Robin Hood 3x06 Review: Do You Love Me?

[corrielle]

Best episode so far this season. Hands down.


For two and a half seasons, Prince John has been a far-off threat. He is the power behind the Sheriff, a threat personally unknown to the gang.  He's been something of a mystery. What we know about him is that he was the one behind the Black Knights and the plan to overthrow Richard in series two, and he's the kind of man who would order an entire city razed to the ground for the sake of one of his favorites.  In "Do You Love Me?" we finally got to meet him.  I, for one, was not disappointed.  This is the second casting choice in as many weeks that I've been amazingly impressed with, and I add my voice to the fandom-chorus of "Toby Stephens is awesome." He steals every scene he's in, and he has a mixture of delightfully urbane evil, sneakiness, and petulance that fit perfectly with the already established tone of the show while at the same time raising the stakes.  (He is Prince John, after all...)

The way I see it, Prince John is incredibly dangerous.  He is, I would argue, even more dangerous than the Sheriff.  Vasey may manipulate and scheme, but Vasey is completely aware of the immorality of his actions.  He simply doesn't care.  John, on the other hand, genuinely seems not to understand why Locksley might hate him after he's burned down their church.  Even after Isabella has explained it to him, he still considers himself benevolent.   John is childish and demanding and unpredictable, and it is impossible to tell how best to keep one's head on one's shoulders.  Even his own physician, who was probably around him all the time, makes the misstep of telling John the truth about Robin calling him a coward.  (Even Guy seems to have recognized this as a mistake...)  Like a child, John demands constant proof of love, and he acts as if the world exists to serve him and his pleasure, as we see in the line about how the peasants trying to put out the first "Isn't what I wanted!"  His wishes and his happiness are of the utmost importance, and woe to the one who fails to recognize this. 

The little things that Toby Stephens does to bring out John's character are... so wonderful.  He moves his hands constantly, as if his inability to stay still is a symptom of his inability to keep his attention on one thing for very long.  John seems to have Princely Attention Deficit Disorder.  He goes from pouting about the fact that the Sheriff isn't dead to hitting on Isabella without missing a beat.  Also, having set the church on fire, he proclaims, "Bored now," and rides off with the blaze still tearing through the building.  Several other times over the course of the episode, Isabella takes advantage of this tendency of his. (More about her, later, though.)  It seems to me that handling John involves the fine art of misdirection, and one mistake can cost you your life.  It has just occurred to me that he might be doing this on purpose.  If personality quirks turned out to be an act to keep those around him on edge, I would take back all of the bad things I ever said about the writers.  Whatever the reason for it, beneath Prince John's foppishness and madness is a man who is very aware of his own power, and that is what makes him terrifying.

One of the other terrifying things about John is that throughout the episode, he is concerned about love, about loyalty and obedience. He seems to take these things as a given, and because he craves them so, he can't understand why he isn't given them unconditionally.  I don't think that I would be exaggerating if I called him a sociopath.   I would say that he doesn't seem to understand human emotion, but the way that he brilliantly manipulates Guy and the Sheriff both gives the lie to that assumption.  What it is, I think, is that he understands how to use the emotions of others to get what he wants while at the same time finding the simplest of reactions from the Locksley peasants utterly incomprehensible.  He uses Guy's need for acceptance, the Sheriff's fear of losing his place, and the nobles' love of money, but these are all feelings that are based on insecurity or greed.   Perhaps John understands and uses these feelings because he has felt them, and because he has never really lost anything that could not be replaced, he has never had someone more powerful take something he valued from him... he can't even begin to empathize. (And doesn't really care to, anyway.) 

There were so many other awesome things about John.  I could talk about him for hours, but here are some of the scattered bits that really stood out to me.

I love that he sends both Guy AND the sheriff to stop the peasants putting out the fire, giving them the opportunity to kill each other.  The glee in his voice when he says "This should be entertaining…" is marvelous. He wants to watch what happens. This shows two things:  first, he's the most fabulously solipsistic person in the universe, and second, he's almost sneakier than Guy and the Sheriff put together. 

I giggled every time he said, "Oh, you adorable girl..." to Isabella.  If I'm not careful, that little speech tic is going to be finding its way into my conversations.

 

Love him flicking the blue flower over the side of his carriage as he leaves.  He's twiddling with it the whole time, even while the church is burning, and when he's leaving, *whish* over the side it goes, forgotten.  Such a small thing, but it has such significance for how his mind works.  He's done with something, it's gone. Out of sight, out of mind.

