Robin Hood: No Man Can Hide Forever

In which Robin’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (or Week) continues, and Marian kickstarts her own plot at the court of Queen Eleanor. The showrunners promised us something like this for her, and I’m glad it looks like they’re going to try and deliver.

To start with, the Captain’s body is brought back to Nottingham Castle, and reasonable assumptions about why Robin might have killed this man are made. The Sheriff thinks its vengeance for his father’s death, and the other men who were there obviously have no incentive to tell him the truth.

The commotion gets Priscilla’s attention, though interestingly enough, she was in the middle of that recurring dream about a tree in the forest and something trying to dig itself up from beneath the roots. The meaning of the dream is clear enough (it predicts a Saxon uprising, led by Robin) but I’m more curious about what this means for Priscilla. Why is she the one having precognitive dreams?

Now the hunt for Robin – sorry, Robert – is on. Soon enough, Huntington is involved after the Bishop brings him news of the Captain’s death and Rob’s involvement in it. By this point he’s got a vested interest in making sure the last of the Locksley line is killed off, and so takes his two sons with him to the forest to join in the search.

And what’s Rob up to? He’s slowly but surely (and unknowingly) recruiting Merry Men. First up are the “Miller brothers,” and though none of them are called Much, the surname is clearly a nod to Much the Miller’s Son of the traditional stories. Here, they’re called Ralph and … okay, I can’t recall the other two. One is described as a simpleton who likes to show his pecker to people, and the other one is completely nondescript.

The one that matters is Ralph, who is clearly a girl in disguise. Robin figures it out when he catches her sitting down to take a pee (I can’t help but compare this to the BBC’s Robin Hood, in which Djaq is caught out while she’s washing herself for prayer) and it would appear that this is going to be our impending love triangle. Robin, Marian and Ralph, the last of whom does the whole flustered fluttery eyelids thing when Robin takes the Hands On Approach to teaching her archery. Sorry Priscilla, we misjudged your role in this particular retelling.

Little John turns up in this episode as well, played by Marcus Fraser of several genre projects (Foundation, The Sandman, Transformers). As it happens, this is not the first time a Black actor has played this particular character, as Jamie Foxx was a Composite of Little John and the Saracen figure (called Yahya, which translates to John) in 2018’s Robin Hood. In fact, there has been a long line of Black actors playing Moorish/Saracen characters in Robin Hood retellings, from David Harewood as Tuck in 2009, all the way back to Morgan Freeman as Azeem in 1991.

My point is that there’s probably going to be some whining about “wokeness” in this casting, even though Fraser isn’t even CLOSE to being the first Black guy that’s popped up in these stories.

This time around, he’s a bounty hunter. After hearing the price on Robin’s head, he heads off into Sherwood Forest with his trusty dog sidekick (who adorably, just barks and wags his tail when he’s meant to be threatening people). He manages to overpower Robin and the three Miller brothers in a scene I’m pretty sure is meant to be a shout-out to the character’s original introduction. Sadly there’s no bridge involved, but there is a river and a quarterstaff and several dunkings.

John heads off with an unconscious Robin over his shoulder, but an intervention from the goddess Godda has him immediately change his mind and rejoin the Miller brothers around the campfire later that night. He even divulges his very dark backstory to these near-perfect strangers, which includes an abusive father and a beaten-to-death mother. Yeah, it’s not handled particularly well.

The episode concludes when all of them are successfully tracked down by Huntington and his men. In the fighting that follows, Huntington’s youngest son shoots Little John’s dog before he’s immediately killed by Ralph and her newly-found archery skills. As Huntington screams revenge and the soon-to-be outlaws run for it, Robin notices that a figure is running beside him – Aedric of his father’s stories.

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Alongside all this, we have Marian’s plot, detailing her arrival at court and introduction to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. And there are female characters galore! She’s shown around by an older noblewoman, and shown the ropes by a handmaid (IMDB doesn’t give me the names of either of them). But for what it’s worth, they pass the Bechdel Test, and Marian gets a little taste of what she’s in for: intrigue and espionage.

