Robin Hood: One Enemy Falls, Another Rises

My thoughts on this grand finale are super late, but that’s because a dozen other things (including Christmas and New Year) got in the way. Ah well, it’s an excuse to watch the episode for a second time, just to refresh my memory.

We start with Robin waking up in the forest next to Marian, having had a dream/nightmare about Adric and his father’s voice, encouraging him to fight to the bitter end. Mkay? Robin has spent this entire season prevaricating over what he’s going to do, how he’s doing to do it, and whether or not it’s the right thing to do, and it seems he still needs guidance from beyond the grave.

Back at camp, Tuck tells the couple that after they left, he prayed for their returned. Er, what? That implies they didn’t tell Tuck (or anyone else) they were leaving for the foresters’ village. So, what exactly was the plan here? Were they making a run for it and simply chanced across the massacre, or were they specifically heading there to muster the Saxons? Because if it was the latter, why did Tuck feel the need to pray for their return. Why didn’t they let anyone know what they were doing?

It's such a confusing little note, and a completely unnecessary one too.

Tuck seems to have rallied himself from the violence of the previous episode, in which he killed a man to save Robin’s life, and (perhaps out of gratefulness?) Robin tells him that he was right about hatred. I say “out of gratefulness” because I’m not entirely sure what’s triggered this change of heart in Robin. Nothing has really spooked him or made him confront his choices, so it’s easier to assume this is just his way of thanking Tuck for saving his life.

After some vague philosophizing between them, we get down to the actual plans – first from the baddies, then from the goodies.

In Nottingham, Guy of Gisborne lays down their plan of attack: they’ll bottleneck the outlaws into the canyon around their cave network, then slaughter them when they retreat into the caves. I’m still not sure how he’s able to see through his fringe:

Having guessed the likely scenario that their enemies will follow, Robin comes up with countermeasures: they’ll allow the Norman forces to proceed unhindered to the caves, only to seize Nottingham in their stead, taking advantage of the battlements so their archers can fire on their enemies when they return. Some of the Saxon men will remain concealed in the forest, and attack the Normans from behind, forcing them to fight on two fronts.  

It’s essentially a slight modification of the same plan the Normans have: draw them in and take them out, using Nottingham town instead of the caves. Once their enemies have either fallen in the town or breached the walls of the castle, the Saxons will escape out the sallyports and make for the forest, their home turf, to pick off the rest.

There are about a thousand holes I could poke in both these plans, but for narrative purposes, they’re reasonably sound and easy for a viewer to follow. Battles that take place across many fronts not only provides the excitement of switching from one perspective to another, but also gives every character something important to do.

My only question is why Marian isn’t present in the caves when Robin makes this pitch to the rest of his people. She could have provided valuable intel, but I can only assume he didn’t think the optics of a Norman lady listening in on their war council would have gone down well.

The one thing the Saxons don’t know is when the Normans are going to make their move, which isn’t that big of a problem, since – guys. They’re a large and cumbersome army. Post a couple of scouts around their campsite and when things start to kick off, have them outrun what’s inevitably going to be a very slow and drawn-out progression through the forest to warn you.

Of course, I’m missing the point of this conundrum, which is to give Marian something to do. In a quiet moment with Robin, she puts her hand up to gather information from her father, at considerable personal risk to herself should he suspect what she’s really up to.

Milange accompanies her home to Locksley, which is a nice detail since of course they’d have known each other via his former position in Priscilla’s employ.

She’s at Aronne’s grave (yes, I had to look up that name), laying flowers and having a little cry when her father finds her. I like to think this gesture isn’t a total ruse on her part, as this is the first time she’s seen her brother’s resting place, but it’s enough for Huntington to take her back in. I’m not entirely sure if her father ever truly buys this act she’s putting on, as she’s laying on the flattery a bit to thickly, but he’s also too arrogant not to take credit for the plan after she cleverly attributes it to the Sheriff instead.

