#sinbad 1x16

[atamascolily]

Adventures of Sinbad Masterpost

Finding anything on tumblr is a pain, so I have compiled a list of links to my episode commentary and meta for The Adventures of Sinbad, the delightfully low-budget action-adventure fantasy ‘90s TV series of my childhood--for my own reference, if no one else’s.

Before you ask, yes, I know episodes 1x03-1x07 are missing, I did them out of order a few years ago back when this blog was entirely devoted to AOS, and never got around to them. Now the fan site where I got my high-quality screenshots from appears to be defunct, so it makes doing the other ones trickier.

Fun fact: I started watching the show at episode 8, and look where I ended up today, lol.

Episode Reviews

An Overly Opinionated Guide About Which Episodes Are Worth Watching

1x01 - The Return of Sinbad, Part One

1x02 - The Return of Sinbad, Part Two

1x08 - The Ties That Bind

1x09 - Double Trouble

1x10 - Conundrum

1x11 - The Prince Who Wasn’t

1x12 - The Village Vanishes

1x13 - The Masked Marauders

1x14 - The Ghoul’s Tale

1x15 - The Rescue

1x16 - The Eye of Kratos

1x17 - The Bully

1x18 - Monument

1x19 - Trickster

1x20 - The Siren’s Song

1x21 - Isle of Bliss

1x22 - The Vengeance of Rumina

2x01 - The Sacrifice

2x02 - Return of the Ronin

2x03 - Heart and Soul

2x04 - A Voyage to Hell

2x05 - Ali Rashid and the Thieves

2x06 - The Gift

2x07 - Curse of the Gorgons

2x09 - The Monster

2x08 - The Beast of Basra

2x10 - The Passengers

2x11 - The Invaders

2x12 - The Book of Before

2x13 - A City Under Plague

2x14 - The Empress

2x15 - Castle Keep

2x16 - The Gryphon’s Tale

2x17 - The Beast of the Dark

2x18 - Survival Run

2x19 - The Minotaur

2x20 - Stalkers

2x21 - The Guardians

2x22 - Hell House

Photo Compilations

Every Time Somebody (Usually Rumina) Spies on the Crew With Magic

Every Time Maeve Throws A Fireball

Every Woman Sinbad Ever Kisses In Season One

The magician’s rose garden

Meta

Why I Like This Show

How They Filmed Maeve’s Disappearance Without Jacqueline Collen

Yes, Lily, There ARE Pine Trees in South Africa

‘Dim-Dim’ Is Actually Short for ‘Demetrius’, Hear Me Out

Headcanon: Maeve is from Galicia, Not Ireland

Request to Anyone Writing A Sex Scene Involving Firouz

I Thought This Was A Blatant Anachronism, But There’s Actually Historical Precedence

There’s Only One Goat

An Unexpectedly Painful Moment in Season Two

Headcanon: Plot Twist for Isle of Bliss

Weird Plot Hole in 1x17 I Just Noticed

Does Rumina Actually Have Human Servants Or What?

How to Fix The Show in A Reboot, Were I Writing For It

Look, I Made Some Memes Featuring Firouz and Science!

Great Moment in 1x06 Between Firouz and Dermott

Plot What Plot I’m Distracted By The Foliage Again

[atamascolily]

The Eye of Kratos

In which Sinbad rescues his ex-girlfriend, Maeve is not impressed, the crew infiltrates a corrupt temple in search of a holy relic, there is a lot of rope swinging, and spiders don’t really work like that.

Oh, and there’s an ELEPHANT. For... reasons.

(All photos courtesy of Far Far Away.)

Arriving in the fictional kingdom of Lintopia, whose inhabitants appear spooked and oppressed by the “Day of Punishment”, Sinbad spots an old friend in the crowd by following the shouting:

It’s the pirate queen Talia, aka “The Black Rose of Oman,” about to be executed by a firing squad group of archers for stealing a map showing the way to “The Eye of Kratos”. She is sassy and causes a surprising amount of damage even with her hands tied to a stake. Sinbad just smiles. “She hasn’t changed.”

Of course, Sinbad and crew intervene and a battle ensues. In the aftermath, Talia is delighted to see Sinbad and Doubar, intrigued by Rongar and Firouz and curious about Maeve. Oh, and she’s sure to thank Sinbad for his efforts:

Maeve is not impressed. Sad, poignant Maeve theme music here as we cut to credits. 

Cut to the local tavern. Talia is charming everyone except Maeve - even Dermott, to Maeve’s dismay - with her extrovert personality and sex appeal. We get some backstory here - she sailed with Sinbad and Doubar back in the day and they had tons of adventures.  Chronologically, this was before Firouz sailed with Sinbad, because Firouz doesn’t know her, and well before Sinbad and Doubar were separated in the storm two years before the pilot episode. Probably after Dim-dim raised Sinbad like a father in Baghdad, though. So... early twenties, probably. (I assume Sinbad is 30-35 in the show.)

It’s not directly stated here that she and Sinbad were lovers (that’s in the episode summaries I’ve sen), but judging by the chemistry between them, that probably happened and Sinbad was the one who broke it off.

