#corruption arc makes him such a dynamic shipping bicycle.

[lightningant]

tomarrymort dynamics...for ME

(and of course)

[atamascolily]

Episode Review - Sinbad 1x14 - “The Ghoul’s Tale”

In which Maeve saves everybody, our antagonist is seriously creeptastic and our main ally isn't all that much better, orgres have some serious seuxal dimorphism that I was not previously aware of, there's a macguffin to quest for. Oh, and I spent a lot of time wondering how the bicycle was going to fit into all of this.

(Photos from Far Far Away.)

Allegedly, the crew is sailing to the Lake Isle of Innisfree Leopold now. I don't know about you, but that looks like a tropical atoll with a ship photoshopped in. Certainly doesn't look like South Africa to me... but still fun to visit!

Apparently, Dim-Dim told Maeve that she needed to go to Princess Gaia's eighteenth birthday party, so that's what they're doing. How the logistics worked out, I have no idea, so I will just assume "magic" and move on because we've got way bigger fish to fry here. Also, who doesn't love a party? Especially Doubar. But Firouz is also getting into the spirit...

.... by tooling around on his latest invention!on his latest invention! I then proceeded to spend the rest of the episode wondering under what circumstances the bicycle could be used to save the day in medieval Arabia. But Firouz's prototype needs some work, and Rongar has to save him from falling overboard. 

It was about here that I started to imagine Firouz and Rongar opening a seriously tricked out bike shop in Baghdad, given how Rongar always seems to be helping him with the inventions and I enjoy their dynamic.  Firouz is a genius, but he's not really interested in the people aspect, so Rongar's the one who always saves the day from behind the scenes. HILARITY ENSUES. I would watch an entire series about this, actually.

We are distracted from such dreamings by weird shit on the horizon. Good thing Firouz invented the telescope so the crew can see it coming, right?

"Oh, that must be Vatek the Ghoul," Maeve says all matter-of-factly. "Master Dim-Dim told me was the source of evil on the island. Greedy as only a ghoul can be."

Okay, 1) What exactly makes him a ghoul? (a question, I might add, that this episode never attempts to answer) and 2) How can you tell that he's greedy?

But Sinbad is too freaked out to care about such details. Instead, he decides to get the boat out of there as fast as possible. The crew is concerned, but pretty soon they don't see a telescope to see the problem. 

With the flames rapidly gaining, Sinbad turns to his two resident problem-solvers. Firouz begs off under pressure, so Sinbad gives Maeve his most imploring look and asks, very gently, "How about a little magic, Maeve?"

Well, when Sinbad looks at you like that, you don't say no, even when you're not about to be roasted to death, so Maeve tries her best. But they're still not out of danger yet.

Sinbad tries the subtle approach: "Maeve! I know you can be windier than that!"

Doubar goes for the direct approach: "Where's Rumina when you need her?" OUCH. But it is very effective.

This provides further evidence for the idea that magic is intimately connected to self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth, an ongoing theme in this series and the centerpiece of Maeve's character arc.

Also, this particular magic involves chanting rhyming couplets while spinning in a circle, so Maeve is very wobbly when she finishes. But everyone is happy to be alive, so they don't tease her... much. "Rumina would be so proud," grins Sinbad and Maeve rightfully punches him for it.

Well, that was weird, everybody agrees and then they just keep on going because... they've got a party to attend!

Cut to stock footage of a castle. Look at those yuccas in the foreground, aren't they awesome?

Also, for some reason only known to the writers of this episode, the ruling monarch's name is Shadbush. This sounds dirty, but get your mind out of the gutter - it's actually the common name for a genus of North American temperate trees that produce tasty fruit - but every time it comes up I still can't stop snickering.

Shadbush's chief advisor Malicut tells him his daughter Gaia is returning. Shadbush is distraught because she was supposed to stay in hiding until after her eighteenth birthday so Vatek wouldn't kill her, but kids today, you know? Can't tell them to do anything. Shadbush also comments on how much Gaia looks like her dead mother when SHE was eighteen.

Meanwhile, somewhere involving dungeons...

Kylo Ren Vatek the Ghoul uses the Force magical powers that hold the galaxy together to summon his minions out of a wall. For some reason, they are cavemen with big hair. Ominous laughter.

For once, it's Maeve's name and not Sinbad's that gets them in to see the king. Everyone's all happy and joyous...

... and cavemen with big hair attack. Oh, and spears.

There's a fight, but the cavemen end up grabbing Gaia's necklace and running away. Gaia collapses and everyone freaks out. Turns out that necklace was crafted by Dim-dim to keep her alive. Oops.

The creepy advisor wants to give her all sorts of weird home remedies, and Firouz is rightfully disturbed by this, but Shadbush just shrugs. No medicines can help Gaia because Vatek cursed her for... reasons.

Not only was Vatek upset that Shadbush married Gaia's mother (whom he wanted for his own) but then Shadbush promised him he could marry Gaia when she came of age - because she looks just like her mother! Hahaha, not creepy at all, right? Or at least until Shadbush rightfully chickened out - apparently, marrying off your beloved daughter to a rich old guy who had the hots for her mom is all well and good, but being a subhuman sorceror is right out. Standards, people, standards.

(It's not clear if this is metaphorical or literal subhumanity, either - what the hell do people mean when they say he's a ghoul?)

Anyway, Dim-Dim apparently couldn't be bothered to actually do anything about Vatek, so he constructed a magic necklace for Gaia to fend off Vatek's curse. Why Gaia also had to go into hiding is not especially clear, but anyway Sinbad and crew have to get the necklace back or she'll die.

