Time Bandits – Episode 6 “Mansa Musa” Recap & Review

Mansa Musa

Episode 6 of Time Bandits picks up with the Bandits flying through the void. They’re eventually spat out in the middle of the desert. Judy isn’t with them though but they’re convinced she’ll join them later on. Kevin does leave an arrow to show the general direction they’ve travelled though.

The actual place is Northern Africa in 1324CE. They find a settlement just over the hill and it turns out this is the Mansa Musa, the Malian Empire who live under the rule of the King of Mali. Apparently the King is the richest person in history, and Penelope sees the opportunity to carry out the most epic heist of all time.

Penelope comes up with a big plan, involving Kevin spewing out historical exposition and Penelope swooping in to steal all the gold for themselves while boring the King to sleep. The plan goes awry immediately when Bittelig is spotted by the King and given a task to help him out.

When he leaves his spot, Penelope bungles her spinning and she’s immediately captured. As for Widgit, he ends up right out in the desert, lost, after trying to find the portal. The others though are given a strange change in fortune when Mansa Musa decides to offer up some riches to Kevin and the others, believing them to be beggars rather than bandits.

On the way out, Mansu introduces his amateur historian partner, Balla Kouyate. Kevin perks up upon hearing this but hearing he’s from England, the Mansu is pretty disgusted. However, Kevin hurriedly agrees to go to Cairo and meet the Sultan. After some overlong jokes surrounding Kevin’s name, he’s revered by the group while Penelope doubts her own credentials as a thief.

Widgit ends up sleeping under the stars and has an epiphany, realizing he can use the stars to find his way home. At the same time, Alto offers up some advice to Farba, who’s in the midst of making a bath for his beloved. Unfortunately, his advice includes confessing his love, which could throw everything into turmoil. He tells Inari that he’s in love with her but she shoots him down completely.

The caravan make it to Khan E-khalif but Penelope is down in the dumps and not sure what to do next. Kevin is very much in the in-crowd with Mansa Manu as they head off to see the sultan together. On the way, Bittelig intercepts and brings Kevin aside. However, unbeknownst to all of them, Widgit is on his way back and Fianna follows the arrow (which Kevin doodled in the sand earlier in the episode) across to Cairo as well.

Mansa Musa and the others approach the Sultan but there’s hostility between the two sides as they argue over who should kneel first. The jokes drag on (a consistent theme in this series now) as they argue over titles and whose holds greater weight. Eventually the pair agree to kneel together.

While Musa and Kevin talk, the latter decides to stage a coup to let Penelope get her mojo back. Specifically, allowing her to enact a heist so she can become enthused with her life again. Widgit shows up right in the middle of this, and as the gang return to Musa’s tent, Penelope has a change of heart. They decide not to take Musa’s staff after all, given Penelope and Alto actually took rubies from the sultan.

Unfortunately they put them in the bottomless bag so they don’t actually have them now as they fell out earlier on. When the gang head out to the next portal, Kevin gets stuck behind when he reads the history books and realizes that time has been changed to accommodate them arriving in this time period. Suddenly, the ground opens up and swallows Kevin all the same. Where could he be?

As the episode closes out, we cut across to Supreme Being who tries praying to himself for getting the map back. It doesn’t work, naturally, but it turns out he has Judy at HQ. And presumably, he’s going to make her talk.

The Episode Review

A longer episode than the previous one; Time Bandits’ latest slice of comedy does okay to establish some character arcs but it’s undermined by the jokes not working and being dragged on for far longer than they should. There are two in particular – the one with the Sultan and Mansu Masa, and the chat at the end with the Supreme Being – that just go on for too long and do nothing to keep things ticking over at a decent pace.

By now, it’s clear that this is very much a love/hate series and if you’re not sold on what’s being shown, it’s unlikely you’ll be swayed going forward either. What a shame.