Robin Hood: Go Back To Them

We are now halfway through the season, and what to make of it so far? I’ve found myself comparing it to the BBC’s Robin Hood a lot, mostly because that show looms so large in my imagination, but it strikes me that the biggest difference between long-form storytelling and a series of standalone episodes is how it effects the overall quality of any given project.

When you’re watching episodes that each have a beginning, middle and end (even if they plug into an overarching storyline) then it doesn’t really matter if there are a couple of duds. You know there are going to be ups and downs, and a solid episode usually makes up for a few weaker ones.

But in long-form storytelling, it’s either all good or all bad (or all average) since it’s all part and parcel of a single story. There’s no room for comparison, as the run-on effect makes it difficult to discern one episode from another.

That’s probably the most crucial structural difference between this show and the BBC’s version (and Robin of Sherwood, and The Adventures of Robin Hood, and any other show based on these legends), making it impossible to tell if it’ll be worth our while until it’s over. Right now it’s levelling out at “it’s fine, I guess.”

Though in saying that, I felt this episode was the strongest one so far. The first two-thirds were a bit slow and clumsy, but it all came together for our first big action sequence in which Robin Hood declares himself to the people.

It kickstarts with Priscilla having another weird dream, and I honestly don’t know what to make of this character at this point. They’re either setting her up to be the show’s true antagonist à la Isabella in the BBC version, or she’ll be an eventual ally somewhere down the road, hopefully due to her friendship with Marian. By the end of the episode, her manservant Milange has fallen in with the outlaws, which sets up a potential line of communication between her and Robin.

She goes to visit the Bishop holed up in his room, which leads to one of several clunkers in this episode (he asks: “how did you get in here?” Er, I’m guessing – through the door?) He’s almost acting like he’s got PTSD (well, I suppose an entire contingent of soldiers did get shot dead in front of him) and she takes a few seconds to zone out and make portentous remarks about her dream while staring into the fireplace. Er, girl? Maybe don’t do this in front of a churchman?

But again – if she’s ever going to ally with Robin, I can see a scenario in which she’s accused of witchcraft and Robin tries to save her at Marian’s behest. But it also begs the question (as the Bishop raises) as to where these visions of Priscilla’s are coming from. Because it would appear that they want her to be afraid of the threat Robin poses. And Godda too, as the naked fairy also had a brief appearance in the dream.

Downstairs, we get yet more characters as the Earls of Leicester and Warrick arrive for a conference with the Sheriff and Huntington about what to do with this outlaw problem. Let’s put a pin in this for now…

The Sheriff’s men are also after Milange, who is described as Priscilla’s valet. Erm, did women have valets? I thought that was a male thing; a woman would have a lady’s maid. Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Priscilla goes to see him hiding out in a room overlooking the town square (this will be important later) and gives him a pouch of money to get-gone. She’s actually a little cold with him, despite how devastated he looks, and I’m again left wondering what their story is. They should have spent more time on this guy, not Lefors.

***

The outlaws are currently in the process of splitting up, since Robin has just been hit with the full sense of responsibility that leadership brings. He just had to kill about a dozen men to save the others, and understandably doesn’t want any more blood on his hands. But ooh, there’s an eerie wind that disagrees with him…

Spragat is pretty cheerful despite the recent death of his presumed wife, so takes his share of the money (the rest is buried) and leaves. The Miller brothers decide to head home (Ralph is clearly angry that Robin is sending her away) and Little John seems reluctant to depart as well. Tuck says that for the time they spent together, they “felt like a family.” Buh?? You felt like a family when you banded together to steal tax money in a plan that went horribly, horribly wrong?

In any case, he tells everyone that if anything goes wrong or anyone changes their minds, they should “meet where the money is buried.” But… how? Just sit there in front of the tree and hope other people turn up? Of course, this is exactly what happens, because thanks to the miracle of television, everyone has the ability to catch up with each other instantly, no matter how far they travel in the interim.

Heck, it takes forever for the Sheriff to muster his men and ride out to the forest, and yet Robin manages to be right there when they reach the river crossing where the attack took place. This sequence also gives us another terrible line, when one of the Sheriff’s men tells him: “They’re using the forest, those bastards.” Sigh.

Still, the BBC would have never been able to afford these shots.

