The Checklist: Relic Hunter (S3 Ep10) “All Choked Up”
In honor of International Women’s Day, I thought I would go back and watch another episode of Relic Hunter, starring a true woman of action, Tia Carrere.
This time around I randomly selected an episode from the third and final season of Relic Hunter and landed on Episode 10, titled “All Choked Up”, that originally aired on November 19, 2001.
#1. Did the show open with a flashback?
“All Choked Up” begins in Greece in the year 800 B.C.
King Minalysius wants to create a statue of Athena, The Goddess of War, and he wants Princess Narina to pose for him. The Princess wants nothing to do with the King and she certainly doesn’t want to piss off Zeus. But that’s when King Minalysius places a necklace around Narina’s neck, recites an incantation and just like that she is putty in his hands.
Fast forward to the present day where our globetrotting hero, Sydney Fox (Tia Carrere, Showdown in Little Tokyo) is being chased by some masked men… they eventually catch up to her and subdue her, courtesy of a stun gun… then their boss, Carson Inez steps out of her limo and places the necklace that King Minalysius used way back when around Sydney’s neck. This can’t be good… 1/1
#2. Were there any notable guest stars?
Carson Inez was played by Claudia Christian of Arena and Substitute 3: Winner Takes All fame. Carson is a private collector with designs on ruling the world. Carson has made it her life’s work to recover all of King Minalysius’ artifacts, but the one artifact that has eluded her is the Athena statue. And Carson doesn’t just want the statue, she wants to resurrect The Goddess of War using the necklace, thus allowing Carson to rule the world! Carson believes that Sydney will be able to help her recover the statue, thus why Carson targeted her.
The next morning after Sydney’s abduction, Sydney and Carson are at Sydney’s office where Sydney is downloading all of her information on Ancient Greece and also filing her leave of absence paperwork… something that catches here sidekick Nigel and assistant Karen off guard. When Nigel asks when they are leaving for Greece, he is told he will not be needed for this adventure. 2/2
#3. Does Nigel end up helping Sydney anyway?
Fans of Relic Hunter know that Sydney and Nigel are an archeological dream team, so there’s no way they are completely going to split them up for this episode, right?!?
Sydney never worked for private collector’s before… so that combined with her behavior was enough for Nigel to know something was rotten about Carson Inez (personally, Sydney wearing an extravagant necklace at the office would have tipped me off). With some help from computer wiz Karen, Nigel finds out what Sydney and Carson were looking at when they came in and that’s when they find a diagram of the necklace and learns of its powers… it’s not long after that that Nigel is on his way to Greece to help his friend Sydney.
And it’s a good thing he did make it to Greece and that Carson’s security didn’t immediately eliminate him, since his translation skills end up coming in handy 3/3
#4. Was there a Tia Carrere vs. Claudia Christian fight?
With two strong female characters, one good and one evil, it seemed like a fight between Sydney Fox and Carson Inez was inevitable. We do get a brief altercation between the two once Nigel helps Sydney break the spell of the necklace… but it was not a full blown fight, so only partial credit here. 3.5/4
#5. Did the show end on a light hearted note?
After Sydney and Nigel flip the script on Carson, using the necklaces powers against her. They make it back home (and the necklace ultimately makes it into a museum where it belongs) and Nigel and Karen have a little fun at Sydney’s expense and manage to get Karen a much needed raise in the process. 4.5/5
- Final Score = 4.5/5 (90%) If I had one complaint about “All Choked Up” it would be that it featured a little less action than any of my previous Relic Hunter experiences… but it made sense storyline wise since a good chunk of the episode has Sydney under the mind control of Carson Inez… Speaking of Carson, Claudia Christian made for a quality villain/guest star and Nigel had to be up for a “Friend of the Year” award after going all the way to Greece to help Sydney, who was basically in the danger zone because she is so damn good at her job.
