Sinbad is pushing his boat to race another boat – and I,
like Nala, wonder why. Leading to Nala complain about Sinbad’s irresponsibility
and Sinbad complain about her lack of fun. I suspect this may be the theme of
this episode.
It’s time for another stop for supplies, this time at an
apparently deserted dock, with Sinbad’s usual worries about stepping foot on
land, and meeting up with the ship they were racing. Desperate for supplies they
approach the other captain, Abdul Fahim, for food and water – though they have
little to offer and are pretty much reduced to begging. The captain has an
offer for them – wager with him for supplies
In the hold, Rina starts going through Nala’s things –
watched, disapprovingly by the Cook (who still may be the most awesome character)
who comments on her not changing her thieving nature and how it will end with
her being alone.
Returning to the ship, the crew look for items of value
they can wager with the captain – and Nala notices both Rina and her jewellery are
gone (probably the only item they had they could wager). Anwar returns to the captain
to tell him they have nothing to trade – Fahim suggests the ship. And even if
they lose he will provide them with mules and supplies to walk across the
desert. Anwar, incredibly foolishly, agrees without consulting the others (he’s
easily lead)
Guess what happens? Yes they lose the ship and no, no-one
is very happy with poor Anwar. This is when Sinbad also tells Anwar about his
curse and why walking through the desert is not the best bet for him. Running to Fahim, Anwar learns he had gone to
the palace of games – which Sinbad sees as his best chance, to beat him at the
games and win the ship back before the next sunrise. He also concludes that if
he can beat him at a boat race, he can beat him at the gaming tables. Yes,
Sinbad and logic don’t quite go together.
At Team Evil Taryn is sacrificing chickens for dark
magic, as you do (y’know, I can’t get over the fact that Taryn is played by Orla
Brady who plays Mrs. Sherringham in Eternal Law). After making the potion,
when she drinks it she can see Sinbad and where he is. Taryn continues to make
potions, but none of them work while Sinbad is in the gambling palace. Angry at
her failure – Akbari banishes her from Basra.
Sinbad and co go to the palace of games, which is a series of bowls of water that open a portal when you drop a coin in them. He goes through the portal – just as Akbari drinks Taryn’s seeing potion, preventing him from seeing Sinbad. Nice timing. He wanders around the casino before being banished by a man with no eyes and a pair of brothers who run the place for not being pretty and prosperous enough. A quick visit to the merchant’s camp to steal some swaths of cloth, and the whole team is more appropriately attired to the dress code.
After losing what little money they have, Sinbad decides
the best thing to do is to be impertinent to their hosts and, when they look to
evict him again, propose a gamble where they can punish him if he loses or give
him a free game at any table if he wins… (Ok, why do this makes sense. Why don’t they just evict him? Why do
they need to gamble? Why is having him flogged even remotely of value to the
house that it’d constitute a stake to wager?)
Sinbad wins the ridiculous bet and demands access to the
high stakes VIP room for his game – and they run into “Lady Samarra”, Rina in
disguise. They don’t blow her cover but they all drop guilt trips on her for
being a false friend.
In the VIP room they find Fahim, again gambling to get
the ship back, piece by piece. And, yes, again they’re gambling with no stakes.
They don’t see to know how gambling actually works. Finally catching on that a
wager is necessary – Sinbad offers to be Fahim’s slave for all time as a stake
to actually win the ship. Which he, predictably, wins. (Yeah, not the most
tense scene out there). Fahim loses his temper and tries to stab Sinbad –
leading to the man with no eyes blasting him with magic for breaking the house
rules.
To which, the hosts of the casino invite them to dinner
as apology – Anwar insists they have to get back to the ship, with the curse
and everything, but Sinbad decides to dabble and accepts another coin-toss
wager on whether to dine or not – which comes up for lunch. Y’know, a few hours
ago Sinbad was nervous about even stepping foot on land because of the curse.
Gunnar leaves the party – he’s not amused and warns them
that a gambling house is only fun and hospitable because the longer you stay
the more they can fleece you for every penny you have. He goes exploring
instead – and runs into the eyeless man.
Anwar talks to Rina and she explains she found a woman in
the desert who had lost everything in the gambling house – and sold Rina her
silks for a handful of silver. She came hoping to find more to steal. She also
warned Rina that her husband had been captured by the gambling house and they
had to be careful.
Speaking of – Sinbad goes into the back room with one of
the brothers who owns the place and finds Fahim, captured (and the eyeless man
there for some threats). It seems the brothers are very rich and very bored and
use the gambling house to lure in compulsive gamblers then use them in rotating
cage fights against each other for their amusement – with them gambling on the
outcome. They pit Sinbad and Fahim against each other and Sinbad tries to get
Fahim to listen and not play their game – but the brothers throw in a large
amount of gold for the winner.
Obligatory fight scene later, Sinbad holds Fahim at knife point and says he’ll never kill Fahim. He also tells them about the curse – if he’s not on his ship by dawn their run will be over anyway. All of this is overheard by the sneaking Rina.
With the curse revealed, the extremely-bored-brothers have a new game. Put him in a room with many doors, (that rotates after he closes each one – why does no-one leave the doors open in these puzzles?) he can leave at any time (so get to his ship before dawn) but any of his friends he leaves behind will die. Nice fellows, aren’t they? Someone needs to introduce them to chess or cross stitch or something; a hobby without the murdering. Someone get them a jenga set.
Each door Sinbad opens has various hazards (and REALLY
simple puzzles) – and if he finds a key and puts it in a lock he rescues one of
his companions. Interspaced among them are doors leading to his ship should he
want to leave before dawn. With all of his people rescued, Rina shows him the
way out while the brothers fight over whether to let him go or not.
Rina leads him to his friends, choking and unable to
breath; Anwar tells them about his curse and why he needs to be on the ship –
and Anwar invites Rina to join them again. Big happy family time
During all this, Awesome Cook has seduced the chef from
Fahim’s ship with his excellent appreciation of fine food and wonderful
culinary skills. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad that Cook is the
highlight of this show for me.
Is it just me or dot he costumes on this show change from
period to modern quite regularly? Sometimes it’s just a t-shirt or shirt or
jacket that looks like it could have been bought at the local shops, but
others, especially in the casino, there were full outfits that looked awfully
21st century.
I can’t say the plot was overly fascinating again, more
to the point, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me, it’s not consistent in its
own canon. Sinbad is nervous about coming to land with his curse, yet lingers
for drinkies? For that matter, the brothers who own the gambling house are rich
and bored so use gamblers in cage fights? Why – especially with their wealth
and dress code – prey on the wealthy (who, for the most part, probably aren’t
skilled or exciting fighters) when they could go out and find some mercenaries
who could actually fight? If boredom is their motivation, after all? And we
just had a gladiatorial combat fight in the last episode. This world needs some
new hobbies.
I know there’s a suspension of disbelief in any fantasy
programme, but this is stretching its own logic. I think I could forgive more
if it were more compelling. I don't think the episode was completely awful per se - but it reminds me of a filler episode from, say, the middle of season 3. The third episode ever of the show and they're shelving most of the characters, dragging up convoluted and shaky plot points and not really adding anything to the show.
