Knightfall: Blood Drenched Stone

Knightfall: Blood Drenched Stone | Season 2, Episode 6 | Air Date: April 29, 2019 | Rating: 8.5/11 |

Sister Anne, Tancrede & Landry

*SPOILERS AHEAD* Episode recaps (with random bits of commentary) occur in this space, so if your mind’s not ready to know what happened in this week’s episode of Knightfall, avert your eyes. Now. Ready? Let’s roll.

It’s war between King Philip and the knights of Chartres Temple are at war while Princess Isabella had her own agenda.

UNDER SIEGE

A siege on the Chartres Temple and its inhabitants has begun. As King Philip, his army led by Gawain and Pope Clement V stage outside Chartres’ walls, the first order of business is Pope Clement officially presenting the Templars with King Philips’ accusations of heresy and requesting their surrender to face a fair trial. Of course, Landry calls out the Pope as the king’s lapdog that he is, calls their surrender guaranteed death and even Berenger agrees. While Temple Master De Molay chooses to obey the Pope, democracy amongst the Templars rules and every knight is given the choice whether to leave the temple and surrender or stay and resist. The majority of the Templar Knights remain to defend Chartres while a small number along with De Molay surrender to King Philip: a decision De Molay comes to quickly regret when Philip shows his true face of being more interested in Chartres’ defenses such as the sally port (secret entrance/exit) and dismantling the Templars for good.

The French army attacks, the Templars defend as King Philip unveils his new favorite weapon: a gunpowder cannon (or as a stunned Tancrede called it, a “casket breathing fire”). Kelton saves the moment with a well-aimed fire arrow which blows up the cache of canons on the field, but the appearance of a siege tower under construction outside the temple is a whole other cause for concern. So a team of knights sneaks into the French camp to destroy it: six Templars go out, but only three return. While they succeed in burning it down, Kelton and two others are captured and under torture (or the threat of it) Kelton reveals the location of the sally port. Using another fire breathing casket, the army blows through the sally port, storms the temple and all battle hell breaks loose.

King Philip & Landry

After Landry hustles Sister Anne, baby Eve and the wet nurse into a hidden chamber, it’s knights against the French army and Templar against former Templar as Berenger falls to Gawain. Bodies and bloodshed. When Landry joins the melee, he comes face to face with King Philip (who still pretty much sucks at hand-to-hand combat especially against Landry) and beats him down in short order. King Philip’s only saving grace turns out to be Prince Louis who prevents Landry from landing further or even fatal blows on his father. Perhaps he’s saving the honor for himself.

The tables turn and, with his sword at Landry’s throat, King Philip commands the Templars to drop their weapons and surrender. Against Landry’s orders, they do. King Philip has won and he is taking Landry back to Paris.

ODDS & ENDS

Princess Isabella is proving to be quite the enigma. Not in terms of her deviousness (rest in peace, Prince Lluis) but her motivations and her end game (Avengers reference intended). What appeared to be a friendly meal in the name of sisterhood with her sister-in-law Princess Margaret leaves a ruffied Princess Margaret the victim of a salacious sexual setup that gives her maid the impression that she’s had a three-way with Princess Isabella’s favorite boy toys, Gautier and Phillipe. But the boy toys fare much worse: after happily doing Princess Isabella’s bidding and looking forward to safe passage out of the country, she has them executed aka getting rid of the evidence.

You have to wonder, if she’s envious of Princess Margaret’s seeming love match with her brother, Prince Louis, especially considering that she loathes her betrothal to Edward II of England.

Prince Louis now knows that King Philip, and not Landry, murdered his mother but he’s keeping that card to himself at the moment. When he reaches the army’s camp, Prince Louis lies to King Philip reporting that even though Landry escaped him, he did kill Landry’s child as planned. Taking note of King Philip’s outright joy in an innocent child’s death, Prince Louis stokes King Philip’s Landry-hatred by making an artfully ambiguous oath: “I swear by all that’s holy I will see the wretch that murdered my mother pay for his awful crime.”

Basically, he just swore to kill his father, King Philip. To his father, King Philip’s face.

Two episodes ago Talus took off to warn other Templar houses in France about Pope Boniface’s death and the dangers of King Philip: will we ever see him again?

King Philip

NOTABLES:

• As Berenger foreshadowed: end times.
• There’s nothing like impending death to make two people confess their love and want to be together should they survive…as did Tancrede and Sister Anne which they sealed with a kiss.
• Vasant confesses to being an imposter: he assumed the identity of the real Vasant who died enroute to Chartres Temple.
• No sooner than Berenger and Landry finally find common ground and purpose, Berenger dies.   

QUOTABLES:

• “Landry was right about you.” (Master De Molay to King Philip)
• “Most every man is a lie at some point.”(Landry)
• “What could be better for two radiant princesses than cock and wine?” (Princess Isabella)
• “What are you waiting for? For your balls to drop?” (Kelton echoing Talus)

Next week’s episode: “Death Awaits”

All Photos: Larry Horricks & José Sarmento Matos courtesy of HISTORY