So, to briefly recap what the outlaws get up to: Robin heads for the cave where his father found the flint he’s currently wearing around his neck, and bonds with a dying wolf. Tom Mison appears for a brief pep-talk on Robin’s destiny. The Miller brothers reach their home and mother, only for the husband of the bride that appeared in the second episode (her name is Isabel) to inform on them. Spragat goes to spent his ill-gotten gains in the nearest tavern, and is rescued by a tailing Little John when the Sheriff’s men identify him by the coin he uses to pay for drinks.

Finally, Tuck falls in with a family that’s travelling through the forest in the wagon, though his prayers that night lead him to return the next day to the oak tree, where – surprise! – everyone else has also gathered. Everyone except the three Miller boys, whose fate is discovered when Robin investigates their village, since he was able to spot the smoke from the burnt fields from outside the semi-mystical cave he was sleeping in. (Honestly, writers have absolutely no idea how big forests actually are, do they?)

They all decide to go to the rescue, but I’ll leave them for now…

***

Marian doesn’t get much to do this episode, and the scene in which she’s informed of her younger brother’s death is just awful. She’s called in, a man announces the news, and a sympathetic Eleanor tells her to take the rest of the day off. Was this really the best way to stage such an emotional moment? Why not take the time to really let us feel her grief and shock? She doesn’t even have that many follow-up questions, though she does ascertain that outlaws were responsible, which no doubt will cause some trouble between herself and Robin later.  

Eleanor also hears of soldiers being mustered in Nottingham, and in a misconception that I quite like, grows suspicious that the Sheriff might be up to something. After all, you don’t gather that many men just to hunt down a few outlaws, right? In this case, you do, but she’s alarmed enough that she sends that Earl character (can’t recall his name) to ride to Nottingham and provide her with a firsthand account of what’s happening there.

We also get another bad line, when she says of the king: “the longer he lives, the more precarious my position becomes.” Er, why? Your power is directly tied to the fact that you’re his wife. That’s how queenship works. Maybe she just feels she’s be better off as a dowager queen, but this sort of thing is why modern girl power talk in stories like these seldom works, because guess what: Eleanor is only ever powerful because she’s the daughter, wife or mother to a man. The agent she’s sending out to assess the Nottingham situation? A man. At any point they can and probably will throw in their lot with other men, because that’s considered the “natural order” of things.

I should probably withhold judgment for now, but between the passive Marian, the oversexualized Priscilla, the forthcoming love triangle with Ralph, and Queen Eleanor’s surface-level girlbossing, the gender politicking of the show isn’t particularly inspiring.

Our last scene in London involves Will explaining the geopolitical layout of England to Marian, during which she finally twigs to the fact that Eleanor is grooming her as a potential spy in Nottingham. It’s probably something she should have worked out on her own (or known already, given that she lives in England) but I suppose it’s more for our benefit than hers.

***

It all comes together in the final act, which was a pretty good set-piece all things considered, involving most of the established cast. The Miller brothers are tortured in the Nottingham Castle dungeons, and the Sheriff is finally putting the pieces together when it comes to this spate of killings and the hooded figure known as “Robin Hood.” Priscilla leads the Bishop into the room to try and identify the culprits, though he asserts that the “devil” isn’t there.

The Miller brothers are marched out to be hanged in front of the crowd (on the very gallows that Hugh died), but Tuck has come up with a plan to rescue them. As the Sheriff, the Bishop and Priscilla take their places on the balcony, the outlaws enter the square disguised as monks. Tuck and Spragat ascend the gallows to perform last rites on the condemned men, while Little John heads into the overlooking tavern to start a fire – and what room does he enter but the one where Milange is hiding out?

Robin secures horses and a wagon, and directs Isabel (through the magic of ADR – it’s so hilariously obvious!) to drive it straight through town – presumably at an appointed time, but that’s not specified.  

Little John lights the fire and Milange follows him out of the building. Ralph is near tears, but then notices Tuck beside her. Robin climbs onto the rooftops and – well, we’re off! People are screaming, the Sheriff is yelling “seize him!” (standard bad guy order), the Millers are escaping, the crowd notices the burning building…

Honestly? I dug it. When teams come together for the first time, when outlaws stick it to the man, when there’s Shooting the Rope and Roof Hopping and great escapes on horseback? I mean, who doesn’t love this stuff?