His attempt to cure the "King's Evil" is amazing.  It's so perfect and theatrical.  He eats this up.  All of the attention is on him, and that's what he lives for, and he really believes it's going to work.  He wouldn't set himself up for failure, and doesn't even understand it as a possibility.  Hence the "I ORDER YOU TO BE CURED!"  That could have been a ridiculous line, but it worked. That's the way John thinks the world works... he orders it, and it happens.  He's not used to being thwarted.

The entire scene where he interacts with the villagers is marvelous, but when he said, "I love weddings!"  The Pirates of the Caribbean fan in me automatically added, "Drinks all around!" in my best Sparrow-voice. 

In short, Prince John is the Best Evil Thing Ever and needs to be in all of the remaining episodes, you hear me, Show?  (I know, he's only going to be in a few. *sigh*)



Prince John may have owned this episode with his flamboyant, campy, wonderful insanity, but for me, the emotional heart of this episode belonged to Guy, and to some extent, to Vasey.  Now there is a sentence I never thought I'd write.

 

This first five minutes of this episode are beautiful and heartbreaking. We open with the image of a very haunted Guy of Gisborne. I have heard people say that Guy, like Robin, seems to have forgotten Marian after their scuffle in the first episode.  I always thought they were incorrect, that there was something more going on under the surface with him.  The moment I saw him lying in that bed, I knew I hadn't been making it up.  This image of his hand gripping that gorgeous brocaded blanket in his sleep was deliciously tragic.  In his fine bed, surrounded by all of the trappings of status and power that he has worked and killed and done all sorts of things to obtain, Guy is desperately unhappy.  

I've got to wonder if he's been expecting his failure to kill Robin in the last episode to come back and haunt him.  Though he seems confused when the soldiers burst through the door, his reaction seems to imply that he knows who it is he's going to go see, and he's not happy about it.  

This first scene with Prince John is amazingly shot.  The light hits Guy's face just right, and the the yellow candle light washes out his eyes and makes them golden.  It's beautiful, but it also makes Guy look very transparent and vulnberable.  Also, we don't get to see him looking up very often because of his height, and so there's a desperate quality to the way he stares up at John from his kneeling position on the floor.  I don't think I've ever seen Guy this humbled and frightened without getting angry, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.  It shook me quite deeply both times I watched it.  (R.A.'s acting gets me again...)  

 

The show immediately sets up John's relationship with Guy as a mirror of Vasey's.  The dynamic between Guy and PJ is so different right from the beginning, but everything that happens happens in the context of Guy's long past with the Sheriff.  John seems to know exactly what Guy needs in order to agree to serve him without question: kindness and confidence.  The fact that he gives Guy these things so effortlessly, so freely make me think that John is much more sane and much more manipulative than he lets on. The utter conviction in Guy's voice after John asks, "Does it please you that I have such confidence in you?" is so telling.  And then, having given him that, John goes on about Robin Hood, making Guy flinch back, shrink down. Making him want to restore John's confidence in him.   It was almost painful watching a character I care for so much being so obviously played, but it was the "I can't believe they're doing this to Guy" kind of pain and not the "This is so stupid I can feel my brain cells dying" kind of pain, which is SUCH a step up for this show.

I have a ton to say about Guy and Vasey's scenes, so I'm going to try my best to condense it down to a manageable size and remain coherent. 

This episode continued to illustrate the shift in power that has occurred between these two characters.  Vasey is no longer sure of Guy's loyalty, and where he would have ordered Guy to maintain a united front before, he now tries to convince Guy that it's a good idea, tacitly admitting that Guy is a player in this game in his own right.  In this first scene that they have together, Guy walks with him as an equal, as a possible partner, not as a subordinate.  Guy's body language and his expressions all signal that he's listening to a proposal, not taking orders, and when he doesn't respond to the Sheriff's overtures, it makes Vasey distinctly uncomfortable. 

One of the things I love about this episode is that finally, at the end of their long association, the Sheriff is being more blunt and honest with Guy than he has every been before.  I think part of this is due to his desperation, and part of it is recognizing that he can't manipulate Guy in the same way he used to any more. When he actually came out and said, "I've been thinking about our relationship... We should work on it, don't you think?" I nearly fell out of my chair in shock.  (And a bit of laughter too... Keith Allen's delivery continues to be fantastic.)  This is tantamount to admitting that the Sheriff needs Guy, and Vasey doesn't admit that kind of weakness easily.  However, he knows something is broken, and now that the chips are down, he wants to make sure that his bond with Guy is strong and  working to his advantage.   The part that really got me was the, "The man's a tyrant Gisborne.  We both know that."  I don't know what it was, but the simplicity of it, the calm, matter of fact way that Vasey said that gave me chills.  When the show's main villain admits that there's something even more scary than him out there, it's time to run for cover.

