In my humble opinion, one of the best episodes in season 2. The relic of the week is found at the beginning of the story already, a bottle containing the spirit of a 7th century Mochica warrior, and the main challenge this time is to bring it home safely. But when the plane crashes somewhere in Peru, Sydney and Nigel have no possibility to call for help. Also, they must not trust the other passengers from the flight. Sydney warns Nigel not to open the Mochica bottle to release the warrior's spirit, because somebody who was locked inside a bottle for 1300 years probably is really angry. So they hold an artifact with mystical powers, but have no idea how to control it. When a bunch of bearded, mean looking soldiers takes them for unwanted intruders, the situation becomes worse... Great stuff.
2 Reviews
Breaks all the usual 'Relic Hunter' rules . . . and is all the better for it !
SceneByScene28 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Absolutely super episode: watchable, believable & unpredictable. "Last of the Mochicas" (s2 e3) is - this far into the drama programme - without a doubt the best & most rounded story so far.
Don't get me wrong, I love this series, and appreciate it for the fun and lightweight drama that it is.
But this is one of the few episodes - in this, to be honest, flaky fare of a programme - that does not follow the formulaic plot line of events: prologue at US college / meets with a new task / goes abroad / Sydney meets an old flame / the team have lots of adventures treasure hunting / the team finally find the relic / the true enemy is suddenly revealed when they steal the relic from the team at the very moment the artefact is found / they get the treasure back / happy ever after epilogue back at US college.
I mean, it's an entertaining series, but it almost follows the rules given to authors of a new Mills & Boon novel re plot outline, i.e. don't change it from the same basic premise of every other M&B story! This episode, however, breaks the rules: it is completely different from the standard output - and well done to the producers/writers for daring to do so. The episode starts right in the middle of discovering the treasure, and from there on breaks all the usual precedents for the 'Relic Hunter' series. The end result is that the whole story is much more believable.
Normally there are few, if any, deaths in 'R.H.' - which seems a bit implausible considering the kick-ass nature of the team's relic retrieval work! And most deaths that do occur are caused by accident (e.g. a convenient fall), rather than by a calculated murder. Yes, in this episode Sydney's team members still don't cause any deaths themselves; but there are violent deaths caused by the bad guys. One of them quite nasty! And one of them very sad.
And there are many other changes to the norm, in the style of this episode. The result is that this particular story produces a winning tale that far outclasses other 'R.H.' episodes.
The main market for 'R.H.' has to have been quite young - as only those in their youth would tolerate the thinly plotted fare this series offers. I myself loved the programme when I was a teenager, for the escapist offering it was. And have thoroughly enjoyed rewatching it just for a bit of a filler. Yes, it's trifling, but it's a worthwhile bit of recreational TV viewing.
This episode, however, offered more than just a retrospective upon a programme I enjoyed when I was younger. Normally, watching this programme in 2015 is simply a pleasant diversion from real-life concerns, or just an excuse to reminisce upon my youth! For once, though, this episode was truly watchable and gripping in its own right.
It has a well-rounded story. The events in the storyline seem to reflect what might happen in real life in this sort of adventure, rather than just run out the typical 'R.H.' plot format. The old nemesis of Sydney's has a smaller role than usual. There's a second adversary who could be one of several people, and we are left to wonder with trepidation as to which person this could be. This threat heightens after a plane crash occurs, with the team on board. With an unknown enemy - one of the plane's passengers - still to suss out, the risk to the team and the artefact in their care increases. In tandem with this danger is an increase in the excitement of the viewer: all to the good!
There are local guerilla soldiers involved. This again seems a more credible likelihood to any real-life relic hunting in a jungle in the back of south America, than the frequently effete 'bad buys' the team encounter in other episodes. And these baddies - unlike the set of 'thugs' we persistently see in 'R.H.' - aren't just playing at killing. Plus there is a tribe of dangerous head-hunting natives on the rampage. This means the team are being chased by not one but two sets of enemies, resulting in lots of unexpected thrills! All this adds to the complexity of the plot, giving the story a texturization and validity.
There are more peripheral characters than the usual one or so extra person that the team routinely meet in their adventures. And these roles are far less one-dimensional than the customary 'R.H.' characterization for minor parts: they have backstories, of well-intentioned people who are doing good deeds fighting, behind the scenes, to get the bad soldiers thrown out of power. This gives the story more of a human interest, and provides the episode with more pathos than we normally see in the programme.
