Atlantis: Review: Series 2 Episode 9: The Gorgon’s Gaze

To save Ariadne, someone is going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice…

There’s no way you can really claim that this second season of Atlantis is good wholesome family entertainment: it is, however, considerably more captivating and better put together than the first year, tackling the themes from the Greek myths and legends that that season seemed to avoid.

There are numerous chilling moments seeded throughout this instalment. Pasiphae bringing Medea into the cell to torture Ariadne had overtones of Darth Vader’s preparations to interrogate his daughter in the original Star Wars (sorry if that’s a spoiler for anyone 32 years late), and the usurping queen of Atantis clearly not one to let others do her dirty work – she’s the one who wields the sword that dispatches Emmett Scanlan’s Delmos (and that was a short but sweet visit to the show). Hercules’ reaction to the news of Medusa’s decision was spot on, hurling Pythagoras across the room and then howling with grief.

Jack Donnelly and Aiysha Hart are almost unrecognisable from the first season, with each pitching their performances at the right level, and I’ve often felt that Robert Emms has simply not been given enough material to work with – here, he’s a vital part of the group as Pythagoras. Jemima Rooper as Medusa, though, is the lynchpin of the episode showing a combination of determination, guilt and love.

Verdict: Dark and getting progressively darker, Atlantis seems to have been saving the best for last. 8/10

Paul Simpson