Summary
Robin Hood finally unites its key concurrent storylines in Episode 6, but the hour – which feels overlong – could do with a little more excitement.
Robin Hood and his Not-So-Merry Men have definitely crossed a line. They’re not just bandits now, but fully-fledged outlaws. Their old lives are gone. And their new lives might determine the fate of Sherwood, especially since Episode 6 of the MGM+ adaptation, “Bound by Love, Divided by Lies”, has finally managed to find a way to knit the political plot into the Sheriff’s hunt for Robert Locksley. Thanks to some unintentionally funny Clark Kent/Superman-style mistaken identity shenanigans, everyone, including the Sheriff himself on one side and Marian on the other, is putting the pieces together and figuring out who Robin Hood is, which is sure to complicate things. And at one point, Queen Eleanor describes Rob as “the Prince of Thieves”, just for the sake of fan service.
It was about time that the two disparate narrative threads were tied together, since it was becoming ridiculous that the scale Rob’s crimes – both stealing the money for his own bounty, bankrupting Hereford Abbey, and then freeing the Millers – was going unnoticed, especially given the political implications of the Sheriff’s costly response to them. Since Queen Eleanor’s aide, William Marshall, witnessed the latter raid, Eleanor decides to personally visit Nottingham to get to the bottom of the whole affair.
The Sheriff is trying to play crisis management by strong-arming the Saxon leaders into helping him apprehend what he’s adamant is a solely Saxon band of outlaws, which is a fair assumption to make – and almost correct – but downplays what is becoming Rob’s very serious function as an avatar of rebellion. Naturally, he doesn’t want to admit anything of the sort in front of Eleanor, and is still painfully unaware of Robin Hood being Robert Locksley. What immediately stands out about Eleanor’s presence is that she seems significantly more switched-on than everyone else, seeing right through the Bishop’s nonsense and getting the lay of the land right away.
Eleanor, of course, has a plan of her own. She wants to frame Nottingham’s outlaw issues as a serious disaster to lure her husband, King Henry II, back from France, where she can keep an eye on his health and look to install her preferred son, Prince Richard, on the throne. For this, she proposes that all the local rulers sign a writ pledging their allegiance to the crown, which seems like a win-win for them, since they get to prove their loyalty while also receiving some needed support to deal with Robin Hood.
The Sheriff doesn’t see it this way, though. He’s a cousin of Henry II and doesn’t love the idea of him being ousted, which he’s certain is Eleanor’s ultimate plan, and he also doesn’t want to admit that, as the steward of the Midlands, he has allowed the situation to get completely out of control and needs a bailout.
Robin Hood Episode 6 finally reunites Marian with Rob, since she accompanies the queen back to Nottingham and sneaks off to the Locksley estate in the hopes of reconnecting with her lover. She’s also hoping to enact the second stage of Eleanor’s plan, which is to facilitate a meeting between the Queen and Robin Hood so that they can cause as much chaos in Sherwood as possible, mandating Henry II’s return to sort everything out. I wasn’t entirely fond of this since it seems improbable that Marian hasn’t thought for a second that Rob is Robin Hood – the very characteristics that she assumes make him likely to know the outlaw also strongly suggest that he is the outlaw, but she never puts the pieces together.
Even more hilariously, Marian decides to play her hand and push Eleanor to grant Rob clemency if she manages to arrange the meeting. Eleanor is willing to play ball here, but, of course, during her meeting with Robin Hood, it becomes clear to her almost immediately that they’re one and the same, since “Robin Hood” asks Eleanor to release Marian from her service. It’s a bit of a giveaway. Even this, though, doesn’t seem too much for the Queen, since she needs Robin Hood to ramp up the frequency of his attacks to lure her husband to England, leaving the throne in France unattended, and, ultimately, to assassinate the king himself. That’s her endgame.
Lest it be a little too easy for Eleanor to just stroll into the Midlands and have everything go her way, the Sheriff makes a stand by not only refusing to sign the writ but also burning it right in front of her, accusations of treason be damned. Priscilla also seduces William Marshall, presumably for some kind of long-game counter-spy shenanigans. I still find myself – like her father, presumably – wishing she had something to do other than sleep her way to relevance, but we are where we are.
Either way, there are still twists and turns on the horizon, since Marian doesn’t know that her lover is Robin Hood, even though her father implies he was responsible for the death of her brother. And Eleanor’s efforts to consolidate power in the region have ultimately failed, even though she has emboldened Robin Hood and his Merry Men to cause as much carnage as possible. So, there’s plenty still to play for in Sherwood. Hopefully the next episode’s shenanigans are a bit more exciting, though.
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