Overall the storyline is more fleshed out. This serves to make the tale more credulous. It has more depth than most of the episodes watched so far in series 1 & 2. More sophistication, & less foreseeable events. The lack of a predictable plot makes the episode eminently watchable.
It is great to see, with this "Last of the Mochicas" episode, that the 'Relic Hunter' production team can break with tradition in such an engaging way. If the next series of this drama programme produce a few more offerings of this quality of episode, I will be delighted! This would upgrade 'Relic Hunter' from being merely a fondly recollected memento from my own! antiquity, into a viewable programme in its own right.
Don't get me wrong, I love this series, and appreciate it for the fun and lightweight drama that it is.
But this is one of the few episodes - in this, to be honest, flaky fare of a programme - that does not follow the formulaic plot line of events: prologue at US college / meets with a new task / goes abroad / Sydney meets an old flame / the team have lots of adventures treasure hunting / the team finally find the relic / the true enemy is suddenly revealed when they steal the relic from the team at the very moment the artefact is found / they get the treasure back / happy ever after epilogue back at US college.
I mean, it's an entertaining series, but it almost follows the rules given to authors of a new Mills & Boon novel re plot outline, i.e. don't change it from the same basic premise of every other M&B story! This episode, however, breaks the rules: it is completely different from the standard output - and well done to the producers/writers for daring to do so. The episode starts right in the middle of discovering the treasure, and from there on breaks all the usual precedents for the 'Relic Hunter' series. The end result is that the whole story is much more believable.
Normally there are few, if any, deaths in 'R.H.' - which seems a bit implausible considering the kick-ass nature of the team's relic retrieval work! And most deaths that do occur are caused by accident (e.g. a convenient fall), rather than by a calculated murder. Yes, in this episode Sydney's team members still don't cause any deaths themselves; but there are violent deaths caused by the bad guys. One of them quite nasty! And one of them very sad.
And there are many other changes to the norm, in the style of this episode. The result is that this particular story produces a winning tale that far outclasses other 'R.H.' episodes.
The main market for 'R.H.' has to have been quite young - as only those in their youth would tolerate the thinly plotted fare this series offers. I myself loved the programme when I was a teenager, for the escapist offering it was. And have thoroughly enjoyed rewatching it just for a bit of a filler. Yes, it's trifling, but it's a worthwhile bit of recreational TV viewing.
This episode, however, offered more than just a retrospective upon a programme I enjoyed when I was younger. Normally, watching this programme in 2015 is simply a pleasant diversion from real-life concerns, or just an excuse to reminisce upon my youth! For once, though, this episode was truly watchable and gripping in its own right.
It has a well-rounded story. The events in the storyline seem to reflect what might happen in real life in this sort of adventure, rather than just run out the typical 'R.H.' plot format. The old nemesis of Sydney's has a smaller role than usual. There's a second adversary who could be one of several people, and we are left to wonder with trepidation as to which person this could be. This threat heightens after a plane crash occurs, with the team on board. With an unknown enemy - one of the plane's passengers - still to suss out, the risk to the team and the artefact in their care increases. In tandem with this danger is an increase in the excitement of the viewer: all to the good!
There are local guerilla soldiers involved. This again seems a more credible likelihood to any real-life relic hunting in a jungle in the back of south America, than the frequently effete 'bad buys' the team encounter in other episodes. And these baddies - unlike the set of 'thugs' we persistently see in 'R.H.' - aren't just playing at killing. Plus there is a tribe of dangerous head-hunting natives on the rampage. This means the team are being chased by not one but two sets of enemies, resulting in lots of unexpected thrills! All this adds to the complexity of the plot, giving the story a texturization and validity.
There are more peripheral characters than the usual one or so extra person that the team routinely meet in their adventures. And these roles are far less one-dimensional than the customary 'R.H.' characterization for minor parts: they have backstories, of well-intentioned people who are doing good deeds fighting, behind the scenes, to get the bad soldiers thrown out of power. This gives the story more of a human interest, and provides the episode with more pathos than we normally see in the programme.
Overall the storyline is more fleshed out. This serves to make the tale more credulous. It has more depth than most of the episodes watched so far in series 1 & 2. More sophistication, & less foreseeable events. The lack of a predictable plot makes the episode eminently watchable.
It is great to see, with this "Last of the Mochicas" episode, that the 'Relic Hunter' production team can break with tradition in such an engaging way. If the next series of this drama programme produce a few more offerings of this quality of episode, I will be delighted! This would upgrade 'Relic Hunter' from being merely a fondly recollected memento from my own! antiquity, into a viewable programme in its own right.
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