Posted:
I know, I know, the title of this post sounds gruesome, but it fits both today's episode and the emotions it evoked in me. I do not know if this was intentional but the story ran the gamut of variations on the concept of flesh and blood, both literally and figuratively.
Here I will examine this from the perspective of different characters and their interactions today but before I proceed, I will put out the following disclaimer:
This post reflects how I feel about the scenes today and I have tried to contain my disappointment and frustration, where possible, with the current direction of the storyline.
People often say Blood is thicker than water to mean that family/blood relations are above everything. This is one of those proverbs, when used in modern times, that means quite the opposite of the original, which was The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb, i.e. the bonds of friendship (or bonds of the heart) are above blood ties. There were plenty of examples of the latter in today's episode.
Hasti
We have already seen various shades to his character, initially dripping with resentment at the favoritism he thought his father, Ripudaman, had always shown towards Porus. This, mingled with sibling rivalry, was then successfully exploited by Darius to create huge misunderstandings and set off chain reactions that would have ruined his relationship to Porus forever. It was his discovery of Darius' devious schemes, Porus' forgiveness, and the cementing of his faith in his father's wisdom and vision that changed the course he then chose to take. Hasti has since evolved and matured and has become every bit his father's son of late. His commitment to the vision of Akhand Bharat and the ousting of Alexander from Bharat has been proven several times of late, giving him a sense of purpose in life, and a sense of self-worth that would make anyone associated with him proud.
For he has left all that pettiness behind and has proven trustworthy enough to participate in all the struggles and plans that Porus comes up with, never once questioning him. You might argue that his brother, Porus, is prone to serious miscalculations of his arch enemy Alexander, but that is out of scope for this discussion.
Hasti has the skills of a Dasyu and the training of his father, but it is no secret that he is not as strong as Porus, and definitely not strong enough to fight and win against Alexander in hand to hand combat. That he sought to trap Alexander in the very nets he had cast in the river with the Pauravengers, without their presence and knowledge, shows that he is wiling to do whatever it takes to stop Alexander as early on as possible before he can harm Porus. He tried to think out side the box, and if it hadn't been for Hephaestion, Alexander may have very well drowned.
I was glad for a change to see the soldiers (perhaps Hasti's men) alert enough to extract their king and row him away to safety. His blood had been spilled and mixed with the waters of the Jhelum, but he would live to fight another day.
Hasti has shown the same will to sacrifice himself for the greater good as Ripudaman had for Anusuya and baby Porus. He has no blood ties with Porus, but took a severe flesh wound out of immense love for and fierce protectiveness towards the brother "of his heart. By doing so, he has shown us the original meaning of "blood is thicker than water. I am quite certain it was this overriding emotion that motivated him to turn back to face Alexander, above and beyond the need to protect the motherland.
All this bravado augurs ill for Hasti though, because as I had written elsewhere yesterday, Alexander has now added him to his list of enemies as an entity/individual separate to Porus. I still haven't managed to solve the mystery of how Alexander knew he was Hasti, Porus' brother, but I chalk it up to the homework he'd done interrogating Ambhiraj.
The real King Hasti of the Sindh Kingdom, was supposedly the only king other than Porus who resisted Alexander and after a month-long battle conceded defeat (and was probably killed in battle). If the CVs choose to take some of these facts from historical sources, then Sony Hasti's track would be depicted similar to the real one and he will hopefully die a glorious death in battle. There is plenty of room to make this an interesting track for him, and considering how much the makers love Mohit Abrol, as well as the fact that they have invested in a significant wardrobe change for him, it seems unlikely he will just be killed off fighting alongside Porus as a glorified general cum king. He will likely be the last bit of resistance against Alexander before he moves on to Paurav Rashtra. Ripudaman must be bursting with pride wherever he is now.
Hasti may seem to follow Porus blindly, but is very much aware of the threat Alexander poses. I would sum up what he did yesterday and today with:
Courage is not the absence of fear; it is acting in spite of it.
Porus
Porus in turn would give his life for Hasti if it came to that and would not think twice about running off to save his brother despite his injury. It was Barsine's quick thinking about stopping the blood flow that gave him pause. Bamni was unable to convince his son to stay back, but we know that he would have done the same had he been in Porus' place. Fortunately, Hasti came back, or Porus would have been swimming off to a suicide mission of sorts.
The brothers embracing was very touching, and none of those watching could remain unaffected. They knew it had been a close call and it was all the more poignant because of what had happened with Kanishk recently. It was a reaffirmation of their undying support for each other.
Barsine
I am not sure what to make of this new direction she seems to be taking. It feels very sudden because she has been shown to be very timid, but I suppose the angle here is that what Alexander made her do to Chanakya by threatening her family pushed her over the limit and has built up enough hatred and resentment in her heart to want to destroy him. It also doesn't help that Alexander married the woman who was involved in the beheading of her father. How conveniently has she forgotten that Darius had left the Farsi royal ladies stranded?! It is actually a refreshing change to see her fighting to save not just her flesh and blood but the whole of Faras.
I am curious to see if, ironically, she ends up doing anything sly like Darius did because she is no goody-two-shoes when she puts her mind to it. Also, she seems to have suddenly been promoted from Shehzaadi to Malika, based on Alexander's dialogues. I could not make out if he was being sarcastic when addressing the disloyal Farsi soldiers or if he was referring to the fact that after Darius, the Farsis loyal to their country considered Barsine to the be queen. There is no male heir in sight and Stateira is out of the running from the looks of it. One thing is for sure, Barsine will not forget the loss of PR soldiers' lives and the injuries of Hasti and Porus in their attempt to save her.
As far as I know, Porus' yojna had been to rescue Barsine and her family in order to get Farsi soldiers on their side in the fight against Alexander. What Barsine said, though, is a whole other game. She wants to go back to Faras and lead her people against Alexander! All this time we've been complaining about her character arc going nowhere and remaining quiet, so in hindsight that was the quiet before the storm that she wants to bring about in Alexander's life.
I was happy to see her standing up for her people and showing responsibility like a real royal, but the sudden mention of Seleucus Nicator's cruelty threw me off. She pointed out that Alexander had promised good treatment of the Farsis but that Seleucus was doing the opposite. Her anger is misdirected at Alexander in this case, is it not? Either this is a segue to a Faras revisit track where Barsine goes back and finds a way to oust Seleucus, or something will happen with Alexander removing Seleucus from Faras and summoning him to Bharat to govern under him, resulting in a truce between Alexander and Barsine. We know from history that Seleucus took a Persian wife, Apama, and their daughter Helena was married to Chandragupta Maurya. Chanakya must be involved somehow. I do not believe the makers will distort history to the point where Alexander will have to pull out of Faras too because of the Farsis rebelling! I was glad to see Bamni asking sensible questions like "will the Farsis side with Porus, who ousted Darius?"
Frankly, I would not be surprised if this Barsine is depicted in a completely fictional manner and never ends up marrying Alexander. I cannot see how she can grow to respect him, never mind like him enough to accept marriage. If the degradation of Alexander's character continues, he may even back her into a corner and leave her with no option but to marry him, the way he did with Roxanne, but this time only to cement the ties between Macedonia and Faras.
I can imagine Roxanne not being too happy about Barsine becoming Alexander's latest person of interest, as every tactic of his will focus on getting back what "belongs to him. Alexander is going to think Barsine is still in love with Porus, which will enrage him further. Some people on this forum have said that Alexander has always been very possessive about Barsine, but this track is bound to show new heights of Alexander's obsession. I won't be surprised to see more Alexander-Roxanne conflicts in future. Her appearance today and Olympias' parting words hinted at that.
First it was all about Porus, then Chanakya, and now Barsine. What next? Now we have a 15 day deadline that will likely be stretched with various tracks and incidents while everyone waits for the snow to melt in the Hindu Kush mountains.
Olympias
Her undying faith in Zeus is being tested and the loss of the vial of blood hints at her black magic either being unsuccessful or that she will not get another chance to perform her magic to inflict flesh wounds on Porus, never mind kill him. The Jhelum maa voiceover seemed to indicate this. Olympias may very well try her hand at doing this to Barsine now. She has 15 days to experiment.
Cleitus
There have been jokes aplenty about Cleitus' Barbie doll image and our inability to believe his version 2.0 could come anywhere close to the ferociousness of the real one, or even of Cleitus 1.0. Yet, I felt terrible for the agony he was going through. To have been betrayed by the Farsi soldiers in his camp was a terrible thing for any general to witness, that too after he had objected to Alexander including them in his army. I wonder if this will be the start of the resentment we have been looking for that would lead to him being speared.
And here I must talk about my favorite scene in this episode for the way Rohit performed it. The flames in which he was heating the sword, all the while remembering the devastation at the camp, symbolized the fire burning within him. It was as if the sword was being seared by his eyes and not the heat from the flames. The background score was perfect there.
Alexander was not oblivious to Cleitus' physical and emotional pain after what happened. In addition to the betrayal by the Farsi soldiers, losing all those loyal soldiers must be painful for Cleitus as a general too, and even more for Alexander. He previously saved Alexander's life (as the real one did), and his life is as precious to Alexander as a family member's. It is another matter that the CVs don't give Sony Cleitus much significance except to be scolded by Alexander, but he is supposed to be one of Alexander's greatest strengths.
