I actually enjoyed today's episode - the pacing was good, lots of things moved forward, some questions were answered, and a few secrets were revealed. Though it looks like we will have more nighttime episodes! Don't these people sleep?!
We had Alexander Holmes spotting that solider immediately and it was good to hear about Macedonian customs. Just like Alexander may not be able to anticipate all of Porus' moves without a deep understanding of Bharati culture, neither can Porus understand all of his. @Vaishnavi, your question has been answered about that Instagram photo of the guy posing with Rohit and Akash - it wasn't Seleucus after all but a PR messenger in disguise. 😉
The only issue I have with that scene is that it's clearly at night so where did that shadow of the flag come from with no torches to be seen? And that kind of shadow cannot be cast with torches, it can only happen when sunlight falls on an object. We also learned that Alexander has a dagger in his boots. He really is very good at hiding weapons. Rohit was awesome in this scene - I was clapping and cheering for what Alexander did and it felt like we were seeing glimpses of the old Alexander! It was a great way to start the episode and I will discuss it in more detail it in a separate post.
Porus made one more promise. The list is growing long pretty fast and he's lecturing his parent about reverse parenting. That seems to be a running theme in this show where the Bharati kids are teaching their parents and correcting their mistakes. Only Alexander refrains from doing this, but then again he's a world famous mama's boy. 😆
When Bamni asked Porus to thank Ambhikumar, I thought his message would be intercepted and Ambhikumar discovered later on, or that maybe when Porus doesn't hear back from Ambhikumar he would suspect something went wrong. But it looks like the Taxila crown prince is in trouble already anyway.
@Vicariously, Alexander did not spot the message from Olympias lying on the ground after Ambhiraj shot the messenger falcon down. It would be too good to be true if he did and I am not surprised because he unearthed (pun intended) too many things today, including the gold coin. His quota is full for the day (or the night). I put it down to it being nighttime and a gold coin shining brightly and easier to see than a scroll on the side. Still, because Alexander says his eyes miss nothing, I would have wanted him to spot it but I guess I'm asking for too much. Looks like someone else will, instead. Perhaps Ambhiraj will find it and tell Alexander himself about it, or it will lie there until the opportune moment.
I love what Alexander said about the people in this country not respecting their own wealth, and I think this was also SidT's way of telling us why Bharat, which was once glorious and prosperous, could not sustain that level of prominence long-term and fell pray to conquerors throughout history.
We also saw a classic case of serial overhearing => people miss the main part and hear only the tail end of the conversation. So of course Alexander doesn't see the scroll, and doesn't overhear what Ambhiraj tells his son about wanting to turn the tables on Ambhikumar, but hears Ambhikumar talk of ousting him, after which we got another quote-worthy dialogue from Alexander today:
Main unme se nahin jisse bheja ja sakta hai
Main woh hoon jo aata hai aur chhaa jaata hai
I've been wanting to see the Ambhis argue or show some kind of philosophical conflict so I was very happy to see that in detail today, except we found out that Ambhiraj is thinking of a longer term strategy to get out of Alexander's grasp instead of quick wins. It was clear that Ambhiraj wasn't going to take his son's imprisonment lightly, nor would he forget it that easily. He was pretty explicit about his motivations and I was glad to see that he had been thinking about how to wait for the right time to make the appropriate political moves.
The CVs are trying to show that no matter what outside forces do, they can only temporarily influence local kings to ally with them and that eventually everyone will choose to support the motherland or not betray it actively. Now they are showing Ambhiraj plotting something, but I still think it's for his kingdom and not for the motherland necessarily. He has always been very clear that he cares only about protecting Taxila's awaam and doesn't want to get involved with what was happening outside of it. As I said in an older post of mine, Ambhiraj and Shivdutt are the only two consistent characters on this show, and nothing has changed so far (except Shivdutt is dead).
