to her sanctum so she can use the grandmother’s curse to find
Sinbad. Grandmother warns Taryn about the curse – and taunts her, maybe Taryn’s
magic is not the most powerful in Basra.
Akbari has other problems. The Emir is angry that he has
brought Taryn, the Sorceress back to the city and that he is kidnapping people
in the street to find Sinbad. His obsession and methods are repellent to the
Emi who is trying to create a new, wonderful city. He banishes Akbari and Taryn
from Basra. In response, Akbari stabs the Emir.
Taryn comes into to find Akbari shocked and in grief. He
can’t believe how far he has fallen and he blames her, since he followed her
methods (uh-huh, because that’s realistic). He’s not angry, just mourning and
he wants her to call the guards – not caring if he will be seen as a murderer.
But Taryn is there, to make it all right.
And she has a new plot for Sinbad – using his grandmother’s hair he sends an image to him of his grandmother asking for help. A trap, but one Sinbad can’t ignore.
The questions of this show would be infinitely more intriguing
if it weren’t titled “the siren”. That kind of removed all mystery from it. I
also think both Anwar and Rina hit on the Siren’s purpose and her weakness
awfully quickly and with little indication. It was a flying leap of logic.
While I love the idea of “he’s made a choice, he knows
his own mind” they’re kind of missing the whole deadly curse thing that they
all know about. And it would, maybe, be nice to go take a look and make sure he
hasn’t overslept or broke a leg or something.
