Summary
Kaos revisits some prior events from a new perspective, introducing some very familiar names in the meanwhile. It’s a more focused chapter but retains the same brutality.
Despite continuing to introduce more and more characters and plot elements, Episode 3 is easily the most focused outing of Kaos thus far. It’s largely contained to a single perspective, that of the third and final human with a part to play in Zeus’s downfall, and it tells a very decent contained story of moral compromise while also fleshing out the margins of the overarching story.
Remember, Episode 2 ended with Orpheus and Dionysus being granted passage to the Underworld, so we’re okay to leave them to it for now. But Episode 3 does flash back as far as the premiere to better contextualize some of the events we’ve already seen, so it’s worth keeping it all in mind.
Anyway, one brief aside…
The Furies
The opening of Kaos Episode 3 introduces us to the Furies — Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera, though here referred to as Tisi, Alecto, and Meg. This show’s a fan of catchy nicknames.
The Furies are big on vengeance and justice, especially where they feel it has been denied in the first instance. They’re introduced chasing some dude into a gas station bathroom where he eventually offs himself. The important things to note here are the motive of the Furies and the fact that only the person they’re chasing down can see them.
This will matter later. Anyway, let’s talk about Ariadne.
The Trojan Seven
Ari is the daughter of President Minos, who we’ve glimpsed before back on Olympia Day. Whereas we previously saw that day from Riddy’s perspective, we now see it from Ari’s. And she’s… complicated.
Ari’s big personal trauma is that she accidentally killed her twin brother Glaucus when they were babies by rolling on top of him and suffocating him in her sleep. Their mother has never recovered from this and has life-sized models of him commissioned by Daedalus, the craftsman of labyrinth fame.
Theseus, also of labyrinth fame, is Ari’s bodyguard but is secretly a traitor who allowed the saboteurs into the grounds to defile the monument to Zeus and is intimately connected to the Trojan Seven, who’re blamed for the act. Minos tells Troy’s former Queen Hecuba and her daughter-in-law Andromache that six of the conspirators have already been captured and consigned to the Labyrinth but that if the seventh surrenders, they will be released.
Poseidon
Cliff Curtis as Poseidon in Kaos | Image via Netflix
One of the few times we check in with the Olympian Gods in this episode introduces us to Poseidon, Zeus’s brother and God of the Sea. He also has a screw loose and likes to do puzzles with women drowning in his peripheral vision, but even he thinks Zeus is losing it when he demands that Poseidon make the humans suffer.
Poseidon and Hera both know that the prophecy is sending Zeus mad and that debacles like the statue are only worsening the spiral. She thinks that indulging his whims until he calms down is the most viable solution, and since Gods clearly don’t care about humanity very much, he’s willing to play along, so presents himself to Minos dressed as a tacita and leans on him to make an example of the Trojans.
But note the connection between Poseidon and Hera and the continuing spiral of Zeus. We’ll return to these things later.
A Bad Date
Ari has a thing for Theseus, which he indulges by taking her out to the Munis, a gladiatorial combat arena where we see Crixus – the undefeated Gaul from Spartacus, presumably – and Hippolyta – Queen of the Amazons and the woman who killed Caeneus in Episode 2 – fight to both of their deaths. But this day out is haunted by the Furies, whom Ari can see.
Ari assumes that the Furies are pursuing her because she has never been punished for her brother’s death, but Theseus counters that she has been punishing herself for her entire life. Sensing that she is perhaps looking for a means of atonement, Theseus offers her the chance to save a life… and takes her to Troytown.
As it turns out, Theseus is in a relationship with the missing seventh Trojan, who also turns out to be Andromache’s presumed-dead son, Astyanax, otherwise known as Nax. He’s willing to turn himself in to spare the other six Trojans, and despite Ari being furious about the deception, she’s willing to help him by asking her father to pardon him as a birthday gift.
Fear Trumps Love
Initially, Minos is inclined to do as Ari asks, especially when she explains that she wants to atone for Glaucus’s death by saving the Trojans. But his love for his daughter doesn’t outweigh the fear he has of the Gods. After Poseidon presents himself to Minos again as a reminder of his duty, Minos presses the big red button that releases the Minotaur. The next day, all seven Trojans, who failed to heed the warnings of Cassandra when they were released, are dead, hanging from the monument.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for Ari, after confronting her father – “It’s the will of the Gods,” is the only explanation he can muster – the Furies appear to her once again and say they want to talk about her brother.
RELATED:
