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.

After Mei Lin failed to kill the Empress using poison she mixed with her rouge, she stormed the ceremony of the White Moon. Alone, she fought off the imperial guards. She must have known there was no way she would succeed, yet when she saw a young girl close to Ling Ling's age, she charged, anyway. Did Mei Lin perhaps hope that Jing Fei would speak of her attempt to Jia Sidao, and save her daughter from further harm? A frightened mind is not always a logical mind. What Mei Lin's attempt gave us was a display of sheer skill and barely tempered emotion.  

The Khan may not have anticipated the attempt on Empress Chabi's life, but he knew that his very attendance to so public a gathering was a risk. It was one that he chose to take, because he was also aware of the need to project strength. Jingim would be challenged for the throne when he died, of that he was certain. Jingim, who had spent most of the episode trying to find out what Marco and Byamba learnt on their meeting with the Hashshashin, felt once more these seeds of doubt that he was being seen as somehow not being enough. He viewed the throne as his rightful inheritance, so did his father, but there was a wider Mongol world who also needed to respect and obey him if he were to continue his father's path. 

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Marco and Byamba had ascertained that it was Sanga who hired the Hashshashin, but who was his master who bid him to do so? Sanga worked for Ahmad. Ahmad painted Sanga as a man who dealt in black market goods. When Byamba mentioned that Sanga would need imperial guards for such a venture, Ahmad all but pointed in the direction of Vice Regent Yusuf.

'There is clarity in service', Vice Regent Yusuf told Marco and Byamba when they came to him with their questions. Both in the writing of the character, and the performance of actor Amr Waked, Vice Regent Yusuf was a man most loyal to the cause of the khanate and his master Kublai Khan. Vice Regent Yusuf wanted to avoid a war with the Song that would destroy the khanate. He was also the first one to wonder if Niccolò Polo, Marco's father, left him in Cambulac for his business or his pope. More than any other character we have been introduced to so far, it was Vice Regent Yusuf who always had the farthest reaching vision. It was interesting, then, that at the first opportunity, Ahmad tried to point guilt toward him.

To his credit, Marco was not swayed by Ahmad's words. He told the Khan he was certain Sanga hired the Hashshashin, but he could not say who bid him to do so. It was this very restraint that allayed some of Vice Regent Yusuf's suspicions about him, suspicions that he did not keep secret from the Khan. To others, including Jingim, it may have appeared that Marco was the Khan's favourite pet. Yet, though the Khan may have liked Marco's company and honeyed descriptions of his kingdom, he did nothing to discourage his Vice Regent's suspicions until Yusuf himself came to the conclusion that Marco was not an enemy.

Image from Marco Polo, streamed via Netflix

Who, then, was the enemy? Unaware of the danger, Sanga's daughter wondered out loud what Ahmad sent her father to do. Ahmad, whom Prince Jingim treated more as a brother than he did his blood brother Byamba. Ahmad, who was a son to the Khan. Ahmad, who controlled the purse of the empire.

'A weaker man would surrender a name to deflect suspicion from himself', Vice Regent Yusuf told the Khan, after Marco refused to name whom he suspected of ordering Sanga to meet with the Hashshashin. 'As would a man burdened with guilt', the Khan agreed. In this episode, there was only one man who willingly surrendered a name; it was Ahmad.

Strays

■ Vice Regent Yusuf: 'I am trusted because I lack ambition. I desire no riches so I'm incorruptible. I have no blood claim to the throne, so there is nothing to which I may ascend. I am a servant who has but one function.'

Marco: 'Which is?'

Vice Regent Yusuf: 'I speak truth.'

■ The lady we knew as Princess Kokachin was actually her servant, Nergui. When the Khan's army arrived, Princess Kokachin killed herself rather than be captured. Nergui donned her clothes and assumed her identity. Tulga was the man she was promised to marry, who had been selling the Princess's jewels as they prepared to escape.

■ Marco now knew of Tulga and demanded that he would handle the jewels. However, after he learnt that Tulga and 'Kokachin' were promised, he did not hand over the bracelet to Tulga. Instead, he gave it to Sanga's daughter.

■ Empress Chabi noticed the growing closeness between Marco and Kokachin, and told the Khan it was time for Prince Jingim to take on another bride. 

■ As part of their punishment, Marco's father and uncle no longer carried the Khan's golden tablet. This meant that as they traveled they would no longer have access to lodging or fresh horses. They would also be vulnerable to bandits. The golden tablet was an imperial pass that was essential to travelers, especially merchants like them.

■ At the behest of her father, Khutulun had asked leave to remain in Cambulac with her horsemen to protect the Khan.

■ Sanga's formerly happy family were now mired in poverty. 

■ The Dowager Empress objected to Jia Sidao's binding of Ling Ling's feet, to no avail.

■ The Dowager Empress had the dynastic council dismiss Jia Sidao. She called upon a champion, Fang Zhen, a peasant farmer who became known as a warrior, a scholar, and a Song Dynasty loyalist.

Director: Daniel Minahan
Writer: Dave Erickson
Original Release Date: 12 December 2014