Robin Hood: This Heinous Devil

This second episode of Robin Hood (which aired on the same night as the first, it’s just taken a while for me to write about) isn’t quite as good as the premiere. That was better structured, being bookended either side with scenes of Hugh: opening with him telling stories to his son, and ending with his death.

This episode probably should have ended with Robin and Marian parting in the rain given the emphasis on their relationship throughout this episode, but it decides to carry on for a bit longer and conclude with a cliff-hanger instead.

Don’t worry – this will be a much shorter review than the first.

In the direct aftermath of his father’s death, Robin spends most of this episode grieving, which naturally means a lot of violence, plenty of inarticulate bellowing, and the weather magically knowing what to do in order to reflect our protagonist’s inner turmoil.

There’s no Dues to the Dead here, as Hugh of Locksley has been dumped on the outskirts of Nottingham with all the other criminals, and for some reason neither Robin, nor his uncle or cousin when they turn up in a cart to fetch him, think to take away the body for a proper burial. I mean, wasn’t that the whole point of bringing a cart?

Robin’s uncle’s house reminds me a little of Knighton Hall from the BBC series, and hey look – another woman! Turns out Uncle Gamewell is married to a woman called Matilda, who originates from Castile and is not in fact Will’s biological mother.

But then Joan just… dies? To quote from the best skit ever on Robot Chicken: “she’s lost the will to live? What is your degree in, POETRY?” Seriously, that is some bullshit and the show’s first major disappointment. I see no reason why this character has to be killed off, especially since Robin is off to London anyway. She could have stayed with her brother and occasionally popped up to give some sage advice. Heck, I wouldn’t have even minded if she’d eventually been used as leverage against Robin – at least she would have been alive to do so.

But instead she pulls a Padme and loses the will to live – but not before a visitation from Godda? Huh? So, we’re working under the assumption that this is a real deity, and not just an hallucination from a dying woman? In any case, Joan is consistent in how she tells her menfolk not to seek out revenge – though as we’ll see by the end of this episode, Robin’s not quite ready to take her advice onboard.

Back at the castle, Priscilla appears with a saucy-minx strut and a sultry fuck-me expression, which again, I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with if I didn’t suspect it was all being done to telegraph her untrustworthy nature. She’s wearing a nice green dress though; pity it has to be ripped off when she joins her father’s Captain of the Guard in his quarters and initiates some rough sex. Why do people complain there’s no more sex on television?

I suppose I’ll have to concede there’s some characterization at work here, for even though the Captain (the actor is credited as Lefors) tries to dominate, Priscilla eventually gets him face-up against the wall. If this was a power-play, she’s just won it… and again, I despair if this is meant to indicate her true colours, especially with such a demure Marian.

At least we get a nice scene between Marian and Priscilla, which again gives me hope the writers are going for more than just a Madonna/Whore contrast between the only two significant female characters. Priscilla is genuinely outraged to see wounds on Marian’s face, courtesy of her father, telling her: “if my father hit me, he’d get poisoned, and he knows it.” That’s the episode’s best line.

That it’s a sincere friendship is further indicated by the fact Marian confides in her about Robin and the Saxon forest wedding (please, please, please don’t let this be a mistake) and demonstrates she isn’t naïve enough not to understand the significance of Lefor entering Priscilla’s room and then hurriedly leaving again. That said, she’s pretty blasé about the idea of Priscilla sleeping around – the reason sex out of wedlock was a big no-no in those days was due to the lack of reliable contraception, and neither woman seems all that worried that Priscilla might end up pregnant.

We also get some more insight into Marian’s background. It turns out she has two brothers, both with Greek names, that were briefly glimpsed in the previous episode. She can also read (and presumably speak) French, a skill her father utilizes when it comes to looking over legal documents. The Sheriff has also managed to secure Marian a place at Queen Eleanor’s court, but the new Earl of Huntington doesn’t seem that pleased about it.

For whatever as-yet-unrevealed reason, he deeply dislikes his daughter – which might be ingrained misogyny, or might have something to do with his deceased wife. We see her briefly with Marian in a flashback to her as a child, in which she’s got the Incurable Cough of Death, complete with a bloody handkerchief.

Marian also visits Robin at his uncle’s farm to pass on her condolences, which later inspires him to return to Locksley and ask her to run away with him. Is it too sudden? Maybe, but I can understand the Emotional Torque that’s going on in his head. Beforehand, he and Will get into a contrived fight which comes the heck outta nowhere, which seemingly only happens to further isolate Robin and galvanize him into proposing to Marian. Her father puts a stop to that pretty decisively, and the cousins remain unreconciled by the time the credits roll, with Will last seen overlooking London.