She gets in a quick word with her other brother (Aleppo, yes I had to look that up too) who informs her she shouldn’t have returned, and expresses a wish he could have left as she did. This sets up his choice between sister and father later in the episode, though in terms of foreshadowing, maybe skews a little too heavily in Marian’s favour. I mean, after that sentiment, was it really any surprise he sided with her over Huntington?

Marian discovers that – like the outlaws – the Normans plan to divide their flanks, with Leicester leading another garrison of men over a nearby bridge to attack the Saxons from behind. I kind of like that the Normans and Saxons have more or less come up with the exact same plan, and in a better written show I would assume it was on purpose. They’re Not So Different after all, and so on.

Marian manages to get this information to the waiting Milange, who takes off into the night, but not before she’s caught by her father who promptly knocks her unconscious and locks her up.

Question: is Marian locked in the secret room that Robin told her about when they were children? Because I always expected that to come back into play at some point, but it’s disappointing that Huntington seems to know about it. I was hoping Marian could have utilized it for some spy-craft.

Despite knowing that the outlaws now know of his plan, Huntington rejects his son’s advice to change it, as he knows it’ll make him look the fool. This in itself is foolish, but also solid characterization, as we know he’s definitely the sort of man who would risk everything just to save face.

So now the board is set: Robin knows that Marian has been detained by her father, but isn’t fully aware of how deranged the man is, and assumes she’ll be safer than not. Tuck volunteers to destroy the bridge to prevent Leicester’s men from reaching them, and is joined by Spragart, Isabel, Milange and Uncle Gamewell. Their signal to those in Nottingham to abandon the castle and escape to the forest will be the smoke from the explosion, while Little John will stay in the forest to attack the Normans from behind.

Great teamwork, everyone! I always love a coordinated plan in which everyone has to trust that everyone else knows what they’re doing.

The outlaws hide in the forest and watch the soldiers go by. I have to admit I love these sorts of shots:

Not only the sight of people concealing themselves within nature, but also when the audience is brought in on the secret, making us feel like we’re hiding in there with them. I suspect it also appeals to the director, since the sequence goes on for a while. The Sheriff (who is clearly highly skeptical about this whole endeavour) comments on how still it all is, though the writer deserves some credit for not using the old: “it’s quiet… too quiet” stock phrase.  

The Normans pass by unmolested, and the outlaws silently rise up from the undergrowth in another great atmospheric shot.

Once they reach Nottingham, the remaining soldiers on the battlements are taken out in short order, and the villagers start their usual running and screaming. Drew climbs the parapets to drop down the other side and open the gate for the rest of the Saxons. I always like it when shows (or anything with large ensemble casts) take the time to make sure every character – no matter how minor – gets something important to do. In this case, Drew’s task is to now keep a lookout for the smoke from the bridge.

The Normans assume the Saxons have already gone to ground in the caves, but on entering they realize the place is completely deserted. Their real target has been deliberately left drawn in the earth at their feet: Nottingham. No one questions this was almost certainly done on purpose to goad them back to the town, though the weary look on the Sheriff’s face tells us there’s little point in even trying to rein Gisborne and Huntington back at this point.

While waiting on the parapets, Robin and Ralph decide that now is the right time for an awkward discussion about their relationship. I like that Ralph concedes that Robin simply loves someone else, but she’s still pining for him by the end of the episode, so I’m not sure what any of this love triangle nonsense did for anyone. Robin just sort of checks out of the conversation and wanders off, to which Ralph looks disappointed. Come on girl, were you really expecting anything else from him at this stage?

There’s a great overhead tracking shot when the Normans emerge from the forest and approach Nottingham on horseback – I don’t think the budget on this project was massive, but there was enough that every now and then the scope could really open up and remind you of what it can do. 

All one continuous shot.

As the Normans advance, Little John attacks from the rear and the battle begins on two fronts. (Worth saying is that there are visibly quite a few women involved in this attack).

Meanwhile, Tuck’s team of four approach the bridge, and he’s a little taken aback at the number of people milling about. Clearly his priority is as little collateral damage as possible, but it’s going to be a challenge. As he puts it: “don’t ask a monk to commit arson.”

