Main cast: Michael Landes (Hooten), Ophelia Lovibond (Lady Alexandra Lindo-Parker), Jessica Hynes (Ella Bond), Shaun Parkes (Clive Stephenson), Jonathan Bailey (Edward), and Joanna Scanlan (Penny McQuinn)
Director: Justin Molotnikov
Oh no, naughty Hooten is in trouble again, as he owes Bolivian crime boss Alfonso a lot of money and he is one week behind in his payment.
As he’s about to bite a bullet, or maybe a dozen, it just happens that Alex calls to ask him to accompany her to Bhutan, to locate a scroll likely to be penned by Buddha himself, ooh. Of course he will play her muscle this time around, although their intention on getting the scroll is going to be very different indeed!
Accompanying them is Hidalgo, whom unbeknownst to Alex is Alfonso’s henchman sent by the man to make sure that things go as planned, collect the money once Hooten sells the scroll, and prevent Hooten from running away like the no-good scum that he is.
Once in Bhutan, Alex’s contact, Penny McQuinn, introduces them to Kapila, an old lady that has with her a parchment that pinpoints the location of the temple in which the scroll is kept. Kapila’s fiancé went to look for the temple ages ago and never came back, and now the old woman hopes that locating the scroll will bring some closure before she passes on.
This episode adds more clues as to some hidden hurt in Hooten’s heart—Kapila senses that he has lost someone, which explains why he is now all about getting drunk, laid, and messed up by goons—and hilariously enough shows the parchment to him because of this, when Penny had been doing her darned best to get the old woman to show it to her all this while. The old woman really likes her hot woobies, that’s for sure.
Even more hilariously, Kapila has poisoned Hooten’s tea. If he didn’t come back with the scroll like he has promised her, well… he has about one day to make sure that he never has to find out what will happen. See, old women can be cunning and evil!
Meanwhile, despite being engaged to a future star in that Bridgerton show, Alex finds herself torn between a cute but rather dull bloke and the adrenaline rush of hunting for relics and lost treasures. Is this relationship doomed?
This show continues to confound me. It has everything that I love: beautiful scenery, adventures in exotic locales that combine myth and history, treasure hunting, ooh. I like how the two main characters can get along without going goo-goo eyes at one another.
Hooten can be quite mean to Alex, but Alex gives back as good as she gets in her snotty posh ways, so these two in many ways feel like they are on equal grounds. As they both point out smugly to one another, each of them has skills that that the other needs. There is a nice chemistry between them that is fun to watch.
However, the adventure part continues to feel more like an afterthought. The search for the scroll is too quick and things get resolved too quickly. Maybe if each episode had the run time of 90 minutes, they would have been so much better.
As it is, this episode is okay, fun at places, but still feels somewhat underdeveloped through and through. A pity really, as I really am warming up to the two main characters!
