Knightfall: Fiat! | Season 1, Episode 9 | Air Date: January 31, 2018 | Rating: 8.5/11 |
*SPOILERS AHEAD* If you didn’t know that this space is where episode recaps (with random bits of commentary) occur, now you do. So, if your mind’s not ready to know exactly what happened in this week’s episode of Knightfall, avert your eyes. Now. You’ve been warned.
Ready? Let’s roll.
Landry (Photo by Larry Horricks/HISTORY)
After a battle at the Temple that left Rashid, Percival and a number of Templar Knights dead and the Holy Grail now in the shady hands of the Pope, Landry comes to the command decision that the best course of action in this mess (in no small part of his making) is to ride out for a chat with Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay. Even after receiving word that the Pope has denounced him and de Molay has ordered his arrest, Landry forges ahead in order to rally all of the Templar Knights in France against the Pope. What could go wrong?
What, indeed. But first: Tancrede.
Looking pretty sharp in his new Brotherhood of Light gear, Tancrede catches Landry up on what’s been going on when he asks Tancrede if he’s “one of them now.” As a matter of fact, yes he is. He’s been learning their ways and the Brotherhood even wants Tancrede to take Godfrey’s place within the Temple. Frustrated with what he doesn’t know about why the Holy Grail is so important to Saracens (and at this point, aren’t we all?), all Tancrede will relay is that it goes back further than anyone thinks: it’s much more than just a Holy Grail.
In the meantime, this new and improved Tancrede is sworn back into the Temple. Three cheers, everybody.
Queen Joan and Sophie arrive back in Paris to a rather chilly reception and Joan immediately begins under the radar preparations to leave King Philip and return to Navarre, taking Princess Isabella with her. But Isabella proves to be unexpectedly unwilling and willfully stubborn particularly when Joan reveals that she knows about Isabella’s part in Prince Lluis’ death. You see Isabella go a little dark on her mother as a line has been crossed and Joan comes to regret it especially after Isabella, now making use of the creepy palace peepholes, overhears something.
Sophie & Queen Joan (Photo by Larry Horricks/HISTORY)
Ever since arriving back home, Philip has been saccharinely sweet to Joan and it’s raising all of the alarms in her head. Suspecting that he knows something (which he does thanks to Isabella’s betrayal), she’s more anxious to get out of Paris but she has to get through the mysterious banquet Philip is throwing in her honor. Of course, Joan’s fears are realized as the banquet turns into a horror show. A beaten Sophie is dragged into the hall and beaten further while being questioned about the tonic Joan took in order to cause a miscarriage. Joan confesses that their marriage is over and Philip agrees, but he’s hardly one to let go that simply.
Gawain (Photo by Larry Horricks/HISTORY)
At the Paris Temple, Landry announces his plans to ride out and petition Grand Master de Molay for aid against the Pope, giving each knight the option to ride with him or remain behind at the Temple. Some remain, but a sizable amount, including Tancrede, follow their leader. Of course, Anna thinks this is a pretty dumb idea, but kids rarely listen to their parents’ advice and off to Commandry they go. But when they arrive, Landry’s chat with de Molay goes sideways and he winds on trial before de Molay, a room full of knights and the Pope who wants Landry gone. Read: dead. Nothing good comes from it as all of Godfrey and Landry’s dirty Holy Grail laundry is aired out and it only gets worse when a bitter as hell Gawain (walking tall and sporting a sweet new leg brace courtesy of the King’s physician) embellishes the truth (and let’s be clear, the truth is already pretty damned bad) while dropping the married-woman-having-his-baby bomb. Not even the Pope’s admitting to having Godfrey killed can shut this train wreck down.
Anna & Pope Boniface (Photo by Larry Horricks/HISTORY)
Judged guilty, Landry is sentenced to excommunication and burning at the stake. Damn.
Mid-excommunication and candle-breaking (a notoriously bad omen in medieval times) Anna shows up and, after a few well-placed words in the Pope’s ear about why Landry’s life must be spared (about what, we have no clue), he immediately puts the excommunication to an end. The Pope even attempts to apologize to Landry for his actions but is interrupted and leaves at the news that the Grail is gone. Again.
Once alone, a mallet-wielding Gawain pays a visit to Landry. With a snarky “You always claimed to understand my pain,” Gawain makes it so by taking that mallet to Landry’s knee. Landry’s howl of pain says it all. Damn.
If this show is straining your sympathy/empathy muscles, you are not alone. There is entirely too much wholesale “X did Y wrong” going on and it’s as pervasive and destructive as the Black Death. Despite his “hero” status, Landry is helmet-deep in crimes against God, the church, his brethren and marriage vows while our prescribed “bad guy” King Philip is genuinely the show’s truest victim. So many shades of morality, so little time.
Wrap your mind around that for a minute and get ready for next week’s season finale. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it.
Notables:
- De Nogaret is back in full king’s counselor apparel and in Philip’s confidence as they survey the warrior knights assemble in the field battle ready for action against the Templar Knights.
- For better or worse, we’re psychologically getting closer to the King Philip who engineers the annihilation of the Templar Knights.
- Since the Pope is at Commandry that means the Grail must be as well, so Tancrede’s mission to find it during Landry’s trial also goes sideways when the Mongolian assassin Altani shows up. After a battle dance and noticing Tancrede’s Brotherhood tat, Altani heads out the window with the Grail.
- Isabella is…her father’s daughter.
Quotables:
- “Our brothers have a choice; I do not.” (Landry)
- “No matter how disappointed I might be with you, I’d never try to kill you.” (Tancrede)
- “Master, we ride against everything we know, but we are with you.” (Ulric)
- “The ones we love the most are the ones most likely to betray us.” (King Philip)
Next week’s episode: “Do You See The Blue”