Huntington enters Sherwood on foot (I’m not sure how he went from the battlefield to a quiet forest, but whatever) and is ambushed from all around. He and Little John square off, but the action cuts away to the Saxons retreating to the castle, and the Sheriff urging Gisborne and his men to duck into a house so that they might access the rooftops from inside.

A little nod to his man Gerald tells us what he’s really up to, and almost as soon as they’re inside, they spring their trap. The Sheriff takes out Gisborne himself, and the rest of his men soon follow – though not without mortally wounding Gerald. We’ve got to cull this massive cast somehow!

So, that’s it for Guy of Gisborne? Already? Hey, I can’t say I’ll miss his haircut, but it seems a bit of a waste for a character who looms so large in the Robin Hood legends.

But in a nice touch, we hear Robin yelling: “to the castle, Saxons to the castle!” This is already what we’ve seen Robin shouting just a few minutes earlier in the episode, and having it repeated here, with the Sheriff hearing it being yelled from offscreen, gives the audience a sense of when exactly all these events are taking place in relation to each other (that is, concurrently. Everything is happening at once). 

Leicester’s men are swiftly approaching the bridge, but the pitch seems to be in place. Isabel lights her arrow, but has to use it to take out an armed guard lunging toward her, and promptly gets shot in the stomach by another one. I yell: “NO!” at the television screen. Uncle Gamewell grabs a torch and makes for the pitch, only to be felled by several arrows, Boromir-like. The bridge explodes, and miles away, Drew sees the smoke and calls for the retreat out the sallyport and back to the forest.

Tuck… was not particularly useful during any of this. I can get why they’d want to give Uncle Gamewell a hero’s death, but once again the sole female character is nothing but cannon fodder who dies neatly and silently so that the men can be sad about it for approximately three seconds. What a waste.

(To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure if she IS dead. When we see her next, she’s lying on the ground while Tuck draws a cross on her forehead. But her face isn’t covered by the blanket, and people survive deadlier wounds than shots to the stomach in these sorts of shows. PLUS Robin doesn’t name her alongside his uncle when he lists the dead at the end of the episode, so…? Okay, I know it’s wishful thinking on my part, but it all happened so quickly that I remain rather confused by it all).

In Sherwood it’s Little John versus Gisborne’s giant Drogo, who was probably introduced so late in the game just to be a worthy physical adversary to John in this finale. The giant seems to get the upper hand, when John grabs a convenient rock and… knocks him out? Again, it’s all rather vague, and this character’s fate remains somewhat ambiguous. I mean, I don’t think a rock to the head would have finished him off.

Huntington’s men abandon him just as Robin arrives, and realizing he’s lost for now, he realizes the best way to punish Robin is to kill Marian – and given the cruelty and brutality with which Steve Waddington has played this character, I fully believe he’s capable of it.

Robin orders Little John to take their remaining men deeper into the forest and races after Huntington, only to be confronted by the Sheriff on the verge of the forest. True to his characterization thus far, the Sheriff asks him if: “all this blood, all these men dead,” was worth it, and once more the subject of Robin’s father comes up – and neither man is prepared to budge on whether or not Hugh was a martyr or a fool.

But that’s not really the point of the scene. The point is to bring Robin face-to-face with the central theme of this show and be asked of it: love or vengeance? Marian or the Sheriff? The answer should be obvious, but first he’s gotta engage in a little sword fighting before some convenient visions of Marian remind him that, oh yeah, her life is in mortal peril!!

I guess they wanted to throw a little tension in, but that he wastes precious time on this doesn’t reflect well on Robin. Honestly, I really think this scene would have been more powerful if the Sheriff had confronted him, and he’d just rushed off without hesitation.

Back at Locksley, Marian regains consciousness to see her brother looming over her, and we get the requisite red herring dialogue to make us think he might go through with killing her, until Huntington storms into the house and we cut to Aleppo helping his sister onto a horse. He came through for her!

But she can’t go with him, as she’s realized that Robin is hot on her father’s heels. Huntington and Robin fight pretty viciously for what they think is Marian’s life, and Huntington gets hurled out of the second-floor window. The fight continues on the ground, but just when it seems Huntington has the upper hand, Marian comes to the rescue not once but twice with her little dagger. (I’m glad they gave her this physical victory over her abusive father, but I think I’ve seen enough of her getting struck in the face for a good long while).

Huntington is finally overpowered, but Robin prevents Marian from delivering the Coup de Grâce. It’s too late for him anyway.

As Jadelotusflower points out in her review, Huntington’s death is the exact inverse of what he wanted for Robin and Marian: instead of killing his daughter and forcing Robin to live without her, he dies seeing the two of them alive and together. It’s a fitting end for the character who has essentially been the Big Bad of this season.

***

But all this has not been the only plot going on in this episode. We still have Priscilla’s medieval soap opera to deal with.

We discover that she’s returned to her father in Nottingham, and is in a bit of a state. She informs him that the Marshal has left her in two ways: physically left her for the Holy Land, and left her with child. The Sheriff is furious, which makes sense for a twelfth-century dad discovering his highborn daughter got pregnant out of wedlock, but I’m at a loss to explain what the hell’s going on here.

What did the Sheriff think was going to happen when he sent his promiscuous daughter alone to London with a man who openly discussed his sexual interest in her, and without any sort of chaperone to keep an eye on things? Furthermore, if the Marshal loved Priscilla as she claims (and which seems to be the truth of the matter based on his reaction to being sent away on the Queen’s orders), why on earth didn’t he just marry her? Or why didn’t she tell him about the baby and threaten him with daddy if he refused to go through with a shotgun wedding? Why is she so upset that he’s left on what only amounts to a business trip? I mean, it’s not like they technically broke up. He always planned come back, right?

And look, I don’t want to slut-shame a girl, but I’m definitely prepared to idiot-shame her. I’ve no idea what she thought was going to happen in this scenario, but honey, if you have lots of unprotected sex with a man you’re not married to, then you should be taking into account the very high risk of getting pregnant! This entire Priscilla plotline has been borderline incoherent, and now it’s convent time for her again.

We get a quick scene of the Marshal at the docks, about to head off to the Holy Land on Queen Eleanor’s mission to assassinate Prince John, and just when I was looking forward to adding Will Scarlet to TV Trope’s Chuck Cunningham Syndrome page after he fell off the face of the earth about halfway through this show – there he is! For some reason, he’s joining the Marshal on this mission, and doesn’t even get the dignity of any lines.

Did this actor sleep with someone’s daughter for real? Because wow, they really dropped the ball on his character.

Back to Priscilla, and she’s once more trying her luck with the Bishop, who asks of her: “will you ever learn?” I mean, he’s got a point. She tries her hand at exerting political pressure over him, but it’s just as baffling as her conversation with her father, telling him: “when my father dies, I will become the authority in Nottingham. It’s always been his intention that the power of his office be passed to me. He has raised me for this.”

First of all, that’s not even remotely how you attain the office of Sheriff, especially if you’re a young woman. Yes, there were a few women Sheriffs at the time (Nicola de la Haie being the most notable), but they definitely didn’t get those jobs through daddy’s influence.

Secondly, have we ever seen a single solitary scene in this show that depicted the Sheriff grooming Priscilla for the role of Sheriff? I recall him telling her to be present while he dispensed justice way back in the first episode, but that was while she was a child, and neither one has shown any further interest in the subject since.

Yeah, he ain't buying it.

And finally, even if what Priscilla is saying is true, then the fact her father is now bundling her off to a convent in shame to have her bastard child, is perhaps an indicator that he’s snuffed any plans to make her Sheriff in his stead. I mean, maybe she’s full-on bullshitting just to get the Bishop to listen to her, but there’s no reason why he should believe what she’s saying (and he doesn’t). Again, this whole scene was just bewildering on so many levels.

In any case, she tries to convince the Bishop to organize a carriage to secretly carry her from the convent to the docks, so that she might then catch a ship to the Holy Land. (Why didn’t she do this to start with? Why bother going home at all when she’s already seen her father’s reaction to her affair with the captain?)

She gets trussed up in nun habits by three sisters, so at least her dream is made clear to her (though it came a bit too late to be of any use – this whole prophetic dreaming thing also ended up being a wet squib of a storyline; they didn’t even follow up on the Bishop’s comment attributing it to witchcraft!)

We then see Priscilla sneaking out of the convent to meet the Bishop, who has arrived on time with the promised carriage. However (and this is rather hilarious), it turns out he’s travelled all that way just to tell Priscilla to her face that he’s stabbing her in the back. The nuns drag her back behind the walls kicking and screaming, and I’ve no idea how she didn’t see this coming.

***

Okay, let’s wrap this up.

The aftermath of the battle in Nottingham isn’t pretty, with bodies filling the streets and survivors wailing over them. Hey, all those Norman soldiers had families, and I like that the show doesn’t shy away from the fact ordinary people are suffering due to Robin’s refusal to surrender.

The Bishop is there, displaying no interest whatsoever in performing any last rites, and the Sheriff tells him they can now expect the king’s arrival on English soil – at which point, a new enemy will rise, as the episode title tells us. Interesting, he’s going to be as much of an enemy to the Sheriff as he is to Robin… so I wonder if the show is sneakily trying to set up an Enemy Mine alliance for later down the track.

In Sherwood, Robin announces to the assorted outlaws that they’re to temporarily disband while the Normans lick their wounds, and hide in plain sight among their families and villages until he calls for them (er, didn’t the Miller brothers try doing that? Only to get immediately sold out?) In any case, Ralph, Drew and Milange are off to London, while John, Tuck and Spragart plan to head to France. That’s… quite far away, guys.

The showrunners justify this choice thusly:

One of the goals was always to tell our own version of the story. So, at the end of this first piece of narrative, act one of a series, if you will, the thing we wanted to avoid was the outlaws going further into the forest, and they’re going to go to the Great Oak, or build some sort of new community. What we’d never really seen before was the outlaws dispersing and moving back into ordinary lives to hide in plain sight, or into a larger city to stay hidden from the authorities. So, it’s unique in the sense that we haven’t seen it before.

Sure, I guess? I’m not entirely sure that “no one has ever done it this way before” is a good reason to split everyone up to this extent, but whatever. It’s not as bad as “no one’s ever killed off Marian before, so let’s do that!”

Robin tries to give Ralph her gift of an armband back, but she refuses, telling him: “we’re not done.” Oh, FFS. Girl, you two were never ON. Give it up already! He’s sitting right there with Marian, looking happier than you’ve ever seen him despite the death of his uncle and dozens of other men!

Robin also promises Tuck that he’ll distribute Warrick’s money to the poor, and the two of them hug it out before departing. I’ve said it before, but their rapport is definitely the best of the show. I wish it had been structured better, but Angus Castle-Doughty brought a real gravitas to his character, despite being such a younger version of Tuck than we usually get.

Priscilla ends her storyline trapped in the nunnery, writing a letter to the king with information about… well, I’m not entirely sure what leverage she thinks she has in this situation, but she’s somehow managed to convince a young nun to smuggle out the letter on her behalf. Good luck, babe!

Back in Westminster, Marian strolls in with a fur-lined hood that speaks volumes about where she is psychologically (it’s “get out of my way, I just killed my dad”) and gets her pardon for Robin from the Queen – though it’s not going to be much good until King Richard sits on the throne. She meets Robin outside, but there’s still a long road ahead for this coupe before they can enjoy peace, especially as when Marian alludes to some ambiguous “offer” that Eleanor has put on the table for them.

