Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Time Bandits’ takes an 11-year-old history nerd named Kevin on a journey through time and space with a group of people who call themselves the Time Bandits. What begins as an adventure turns into a quest to save Kevin’s parents after they are turned into lumps of coal by a demon named Fianna. By Episode 8, ‘Home Again,’ Kevin and his sister, Saffron, succeed in making it to the time when their parents are still alive. The timing is a bit off, but the kids change things so drastically that the timeline is changed, and their parents are not lumps of coal anymore. They are, however, still in danger, and if Kevin and Saffron don’t choose their steps right, they might end up having their parents killed all over again.
Time Bandits Episode 9 and 10 Recap
After changing the past, Kevin and Saffron discover that their parents are alive but have been captured by Pure Evil instead. In return for their lives, Pure Evil asks for the map. Kevin and his friends don’t think that’s a good idea, but anyway, they have to make it to the Fortress of Darkness; for that, they need the missing part of the map. The last time that part was still intact was when Susan was alive. This leads the bandits to go back to the time when Susan died after being crushed by a massive boulder, or so they thought.
It turns out that Susan faked her death because she didn’t want to be with the bandits anymore. But she knew she couldn’t simply part ways with them either, so she made it seem she was dead. But that’s not the only reason behind her actions. It turns out that Susan now lives in a house with Gavin, Penelope’s fiancé, who left her without a word. It was to look for him and prove to him that she was worthy of his love that Penelope became a bandit. However, it turns out that Gavin never loved her. He loved Susan and wanted to be with her, but he also didn’t want to go through the painful process of breaking up with Penelope, mainly because he knew he couldn’t reason with her.
So, instead of telling her the truth, he disappeared and started a new life with Penelope. While the truth breaks her heart, the discovery of Susan and Gavin’s new home isn’t entirely fruitless. Not only do they find the missing piece of the map, but they are also led straight to the gates of the Fortress of Darkness, in which Pure Evil has their parents in his captivity.
What Does Kevin Give to Pure Evil?
Kevin and Saffron know that Pure Evil will not let their parents go without having the map. But they also know that they can’t give him the map. They also know that even if they do give him the map, there is no guarantee that he will let them and their parents go back home safe and sound. So, they need to come up with a plan where they can save the parents while also keeping the map. At first, Kevin, in his naïveté, says that he will ask Pure Evil politely to let his parents go, but Saffron has learned a few lessons by now, so she ensures everyone that she has a plan.
As promised, the bandits accompany them to the gates of the fortress while Kevin and Saffron go in by themselves. Later, however, Fianna shows up with the rest of the group, who, it turns out, had planned to follow the kids because they worried about them. Here, they learn an interesting fact. Pure Evil cannot take the map forcibly from them. It must be gifted to him, or he can never, no matter what he does, take it from Kevin. He tries to do it by making Kevin think that all that has happened so far was a dream and that his parents are really safe and sound. But Kevin sees through his facade, hiding the map inside his tiffin box, so Pure Evil finds himself unable to do anything about it.
Things get more complicated when the Supreme Being shows up and asks for the map. Both he and Pure Evil promise great things to Kevin and his friends, but it’s clear that none of them has any good plans for Earth. The Supreme Being wants to erase everything and start anew with Earth 2.0. Pure Evil, on the other hand, will keep everything the same, but he will make humanity even more miserable than before. It’s quite a dilemma for Kevin, but in the end, he hands over the tiffin box to Pure Evil, who is ecstatic about his victory.
As promised, Kevin’s parents are sent back home with their memories of the Fortress of Darkness erased. Kevin, Saffron, and the bandits are also allowed to leave, but it is only after they are at a safe distance that it is revealed that when the Supreme Being and Pure Evil are arguing, Kevin and Saffron exchange their tiffins. The one that Pure Evil got was Saffron’s, which didn’t have the map. This way, the siblings fooled Pure Evil to get exactly what they wanted. But they are shocked to discover that even after this, they don’t have the map anymore.
What Happens to the Map?
While Kevin and the bandits are off doing their own thing, something else is afoot in the background. When the bandits and Kevin escape the Supreme Being in Episode 1, two detectives are sent to the Earth by the Supreme Being to track them down. Detective Katherine and Sergeant Lewis are on the case, and with all the tracks left behind by the bandits, as well as Fianna, they are able to determine everything that happened at Kevin’s house, including Fianna chasing them.
While Katherine is initially focused on solving the case, Lewis is impressed by her abilities and finds her worthy of letting her in on a top-secret plan. He tells her why, when they find the map, they mustn’t give it back to the Supreme Being. He plans to erase everything and start all over again, which isn’t something that Lewis and several others who work for the Supreme Being want. After he is convinced that Katherine can be trusted, he introduces her to his friends, the cherub spice makers. Like Kevin and his band of thieves, the spice makers are also tired of the Supreme Being and his shenanigans. They also believe that he mustn’t get to enact his nefarious plan of erasing everything and starting all over again because he will just mess it up again, considering the type of person that he is. Moreover, the spice makers believe that they have a better use of the map, so they are the ones who should have it.
The problem with their plan is that the map is already stolen, but what works in their favor is that the people who stole it are not very sharp, and they don’t seem to have proper knowledge of the map. Considering the journey of the bandits that we have followed so far, it is clear that they barely know what they are doing. Widgit is the one who handles the map, but he rarely, if ever, gets them to the right spot. There are so many things that he didn’t know about the map, to begin with, like how the folds of the map work and how it is linked to the stars. The spice makers, however, claim that they know exactly what the map is capable of and that once they get their hands on it, everything will change.
Their exact plans are not revealed, but the spice makers prove that they are cleverer when they steal the map from right under the nose of Kevin and his bands. In the last scene, when Kevin opens his box to give the map to Widgit, they discover that the map has been replaced by a fake. While they panic about what really happened to the map, we see Katherine and the spice makers sneak away, presumably with the map. It is not clear when they stole the map because things were rather heated up until Kevin and his friends stopped to catch their breaths. But the spice makers already had a plan, so it makes sense that they knew exactly when to hit Kevin’s team and steal the map from them.
Read More: Is Time Bandits Show a Sequel to Time Bandits (1981)? How are They Connected?
