Summary
Continuing a run of pretty decent episodes, “The Blade of the Three” delivers on its promise of a major heel-turn as things start to shape up in the realm.
This recap of The Outpost Season 2, Episode 5, “The Blade of the Three”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Running a kingdom is hard, especially when your bestie is a demon-summoning warrior from a deadly race with a bone to pick. The Blackbloods were previously thought all but extinct; Talon was the last of them, but already in the second season of The Outpost, we’ve met two more, one of whom was psychopathic. There’s no wonder Gwynn is having second thoughts about this whole demon army business in “The Blade of the Three”, and it isn’t much of a surprise that she’s getting a bit xenophobic about it, either.
Elsewhere, two subplots begin to develop further, both in ways more preferable to their original directions. Janzo’s ridiculous attempts to force himself on Talon are giving way to a more genuine romance with Naya, which was obviously the point all along but was handled in such an awful way that there’s still work to be done in making this development stick. The sisterly rivalry between the Mistress and Gertrusha continues, also, with the former pathetically hoarding gold and the latter bragging about living in a mansion, being waited on hand and foot, and having the ear of the future king.
But is Tobin the future king? It’s not looking likely in “The Blade of the Three”, in which Gwynn rightly declares him a lecherous drunkard and refuses his marriage proposal. She isn’t willing to compromise her own morals for the good of the realm — but isn’t that what a monarch is supposed to do? She has no money and no men, and if the Prime Order arrives on the doorstep, the Outpost will be lost.
The solution comes from an unlikely source: The Mistress. If she’s made advisor to the queen and treasurer of the realm, the Mistress can supply plenty of funding — entirely by illicit means, of course, but Gwynn would rather not hear the details. She’s willing to compromise on her ideals after all, just not for a “dolt” like Tobin.
The Mistress’s appointment has a bit of a knock-on effect, though. After bragging about it to Gertrusha, the latter, not willing to allow her sister to get one up on her, resolves to stay and make Tobin a king. But to do that he’ll have to stop acting like a petulant little kid — and also stop drinking, which he isn’t exactly thrilled about.
But Tobin is also concerned about his legacy, and if he can’t marry and have children with the queen, then his legacy should be to serve her and help her retake the realm — doing the right thing for the right reasons, as he phrases it in “The Blade of the Three”, with the Mistress treating his pledge with all the comedic double-takes it deserves. The long-term surety of his word remains in question, but for once the political future of the Outpost doesn’t seem too grim.
Garret continues his new service in “The Blade of the Three”, which mostly consists of him smooching Sana, his pretty healer friend. But since he imagines her rather clearly as Gwynn, it’s clear his indoctrination isn’t complete; he’s kept in check by that magic ketchup that he needs to chug, already setting up the moment when he inevitably goes cold turkey.
But he isn’t cold turkey yet. Wythers is able to track him to the idyllic capital where he’s living, and by impersonating one of the robed monk-like figures father is quickly reunited with his only son. The problem is that his son is still under the influence. He won’t return to a false queen and a traitorous Blackblood, so he summons the guards to take Wythers into custody in the hope than Sana can “fix” him. It doesn’t bode well.
And it gets worse. “The Blade of the Three” ends with Garret pledging his complete allegiance to the Holy Three — and his first task is to kill his own father. And he does! With Wythers bleeding out on the floor, Garret is tasked with returning to the Outpost to kill Talon and kidnap Gwynn.
State of the Realm
- I haven’t mentioned this before, but it’s worth doing so now: This show’s treatment of Talon is pretty admirable. Jessica Green is very beautiful, but while every male character immediately fancies her, the show never leans against her implausible gorgeousness to titillate the audience. There’s a clear affection for the pulp fantasy of the 80s here, but the respectfulness is contemporary.
- Someone finally admitted that Janzo doesn’t need “fixing”. It’s about time!