But for now at least, they’ve got some time for just the two of them, and the young lovers wander off under the stars together…

This was a solid finale to a somewhat shaky season. Plenty of good action, everyone given something important to do, and the general themes and character thoroughfares brought to a logical settling point – for now at least. I find it someone amusing that this, Robin of Sherwood, and the BBC’s Robin Hood all put Marian’s life in mortal danger in each of their first season finales, knowing full-well where the emotional heart of this legend lies.

They brought the overarching storyline of Normans versus Saxons to a temporary reprieve, thematically tied-off Robin’s internal journey from choosing vengeance to choosing love (just barely!), and provided satisfying closure on plot-points such as Huntington’s villainy, the love story between Robin and Marian, and the tension between Robin and Tuck – while of course leaving plenty of loose threads to be picked up in the proposed second season…

Which is at the time of this post, not yet confirmed. Are we getting more? Not likely. It’s been a few weeks and nothing has been announced, which is never a good sign. The longer a network goes without confirming anything, the less likely a show is up for renewal. Ah well. I would have happily returned for a season two, not just because I’m a sucker for all things Robin Hood, but because despite its flaws, the pros of this show definitely outweighed its cons, and I’m interested in seeing where all these characters will go next.

Miscellaneous Observations:

I’d say the best thing about this show is that it shoots on location in Serbia, taking full advantage of its castles and forests. I’m sure plenty of CGI was used in the establishing shots of medieval London, but when you watch the characters crawling through the undergrowth or looking out over a precipice, you know they’re actually in a real forest. There was some beautiful lighting and cinematography throughout, lending it a fairy tale ambiance that worked well against the “gritty realism” that shows like these always try to embrace.

On the other hand, its weakest element was the sheer overload of characters, to the point where staple figures of the legends like Will Scarlet and Little John fall through the cracks. It does make for a very rich and consistent setting, in which minor characters could pop up in the background, and then not appear again until several episodes later – but the downside is that so many people were vying for attention that our main characters got short shrift, especially when it came to the network of dynamics between them. Occasionally there was a cute background moment, such as when John was so openly impressed with Milange’s fencing, or when Tuck provides a blanket to the Saxon girl liberated from Warrick’s castle, but the writers seemed unaware that these sorts of scenes are really what builds internal consistency and audience investment.

(Heck, even in this episode there’s a Tuck/Ralph hug before they head into battle, which was very sweet, and reminded me of the hug Tuck shared with Isabel when he decided to depart in the last episode. Building a sense of community with these little moments is what we’re here for).

But given the major cull of extraneous characters in this episode, perhaps any potential season two will have a better handle on where their focus should be. Till then, it’s a ironic that many of the original characters (Milange, Ralph, Hugh) were considerably more compelling than some of the legendary figures (Will Scarlet, Little John). 

There’s an appearance from Godda as the Normans enter the forest… though nobody notices her and she doesn’t do anything to stop them. What sound does a tree make if no one is around to hear it fall, and what’s the point of a goddess sighting if nobody actually sees her? Methinks what was at work here was the same mentality behind the reappearance of Adric, Will and Tom Mison’s voice – they just wanted to bring as many characters Back For the Finale as they could.

But on that note, what the heck happened to Uncle Gamewell’s wife Matilda? Unlike Will, she really did fall to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, and nobody thinks to tell her that her husband is dead and her stepson off to the Holy Land.

There’s a nice little scene between the Sheriff and Gerald near the start in which the Sheriff ponders aloud that lawmakers get no credit in the annuls of history, whereas their enemies will become either heroes or martyrs. Sorry Philip, but you’re just not on the cool team (ask Queen Eleanor about the optics of that).

Looking back over the season, the female characters weren’t dealt a very good hand. Lauren McQueen as Marian fared the best, in which she goes from completely naïve to a more shrewd operator without losing her compassion or sense of self. My biggest issue is that she’s subject to a lot of physical abuse, both at the hands of her father and Prince John, which pushes her back into Robin’s arms even though she had very good reason to be angry at him.

