Team Evil staged a complete coup last week, with the Emir
killed and Akbari and Taryn now in control of Basra. Through Taryn’s magic, she
sent a distress call to Sinbad, apparently from his grandmother- and he
returns, armed with Cook’s knife and accompanied by his friends, to the city.
Akbari, with Taryn urging him on, changes the grandiose
plans the Emir had for the city, burning his planning model. Sinbad and his
friends watch as centres of knowledge and learning are sacked inclusing the
House of Wisdom, the books and scrolls burned and the academics arrested.
Taryn tells one professor that the places of learning were built on dark temples, in the hope of burying them. She is looking for them – including the Gateway to the Shadows, under the House of Wisdom. She continues to wave the reward of having Sinbad in front of Akbari to make him agree to her plans even when he has his doubts. She summons a big shadowy nasty-thing with a rock she finds under the House of Wisdom – which she uses to consume the old master of the House
Sinbad is drawn to protect an academic before the guards
can hurt him – he starts losing the fight until Gunnar intercedes, reminding us
again what a powerful warrior Gunnar is if he can step past his conscience. He
demands Sinbad stick to the plan – find his family and leave the city – and not
be distracted.
The academic they saved tells them the Emir is dead, that
the old magic is returning and that scientists and scholars are now the enemy.
This worries Anwar since his father is Professor of Wisdom and not safe. Anwar
and Rina go to find Anwar’s family to bring them to the Providence.
Walking through Basra, the bustling, busy city we once
saw is now near deserted, it’s quiet, the markets abandoned and many things
destroyed in haste.
At Sinbad’s home he finds it deserted, just a scarf of
his grandmothers which, when he touches it, his grandmother can feel it even in
Taryn’s prison. Unfortunately so can Taryn. There’s also the shadowy symbol from
the rock painted on the wall. Grandmother and Taryn duel with words, but she
can’t escape Taryn’s magical prison.
Next step is for Sinbad to see his friend in the guards,
Tazeem – and here there are lots of people, a huge number of guards. He tells
him his mother is safe – but that his grandmother is prison of Akbari and he
will execute her before he becomes Emir – an hour before nightfall. Sinbad begs
Tazeem to get him into the palace.
Nala and Gunnar walk the city to the rendezvous point
with Sinbad, but they’re watched by Taryn’s Shadow Beastie. They see the
scholar they rescued in the shadows plotting with fellows to strike back – but when
their backs are turned the Shadow Beastie eats them. They meet up with Sinbad –
and Tazeem gets Sinbad and Gunnar into the palace while Nala keeps watch
(again. And what is she supposed to do if someone finds the tunnel?). Left
alone, the Shadow Beastie snatches her and takes her to a strange blue-lit
prison surrounded by shadowy tentacles and full of the people the Beastie has
snatched.
Sinbad and Gunnar arrive at Akbari’s investiture as Emir –
and Sinbad draws his knife. Gunnar confronts him, saying Sinbad planned to kill
Akbari. Sinbad talks about his dead brother but Gunnar asks, again, what good
will it do to kill Akbari (stop a brutal tyrant ruling a city, destroying
learning, kidnapping people off the
street and snatching people up with an evil demonic Shadow Beastie. I’m just
saying). Convinced, Sinbad puts his knife away and they go searching for his
granny – but Gunnar gets Shadow Beastied as well.
Sinbad finds his grandmother, but can’t get near her – when he approaches his necklace curse starts strangling him. Y’know, granny, you might want to reconsider this whole strangling curse thing, given the givens. She tells him it’s a trap and Tazeen betrayed him – and he needs to leave, and watch out for Taryn, she’s more dangerous than Akbari. Sinbad refuses to leave and decides to heroically strangle himself. Then Sinbad and Taryn arrive.
Akbari has a nice evil monologue (should be the first
sign one is falling to the dark side – do you take up monologue) and attacks
Sinbad with a sword – Sinbad springs up with Cook’s knife, apparently no longer
incapacitated. Cue dramatic fight scene
(actually kind of well done) until Sinbad holds a knife to Akbari’s throat… and
Taryn seems to be suddenly Team Sinbad, quietly urging him to kill Akbari.
He does not, he apologises for Akbari’s loss and the pain
he caused him (awww, Gunnar’s been growing on him. Like a fungus) and in doing
so the curse breaks and falls from Sinbad’s neck. Akbari, moved, apologises for
his loss.
This kumbaya moment of supreme fluffy hippy-dom is
interrupted by Taryn who is most certainly not sorry for anyone’s loss (though,
perhaps, faintly nauseous) and stabs Akbari in the back – literally. Just in
case he didn’t get the message, she lets him know she’s been manipulating him
all this time. She also turns to Sinbad and cryptically points out that he
doesn’t know who he “really is” and what he is “capable of” (go go Chosen One Cliché)
and she can show him if he’d let her (or possibly go go Mrs. Robinson).
But granny has quietly opened her magical cage while
Taryn was busy invading Sinbad’s personal space and has grabbed the evil rock. For
the first time, she speaks over a whisper (it is hereby known as the Laryngitis
Curing Rock) and shatters it. This is apparently not a good thing as it causes
Taryn to pass out. It also frees everyone from Shadow Beastie prison.
Granny is exhausted and back to whispering – she admits
she should have told Sinbad the truth about who he is. Of course, being a reasonable
woman she then tells him who he is in the last moments before she dies. Hah!
No, of course she doesn’t! She asks him to forgive her for keeping the big
secret that she will now take to her grave instead.
Tazeem arrives to take him back to the ship.
Anwar and Rina see his family, but they seem unharmed.
They aren’t resisting and Anwar’s father is convinced the city will always need
doctors so what is happening at the House of Wisdom won’t affect him. We also
learn that Anwar ran off to sea before finishing his medical qualification –
and that his father has decided Anwar will return to his studies – which is not
up for debate.
Of course, Rina questions how they knew to enrol Anwar in university if they didn’t know he was coming back – they have been collaborating with Akbari. Guards arrive and take Rina away, leaving Anwar with his family. Anwar is furious and charges after Rina, leaping from a roof to rescue her… and misses. Thankfully Rina has her knife and is quite capable of rescuing herself.
On the Providence, everyone reflects that they no longer
have to run from Akbari. And Nala decides to remain in Basra, to help people
rebuild after the damage of Akbari, as her father would have wanted. And Cook
has some wise words about the nature of home.
I wish they’d make Rina a more active participant. We’ve
already established that Nala is eternally on look-out duty not doing a lot of
anything, but Rina is established as having skills. We’ve seen her use them to
rescue herself repeatedly (which is good to see), now I just wish we’d see her
use them beyond that.
It’ll be sad to see Nala go, though. She added more
diversity to the cast and had the potential to be an interesting character if
she were developed more, I think they lost the opportunity
I am curious as to where the show will go from here. I
actually thought this was a season finale at first. Without Sinbad’s curse or
Akbari’s chasing them, what motivation do they have to keep together and keep
sailing? Especially if the revelation of who Sinbad “really is” is not
forthcoming. It’ll be interesting to see how they keep the show going with “let’s
have an adventure” being their main motive.
