Summary
The Winter King does its own riff on the Red Wedding in another mean-spirited episode.
Episode 8 of The Winter King Season 1 is another rather nasty and mean-spirited outing. It isn’t as shocking as the baby-stabbing third episode, but it’s still quite clearly designed to be shocking in a way that’ll inevitably rile some viewers. A bit much? A bit try-hard? Yeah, maybe, but it makes for an engaging drama all the same, and one in which it’s difficult to root for even the supposed heroes.
You’ll recall that in Episode 7, Arthur’s lusty courtship of Guinevere instead of Gorfydd’s daughter Ceinwyn was almost certain to have significant political ramifications, and – spoiler alert – it does. But there are also other matters to consider, such as a rapidly brewing religious conflict.
We still probably haven’t seen the extent of all the bad actors creeping their way into the limelight to capitalize on the power vacuum following Uther’s death, but another emerges this week in the form of Cadwys, the caretaker of Isca, one of Dumnonia’s little vassal states.
Cadwys was the guy who encouraged Owain to raid the tin mines. Here, he turns up at court to proposition Arthur. He’d like to fulfill Owain’s previous role as guardian of Mordred, which would give him a bit more respect and political standing. Had he set Owain’s death up for this very purpose? That remains unclear, but either way, Arthur isn’t having it.
Why does Arthur kill Cadwys?
This isn’t Arthur being unreasonable, necessarily. Cadwys is trying to throw the weight of Isca around in political agreements, but he doesn’t actually have any power to pledge support or make threats – he’s already under Dumnonian rule. Needless to say, Cadwys takes the rejection rather badly.
Jilted, Cadwys declares Isca a free and independent kingdom and takes Kernow’s tin mining camp hostage, forcing Arthur to intervene. Despite Arthur’s repeated efforts to resolve the situation peacefully, Cadwys continues to insist that Arthur is just power-mad and couldn’t wait to claim the kingdom following the death of his father.
Cadwys attacks Arthur, and even after losing the subsequent fight, goes for a cheap shot. Arthur has no choice but to skewer him with Excalibur, which was perfectly justified but, like seemingly everything else that happens to him, isn’t exactly politically sound.
Does Nimue poison the Christians?
Nimue has been through a lot in the first season of The Winter King, but she clearly has no intentions of letting bygones be bygones and lightening up a bit. She’s particularly incensed this week by Sansum, the young priest who married Arthur and Guinevere in Bishop Bedwin’s stead. In exchange for that favor, Arthur promised him he could construct a church, which was clearly something he thought Sansum would either forget or be too nervous to ask for.
No such luck, though. Not only does Sansum want Arthur to make good on his promise of allowing the church’s construction, but he has also already chosen a site for it – right next to Avalon, which is determinedly pagan. Nimue, who is already furious with Arthur for not having killed Gundleus, is so angry about this that she “curses” the Christians. Of course, what she really does is poison them.
Sansum sees through this immediately and marches on Avalon demanding justice, which almost results in a major riot. Arthur, once again, is forced to intervene. It should be obvious to him that Sansum’s choice of site for the church was a clear provocation, but Nimue’s absence of guilt means he has no choice but to side against her. She has obviously been spending far too much time with Merlin, who wrote off everything that happened to her as the will of the Gods. Nimue, too, counters that if the Christians happened to get poisoned, well – it must have been divinely ordained.
You just can’t argue with some people, can you?
Morgan goes to Powys
The political matter of most concern following Arthur’s marriage to Guinevere is how Gorfydd will take it. With the imminent Saxon invasion, Arthur has rather naively assumed that he’ll put Britain over personal grievances, but Morgan isn’t so sure. Neither was Bishop Bedwin, which was why he rode to Powys last week to try and smooth things over.
When a note from Bedwin finds its way to court, Morgan heads out to Powys to essentially buy Gorfydd’s loyalty, though she does, after some prompting from Guinevere, take Derfel with her for protection. She doesn’t want to keep Gorfydd waiting or give the wrong impression by rolling there too deep, so the two of them head out on what she assumes is going to be an entirely diplomatic affair.
‘The Winter King’ (Credit – MGM)
No such luck. What Morgan is actually walking into is The Winter King’s equivalent of the Red Wedding.
After accepting Morgan’s golden gift, Gorfydd acts with extremely suspicious courtesy. However, his true feelings – he says the word “whore” quite often in various contexts – become distressingly clear.
Dragging Morgan and Derfel outside, Gorfydd reveals Bishop Bedwin, crucified but still just about alive. Morgan, who had a very close relationship with him, is distraught – even more so when Gorfydd runs him through with a rake.
His point made, Gorfydd sends Derfel back to Caer Cadarn to let Arthur know what has happened. One doesn’t imagine he’ll take the news especially well.
Read More: The Winter King Season 1, Episode 9 Recap