(This was perhaps the show’s most tedious narrative choice, in which Marian breaks it off with Robin because he doesn’t tell her of his involvement in her brother’s death. I imagine a scenario in which Robin had been honest with her right from the get-go, she’d been given the chance to process the situation, and more had been made of the fact that Ralph was the one that killed Aronne. What if Marian wanted Ralph to face justice? That would have been a much more interesting dilemma than the pointless love triangle).

Connie Nielsen obviously knows how to command the room as Queen Eleanor, but she was given very little to do besides come up with convoluted plans that never actually succeeded, while Lydia Peckham as Priscilla… oof. What was even going on here? When the first trailer dropped I expressed my fears that her character would be held up as the Whore to Marian’s Madonna, and though the writing never outright condemns her for her sexual proclivities (that is, she’s punished for having them, but it’s framed as being hypocritical and unfair) I find it difficult to grasp what the writers were going for here.

I’m not even sure what role she has in this story – my best guess is she’s either going to end up being the Mother Abbess who poisons Robin Hood, or else these writers watched the BBC show and initially believed Isabella was a traditional character from the legends – one tragical Femme Fatale, coming up!

And it didn’t escape my notice that just as Priscilla doesn’t show the slightest hesitation regarding the risks of premarital sex (whether it be moral objections, social consequences, or the unplanned pregnancy she ends up with) neither does Marian when she decides to consummate her relationship with Robin. Despite my reservations about how they used Priscilla’s sexuality to signal a vague sense of villainy, I actually kind of liked that Robin and Marian just get down to it on the forest floor in this episode. These characters are traditionally so chaste, but these two have no time to squander (and thankfully their love scene didn’t cut to Ralph sharpening her blade in the bushes).

No, my problem is that you just know Marian isn’t going to face any of the consequences that Priscilla is. She’s the good girl, and her sex wasn’t lustful or manipulative, so her relationship with Robin isn’t going to end with any serious consequences for her. Authorial fiat is on her side.

As such, despite the fact the writers unexpectedly allowed Priscilla and Marian to be friends, and avoided the widely predicted love triangle between them and Robin, I can’t shake the feeling that Priscilla’s character was botched largely because the writers couldn’t help but equate liking sex with being bad, as well as an anachronistic take on girlbossing. She’s sexually liberated, you see! She does what she wants! And now she’s in a convent, awaiting the birth of her bastard child, because she’s also a bit of an idiot.

I am just truly bewildered by what they were trying to achieve with this character, and a part of me would have been fine if they’d just made her an Alpha Bitch – that at least would have been much less confusing.

That of course leaves Erica Ford as Ralph (also known as Rosemary, though that name only comes up once). In the interview with the showrunners linked above, they had this to say about her character:

With Ralph, what's interesting about that storyline is that the love triangle is really more in service of the character of Ralph than anything. It's really about her growth and her evolution as a character who is in hiding, and finding and opening up and unlocking her femininity. There's great power in feminine nature, so we get to see this unique bubbling up of this powerful nature inside of this young woman, and it's a beautiful story.

Um, what? I mean, I can actually understand what they’re saying about the love triangle being mostly in service of Ralph’s character, only because the other two participants don’t care about it. Marian barely knows Ralph exists, and Robin spends most of his screentime with her uncomfortably trying to wriggle away. So yeah, the love triangle services Ralph’s storyline entirely by default!

But I’m baffled by their talk on how she evolved as a character by unlocking her femininity, because I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen. Is it because she wore a dress that one time? Because otherwise she spent the whole season telling Robin they had to hook up, whether he liked it or not, and by the final episode she still hasn’t given up.

It’s a shame, because it could have been a rather poignant storyline; unrequited love always is. So, how about some insecurity from her? Some more scenes with her brothers? An exploration of how she was the one that killed Marian’s brother? Hey, at least she’s not Kate. On realizing there’s no chance in hell, she doesn’t just ditch everyone and run off in tears. And credit to the actress: she commits to a very uncomplimentary role.

I suppose now, all that’s left to do is wait for an announcement one way or the other.