Porus was giving the PR soldiers another pep talk but we never get to see the PR soldiers being trained. He's very confident of defeating the Dasyus on land, but I think he underestimates their ability to fight well in the water and on land. It remains to be seen whether Dasyuraj does what Porus expects him to. If they don't change their mind and are attacked by PR, will Alexander save them? If the Dasyus go against Alexander and help to destroy the bridge, or weaken its foundations so that it collapses under the weight of the Macedonian army, then Alexander won't spare them. Would the Dasyu rulers really want to subject their people to be annihilated by Alexander? I'm doubtful about that. I found it very annoying that Laachi hasn't been able to understand her parents' predicament here - it's easy to blame them but she needs to understand that they didn't really have a choice. Alexander gave them an ultimatum about building the bridge.
It was good to see Anusuya sword fighting with Bamni, who took this as a romantic duel with his wife but was surprised to discover her in shatrani mode. Rati looked ferocious today and reminded me of her warrior princess mode in the beginning episodes where she fought against Taxila. The only thing I'd say is that considering Alexander is nearly at their doorstep and about to attack, they seem to have a lot of free time on hand to duel against each other. 😆
By the way, I'm really loving Bamni and Hasti's war look - they were fabulous. I loved the hairdos, too. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I love Hasti's costume the most out of all the different characters' attire. Mohit Abrol really carries it well and he really looks like a royal. He must have been treated by Chanakya, since he doesn't seem to have any wounds at all despite Alexander's spilling a liter of his blood in the Jhelum river. Speaking of which, Chanakya is nowhere in sight. 😆
I wished there would be no more black magic but it looks like it's going to go on for a bit longer. 😡 I wonder what will happen to break the spell, because clearly Porus won't die or maybe he will really end up fighting Anusuya and defeat her, so that she can't accompany him to the war. I am still wondering if Anusuya is faking being under Olympias' spell to avoid her suspicion - maybe the magic is not working on her but she's playing along in order to make a last-minute move. The PR royals really need to lock Olympias up like a prisoner would be or send her back, but they are being complacent now with her in captivity and underestimating the damage she can single-handedly cause. She sees and hears every single thing they are doing and I am sure whatever she experiences in the palace here, she will relay to Alexander later to help him understand the PR people better and incorporate it in his battle strategy.
You guys can laugh, but I have to confess that I only watched Bahubali for the first time a couple of days ago. 😳 During the movie I was face palming through many scenes as I realized how much SidT is inspired by it. This plan of Olympias' to get Anusuya to kill her own son reminded me a lot of what happened in the movie, and I was thinking: are they trying to go the Katappa way here too? LOL
I think Alexander's sixth sense is making him extra concerned about his mother and he'll figure out something is wrong even without receiving her message. In fact, Hephaestion might come back with the news himself since Alexander asked him to investigate in detail. Let's see!
Last time's pre-cap was misleading and they showed nothing of it today so @Vicariously, don't be too disappointed at Alexander's thanda reaction on finding out about his mother's situation because it doesn't look like he'll learn about it just yet. Not until the black magic track is nearing it's end (hopefully that happens soon because I don't want to see this anymore). CVs probably just shoot these random pre-caps to confuse us. Maybe the dukhti rag Alexander had referred to was Barsine's attempt to gain Farsi support and escape there. I'm glad they found out about the Hindu Kush route - looks like there will be another mini fight/battle there. Alexander asked Hephaestion to save it for a fitting reply at the right time, and it reminded me of how he replied to Darius' message in Faras. Can't wait to see what he does with Barsine! 😆
Pre-cap: If Ambhikumar is going to be punished/tortured, will his father save him? That scene of him being quartered reminded me of Alexander's punishment for the Thracian king. Alexander didn't seem surprised to hear what Ambhikumar said, so I also wonder if he was pretending to trust Ambhikumar to fish his secret out. If this is the case then I'm going to be super happy with Alexander Holmes. Also, Ambhiraj's wife finally makes an appearance. I was wondering where she was all this time!
Indian Mythology
