After waiting a good long while for the second season of the Netflix original show Marco Polo, I couldn't have been more disappointed by the result. I enjoyed the previous, inaugural season, which was mostly understated and concentrated on set pieces and character development. Kublai Khan was interestingly drawn and young Marco seemed a well formed vehicle for exploring the period. Was everything historically accurate? Well, no, but it was rarely off course in a way that made much difference and mostly the tweaks seemed aimed at accentuating the narrative course, which you expect in any vehicle, the way Vidal did with his efforts.
The first season dealt with Khan uniting China by unhorsing the empire beyond the Great Wall. There was a driven villain there we could both understand and root against, a chancellor for a three year old monarch, a seemingly sweet child. The season ended with Polo and a complicated ally hunting the little prince for Khan, to avoid his use by someone as a means to upend what Kublai had managed to accomplish.
This season debuted the other night. I was excited at the prospect of another solid season, one that had taken over a year to arrive...and this happens. (Spoiler) Polo finds the boy and they take him back to Khan, where the Khan's first wife argues he should be hidden and left to be forgotten, while Kublai's heir believes the child should be kept close and useful...another son, a bastard, who secretly plots against his father while smiling at his face, suggested the thing to do would be to kill the child and the hope of the conquered people. Historically, there was no boy king and the young man who was displaced ended up a monk for most of his life. There's some recounting that a later Khan forced the monk to kill himself, but it's murky.
In any event, here's the scene: Khan sits in the darkness of his throne room where the boy is delivered. When they are alone he stands and withdraws a dagger, tells the three year old that he has been sentenced to death. The boy begins to cry. Khan commands him to stop, shows the boy that he has put the dagger aside. The boy regains composure and asks if he (Khan) had killed anyone at the boy's age. The Khan says that he had not, but that he saw men die. The boy asks if any of the men cried. Khan says that some did. The boy asks if he (the boy) is evil and is that why Khan has decided that he must die. Khan is speechless.
Then the three year old cries out, "I don't want to! I don't want to!" and rushes to the throne where he clings to the Mongol leader's chest. At first, Khan does nothing. Then he holds the boy, who is sobbing, against his breast. After a moment the boy's sobs quiet and then, when you're thinking, "Thank God" the boy begins a muffled cry and kicks and grasps. We see his hands on Khan's shoulders and hear his feet kicking the floor.
Eventually it stops. The great Khan has smothered the crying, begging child to death. Marco Polo has entered the throne room to witness the end of this. The Khan looks at Marco. The scene ends.
Things pick up a few days later. Polo is drunk and sorrowful. The Khan is troubled in his sleep. I...don't...care. Anything short of Polo rushing the monarch to kill him or immediately searching out Khan's rivals makes him useless. And nothing the Khan can do will redeem that passage. It was worse than a betrayal of history, a grubbing, obvious attempt to follow Thrones into its morally bleak landscape, it was a violation of the trust and interest they'd invested in both leads.
Despicable them...I'm done with it.
