1.12 Touched By The Gods – Part 1 With this level of plotting, what could possibly go wrong for anyone? The Queen is unaware of the plot against her and continues to stoke up her position of power, though a botched assassination attempt does shake her resolve slightly and she sets out to discover the identity of her would-be-executioner, deploying the best men of the royal court to find out who would be so mean as to try to murder her whilst she slept. Sadly, names are not forthcoming and the search reveals nothing until Ariadne’s handmaiden discovers some incriminating evidence and the King’s daughter is tried and found guilty of treason. This is Atlantis at its most tense. Thankfully, this week, we are treated to much more action, with more screen time for the royal family and the return of Circe adding to the dramatic stakes. This does, however, further reinforce the feeling that this series would be more interesting if the focus was on the political machinations of the royal household and less about Jason and his oafish friends. Jack Donnelly manages to make us care for Jason as he struggles to carry out his oath and then must live with the consequences of his actions (or lack of them). This isn’t to say that his performance is awe-inspiring, it’s just not as bland and insipid as we’ve seen previously. Emms and Addy are, once more, relegated to second tier, comic characters. It doesn’t feel like they’re part of the action, coming across as being more “along for the ride.” It’s a shame as we have seen Addy’s Hercules becoming more fleshed out and Emm’s Pythagoras develop and additional dimension to how he appeared early on in the series; none of this is seen here. It is really Parish and Hart that carry an episode that is heavy on the drama, with a gloriously evil performance from Sarah Parish and a strong turn from Aiysha Hart. The latter is particularly good in her scenes with Jack Donnelly and even more so when coupled with Parish. Parish plays the court scene with relish and Hart switches from faux-innocence, to hatred and then to emotionally wrought (though never quite as crushed as you’d imagine some sentenced to death would be), all whilst Parish looks on with malice. Disappointingly, for now, it appears we’ve seen the last Lucy Cohu as Circe. She is disposed of in disappointing style, with little fanfare and in a sequence that is only saved by a fight with three skeletons. Jason may have had a problem killing the Queen, but killing the person to whom he had sworn an oath… he’s fine with that. Read Dave’s review of the previous episode, Hunger Pangs, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
