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.

Through the course of the first season, Yusuf was shown as a minister who did not want war. His position was not borne out of failure to understand the dynastic ambitions of the master he chose to serve. Rather, Yusuf knew Kublai. Yusuf saw Kublai far more clearly that Marco did. Though Yusuf was well aware that conquering the walls of Xiangyang had been the driving force of Kublai's life, the unfinished task of Gengis, Yusuf did not want his master to succeed. Yusuf understood that once Xiangyang had been conquered, Kublai would simply move the goalposts. Kublai wanted far more than a unified China under his rule. As with conquerors before him, there were always more lands to subdue. Part of the reason Marco's presence at Court was viewed with such suspicion was because he was of the West, the West that Kublai had his eyes upon. 

In Marco, Yusuf saw a young man who was the servant he felt he ought to be but no longer was. 'His only guilt is his blind desire for your love', Yusuf told the Khan. Marco accepted that there were no words that would free him from his fate, and still his mind worked, for he did not wish to die a traitor. On the floor of his cell, he drew a trebuchet, a siege engine powered not by men but by counterweight. Trebuchets could bombard the walls of Xiangyang whilst keeping the Khan's army at a safe distance, beyond the reach of the enemy's archers.

As final counsel to the Khan, despite his own beliefs that it was best for the Khan not to conquer Xiangyang, Yusuf advised him to build the trebuchet. To force the Khan's hands, Yusuf sent letters across the empire detailing of his complicity to crimes he may have been guilty of thinking but he certainly never committed. The Khan had no choice but to order the death of his most loyal minister.

A cripple in a society that valued fierce warriors, a foreigner without a drop of royal blood in a land where heritage was never far from people's minds, Amr Waked infused Vice Regent Yusuf with quiet power, so that as he walked to his death, he was both a master and a servant who freed himself. With this shattering penultimate episode, Marco Polo was poised to return to war in the finale. 

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Strays

■ I wonder why the powers that be did not even show any hint on Marco that he was in any way affected by the sacrifice Vice Regent Yusuf made to save his life. Whilst it was true that Marco and Yusuf were not exactly friends, it would have been nice to see that Marco had at the very least some awareness of what it took for him to keep his life and return in the service of the Khan he viewed as a good man, despite the horror he witnessed involving the Chinese prisoners.

■ Jia Sidao killed the Dowager Empress with black powder. The young emperor was now fully under his control. Jia Sidao gave the boy a mantis and instructed him to study it.

■ Hundred Eyes tried to save Marco, but the Khan would not budge.

■ Now under guard and with a new servant who did not indulge her as Za Bing did, Nergui tried to kill herself the way the real Kokachin did, and found she could not.

■ Empress Chabi and Ahmad now knew that Ling Ling was the daughter of the Emperor. The Empress allowed Mei Lin to see her daughter from afar, and promised the girl would live as long as Mei Lin did her bidding.

Director: David Petrarca
Writer: Patrick Macmanus
Original Release Date: 12 December 2014