Marian is put in a carriage and sent off to Queen Eleanor (presumably also in London, though I’m not sure it was clarified) but she gets a chance to say goodbye to Robin – in the rain of course, with plenty of dramatic yelling at each other and a last kiss. Why don’t they just agree to meet in London (or wherever it is Marian is going) at a later date? Unclear.

This would have been a good place for the episode to end, but it continues on for a while longer as Robin heads off to an archery tournament to try and win a position as a king’s forester. He comes across a group of Normans out on a hunt, and I’m glad I chose to watch this episode twice, as the first time I didn’t realize that their leader is Lefors.

He challenges Robin to an archery competition, but reneges on the bet when Robin successfully kills one of the king’s deer from a substantial distance. Refusing to pay him the agreed-upon amount, Lefors calls him a poacher and starts firing arrows at him – not realizing that Robin is a crack shot who effortlessly takes him down. So glad he listened to his mother’s dying words…

This, unfortunately, is a reason for Priscilla to turn against Robin and Marian, and will undoubtedly get the Sheriff’s attention as well when his Captain’s body is returned to him.

And one last thing – that Saxon traitor (I think he’s called Alwin) who spilled the beans on Hugh’s tendency to let poachers go free returns here with some actual motivation. He confronts Huntington’s manservant regarding what they agreed upon for his information: three fields. Later we see this man going to Locksley for payment, but though he’s allowed to see the Earl, we don’t learn how exactly that interaction ends.

In any case, I’m glad they’re following up with this character and didn’t just ignore him after his narrative purpose was complete.

Miscellaneous Observations:

This episode was released along with the pilot, but I deliberately watched them separately so one didn’t bleed into the other. And like I said, the first episode was stronger than this one.

Reviews seem reasonably favourable so far, even if The Guardian went for a So Bad, It’s Good verdict. But Robin Hood retellings should always be a little bit hokey, as the reason no one liked the Russell Crowe version was because it strayed too far into grimdark. Let’s enjoy having a bit of levity!

The element that’s giving this show its edge at this point is that certain scenes and characters don’t always go the way you expect. When Alwin (the Saxon traitor) turned up and was baptized by the bishop, raise your hand if you thought he was going to be drowned in that font of water. Later, Huntington’s manservant – who up until this point seemed to be all-in on his master’s scheming ways – gets Marian to safety and tells her: “if you love him, stay here and let me go back,” before he saves Robin from getting his throat slit by Huntington. Turns out that slimy dogsbody is actually a better person than expected. Let’s hope they keep this up, especially when it comes to Priscilla.

There were a few clumsy bits here and there. Marian figures out her father’s Earldom was brought with Hugh’s death, but if he’s already been living on the Lockley’s estate for years, why bother having the man executed? And when she goes to see Robin, why doesn’t she share her suspicions about what her father has done with him (unless she knew it would be more dramatic if she waited for the thunderstorm later on)? And why on earth did Robin’s uncle urge him to go to the Sheriff for help when he must have known the Sheriff was the one that sanctioned his brother-in-law’s execution?

There was a nice silent scene in which Robin returns to his forest home, finds his father’s flint necklace, and presumably gains some level of closure.

Ah, Marian listening in stairwells, rather like Priscilla was doing last week. I love to see it.

So, what’s Huntington’s deal with his hatred of Marian? I suspect it’s something to do with animosity towards his deceased wife, but why? Perhaps one of his children is not his own? Maybe she spoke out in defense of the Saxons? She did seem to know that their home was formerly known as Locksley…

 It interests me that both Marian and Priscilla exert a certain amount of power over the men in their lives, but in profoundly different ways. Marian’s brothers seem to favour her over their father, which is a nice twist on expectations, but Priscilla is using her sexuality to exert control over Lefor (in her conversation with Marian, she points out that because her father would kill him if he ever found out what they were up to, she has prime blackmail material over him). They’re both wielding soft power, but Priscilla’s is reliant on fear and deception, whereas Marian’s is based in love.

To sum up, there are a lot of moving parts in these two episodes, and we’re still in the setup phase – aside from Will, we haven’t even met any of the Merry Men yet! There’s a surprisingly large cast in play (even though we’ve already lost Hugh, Joan and Lefor) and I’m interested to see where it’ll go next. Robin is on his way to an archery contest! Hopefully it’s a real thing and not just a shoutout to the ballads.