Written by Howard Overman
Directed by Declan O'Dwyer
Hercules (to Jason): “Just try not to do anything heroic...and by heroic, I mean stupid.”
Now there's advice that Jason has spent the last series and a half ignoring (and presumably will continue to ignore), but it's nice that Hercules is concerned for the hunky lad's well being. This was something of a very interesting episode for Jason. The mission to save Ariadne (who I didn't doubt for a moment would make it out of this one alive) turned out to be a lot more interesting than expected.
First of all, the visit to the Grey Sisters and their literal seeing eye was actually pretty amusing. Granted they looked like knock-offs of the Carrionites from Doctor Who (and those witchy creatures from Wizards Vs. Aliens a few weeks back), but I actually found their OTTness surprisingly enjoyable, even when they were referring to Jason as a pretty boy. However, they were the tip of somewhat better scenes to come.
It made sense that Medea enchanted the dagger that she used on Ariadne and it also made some sense for Medea's blood to be a cure for Ariadne. I knew Jason wouldn't actually go through with murdering Medea and I still think there's a spark between them more exciting that the one with Ariadne but his pride allowed him to get captured and that just led to the highlight of the episode.
I've been craving for Pasiphae to come into her own as a dimensionalised villain for ages and this episode finally gave me what I wanted. I even felt sorry for her when she came close to revealing to Jason who she really was to him before deciding that killing him would be better. Why did we have to wait this long for Pasiphae to be this interesting? If she had been written like this from the start the show would probably be seen in a more favourable light.
Keeping with the good stuff - I am no shipper of Jason and Ariadne but the proposal scene was actually rather sweet and while things on this show have had to be sped compared to Merlin, the trailer for the latter half of the series does indicated that these two have a long road ahead of them.
As for Hercules and Pythagoras - this one might be their best one too. The stuff with the birds wasn't greatly exciting but the scenes where they talked about love and heroics had some fine dialogue and acting between Mark Addy and Robert Emms though.
- BBC1 released a trailer for the second half of the series. I'm looking forward to more Jason/Pasiphae scenes, Medusa's return and Icarus's arrival.
- Pasiphae talked about other enemies. I hope that means we'll see them in the second half.
- Nice to actually see the Oracle out of her temple for once. This is the first time we've seen her in the palace, isn't it?
- Good conclusion to the Orpheus/Eurydice storyline at the start of the episode. One of the highlights of the first half of this series.
Finally an episode that actually kept my attention and one that had plenty of interesting character moments and enough to make me want to watch the second half of the series. I hope this is a signifier of better things to come.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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