Speaking of John... it is so magical to watch Keith and Toby in a scene alone. There is so much  evil, so much deceit, so much going on, and it's wonderful fun. You can see the Sheriff's brain working over time, and watching him try to manipulate John without losing his head is great.  I swear that there's a double meaning in "he's disappointed us both."  It seems that the Sheriff is thinking, "Oh, Guy... don't you see what the Prince is doing, you idiot?  What was it I said to you about unity?" while at the same time agreeing heartily with John for show.

The Sheriff, desperate though he may be, is still clever and observant.  You can see the wheels in the Sheriff's head turning from the moment PJ says "You're not dead… what a surprise."  From that moment on, he knows what's going on.  (Poor Guy, however, is a little slower to catch on.) Also, it worries Vasey that John calls Guy after him and not .  The next scene with him in the hallway only confirms that. He's started to get jumpy, and for good reason.   However, it also seems that throughout the episode, Vasey is never the one to try to kill Guy first.  Guy always starts it. What was Vasey playing at?  I like to think that it was because he didn't want to kill Guy, and his brain was working furiously on a way to get through John's visit with both of them alive.  However, Guy forced his hand, and Vasey had no choice but to respond.  I think this because it seems to me that firing the arrow at Guy by the church was more of a "opportunity" thing and less of a planned thing.  (By the way, have we every seen Vasey fire an arrow before?  I can't remember.  No wonder he missed...)  Also, during the fight in the church, there are several moments where it seems that Vasey is simply trying to explain himself or calm Guy down enough so that they can talk, but Guy will have none of it.  He's long since decided to kill the Sheriff for his own reasons. However, it seems that up until that final confrontation, Guy can't kill Vasey while they're facing each other.  A knife in the back or some burning rafters are fine, but stabbing Vasey in the front is not. 

I think this reluctance of Guy's plays into one of the other major issues that came up between them in this episode: their replacement father/son relationship  (WHICH IS REALLY TEXTY TEXT NOW OMGFLAIL).   Back to the theme of honesty, my heart nearly stopped when the Sheriff said his "I loved you like a son, and you loved me like a father, once," speech. Keith managed to make him sound dead serious, and I swear that I saw actual regret there, and a flicker of emotion on Guy's face as well.  What happened to change that, I wonder? I want a flashback, and I want it now. It's interesting to me that having just killed the Sheriff, Guy still reacts to Vasey's last words.  When he says "don't trust him,"  and "Nothing was what it seems," I think there's an immediate "Oh god, what did I just do?" reaction on Guy's part. 

I have to hand it to the show... that last fight of theirs was brutal.  Though there were some darkly amusing moments, for the most part it was all crunching bones and twisting knives in flesh.  No blood, still, but I think it qualifies as one of the more flinch-worthy fights in the history of Robin Hood. It was emotionally brutal, too.  Not only are their Father/Son issues out on display, the one thing that has most divided them comes up.  Marian.  From the "You represent everything that's loathsome in a man" line, it was obvious that Guy had moved beyond wanting to kill Vasey for John.  He has talked again and again about wanting to be free of the Sheriff, and he thinks that the opportunity for him to rid himself of him is here at last.  And then... the line that stopped my heart for a good five seconds... "You're the reason Marian is dead, you poison everything."  Is Guy an expert at laying blame everywhere but himself?  Of course he is.  Is there some credence to what he says here? Of course there is.  Guy can forgive (or overlook) the Sheriff treating him terribly, for the abuse, the condescension, the awful things he's required of Guy.  But he can't do the same for the role Vasey played in driving him and Marian apart. (And I stand by my claim that the Sheriff had done everything in his power to undermine their trust and get the two of them at each other's throats by the time they set foot in the Holy Land.) Finally... the fact that it's Guy mentioning her, Guy still suffering her loss makes my little shipper heart dance a little.  Then, I realize it's because he's carrying around the guilt for her death on his pretty, well-built shoulders, and I have the urge to go cry in a corner. It's so obvious that he's tormented by what he's done.  As he should be, I know, I know, but he hasn't forgotten.  What he did to her is with him every moment of every day, and you can see it in every move he makes.  Getting to see it in such stark terms was both amazing and heartbreaking.  Fangirling aside, I love the way both actors played this.  At the end of all things, Guy was more honest and forthright about a lot of things than we've ever seen him before, and it was perfect. 

