Recap: With the future of Balbadd on the line, Alibaba faces Kassim one last time

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts:  After last week’s lacklustre episode I was worried the conclusion of the Balbadd arc might be slipping out of Magi‘s grasp. In retrospect, I should have had more faith, as this is a wonderful ending to that story, brimming with pathos, action and style, while also laying some super intriguing groundwork for what’s to come.

After a few weeks of action heavy episodes, it’s a wise choice to make the ultimate confrontation between Alibaba and Kassim an emotional confrontation rather than a physical one. Their showdown is really nicely scripted, with some dialogue choices that stay just the right side of cheesy while still delivering a satisfying emotional wallop. While Kassim’s inferiority complex isn’t exactly the most original villain motivation in the world, the amount of time we’ve had to get to know him and explore his relationship with Alibaba gives us a lot more to work with, and it’s enlightening to look back at their previous interactions in light of knowing how Kassim really  felt about the whole thing.

We also get a nice sting in the tail, in the form of learning what actually happened to Kassim’ father. As ever with Magi, there’s a viciously dark undertone here – he was going to force Kassim’s sister into protitution to pay for his drinking habit. In this case though, it serves to make Kassim’s violent lashing out much more believable, since it’s been previously established how fiercely he felt about her. And his subsequent guilt and feelings of corruption over the murder do much to make his actions that much more believable, as he clearly felt like he was ‘damaged goods’ thereafter, which also explains his gradual drift into a life of crime.  It’s not the deepest or most nuanced backstory ever, but as ever Magi takes the time and effort to flesh out its characters much more than you’d expect, and the result is Kassim leaves the show a pleasingly three dimensional villain, though a villain nonetheless.  I think ultimately it’s for the best he dies – it’s an appropriate end to his arc, and allows him a measure of redemption without the need to keep him in the story.

With so much of the show concentrating on Alibaba and Kassim, Aladdin takes something of a backseat, though we do see a bit more of his new power. He confirms that it hasn’t really made him that much stronger magically, but he’s much more assured and knowledgeable now. It seems the Wisdom of Solomon might actually have been *gasp* wisdom!  We still don’t actually get an explanation of what it is or what exactly happened, so I’m hoping we do get some clarification a little further down the line.  As it is, Aladdin’s able to bring back visions of everyone’s dead loved ones, in a scene which comes dangerously close to being corny but instead manages to be rather touching. I think its the fact it’s so brief, and that nobody talks, which actually makes it more powerful.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about this episode though is the glimpse it gives us into the future of the show. We finally get to see a fully Djinn-armoured Sinbad unleashed on the Masked Man, but that’s almost a side note. The Masked Man surviving decaptitation is also an excellent ghoulish touch, but really the real revelation here is that there’s not one Banker, but many. And dancers. And priests. And who knows what else? What one earth are they? An evil cabal, some sort of supernatural council, or something beyond even that? It’s a ridiculously awesome concept to leave you hanging on, and I personally can’t wait to start having this mystery unraveled.

At the end of a long, complex arc, Magi has emerged triumphant.  Though there have been ups and downs throughout the time we’ve spent in Balbadd, the picture that has emerged is of a show supremely confident in its storytelling, balancing action, politics, emotion and character development expertly, never rushing but never letting the pace flag either. With Alibaba relieved of the burden of his past, Aladdin powered up and wiser, and Morgiana just being Morgiana, the sky’s the limit for our heroes.  I’ll be right there in the front row.

Random Observations

• After the shitshow that was the last episode, this one rather predictably returns to being beautifully animated.  There’s also a ton of lovely flourishes, like the way the stripes Kassim paints on his face turn into tiny rukh.
• The Masked Man mentions that Aladdin is the fourth Magi who has obtained the wisdom of Solomon. The line seems to be deliberately vague – Are there four Magi who each posses the Wisdom of Solomon, or are there four Magi and only Aladdin posses the Wisdom of Solomon? (Iro’s Note: the latter) And assuming Judal (who is decidedly Solomon-free) is one of the other Magi, who are the other two?
• What does the spirit of Mariam whisper to Alibaba?