BBC
by Helen Langdon
Atlantis this week is all about the parental relationships, appropriately enough for an episode entitled “Kin”. While Icarus keeps on digging himself a betrayal hole trying to keep his father alive, Jason’s getting fought over by Aeson and Pasiphae. It’s Atlantis coming down firmly on the nature side of the nature vs nurture debate; it doesn’t matter what kind of upbringing Jason’s had, what matters is whether he follows his mother into darkness or his father back out into the light.
Atlantis this week is all about the parental relationships, appropriately enough for an episode entitled “Kin”. While Icarus keeps on digging himself a betrayal hole trying to keep his father alive, Jason’s getting fought over by Aeson and Pasiphae. It’s Atlantis coming down firmly on the nature side of the nature vs nurture debate; it doesn’t matter what kind of upbringing Jason’s had, what matters is whether he follows his mother into darkness or his father back out into the light.
So, how does Atlantis portray these familial connections? Well, as well as winning his allegiance, they’re both trying to save his life. Aeson’s changed his tune from last week, where he was all “Jason doesn’t need me!” Now he’s making impassioned speeches about fatherly love instead. Obviously the best way to turn Jason back to the light side is to get a job as a corpse-carrier while Jason fights in the gladiatorial arena, sneaking in to have father-son chats in between dead bodies. It’s not until Aeson makes the ultimate sacrifice for his son, and pleads with him on his deathbed, that Jason actually thaws entirely.
BBC
Meanwhile, Pasiphae’s convinced by Cilix that the people of Atlantis want to see Jason punished. She takes what she thinks is the best course of action – putting him into the arena, where he at least has a chance of survival (to be fair, he does have form on surviving that kind of combat). There was a lot of talk in this episode about how the games were a way of controlling the populace by taking their minds off their troubles and reminding them what could happen to them (given the current state of the UK, maybe someone needs to make sure David Cameron and Michael Gove don’t get any ideas from this).
BBC
See, Atlantis is getting pretty grim and dark, with the brutality of the arena pretty unflinching in “Kin”. Last time we saw it, Jason managed to win pretty easily by using his magic jumping powers. This time, while the arena is still as sundrenched as ever, Jason gets pummelled. This isn’t the fight of a superhuman – it’s a man near collapse, in his second fight beaten down and about to die until he gets a bit of magical help. Everything suddenly seems far more real.
At a couple of points in “Kin”, it’s easy to worry that the episode is about to fall into Shakespearean farce. Heart slowing potions never tend to end well (have we learnt nothing from Romeo and Juliet?), and there’s also the chance of everyone wandering around in the forest and missing each other, given that most of the trees seem to look the same. But instead it’s a serious, thrilling penultimate episode, just in time for next week’s final, double-length episode.
At a couple of points in “Kin”, it’s easy to worry that the episode is about to fall into Shakespearean farce. Heart slowing potions never tend to end well (have we learnt nothing from Romeo and Juliet?), and there’s also the chance of everyone wandering around in the forest and missing each other, given that most of the trees seem to look the same. But instead it’s a serious, thrilling penultimate episode, just in time for next week’s final, double-length episode.
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