Pasiphae’s army attacks Atlantis! And the producer
attacks the director for using the entire extras budget in one episode!
Pasiphae and Medea are both very certain they’re going to win now the Palladium has been lost – rather discounting the extremely impressive walls the city has. Walls? Walls, pfft, does it have elegant alabaster statues? Hah, no then how can it possibly stand? Though they don’t’ see to know how to use those walls very well – they don’t even seem to have archers, unlike the attackers.
To reinforce the walls, Ariadne sends the palace guards –
reasoning that if they lose the city she won’t really need guards. Lots and
lots of fighting and General Dion is injured but it’s only temporary for extra
nobility before it’s back into the fray.
They manage to hold back the first advance, but
desertions and losses are high. Thought they are sure to lose, Ariadne is
determined not to become a tyrant like Pasiphae and allows her enemies to claim
their dead and refuses to do horrible things to the deserters.
Pasiphae and Medea enter the city and Pasiphae is upset
when she thinks one of the bodies is her son (Jason) – but it turns out to be a
random victim (who resembles Jason closely). Pasiphae also orders Ariadne to be
quietly killed if they take the castle – she can’t be seen to openly execute
her because of the whole dedicated-to-Poseidon thing.
Sarpedon goes to the temple where the Oracle pokes his guilty conscience with a sharp stick. Ariadne continues to fight hoping Jason will save them. In his guilt, Sarpedon confesses to Ariadne who rather predictably has him thrown in the cells – how he expected otherwise I have no idea. But in his cells he does beg Ariadne for a chance to redeem himself by killing Pasiphae
He gets an audience with Pasiphae under the guise of
offering a surrender when he tries to stab her – Medea yells “no”, her eyes
glow red and Sarpedon is thrown across the room by magic, a tear falling down
her cheek. Pasiphae kills Sarpedon.
Meanwhile, Pythagoras and Hercules are still carrying
Jason through the tunnels until they finally run into the Cyclops chasing them.
They play cat and mouse with the beast with a few tense scenes as Hercules
leads it away from Pythagoras and Jason before stabbing it in the eye and
running past it (ah, the CGI budget has suffered – all those extras). They can’t
just leave because there are several cyclopes in the caves and have to run –
their only escape being a river they have to jump in (well, Hercules pushes in
Pythagoras when he says one must jump to test its depth).
They make it to shore and Hercules and Pythagoras help
Jason to keep moving to Atlantis as he refuses to rest his injury. On the way
they find the destroyed villages raided by Pasiphae’s army. They also find a
large force of Atlantean deserters who admit they would have stayed and fought
if it weren’t hopeless without the statue (how can they fight for a city so
lacking in art appreciation?!). Jason holds up the Palladium they have and
everyone kneels – I do think they could have used a shinier statue for this. Jason
gives a rousing speech on how they can surprise the enemy who won’t expect the
cowards to return to the field.
Jason, Pythagoras and Hercules sneak into the city posing
as Atlantean dead – when both sides return the bodies of the dead for proper
burial. They sneak to Ariadne in the temple and return the Palladium. She shows
off her statue to the remaining soldiers – to much cheering.
Lots of tension on both sides as the attack begins. At
least this time someone’s told Dion what those bows are for (I can see him in
his barracks slapping his head “oh, archers. Silly me”). Lots of conflict, lots
of fighting, lots of slaughter, lots of extras budget – and Dion tells Jason to
go convince Ariadne to leave the city. Of course she refuses – especially when
Jason also refuses
Personally I’m waiting for the statue and it’s will of the gods to kick in, instead we get the deserters returning (see, let them desert, fine – but desert with their weapons and armour? That was just sloppy). They attack Pasiphae’s army from all sides
During the fight an archer draws on Jason – and Pasiphae
stabs the archer, saving him (her
son, remember). Hercules is quite surprised – as is Medea. Pasiphae’s
forces retreat.
After the battle, Ariadne reflects on all the losses and
thanks Jason – before acknowledging again that she and Jason can’t be together
because of his lack of royal blood. The nobles will turn against Ariadne if she
takes a commoner lover.
Ariadne orders Dion to find Pasiphae – and kill her
Hercules goes to see the Oracle and asks why Pasiphae
spared Jason – the Oracle tells him Pasiphae is Jason’s mother. I’m shocked! She
actually gave a straight answer for once! Hercules realises Jason doesn’t know (and
must never ever be told since it will apparently turn him evil) and the Oracle
adds that Jason is their saviour.
I love a big mass battle scene and it was certainly
dramatic – but that was a terrible siege. C’mon defenders, why are you even on
the wall if you can’t even throw rocks or shoot arrows? Are you lining up
really mean looks or something? Shouting hurtful things?
This was an episode with lots of epic battles and
epicness, which I quite like but it leaves me with very little to say. I do want
to see more of Ariadne as queen – ok she’s a nice queen so far but I want to
see more than just her being a pretty pleasant queen. I’m hopeful that the “kill
Pasiphae” order is a sign of more to come. Not that i need her to go on a murderous rampage - but after a season of doing very little, I'd like some more activity from her than holding up a statue and ripping bandages