Okay, so where's Vatek's place? everybody wants to know. Shadbush gives supremely unhelpful directions. "Travel west. When you get to a small village, it's just beyond there."

Firouz decides to stay behind, because SCIENCE! but everybody else hits the road.

Unsurprisingly, no one in the village is pleased to see our heroes. Unsurprisingly, no one in the village is pleased to see our heroes. Sinbad asks for water and a guide, but gets no takers. Eventually, though, a PC character stands out of the crowd of extras. Her name is Sariyah, she's extremely sarcastic, and Maeve really doesn't like her. But she says she'll take them to the well to get some water. 

Vatek, the jerk, put an orgress in the well, and she emerges when our heroes try to pump some water. I don't think I would have recognized the particular antagonist as an orgress, but Maeve recognizes her immediately, so I'm just going to assume some serious sexual dimorphism in the species and move on. 

Sinbad decides the best solution is the crew to push on the blocks surrounding the well and cave the top in, but Maeve gets sucked up by the ogress. Sinbad yells for Rongar to grab Maeve and shouts her name a lot.

But they succeed, and the ogress is destroyed, and there's a lot of water everywhere. All of the villagers are ecstatic. "Drinks are on us!" yells Sinbad is a fit of euphoria.

Meanwhile, back in the castle, Malicut is giving Gaia all sorts of remedies under Firouz's withering sarcasm. Name calling ensues. "Neo-Hippocrate!" "Retro-quack!" It is awesome. Shadbush eventually intervenes in favor of Firouz, at Gaia's request, and Malicut goes to the corner and literally sulks. What a jackass.

Firouz wants to go get herbs, but Malicut wants to bleed her. Firouz begs Shadbush not to listen to his most trusted advisor, but Shadbush is all confused and disoriented. After Firouz leaves, Malicut urges Shadbush to give Gaia up to Vatek to save her life. At which point, I am thinking, Okay, either he's seriously incompetent or an agent of Vatek. 

Sariyah leads them through a dry riverbed. Vatek has taken all the waters and corrupted them. Sariyah calls him a ghoul because he preys upon the living and the dead. Ominous music. Sariyah leaves, which is totally not suspicious at all, and Rongar find the skull prop from Episode 10 and everybody freaks out. Meanwhile, Firouz finds a bonaza of herbs, and also oil, and gets knocked out from behind for his troubles. Ow.

Vatek sends a giant raven after them, but Rongar throws some knives at it and it flies off.

Firouz comes to in a dungeon just as Vatek shows up to gloat and make all sorts of vague threats. The cavemen grovel. 

Anyway, it's too bad Firouz isn't there, because the rest of the crew stumbles across Vatek's oil refinery and I bet Firouz would have appreciated it. Everyone else is just squicked out.

So it turns out that the fire on the ocean in the beginning was Vatek magically putting oil on the water and then lighting it on fire because he's a jerk like that, although nobody in the show appears to make that connection. Also, Sariyah is back for more exposition, although nobody trusts her. But she does go and get the necklace back for them, revealing in the process that she was Vatek's mole in the village. Maeve is furious but Sariyah insists she can be trusted, and shows them a secret passage to get back to the castle before midnight, when Gaia is destined to expire.

Oh, and they set Vatek's refinery on fire on the way out. Torches and fossil fuels just don't mix. It's really too bad Firouz wasn't there.

Back in the palace, Malicut and Shadbush are arguing again. When Shadbush refuses to surrender Gaia to Vatek, Malicut transforms and realizes he's really Vatek and has been manipulating the king the whole time just to watch him suffer! Jerkass.

But is he a literal ghoul or a metaphorical one? Why is this episode called "The Ghoul's Tale," which makes it sound like Vatek should be narrating for Chaucer? I'm so confused here.

The secret tunnel ends up in the palace dungeon where Firouz is tied up. But at his urgings, the crew runs upstairs to rescue Gaia first. 

Vatek uses his magic to freeze Shadbush and his guards and is about to kill Gaia. The crew shows up, but most of them get incapacitated right away. Only Sariya is free, and she tosses the necklace over Gaia's head, breaking the spell, just as we get to midnight and Gaia turns eighteen. Oh, and Sinbad kills Vatek by stabbing him through the heart. Suddenly, everything is okay! Wow!

(Meanwhile Firouz is down in the dungeons wondering what the hell is going on, and eventually someone remembers to go back down and unchain him... I don't know what happens to the cave men, either. )

Cut to Gaia's eighteenth birthday party, where Doubar is helping her learn to handle her new bicycle! I don't know what happens to the cave men, either. (And here I thought it would be instrumental to defeating Vatek...)

Cut to Gaia's eighteenth birthday party, where Doubar is helping her learn to handle her new bicycle! Firouz is gushing about Rongar's suggestions for steering modifications. "I think he's got the touch of the inventor himself!" which just makes me want a Firouz-Rongar bikeshop AU more than ever now. Sariya is flirting with Sinbad, which Maeve does not approve of. All is well, until Doubar decides to try the bicycle for himself... and Firouz admits he forgot to put on break. Cut to the best episode ending ever:

The devastation and repercussions of this are so much better left to the imagination, don't you think?

I'm kinda upset that nobody calls out Shadbush for his questionable and squick-y decisions to arrange a marriage between Gaia and Vatek in the first place, although he seems genuine regretful. And I might give him a pass because Malicut was probably egging him on about it.

Anyway, overall this was a fun episode for a number of reasons, and I was honestly caught off-guard by the plot twist, which was a nice treat, even though I should have seen it coming.