In Telemon, by Richard McBrien, Atlantis recovers from the trauma of war, Ariadne (Aiysha Hart) is crowned Queen, and a gladiatorial contest is held and Jason (Jack Donnelly) has the honour of the city to defend. Amongst the competitors is one Telemon (Clive Standen), who claims to be a prince from Aegina. He sets out to both win the contest and win Ariadne’s agreement to marriage.
It was always going to be difficult following the epic battles of the first two episodes and this is a much more contained plot. Hercules (Mark Addy) has little to do, while Pythagoras (Robert Emms) is the one who doubts Telemon’s story and finds out some of the truth from talking to Scythain warrior Areto (Lashana Lynch) before Telemon kills her for recognising him as having been a slave in a salt mine. He admits this but turns it into a plus.
The story is nothing if not predictable – several fights, a close call, and Jason vs Telemon in a final that Jason wins. The only point of note is Ariadne agrees to marry Telemon setting up next week’s story; in the trailer we see that Telemon is up to no good – no surprise there.
The story looks good and combat scenes are much more authentic than last season, but sadly the plot offers little for almost any character, and to a very large extent Richard McBrien has just recycled last season’s much better The Rules of Engagement, which he also wrote.
Entertaining in places, this is actually a weak story with little originality, though it does introduce the well-played Telemon to the show.
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