Marco Polo Recap 'Serpent’s Terms'

Season 2 Episode 6

'Serpent's Terms' is an episode of political machinations that is also perhaps Marco Polo's most disturbing episode to date. I cannot with this subplot of Ahmad pushing Ling Ling to Prince Nayan; this is abhorrent. I am choosing to focus instead on Mei Lin cooly and craftily playing along with Ahmad's plotting, whilst the truth of her fury was evident in her eyes. Even her conversation with Prince Nayan, forced upon her by Ahmad, became a way for her to find out where the Prince intended to take her daughter. Her voice low and almost grateful, there remained a determined promise there that, as Prince Nayan suggested, she would pay them a visit.

Marco Polo Recap 'Lullaby'

Season 2 Episode 5

'Lullaby' is easily Marco Polo's best episode of the second season (so far), and a prime example of how Mahesh Jadu's Ahmad so ably stepped up onto the mantle as prime antagonist following the death of Jia Sidao (Chin Han). That Ahmad was quietly working against the man who considered him a son was already well established in the first season, but Ahmad's moves against Kublai Khan have started to become more overt. Perhaps it was because, with the death of the loyal Yusuf, Ahmad was named Vice Regent, and now had control over the vast military resources of the Khan. Perhaps it was because the Khan was weakened by the Song rebellion and Kaidu's challenge to his rule. Perhaps it was because the producers knew there was little chance Marco Polo was going to be renewed for the third season, so they decided it was time for the seeds of betrayal they planted in the first season to flower in the second.

Marco Polo Recap 'Let God's Work Begin'

Season 2 Episode 4

Pope Gregory X. Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

The fourth episode of the second season marked the return of Marco's father Niccolo, now in Acre with Pope Gregory X. With Niccolo's proximity to Christian power, it was clear that he was no mere trader. He left his son on the court of Kublai Khan for a reason. Now that the Khan's eyes had turned ever more firmly toward the West, Niccolo had ceased hiding behind the pretense of a businessman. He was part of the Pope's army and he had recruited Prince Nayan to the cause.

Marco Polo Recap 'Measure Against the Linchpin'

Season 2 Episode 3

Mahesh Jadu as Ahmad. Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix.

Several times during this episode, Kublai Khan railed at how others (Empress Chabi, Marco, Kaidu) would not do the hard thing. Killing the boy emperor weighed his conscience and gave him nightmares of Gengis, but he continued to insist that it had to be done. Though there were riots on the streets for weeks, though Ahmad admitted to Prince Jingim that his counsel was not sound (words, for the riots likely were instigated by the Song operative Ahmad paid in the previous episode), Kublai refused to give voice to the doubt he must have felt about the decision he made. In his mind, he as Khan did what others could not. He dirtied his hands with the murder of a child to preserve the dynasty he built.

If only he knew what his empress did.

Marco Polo Recap 'Hug'

Season 2 Episode 2

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix.

How much of his conquest did the Khan truly understand? Did he really think the people of South China viewed him as a liberator rather than a conqueror? Or was he simply spewing propaganda even whilst speaking to his heir and two men he considered his sons?

Marco Polo Recap 'Hunter and the Sable Weaver'

Season 2 Episode 1

Marco Polo and Mei Lin. Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix.

I've loved seeing Michelle Yeoh on screen since I was a kid, so of course I was happy to see her on the second season of Marco Polo. I watched the second season of Marco Polo when it first came out back in 2016, because I was one of the 12 people who liked the first season. Even back then, however, I noticed the muted release. Of course, now we already know that Marco Polo represented a $200 million loss to Netflix. There was also the lawsuit filed by an associate producer of Marco Polo against Harvey Weinstein. I read Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill, and it referenced an observation about an unnamed actress in Marco Polo. 

Merlin Rewatch: The Dragon's Call

Season 1 Episode 1

I have been wanting to do a proper rewatch of Merlin, starting from the first episode to the finale. Merlin is one of my go to shows when my mental health isn't great, so I do rewatch a few episodes a year. When I created this blog, primarily meant as a place to post some of my work since 2013, I thought it might also serve as space for one of my favourite activities when I have free time, rewatching. 

