Meanwhile, our heroes were at the Tavern, gambling on dung beetle racing. After a surprise win Hercules named his victorious insect, creating a running joke for the length of the story.
Wishing to return a message, Ariadne used her maid to enlist the help of Jason employing a cover story. Consequently, the three set out towards the mountains to deliver the maid to a supposed romantic rendezvous.
Centring on the royal family we were introduced to Therus, King Minos’ true heir who was framed by Pasiphae. With her web of lies under threat, the devious Queen kept busy, watching Ariadne’s movements and interrogating the messenger with some inventive magical torture. Minos on the other hand was able to demonstrate some fatherly affection, as well as a crisis of conscience. Alexander Siddig imbues the King with real emotion and it is a shame he is not better used so far.
The story provided some welcome returns, with The Oracle (Juliet Stevenson) enjoying a superb confrontation with Pasiphae and Korinna (Hannah Arterton) as Ariadne’s maid. It was good to see someone other than the obvious Medusa used for this role, although it did cheat us of Jemima Rooper for all but the episode’s comedic bookend moments.
Unsurprisingly, we discovered that Pasiphae is not universally loved within the court. Guard captain Ramos (Joe Dixon) displayed his loyalty to the King, not his wife, as he first spared Therus and then facilitated Ariadne’s escape from Atlantis.
Therus (Darwin Shaw) was ultimately uninspiring; a stoic character prepared to overrule his sister’s wishes with drugging and kidnapping, as well as to kill Jason to achieve his goal. Fortunately, Ariadne was able to talk him down, asserting some independence and showing her maturity. With Jason at her side, it was an opportunity for the two up close and his bravado fell away in some cute moments. While sparks did not exactly fly, there is clearly some chemistry that we can look forward to.
With a lorry load of exposition, delivered first by Pasiphae and Heptarian, then Ariadne and Therus, ‘White Lies’ unloaded a regal back-story and we hope we felt the thrust of the series arc at play. Introducing the wronged brother, odds on for a series finale return, served to harden the battle lines between Ariadne and Pasiphae and it was interesting to hear that Thesus views his father as a weak King.
However, the comedy served as a distraction to the drama. Last week the laughs came from circumstance, this time it appeared solely contrived to give Jason’s friends something to do. The intelligence of Pythagoras and pathos of Hercules shown previously, along with their misgivings about Jason, were all sadly lost to repetitive shenanigans surrounding the fate of a prize-winning dung beetle.
Aired at 8.15pm on Saturday 26 October 2013 on BBC One.
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