I guess I'll start this long post off with a tribute to Helana the wonderful and praise-worthy character portrayed by Suzanne. From the days of our beloved Chelena battles of wit, cunning, and intellect to the days after Chanakya's death where Helena carried all these plans to kill Ashok - she won our hearts as our favorite villain. Rest in peace oh burning hot (pun intended) villain. You charmed the audience with your looks, entertained them with your plans, and angered us with your continuous (and failed) attempts to kill Ashok. You did spectacular and now, join your beloved Chankaya in CAS Swarg and have the best after-life possible, you deserve it. 0
On to the MahaEpisode --
There were a lot of good parts, a few bad parts, and oh my farking goodness, Ashok pull out your sword and slice Bindusar's throat already; that man is a disgrace to the samrat title!
*Ehem* I lost my composure there for a second. I'm all good now.
Basically, the Mahaepisode is a perfectly downward descent from Excellent to Worse.
Scene 1: Court scene, Helena's entrance --> revelation
Helena's entrance and final revelation is down extremely well. I would like to complement the CVs on their wonderful rendition of putting in flashback scenes to help the flow of the story. The dialogues were particularly entertaining, such as Ashok's mock lines "Be careful Devi, you might need help..." when Helena appears.
Of course, I couldn't help but question why Helena chose to continue walking up those "stairs" into the court room. It's not like her vision was compromised entirely that she could only recognize that she was in the court room the moment the trap door closed. She clearly could see that this wasn't some jungle or desert or cave, etc. and rather it was a furnished place, so why enter just like that.
One could argue that she trusted Lassandra, thus she might have thought that this path led to somewhere safe; however, Helena doesn't trust someone easily. Lassandra giving her the letter and then giving the promise in the Unani style wouldn't normally be accepted as easily. Helena would make sure that she wasn't being double-crossed, especially by some foreign stranger.
The Flashback
I loved how everything was described in the flashback as it went. The entire plan was entirely Ashok's, and they showed it like that. Ashok essentially knew where his enemy was at all times because he made his enemy go where he wanted her to go. Fabulous, mind-blowing!
Scene 2: Bindusar's epiphany and Helena's truth
I thought this scene was a great one, Bindusar finally accepted that Ashok was right and he was wrong. Of course, this gets heavily skewed in the end, however, let's enjoy this moment while it's still there. He even calls Helena by her name and not "Maa" or "RajMata"
- Side Qualm: Why does everyone still give respect to a traitor as Helena by addressing her as RajMata. Surely that doesn't bode well politically if you constantly emphasize that the dynasty's own "RajMata" betrayed them all. I can understand Sushim or another member of the jiggly butt gang calling her RajMata since they are all working together, but not anyone else.
Helena reveals how much she hates Ashok because she constantly was defeated by him. She reveals how she survived, though interestingly she didn't reveal anyone's name.
Why might that be? There are several possibilities, and I'm sure it was discussed here (apologies, I just haven't had time to read through all your wonderful posts), but the main ones might be:
1) Bindusar won't believe her. She's just admitted that she was out to kill the Mauryans, and if she includes the names of Charu, Sushim, and Khallatak (Siamak won't be mentioned to save him) - there is no reason for Bindusar to believe her. She might be lying just to wipe out some Mauryans before she dies.
2) Siamak's life would be in danger. I think this might be the big one and it goes parallel with #1. I think it's certain that Bindusar won't believe Helena, but Sushim, etc. will definitely not spare Siamak for Helena's betrayal (since Siamak is closest to Helena). Since Helena won't be there to protect Siamak, his end is almost certain.
3) While it was shown right after Helena concludes her speech, her third reason was because she was certain that she was going to kill Bindusar. But that isn't as strong a possibility. Think about it - let's suppose Helena is successful in killing Bindusar. The next step is either Helena escapes miraculously, or she is captured and trialed, or she is killed on the spot. The first one is 100% not likely, the second one might now work out either. With the Samrat dead, a fight for supremacy would occur, there wouldn't be a trial, it would be a waste of time. Thus, Helena's immediate death by Ashok's sword (or Sushim's sword) would be the strongest and most likely possibility. This puts us in #2 though. Siamak need to get rid of his two brothers to become king and Helena knows that Siamak isn't bright enough to do that. In fact, with Helena gone, there is no need for Siamak either for Sushim. Unless Helena had an ace up her sleeve that wiped out Ashok and Sushim at the same time, there wasn't any hope for Siamak to gain the throne.
An important flashback to note was Ashok saying that Helena had other companions. This is important later on in the episode.
Scene 3: Helena's cough / Attack
This was a sad moment in CAS Mauryan history and the beginning of yet another Bhondusar, Dumbosaur, Buddhusar ... moment. Helena breaks down in coughs, she calls Bindusar putra, and our genius samrat who mere moments ago couldn't tolerate Helena insulting Ashok / Dharma and having heard the entire truth from her, skips down to her calling out "Maa." Sure if this all happened in Bindusar's personal chambers that's sort of fine (I'd still call out his stupidity), but this is in court and a traitor is admitting her guilt. You don't just skip down, give the traitor a personal relationship randomly, and stand there shocked when she goes to kill you!
It was revealed that this too was Ashok's plan, and it's a stupid part. Lassandra was given the task to convince Siamak to kill Helena. First of all, that's absurd as hell. Maybe that's why they showed Siamak so engrossed and flustered in front of Lassandra. He's brainless already, and now he is brainlessly in love. He'll do whatever she says without giving it much thought. This is the fine line of trusting Lassandra. If Siamak doesn't stop Helena, who else will? Ashok didn't take the precaution of staying close to Bindusar, he was a couple of steps away. No one else reacted (beyond giving a shocked expression) in the entire court scene, not the soldiers, not the sons, not anyone. Had Siamak not stepped in, Bindusar would have died and this was largely overlooked by Ashok. Odd.
Scene 4: Siamak convinced, kills Helena, and then breaks down.
Lassandra was able to convince Siamak a bit too easily. She just said that Helena had to die, blah blah blah, you kill her or she will kill you like she killed Justin; and Siamak just agreed to it like it was nothing. As Capri puts it in the August EDT, Siamak was like putty in Lassandra's hands 🤣.
Siamak kills Helena, and then breaks down. I couldn't tell if he was acting to gain Bindusar's sympathy or if he actually meant it, but I do hope it's the former. It would make him a devious competitor.
Scene 5: Takshashila and Ashok's Chand
Siamak asks for Takshashila, Ashok refuses and tells Bindusar the truth about how Charu, Sushim, Siamak, and Khallatak are supporting Helena but Bindusar doesn't hear of it.
Bindusar's stupidity is prominently displayed here. 15 minutes ago, Bindusar heard Helena saying that she lied to Bindusar saying she never told Ashok anything, when she actually did. Ashok accuses the 4 but Bindusar is too stupid to realize the truth and doesn't seem to learn anything from what just happened.
Then what was the point of him uttering those lines in the beginning about how he exiled Ashok, how Ashok was telling the truth etc. if he wasn't going to believe him again. No comments ... I can't deal with Bindusar's stupidity.
Scene 6: Kaurvaki's defense and Bindusar's lame rebuttal
Kaurvaki shined and was, in my opinion, a spike in the degrading end of the episode. She defended Ashok brilliantly, and pointed out Bindusar's error, which the latter didn't like because he rebutted with the marriage argument. Again, what was she talking about, and what are you talking about Bimbosaur -- completely unrelated. He even cuts off Dharma 😡😡😡 (sure she was going to say pro-KVK stuff, but I was relatively happy with KVK so I would have let it slide).
Precap: Lassandra teams up with Sushim and Siamak to get rid of Ashok...
My guess is that Lassandra is still playing for Team Ashok (she still needs to get rid of that Antioch (or whatever his name was) fellow) and taking Sushim and Siamak for a ride carefully planned by Ashok. Since I haven't watched Monday's episode yet so I don't know what to expect, though in the time begin, I'm rooting for LaShok or Ashandra now 😆😆
Cricket