I knew he was heating the sword for Cleitus but still, it was horrible to watch. Aye aye aye! (The sword seemed to have cooled down very fast after Alexander tossed it aside, though.)
At first it seemed that Alexander was taunting him for losing to Porus and that this would cause Cleitus to resent him. However, I watched that bit again and realized it was Alexander basically giving him the courage to cope with the pain and to light in him the same fire to destroy Porus with the reminder of the flesh wound and the defeat. I loved the way Alexander held Cleitus' head, and nodded his own, his eyes boring into Cleitus' with spoken and unspoken messages. After Cleitus in return nodded his understanding that Alexander was there for him and that he had to stay strong, there was a fleeting look in Alexander's eyes of pain at seeing Cleitus suffer this way. It was only a millisecond but Rohit did it marvellously. 👏👏👏
Cleitus has taken flesh wounds and has presumably bled quite a bit - this is the first time he has been so severely injured, at least on the show. He is like family to Alexander, who will neither take this attack on his general lightly nor let his general forget it so easily. Of course, it's too much to ask for, but after this point Cleitus should really be ferocious and take an active role in spoiling Porus' plans.
Ambhikumar
Shah-e-Asia voices his new-found trust in Ambhikumar and his interest in using the prince's spies to build future strategies. This is very unlike Alexander, who would not tend to announce such things. Perhaps the loss that he has suffered and the regret he has about not believing Ambhikumar propelled him to say this. I was screaming at my screen going "Don't believe him, your first instinct was right" but I expect this will be revealed in good time. He has forgotten what he had told his mother, that he would trust no one but her, and what he had said about Hephaestion being the only one he could trust after his mother.
What I found interesting was that after this incident Alexander's faith in Ambhikumar will change the dynamics with Taxila. Where Ambhiraj has always been afraid of and on guard with Alexander, Ambhikumar temporarily has the upper hand because Alexander will depend heavily on him to get the right information. I thought I detected a look of faint surprise on Ambhiraj's face - he would never have the relationship with Alexander that Ambhikumar now appears to, and I suspect he will quiz his son about what he has been up to, since he was not privy to Ambhikumar's meeting with spies.
The eternally wide-eyed Ambhikumar even smiled at Alexander apparently to show his gratitude but we know that was he was smiling to himself at the success of Porus' plan. I won't be surprised if Roxanne spots an anomaly in his behavior at one point in time and warns Alexander.
Ambhikumar went against one of his own flesh and blood, his father, to side with his cousin and aunt, who are also flesh and blood. Very interesting conflict - I would hate to be in his position. I won't be surprised if he changes his mind about supporting Porus once Alexander discovers his treachery, because his main motivation is to save himself from Alexander after witnessing the end of Kanishk. Protecting the motherland is of lower priority to him.
Alexander
I was right about what he'd do with the Farsi soldiers once he found out what they'd done. They deserved it, not only because they let Porus take Barsine away, but also because they betrayed Cleitus by not defending the camp. Frankly it was a relief to see not all of them choose to leave for PR. Hopefully some of them chose to remain with Alexander out of loyalty. Alexander re-instilled in them the khauff of his name that the Thracians witnessed, and I won't be surprised if we see more of this now through further ruthless acts and a lot of bloodshed. He will be merciless if there is a Hindu Kush fight sequence and if he really does learn from this defeat.
Alexander is supposed to have crossed the Hindu Kush and defeated the tribes attacking him en route to Bharat, but this new track seems to be reversing the timelines. It is quite possible that Alexander fights Porus in the Hindu Kush area or nearby in his bid to stop Barsine from going to Faras. How he finds out about this remains to be seen, but I suspect he will either discover Ambhikumar's real intentions or will have turned him by then. Or maybe someone will intercept Barsine's message to Faras, though I can't figure out who she will send it to. Porus believes Alexander's men will not be ready or able to fight there, but history tells us otherwise. It was hard-fought but Alexander was victorious. Not sure about Sony Alexander, though.
I hope he understands that he has gone soft and needs to remind people what he is really made of, if he can collect his wits, that is. I was glad to hear him tell the Farsi soldiers that they would live and die with him, because they seem to have forgotten who their ruler is. Maybe Alexander will use them to bring Barsine back on the pretext that they are siding with her but are actually following Alexander's orders. The 15-day period is to prevent her return to Faras and for another encounter between them.
Alexander is now making a promise to get Barsine back from Porus, but he may have forgotten his own words:
Waade aksar toot jaate hain
Par koshishein kamyaab hoti hain
Water won this round, will fire triumph in the next?
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