It's the heroic money shot!

Little John makes for the gatehouse to keep the portcullis open, and Milange ends up saving him when the soldiers attack. The outlaws jump onto the speeding wagon driven by Isabel, and they gallop towards freedom. Robin tries to take a kill-shot at the Sheriff, but is distracted by a stray arrow and ends up shooting Priscilla in the arm instead. He leaps down onto the cart and Ralph kisses him. Oh, and Eleanor’s agent was witness to all of this, and was quite entertained by the spectacle.

So our heroes escape without a single casualty, the Sheriff is super-pissed (especially since he somehow knows Eleanor had a spy in the city) and Priscilla is feeling pretty under the weather. The episode actually ends with her holding the arrow that shot her, looking mildly terrified as she connects it with the figure in her dreams and the Bishop’s “devil.”

For my money, that was a pretty strong midseason ending. The stakes are established, the outlaws are a team, the Sheriff knows who they are, and (hopefully) we can now get into the real meat of the story.

Miscellaneous Observations:

The roles of our main outlaw cast now seem to be established: Robin as a reluctant leader who realizes the true cost of rebellion but is going to do it anyway, Tuck as the spiritual advisor who comes up with the plans, Little John as the muscle, and the Miller brothers as those with connections among the peasantry. (And of course, Ralph as the third point of a love triangle, because God forbid we do without one of those).

I’m still not sure about Spragat, as he’s obviously not named after any of the traditional Robin Hood characters, and hasn’t really done anything useful so far. There’s still a chance he could end up as the Royston (that is, the original character from the BBC’s Robin Hood who dies in order to demonstrate how dangerous the situation is, and never gets mentioned again).

I’m not sure about Will either. In any other setup I would peg him as the rich friend who provides supplies to the gang – but he’s not really rich, is he? Marian will also obviously end up being a spy (though for Robin or for Eleanor – who can say?)

The first thing we see Tuck do this episode is apply his healing skills to Henry’s wound, which feels like a deliberate contrast to the fighting he demonstrated in the previous episode. In fact, Jadelotusflower had some interesting thoughts in her review about the differences in Robin and Tuck’s religious outlooks and what they require of them.

I didn’t mind Will’s exposition about how England’s geopolitical layout, since if he’s talking about it, then it means the writers have thought about it. There’s a clear setup here: Eleanor needs a spy in Nottingham, the centre of England, because the Sheriff is a cousin to the King. That at least gives us a sense of grounded-ness to the world-building, and a big-picture look at what’s going on here.

At the start of Priscilla’s dream, I found myself thinking of Robin Hood: “he looks just like Green Arrow,” but of course, it’s the other way around.

Are those stones Robin found in the cave going to be important? There seemed to be a particular emphasis on them. 

Infuriatingly, characters kept saying that people were going to be “hung.” It’s HANGED. A picture is HUNG on the wall, but people are HANGED by the neck. HANGED, HANGED, HANGED!

So why did Isabel help out? One can only presume out of a sense of obligation and guilt after her husband turned in the Millers brother, but then all this mess began because Henry felt the pressing need to expose himself to her. And I noticed that he clocks her presence when they all leap into the wagon:

We also learn Ralph’s real name, and it’s Rosemary. Out of interest, I looked up Erica Ford on IMDB, and was stunned to see she’s been in three projects prior to this one, all of which I’ve seen: Barbie, The Nevers, and House of the Dragon. And yet, I can’t recall her in any of them. But hey – that’s a lot of genre shows to have on such a small resume! This is obviously her biggest role so far, and hopefully they won’t get too carried away with this impending love triangle. I like Ralph, she doesn’t deserve Kate’s fate, and it’s not lost on me that she’s the one who shot Marian’s brother.

So yeah, the female characters aren’t exactly well-drawn, but I certain can’t complain at the quantity of them. In just five episodes there’s probably been more women than in the entirety of the BBC’s Robin Hood.

I rewatched the show trailer at the end of this episode, and realized that most of its footage came from these five episodes – aside from Eleanor talking with Robin in the forest, and Robin and Marian reuniting. I like that the back half of the story is an unknown quality, made up of footage that we haven’t seen before.