Summary
Robin Hood delivers plenty of action in Episode 8 as the Sheriff of Nottingham lures Rob into an obvious trap. With only two episodes remaining, things aren’t going especially well for the Saxon.
Can you call yourself a proper outlaw if you lose a sword fight to Sean Bean? It’s worth thinking about. The guy dies in everything he’s in. And while it’s only right that Robin Hood establish the bona fides of the Sheriff of Nottingham beyond his simple capacity for scheming and having people executed under false pretences, you don’t want to inadvertently make your protagonist look like a moron either. Then again, Robin spends most of Episode 8, “The True Price of Defiance”, worrying more about his love life than his own countrymen, so he’s not exactly off to a racing start on the intelligence front.
His fellow Saxons are in peril, you’ll recall, because the Sheriff decided to arrest them for Robin Hood’s crimes, and they’ll be executed if Robin doesn’t surrender within a week. It’s not a bad idea – pragmatically, I mean, not morally – since one of the captured Saxons is Robin’s uncle, Gamewell, and a true hero isn’t going to pass up the opportunity to theatrically rescue one of his own. But the Sheriff doesn’t believe for a moment that Robin will surrender himself, but will instead plan a daring raid on his castle – a raid that the sheriff will be ready for.
In case it isn’t obvious, the Sheriff is pretty unequivocally a villain at this point. He’s always a villain in Robin Hood stories, obviously, but it’s worth mentioning since MGM+’s version has sought to be a fairly even-handed portrayal in a lot of respects, and he still has a pretty solid point that he made a concerted effort to spare Hugh Locksley. It was, as he gloats to Gamewell, a Saxon forester, Alwin, who sold him out in the first place. But he’s now so obsessed with Robin Hood’s capture – especially given its implications on his own reputation and power in the region – that any notions of fairness are long-since out of the window.
While his uncle and countrymen are languishing away in captivity, Robin himself is infiltrating Westminster under the guise of a royal guard, a ruse supported by Little John’s compatriot, Ibrahim Al-Rashid. Rob’s trying to deliver a message to Queen Eleanor, but crucially, he’s delivering it by means of Maid Marian, which gives him an opportunity to try and patch up their relationship, but unsurprisingly, she’s not really having it. Rob’s smug insistence that she still loves him is met with the scorn it deserves, really. Whether she loves him or not is kind of irrelevant, since, as she explained during their previous encounter, she doesn’t want anything to do with him or his violent choices.
To what extent Marian’s decision is informed by her burgeoning relationship with Prince John is unclear for now, but there’s definitely something between them, and Marian is getting used to being at court. So too is Priscilla, despite having only just arrived. The pomp and pageantry suit her, as does the catty back-and-forth she immediately engages in with Celine De Fitzou, Marshal’s previous mistress. Both of these two clearly have designs on influential positions in – or at least adjacent to – the monarchy, which makes Robin’s offer of an outlaw’s woodland life a bit less tempting.
Robin, needless to say, plays right into the Sheriff’s hands. His raid on the Nottingham castle forms the centrepiece of Robin Hood Episode 8, a cunning plan informed by Milange’s knowledge of all the hidden passageways and entrances dating back to its original Saxon construction, and immediately ruined by the Sheriff himself waiting in ambush, having accurately predicted the exact move his nemesis would make. Henry Miller pays for Rob’s predictability with his life, his body left behind by the rest of the Merry Men when they’re forced to flee, while Rob is held up duelling the Sheriff over the castle’s parapets. The Sheriff would have had Rob dead to rights, too, if it hadn’t been for the timely intervention of Ralph/Rosemary, who, by the way, has seen Rob’s relationship difficulties with Marian as an opportunity to make a more concrete romantic move.
As is becoming standard, the Sheriff is a step ahead all the same. Among the freed Saxon hostages is a spy, who is now positioned to report back on all of Rob’s activities. And there is very much discord in and amongst the Saxon camp on account of Gamewell’s news, shared with him by the Sheriff, that it was Alwin who sold out Hugh in the first place. Rob immediately plans to take his revenge by executing Alwin, and even though he ultimately decides against it, if for no other reason than optics, Alwin forces his hand by attacking him. Will Rob killing Alwin ruin his good standing as a local hero? Will the Sheriff’s spy stay loyal or switch sides? Will Marian come around? All these and more questions will presumably be answered in the final couple of episodes.
RELATED:
