In the final episode of Sinbad ep 1, a lot of excitement occurs; in fact, there's such a great amount of excitement, that I am actually not sure where to start.
Well, let's start with the land of the dead. As I wrote about it previously, it was clearly taken out of Homer's "Odyssey" for the reasons I said above. However, in this case I should add that the city of Limbo that was featured here was influenced by Dante Aligheri's "Inferno" instead. That was to be expected; together with Virgil's "Aeneid", "Odyssey" and "The Divine Comedy" are the classical depictions of European afterlife (I call them the big three, lol).
If the land of the dead is rooted in European classical literature (for the Muslims the afterlife was completely different), then its monsters are something else. The hounds were basically Primeval's hyenadons from S4 (and Primeval is also owned by IP, so no copyright infringement there, I hope), while the Guardians... I don't know what they are - they were just shapeless masses each one armed with a single glowing eye that mentally traps you in an alternate dimension until you die. Or, since the inhabitants of the city of Limbo are already dead, you move on and get reincarnated instead. (Considering that "Sinbad's" afterlife is a mishmash of Christian and pagan worlds anything is possible, so until S2 I'm sticking with the reincarnation theory.) Who knows?
Right, after the setting and the monsters come the characters, the heroes. Sinbad is still an impulsive ass, though in this episode he learns new wisdom: some things even people, even heroes cannot defeat - and in this case it's fate, karma, kismet, whatever. Jamil was intended to die and he remained dead, sacrificing himself to the Guardian to let Sinbad and the others instead.
Conversely, Taryn has rescued her daughter with the help of Sinbad's crew. However, since the girl (Alehna) looked around as she has left, the final shots of the episode show some sort of darkness in her eyes - if she proves to be the ancestor of one Tom Marvolo Riddle (and of one Luna Lovegood, played by the same actress earlier in the real life), that's when "Sinbad" have jumped the shark, believe it!
Or maybe it already has, if the scriptwriters are positioning Taryn into the role of Vala from "StarGate". Remember? She's the morally ambiguous alien (Teal'C is the one who's loyal and honest, etc), whose daughter is one of the big bad's of the show. Vala herself, however, seems to be improving her character and is no a member of the StarGate's crew. Since Taryn (and her daughter) are already on Sinbad's ship, maybe this process has already begun?
Speaking of Sinbad's ship, notice how the cook was absent from this episode as well? Well, of course he was - he's a part of the ship (that's my theory) and such not only is he bound to it, he has no place in a human afterlife - he's version is probably quite a bit different and a lot more woody and inorganic, you know?
And the other members of the crew. Taryn was amazing as she got Sinbad out of the Guardian-induced mental funk, but so was Gunnar as he recognized Taryn as she possessed Tiger. He also was the one who figured out how to rescue Sinbad from that funk, so, seriously, if Taryn's Vala, he's something of a Jack O'Neal or Teal'C. He also mentioned Valhalla (indirectly) in this episode, but we all know that he doesn't believe in this pagan pageantry anymore, he's a Christian here, just in secret.
Sinbad, of course, is still impulsive (and he's probably going to remain impulsive until he dies), and now he has learned that there are some things that cannot be beat. Guess he's still maturing - just as Telemachus does in the "Odyssey", cough. Anwar, of course, is also maturing, since he's now confident enough in his abilities, and Rina is still Rina. She's the obligatory halfling of the group.
So, the final episode of "Sinbad" S1 has a hybridized afterlife, a couple of mismatched monsters, a new possible villian (Alehna), Taryn and Gunnar being awesome, and the rest still being themselves. Oh, and Nala is still absent, though her dad made in appearance in the Basra of the dead (little pun here). Guess she's still in Basra and Tiger is Sinbad's love interest... until for now.
End (of "Sinbad" S1)
No comments:
Post a Comment