Atlantis S02E10: "The Dying Of The Light"

Rating: 4

In A Nutshell

Mind Numbing stuff, but basically Pythagoras sneaks into Atlantis AGAIN, so he can get help from Melas to find out how to help Jason who has been "blackened in the heart" by knowing Pasiphae is his mother. Sigh. Melas suggests getting Jason's father to restore his heart's balance, and so, off goes Pythagoras to where the dad is hiding out as a leper in a salt mine. Jason's dad, Aeson, moans about the world and how he's a bad father and rubbish at being a father, before then changing his mind and joining up with Pythagoras. Yawn. Then, literally as Pythagoras is about to reunite Jason with his dad, Pasiphae and Soldiers (got tipped off, see later) turn up and attack, scattering Pythagoras/Aeson, Jason and Ariadne in all directions in the woods. Jason ends up being united and rescued from injury by Medea who he's just incidentally started dreaming about, and she now seems genuinely more interested in saving him than killing him this week. Hercules, who walked off in a huff earlier, turns back up to help Ariadne and gets united with Pythagoras and Aeson. Oh, and earlier again, just after helping Pythagoras in the city, Pythagoras's brother (I think he is) finds out his dad has done some crime and is sentenced to death so tells Pasiphae's army general where Pythagoras is going in return for his dad being spared, only to fall pray of the classic double bluff from the general. Yawn.

What I liked

The arguments between the main three was a little different if totally devoid of convincing sentiment.
Hercules I can't work out if he's upset or just miffed with Jason.

I like John Hannah as an actor, but the poor chap looks like a YTS apprentice in this show.

What I Didn't Like

Pretty much everything about this episode ...

Much akin to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, it's neigh impossible to really understand, care, or truly feel Jason's turn to the "Dark Side", if you can call it that. Sure, he'll be mixed up with the revelation of his mother, but although we could understand that, his behaviour still comes across as random, petty and just a little rubbish, rather than anything you'd call "blackened".

Medea & Jason's love thing; it's all a little bit like other TV shows I've seen before. Can't recall which show it was, ahh, that's right, Roswell. We saw all that "drawn to someone because that's the way it should be" rather than going for your real love. It's really quite dull and hard to grasp because Medea has been changing sides so often and for so little explanation that I'm beyond caring now.

Ahh, the classic paragraph of chanting to get to use a "force push" like in Merlin. Magic can be really dull in this show! Even Pasiphae with her "force choke" was the first time she's used magic in weeks, when last week she was happy to use a sword she had little chance of actually knowing what to do with!

Huh?

So, all the guards just follow about whoever is in charge? Aside from the chief guards, who we see more of and clearly make their views known, the rest are just like fodder with no brains or anything particularly human about them. The people of Atlantis are supposed to be people who love their rulers etc so why do these knowingly just follow Pasiphae?

They still failed to say about Jason coming from our time/world. I guess that'll never happen. I'd also totally forgotten about his father.

And Finally

Predictable, hard to fathom out anyone's reasoning or emotions, and really devoid of anything we'd feel like caring about.

Rating: 4 out of 10 (No hint of any humour this week, which was about all that could possibly be interesting in this show).