Recap: Alibaba tells Aladdin that he can not keep his promise to go off adventuring with Aladdin. Aladdin is devastated by this, but Morgiana won’t take no answer as a an answer, and kidnaps Alibaba to give him some time alone to talk with Aladdin.

Alibaba shares his tale of growing up in the slums and finding out that he is really a prince. When Alibaba is adopted into the royal family he is separated from the friends he grew up, and raised in isolation. One night Alibaba sneaks out through some tunnels and by chance meets up with an old friend. The old friend uses the tunnels Alibaba had snuck out with to break into the palace and ransack the place.

This is some off model excellence right here.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: This episode moves fast, I was worried that Alibaba would be all angsty for the rest of this arc, but Morgiana solved that issue pretty quickly. Morgiana who was originally the character I was most worried about dragging this show down has proven one of the strongest with her nonsense approach. That kidnapping scene easily made this episode considerably more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise.

It was neat to finally have Alibaba’s back-story explained, but they still haven’t really told us why Alibaba is working with the thieves. We know that he considers two of them to be like family even though they betrayed him, and maybe that is motivation enough; however, it feels a bit shallow to me. All of that said this story remains a lot of fun to experience even at it’s more predictable moments.

Your bullshit, she is having none of it.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: Another fine episode from Magi, although this one is a little disjointed due to its weird structure. Let’s talk about the first segment to begin with. After last week’s cliffhanger ending we get some brief  clarification that it is indeed Alibaba we’re talking to, and not some clone, alien, cyborg etc. It’s amazing how some subtle tweaks can totally change the look of a character – Alibaba here is way darker, moodier and more serious than we’ve seen him before. I was worried for a second that the show might descend into grimness for the remainder of the episode, but that fear was assuaged when we had the return of the epic face fault upon his kidnapping by Morgiana. I’ve got to give the showrunners another huge shutout for continuing to make Mor a stone-cold badass – she infiltrates the thieves lair, kidnaps Alibaba and takes him to Aladdin and gets some nice angry moments all without ever falling prey to anime girl syndrome. Fantastic.

The real meaty stuff in this episode though is a flashback to Alibaba’s past, explaining some of the mysterious facets of his character. I must admit, I’m a little disappointed they chose to expodump it all in one go here, as i felt it would have been better to tease out the details over the course of the season. A big flashback like this also brings the pace down considerably, with lots of VO and narration, and that’s not great either. But the quality of the material does much to counter those criticisms.  As it has before, Magi takes a bunch of classic, time worn tropes and then puts just enough spin on them to revitalise them, without entirely abandoning the reasons they’re the solid building blocks of story construction. Alibaba’s mum was a prostitute…but she was really kind and nice! Kassim’s dad was a drunken child beater…but he disappears after less than two minutes!  There’s nothing breathtakingly original here, but at the same time there’s enough verve in the retelling to make it interesting and engaging. The only bit I feel is maybe a little much is how Alibaba is both a prince and a pauper. It smacks a little of trying to have your cake and eat it as regards his characterisation, but it’s not so bad I’m not willing to overlook it.

Who doesn’t have a childhood friend that just so happens to be a crazy arsonist?

Magi also remains a thoroughly good looking show, despite its fast and loose approach to such things as ‘staying on model’.  There’s beautiful detail in the shots of the dusty slums or the city at night, and I love the wonderful artistic touch of blacking the King’s face until his final moments. It’s a perfect example of how to integrate visuals with your storytelling – we think the king is a shadowy figure because he takes Alibaba away, but his admittance of love humanises the character and so the art finally depicts him as a person. The show also knows when to be still for a second, such as the quiet, held shots of Aladdin near the beginning.

Despite everything that was revealed to us this episode, we did not actually learn the reason why Alibaba joined the thieves, which remains to be uncovered next week in what will by the sounds of it be an episode of high drama. Can’t wait.