She also reunites with Will, and – holy explicit sex scene, Batman! Will is enthusiastically going at it with a completely naked serving girl. Yikes. There’s been sex and nudity in the last two episodes, but in a fairly discreet manner (both Godda and Priscilla made use of their Godiva Hair). This is… I’m not even sure Game of Thrones went this graphic for such a prolonged period of screentime.

In any case, Marian and her escort walk in on them, and that’s how Will and Marian meet in London! Later, they have a conversation on a landing, and Marian doesn’t seem all that fazed by what she saw… despite that weird interlude I’m kind of glad that she’s establishing a friendship with Will totally independent of Robin, and I suspect they’re going to be in cahoots when it comes to spycraft in the castle.

Finally, this show’s casting coup appears to much flourish and fanfare: Connie Nielson as Queen Eleanor. Her scene with Marian is possibly the most interesting one of the entire episode, as it quickly becomes apparent that Marian is not at court by accident – she’s been headhunted. For now, Eleanor is not willing to say why, but given her questions about the Sheriff and his daughter, I think it’s safe to assume she wants eyes and ears in Nottingham.

And I’m totally down for this. As much as I loved Marian in the BBC’s Robin Hood, there was always something a little too nineties girl power about her role as the vigilante Nightwatchman. There’s something to be said for a more realistic take on how a woman might operate in a twelfth century setting, and hopefully it’ll involve the quick wits and stealth required for a spy at court.

On the basis of this episode, it would appear the show is setting up two distinct plots: the court versus the forest; the women’s sphere of intrigue and networking versus the more overt violence and struggle for survival in the forest. Watching the two intersect later down the road will be fun, as there are already some encroachments on either side: Marian has an ally in Will, while Robin is now fighting alongside Ralph, a woman.

Miscellaneous Observations:

On the subject of the BBC’s Robin Hood, it’s interesting to note the differences between each one’s take on their titular character. Jonas Armstrong’s Robin was motivated by genuine altruism and love for his people, choosing to give up the life of a nobleman in order to save their lives. Jack Patten’s Robin has just sort of fallen into the outlaw life, and is so far driven by nothing but revenge and desperation. How this will eventually grow into a political movement remains to be seen.

There were quite a few sloppy things throughout this episode. The Sheriff and his men go to the Saxon village to find Robin, and don’t bother to look anywhere but his abandoned home. That’s the extent of their search? Among people who are likely to protect him? I’m also not sure why the Captain’s body was just left there on the steps of Nottingham Castle all night – surely they would have moved it to a more protected location. And when Robin and the Miller brothers are resting in the forest, only to hear dogs approaching, Robin urges them to head for the river to break off the scent. Why didn’t they stop and rest there in the first place, knowing it would be safer?  

After the death of her lover, Priscilla is on the vengeance train, though a scene with her father demonstrates she doesn’t have as much power over him as she’d like to think. He knows she was sleeping with Lefors, and isn’t happy about it.

There’s also a new Priscilla-adjacent character in this episode, a young serving boy/man who seems to be on close terms with her. It was kind of weird actually, as the episode acts like he’s been here all along and we should know who he is, even though we’ve never seen him before.

The Bishop of Hereford goes to see the Earl of Huntington at his house, which establishes a link between them. Even if they don’t like each other, they’re capable of sharing information.

River Trent shoutout! Hey, remember when the BBC version had an episode which had it start in the dungeon of Nottingham Castle, and could be blocked off with a pile of rocks? Remember how dumb that was?

Little John initially introduces himself as (I think) “John Nailer.” Never heard that one before.

We get a brief glimpse of Alwyn (the Saxon traitor who sold out Hugh) at the village, so it would appear that character is still in play.

This episode had quite a death count, especially since it now includes Huntington’s youngest son. This was a bit of a cop-out, as they kill off the brother who had the least amount of screentime (in fact, I think his last words to his father as he dies were also the first words he speak onscreen) but it’ll be interesting to see how Marian reacts to this – not only for his sake, but for that of her remaining eldest brother, who was pushing back a little against Huntington throughout this episode.