Marco Polo (TV Series)

The Fourth Step (2014)

Lorenzo Richelmy: Marco Polo

Quotes 

• Kublai Khan : It's the cocoon that gives the silk. Comes out like sweet milk, then hardens. Ugly worm turns into an ugly moth, but leaves such treasure behind. Then some child somewhere crushes the moth, but the silk is still mine. The worm, the silk, the child, all mine. You will be spared. Your father and uncle will be sentenced. Artful color will not alter their character.

  Marco Polo : What is their punishment?

  Kublai Khan : It is on this that I dwell.

• Empress Chabi : Do not let your father doubt you the better man.

  Marco Polo : I *am* the better man.

  Empress Chabi : The better man does not sit in the dark with his woman and his jealousies. The better man stands erect and strong and finds a way to tilt the scales in his favor.

• [last lines] 

  Kublai Khan : Amends must be made for your father's crime.

  Marco Polo : I understand.

  Kublai Khan : *You* will decide his fate.

  Marco Polo : My Lord?

  Kublai Khan : Left to my vice regent, Yusuf or myself, your father's punishment would be certain. His thief heart would now be still. I know the pain this will cause you. I know compassion. And you know our laws our customs. You will choose your father's punishment. And then you shall find sleep.

• [first lines] 

  Hundred Eyes : Stop struggling, fool. You were struck by a five-step snake. His venom moves swiftly. Most die before their fifth step.

  Marco Polo : Where is my sword?

  Hundred Eyes : Taken away. Punishment for breaking curfew.

  Marco Polo : I need to go, Sifu. Now.

  [struggling to get up] 

  Hundred Eyes : How do you revenge a snake? You would be a fool to think only one serpent lays in wait. There is always a deadlier strike to come. One should walk away.

• Za Bing : [urinating and groaning]  Have you ever sampled the third sex, Latin?

  Marco Polo : [quickly turns and leaves] 

• Kublai Khan : I grew hearing tales of the Great Genghis. I knew him only as a small boy, but the man my eyes saw was not big enough. Genghis of my mind he was a giant.

  Marco Polo : Our imaginations outrun us, Sire.