Talia does have this mysterious map tucked away in her bosom, and she wants Sinbad and company to use it to help her destroy the Eye of Kratos, a mysterious object owned by the creepy cult that is dominating the kingdom. Everyone agrees except Maeve. Sinbad gives her his best puppy dog expression and she caves. I mean, wouldn’t you?

If you want to infiltrate a cult, you have to dress like cultists, so they do. For some reason, this involves an elephant.

Maeve is riding the elephant - probably because she is Friend to All Most Living Things, and can talk to it, although this is not shown.

Haha, the tribute is the same gold and jewels from Episode 14! Hahaha! ... Moving on.

Anyway, birds are not allowed in creepy cult temples, unless they are service birds, so Dermott has to stay outside.

Inside the temple, there is a man in a cage over a pit of sharpened spikes who was caught trying to steal the Eye of Kratos. He is eaten by a giant tarantula, who was last seen in Episode 8 in an entirely different context.

You know as well as I do that at least one of the crew is going to end up in that cage in the next twenty minutes and have to fight the spider because Things Go Wrong. Do I even have to explain that? 

Anyway, they go back the next day to see the Eye of Kratos in the morning sunrise service.  A Vestal Virgin opens the doorway and they circumambulate a statue holding a giant glowing orb. Firouz use SCIENCE! to determine it’s actually a giant diamond catching the light. Meanwhile, Talia sneaks away to try to steal some jewels and gets caught by a booby trap.

Sinbad rescues her, but they both get caught by the temple guards and end up in the cage. WHAT DID I TELL YOU.

Happily, Dermott is watching everything, somehow having snuck into the temple on his own, because Dermott does not believe in rules. Dermott is too cool for your stupid cult rules. Sinbad gives Dermott Talia’s map of the temple to give to Maeve so the crew can rescue them.

Maeve is sad at the thought of Sinbad and Talia alone together, but she needn’t have worried. Talia tries to hit on Sinbad, and he gently turns her down. Sinbad is very good at turning people down gently and gets a LOT of practice over the course of the season.

Meanwhile, Firouz uses the map plus SCIENCE! to get the crew past the temple booby traps despite an inconvenient incense allergy. They get to the cage just as the giant tarantula begins descending for maximum drama.

Y’all know tarantulas are harmless ground dwellers, right, and don’t slide down rope like this? But the way Firouz whispers “Aim true, Rongar,” as Rongar throws up the rope to the cage for Sinbad to catch makes me really surprised there isn’t Firouz/Rongar slashfic on the Internet.

Anyway, so Sinbad and Talia slide to safety just in the nick of time. Maeve lobs a fireball at the rope, which earns a respectful look from Talia.

The bad CGI spider is squished on the spikes. Ouch. No one mourns.

Meanwhile, the temple guards sound the alarm there are intruders, finally. We learn the Vestal Virgin’s sleeping with the head priest, who puts on a lot of makeup, and the whole religion is a scam to extort treasure from the populace, just like Talia claimed.

Firouz manages to open the secret door to the chamber with the Eye and everyone rushes in without stopping to congratulate him. Happily, Firouz has learned to cope with rejection by this point in the series. Sinbad has to swing from another rope to snag the Eye while not being blinded by the glare, while guards attack.

There is a battle as the crew flees for the exit. On the steps of the temple, Talia demands that Sinbad hand over the Eye. Sinbad is stoically resigned, probably aware from the beginning that Talia was up to no good, but hoping he could take her at her word anyway.

But the temple guards attack and in the scuffle, Sinbad looks over to see Talia, the head priest, and the Vestal Virgin wrestling with the stone.

It goes flying and... shatters into a million pieces on the ground. Everyone is stunned, especially Talia and the Vestal Virgin, who slaps the priest for leading her on about a “wedding present”. Sinbad yells out, “Does anyone feel like dying over this?” and everyone sheepishly agrees that they don’t.

Talia claims to be repentant, and tries to get Sinbad to come with her to keep her honest, but Sinbad points to his crew, who is posing like they’re at the New York Public Library or something and his answer is clear. Talia shrugs, and mutters something about borrowing a boat. She steals a horse while the crew watches and vanishes towards the coast.

Everything’s chill until Sinbad puts the dots together and realizes she’s about to steal his boat. Panic ensues. Cut to end credits.

NOTES:

1) Talia asks if Sinbad is still on the Nomad in the bar scene. This might be the first mention of the boat’s name in the show. But this particular boat was given to Sinbad by the Caliph of Baghdad in the pilot... so plot hole there. You could retcon it by saying that Sinbad names all his boats the Nomad, but it still wouldn’t explain why Doubar says they “still do”. Did theyfix up the wrecked original Nomad instead? WHY WILL NO ONE EXPLAIN THESE THINGS TO ME? WHY CAN’T WE BE CLEAR ABOUT CONTINUITY IN THIS SHOW?

2) How much do you think the elephant cost? More or less than reusing the CGI spider?

3) It’s great to see more hints of Sinbad’s earlier life. And my Maeve x Sinbad shipper heart gets some serious twinges here.

4) Has Sinbad figured out what Dermott really is, yet? I still can’t tell here.