Original Air Date: May 3, 1995
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear whatever you are calling yourself this millenium...
Happy Birthday to you!
All of Chinatown turns out to celebrate his 1,527th birthday, but -- still sensitive about a nasty insult delivered by Pita many years ago -- the Ancient is reluctant to show his reptilian hands in public. Meanwhile, the Brujo (Anthony DeLongis), an evil sorcerer who blew through the Tempw 20 years earlier, comes to Fu City. Having chosen one person from the Tempw -- Pita -- to be used for later, he wants the now-grown Caine to assassinate the newly-elected President of "Costa Brava," who has come to Fu City to ratify a treaty between his country and the United States. (Perhaps Fu City is really Washington, D.C.! Has anyone ever guessed that?)
It's about time! Here we are, part-way into the third season, and Caine suddenly thinks he has noticed a faint similarity between The Ancient and Old Ping Hai.
What did he say?: After arm-wrestling the Ancient into submission, Caine shoves the frail old man in the direction of the party and whispers, "Courage!" into his ear. But, you know, his lips sure don't seem to be saying that! According to the closed-captioning he is saying, "Go ahead!" Now, I see two possibilities here: either they changed the dialog on purpose because they thought it just too rude for Caine to talk that way to the Ancient...OR, they needed to dub in the words because crowd noises had obscured the line, but they FORGOT what he was supposed to be saying by the time they got around to doing the dubbing! Heh.
See the ep, read the story: Although there is a rumor going around that the Ancient went on eBay to sell those CDs Pita gave him, if you want to know what really happened, please visit Basement Fiction right here in OPHB and read the short-short story, "Birthday Surprise."