Heart Like a Lion

Beastmaster Episode Review

In which there is much laughter.

What Happened

Dar has a dream of an enchantress seducing Tao, but is distracted (!?) by the plight of a lion cub who claims that his mother has been captured by the evil Arkon. Or maybe he just figures Tao needs to get laid. While Tao is off trying to find some drugs for his killer back pain, Dar takes the cub and goes looking for the lioness.

At Arkon's camp, he meets Breon, who is the only one of his people who sees Arkon for the power-mad, creepy guy he is. That has a lot to do with the fact that Arkon is about to choose Breon's girlfriend to be one of his "priestesses." None of the other villagers seem concerned by Arkon's taking their daughters, or by his seriously bad eye-shadow.

Tao is approached by the enchantress Layla, who leads him around for a little while, until he guesses that she's trying to use illusions to control him. (No. I don't know why she'd bother.) When he laughs at her, this breaks the illusion. Finding Dar, he shares his new method of defeating evil and Dar is able to use it against Arkon.

Egged on by Dar, all the villagers realize just how silly Arkon's little face fur is and start laughing, freeing themselves from his control.

What We Learned

• Tao thinks, therefore he hurts.
• Purple herbs like the shade.
• What we need and what we want aren't always the same thing.
• Perhaps if Tao didn't carry around so much crap, his back would not hurt so much.
• In Tao's hands, Dar's staff weapon is... a waste of time.
• The strongest illusions can be broken by laughter.
• Arkon's rather slow on the uptake. I would think he'd notice Dar's staff weapon and know that it's him pretty much from the start.

What Did I Think?

Nice idea, but suffers in execution. Can it be that no one had actually laughed at Arkon before this? The clothes alone make that unlikely. And how did Breon become immune to his illusions? And why did Layla waste all that time on Tao?