With his younger brother Arcas visiting, ‘The Furies’ centred on Pythagoras and was well overdue; the third member of our heroic trio has spent the seven episodes squarely in the background, fulfilling the role of loyal supporter and faithful friend.
Despite Jason and Pythagoras’ misgivings, plus the threat of lost fingers, Hercules readily agreed to an offer of paid work escorting a treasure chest to the city of Helios. With Arcas in tow, much to his brother’s frustration, the boys joined a disparate bunch ready to make an arduous desert journey.
Full of mutual mistrust, they included a disaffected young man, for whom the treasure’s safe arrival will cement a marriage, and a suspicious lady travelling solo, along with caravan’s leader and his mute strongman.
Arcas, played by Skins actor Will Merrick, is a complete contrast to his scientifically minded sibling and has more in common with Hercules. Sadly he doesn’t share his brother’s brains and it is his troubled logic that gets them all in trouble.
Discovering there is a marked man in the group, the mute strongman Otus (Ryan Oliva), he reasons thus: Otus is a convicted murderer; he comes from the Samos like me; my father was murdered so Otus must have killed him. Seriously, this was the hook on which the dangerous events of the episode were hung!
The tale at least offered the criminally underused Robert Emms plenty to do. After a quick tête-à-tête with the Oracle, we discovered he harbours a dark secret – his burden to take to the grave, or at least struggle halfway though the episode with. While we enjoyed the emotional revelation, it had barely taken much to figure out what it might be.
Oddly, and actually this really bugged us, the whole situation pivoted on a muddled premise: Arcas unleashed the vengeful spirits on his father’s murderer, and yet when truth came out we discovered Pythagoras was accidentally responsible when defending his mother from a violent, drunken attack.
We are no legal eagles, but with no suggestion of premeditation, that surely qualifies as an accidental death? We can only assume the script was short of some clarifying element, or perhaps the Furies were attracted to Pythagoras’ feelings of guilt?
In the finale, we were also disappointed to see the secondary characters chase after Arcas while our heroes remained with a fatalistic Pythagoras. Although it was neat to use the forgiveness element from earlier the story, we would have preferred to see Hercules try and reason with the lad, as they at least seemed to share a bond. Instead, we were left with Jason churning out clichés to play on Pythagoras’ loyalties to the big man to stop him committing suicide.
Luckily, this episode looked fantastic and made the most of the desert location with some excellent vistas. The dust swirls characterising the Furies were highly effective too and the action didn’t fail to disappoint. Although we were thrilled to see an episode focusing on Pythagoras, and despite some great execution, the premise was worryingly weak.
Aired at 8pm on Saturday 16 November 2013 on BBC One.
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