Marco Polo Recap 'The Heavenly and the Primal'

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Season 1 Episode 10

As someone who grew up with a constant thirst for grand historical epics, the first season finale of Marco Polo was quite satisfactory. There was a battle that started outside the walls of Xiangyang. There was that haunting music played by some soldiers one night before the battering from the trebuchets Marco designed began. There was a beautifully choreographed kung fu battle between Jia Sidao and Hundred Eyes. Near the end, we were finally given a closer look at the mural Ahmad has been supervising all season long, the one that chronicled the triumphs and tribulations of the khanate, the one that also showed him holding the khan's severed head, his face as serene as it always was.

Marco Polo Recap 'Prisoners'

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Season 1 Episode 9

When the time came that Yusuf realised someone else could better serve his Khan, in a way he no longer wished to, he decided his life needed to end. 'You are released from prison, but I am truly free', he told Marco, who was condemned to die, who was saved by the sacrifice of the Vice Regent's life. Yusuf once spoke of his role to Marco, that of a servant who spoke truth. It was heartbreaking that his final act of service to his Khan was a massive lie.

Marco Polo Recap 'Rendering'

Benedict Wong as Kublai Khan. Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Season 1 Episode 8

A prisoner of the Khan at the beginning, Marco eventually found himself almost an advisor to the powerful ruler of the Mongol. Like Nergui, there was a reason why Marco did not feel a compelling need to leave; he was comfortable in his service to the Khan. He certainly did not intend to give the Chinese prisoner he spoke to false hope; Marco saw the Khan as a fair ruler, a man on whose lands people were free to worship their gods, and where they could ply their trades. As time passed, it was almost as though Marco had forgotten how the Khan himself murdered a servant for the crime of hearing Marco lie.

Marco Polo Recap 'The Scholar's Pen'

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Season 1 Episode 7

When Hundred Eyes and Marco went on a perilous journey to attempt to assassinate Jia Sidao, Hundred Eyes correctly read that Marco had begun to identify with the empire that held him captive.  'I fear your mind has followed your body into bondage', Hundred Eyes told his erstwhile pupil. Had Marco truly begun to believe in the righteousness of the Khan's cause? Or had he almost unwittingly begun to view the Khan as a father after his own father sorely disappointed him?

Marco Polo Recap 'White Moon'

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Season 1 Episode 6

Olivia Cheng's Mei Lin was one of the several standouts in Marco Polo's fairly strong line-up of characters, save for its lead. Mei Lin was a royal concubine who was also a phenomenal warrior. With her brother Jia Sidao already firmly entrenched in the corridors of power of the Song Dynasty, Mei Lin felt she had no choice but to obey his commands, even when he sent her as a spy inside Cambulac. Jia Sidao held the life of Mei Lin's daughter in his hands, and for that Mei Lin was willing to undertake a suicide mission in an attempt to assassinate the Khan's beloved wife Empress Chabi.

Marco Polo Recap 'Hashshashin'

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Season 1 Episode 5

'Their army hides behind walls for fear of extermination, a wall that has defied us for 70 years. Our men will die for no reason save the ego of the man ordering the breach. Ego, not armies, destroys empires.'

The fifth episode of Marco Polo may have focused on the ancient order of assassins that nearly killed Kublai Khan, but at its core, it was a tale of the slow horror of uncertainty when the head of a powerful empire was suddenly not around as the centre of its strength.

Marco Polo Recap 'The Fourth Step'

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Season 1 Episode 4

As the Dowager Empress shrewdly recognised, the power of Jia Sidao stemmed from the constant threat of war. Though there was a clear line of succession, which meant that power was now supposed to be on the hands of the boy emperor, no one would feel comfortable having a child, or perhaps his mother, in control of the Song Dynasty, not when the Kublai Khan and his formidable forces could attack at any time. Jia Sidao was a wartime leader. Take away the war, and he was perhaps easier to dislodge from his place of prominence.