Sinbad, ep 9 - Sep 2

This was a very interesting episode of "Sinbad"; much better, than its' predecessor. For one thing - no Kuji (cripes, but she was annoying); for anything, we had Taryn, or rather - her protege, Tiger (Tuppence Middleton, no relations to the new Princess of England, I've been told). Just like Taryn, Tiger was awesome; basically, the next step in Rina's "evolution", if the little thief (height-wise) hadn't run across, Sinbad, Anwar and others.

The episode's plot wasn't that bad either. A high priest of some cult (dressed rather like the High Inquisitor of Dostoevsky) had a vision from his sacred stone (shaped like a heart, more or less) that Sinbad was going to kill him, so as soon as he had Sinbad in his clutches, he had him killed instead. Only, Tiger had a deal with the high priest's sniveling son (made purposefully immature, I suspect), who drugged Sinbad and left him to Tiger's tender clutches instead; since Sinbad is the main character of this series, he wins Tiger heart instead (sort of) and gets her to join her crew.

Meanwhile... Anwar and Rina's relationship has apparently stabled out for now. That's good. Anwar got a chance to solve the labyrinth's puzzle as well. That's even better. But what's with Gunnar's new weird accent? Is he trying to impress chicks now with it or something? That is just strange, and since we're nearing the season's end, also pointless.

Sinbad, of course, is trying to be shown mature and competent, but as the incident with the stone shown, he's still something of an impulsive ass. I blame Nala's absence for this - her influence did soothe Sinbad down just a bit. Of course, since this is an IP production we're talking about, maybe Ms. Daniels just couldn't be around for all 12 episodes, and left the series' production at the ep. 7 (when Akbari died) - who knows? Guess for now Middleton will have to do for Sinbad's romantic interesting, eh?

Finally, Sinbad's plans for the future. When he smashed the magic stone as the impulsive ass that he still is (though to a lesser degree than before) he saw many visions (including him in love with Tiger, maybe?), one of which was his brother Jamil alive and in his arms - guess we now know what the last few episodes will be about, eh?

PS: What Sinbad doesn't know (and the Cook, who told him about the stone in the first place doesn't know or doesn't want to tell him), is that the stone isn't quite a liar, but it's visions are flawed, sort of: the high priest saw himself dying at Sinbad's feet as the latter held a bloody dagger - and it came to be, but only because the priest's son had stabbed him. Ergo, the stone only tells what can be, but not how it can be, and that, in the upcoming episodes, can make all the difference.