The last scene with Prince John and the tooth could have been cheesy.  It could have been badly done.  But it wasn't. It wasn't too much, it wasn't overdone.  In fact, the way that Guy walks into the great hall and with no emotion whatsoever puts the tooth on the table reminds me of the way Guy calmly announces Robin's death in the first episode when he thought going over the cliff had killed him.  Of course, PJ immediately camps it up, but Guy's reactions are subtle and understated and restrained. 

I have asked, along with the rest of fandom, why on earth Guy would kill the Sheriff for John, but not for Marian.  The answer I've come up with has two parts.  First, Guy knows that John is more secure path to power than Marian was when she promised him Richard's favor.  He couldn't know how much pull Marian would have with Richard, but he's getting the promises directly from John this time, and they are especially potent because of John's "soon I will be king" speech.  Second, Guy is more desperate and unbalanced now.  He has more reason than he ever did to kill Vasey, and all of the reasons that he put up with him in the first place are quickly becoming irrelevant.  Things have changed, and Guy's hatred of Vasey has come to outweigh any use the Sheriff might be to him.  In fact, I think that Marian's death is one of the reasons Guy would choose to kill him now and not then.  I'm anxious to see how Guy functions until Vasey shows up again. (And yes, I thought for a moment that Guy had actually killed him, and I was ready to be mightily impressed with the show for pulling that off mid-series with fandom none the wiser.  Then, I saw the hand-twitch and wasn't sure whether to be happy that there was more Keith or upset that they'd made Guy's "killing" him less meaningful.)



I continue to find Isabella fascinating. She's smart, quick on her feet, and observant.

Throughout the episode, she seems to be having unspoken conversations with her brother.  When she comes up on the Sheriff and Guy in the hallway, she sees the knife, she knows what's going on, and she says nothing.  Mostly because Guy's look at her was practically screaming, "Don't say anything so that I can get rid of this crazy person!"  I am fully convinced that Guy's "Talking about the future" line was aimed squarely at her.  Also, in Locksley she seems to be sending him "Aren't you going to do something?  You're not, are you, you coward?" looks that Guy doesn't seem to take very well.  (Though... what could he do?  John is Prince, and he has all of the guards to back him up.)  And finally, during the final scene, Guy's glance over at Isabella seems to be a signal for her to stand up and do her "Long Live Prince John" thing before John can get into too much of a tizzy about the outlaws and start making unreasonable demands.  She may claim to hate Guy, but they work together seamlessly.  (By the way, I love that we got to hear the return of Guy "I know better than you do how to protect you" Gisborne when Isabella comes back from being "robbed."  Some things never change.)

She's also a master of manipulating Prince John.  She knows exactly what to say, and exactly how much to push him.  It seems that the trick is demonstrating absolute, unconditional loyalty and love, telling him exactly what he wants to hear 99% of the time, and occasionally testing the waters to see what you can get away with.  I think that lines like, "How can one disagree with one's king?" and repeatedly calling him "King John" allow her to gently lecture him about being benevolent and reminding him that burning down a church with people in it is not the best way to get them to love him.  Also, incredibly enough, it seems that John knows that she helped to put out the fire and doesn't care, mostly because she's willing to regale him with stories of her capture by outlaws that highlight how wonderful John is.  Isabella gets an A+ in flattery, and she even makes it look pretty. The one time she fails, though, is at the church.  I think that by trying to get John to bless the couple and interact with the villagers, she was trying to distract him enough that he'd forget that they had helped Robin by feeding his ego and surrounding him by cheery, happy peasants who, for the moment, love him.  And for a while, it seemed like it had worked.  I thought she thought  so too, which was why her face went from smug satisfaction to dismay when John ordered the church burned to the ground. (By the way, guys, I think that they burned down a real set piece here.  That was one impressive fire.)

And now, Isabella/Robin.  I am torn about this 'ship.  I love Isabella so much I can hardly write about her coherently, and so it's hard for me to dislike her scenes with Robin because she is so wonderful in them. So, here is what I have decided.  I don't mind that Isabella is romantically attached to Robin. (Though I'm hoping she has motives of her own.)  After all, he's rakish, kind of handsome, and showing her more affection than she probably ever got from her husband.  So... I like what seeing her interact with Robin tells me about her.  However, I've swung back to being blindingly furious at Robin for going after her.  I know it's been a year.  I know he has the right to move on.  I don't care.  I'm going to agree with the portion of fandom that says that moving on to the sister of the man who stabbed your wife is not okay, especially after you've only known her for a little while. With that in mind, here are some things I loved about Isabella and Robin's interactions:

"I judge people by what I find!"  I LOVE that she puts Robin in his place without being self-righteous.  How on earth does he justify the "You're a Gisborne, shouldn't you be burning the church instead of helping?" bit.  He makes stupid split-second judgments about people all the time, and I'm so glad she called him on it.  Also, I like that she stayed to help with the water line.  Though she may seem cool and collected, there was nothing to be gained and everything to lose from staying, and she does it anyway. She does have a heart.  I think you can also see it in the conversation she and Robin have about Guy.  When she says she hates her brother, there is a certain amount of melancholy in her voice.  I think she doesn't want to hate him, but Guy's actions (or lack of action) so far have given her no choice.  I think that the line that made me love her most, though, was "That's not something to be proud of, is it? To share hatred?"  So insightful.  So calling Robin on his bullshit.  And so self aware.  When Robin made his remark about sharing hatred, the show was really at a tipping point for me.  She could agree with him, and I could say and watch another opportunity to be complicated sail by the writers, but... they surprised me.  Isabella disagreed with him.  She's not proud of her hatred, doesn't hold it close to her and nurse it like Rogin does.  It gives me great hope for her as a character, and a sliver of hope that she may someday see her brother in a different light.

And now... the kiss scene.  Once again, I am quite torn here.  I can't stand Robin and adore pretty much everything that Isabella does. So... here's what was good about it:

Giving Robin the money for the church.  Quite humanizing, and we got to see her very shapely thigh. Lovely.

Not letting Robin have his martyr complex.  "You might be more helpful alive..." Thank you, Isabella.

The way she raises her eyebrows at him just before he kisses her as if to say, "Come on, I dare you..."  Mischievous and cute and a bit saucy... I love it.

The way she whispers, "Stop, thief," made me grin an insane amount.  Because she is so adorable when she says it I can hardly stand it.



I have completely ignored the outlaws up until now.  Mostly because they were uninteresting and I don't have much to say.  However, I will say that... Kate managed to be less than annoying.  In fact, for an episode where she got hurt and a lot of attention was focused on her, I didn't hate her much at all.  (Of course, that's probably because my brain was doing something like, OMG Guy is trying to kill Vasey and Prince John is so amazing and evil and fantabulous. I didn't have time to pick at Kate.  However, going back and watching again... she still wasn't bad. 

I kind of like Kate's smile after Tuck says John'll be carrying "more than a little" gold.  It's cute and a bit mischievous and understated.  At last, she's just one of the gang, not overwhelming it with the force of her Suishenss. And I kind of like her clothes in this first scene.  They're not half as bad as they have been…

 

I can kind of buy her being the one with the disease. It makes sense.  She's the least likely to be recognized by Guy and the Sheriff.  Allan? Definitely no. Much? Recently branded in the Sheriff's presence. John? Kind of tall and memorable.  Tuck? Recently seen by Guy and the Sheriff to be working for Robin in a very vocal way. Who doest that leave?  Kate.  And she manages to be kind of cutely self-deprecating with her "I already look half-dead."  

 

She doesn't get any more lines than Robin or Tuck in the village when they're recruiting help. I can live with her being persuasive to men she's known for most of her life in Locksley, even if she does get the "it's not treason" thing wrong.

The only bad thing about her this episode isn't really a bad thing about her.  It's the way that the writers are horribly underusing Allan and Much and making them fall all over her, which isn't really her fault.  I almost thought it was cute... the first time they both ran off looking for herbs.  But that's all Allan and Much seemed to do all episode - worry about Kate.  (Ok, so Allan got to use his "Superior Knowledge of the Castle" skills again, but we've done that before.)

 



How cool was Benjamin Palmer, PJ's double and physician extrordinare?  Can he come back for more episodes?

I like his little smile after he proclaims himself "neither his supporter, nor his apologist."  I love that he's calm, competent, and willing to step in and help Kate.  He adds his bit of knowledge to what Tuck is already doing without taking over.  Together, he and Tuck could probably keep people pretty well patched up…

 

He's also quite willing to help Robin with the King's Evil plan, and quick on the uptake when Isabella throws it at him with very little warning.
I love how HE gets John too… he corrects himself with the "because you put me… because the SHERIFF put me in this cage!" And John is too excited to even hear the first part. *snerk*

I swear, when John was demanding that Palmer tell the story of Robin cursing him, I was hearing the scene between the Sheriff and Sir Hiss from the Disney cartoon where they're both calling John something like the, "weasly sniveling groveling phony king of England,"  and John comes in and has a hissy fit. *snerk*

Next week:

Guy finds out about Isabella too early for my taste, Tuck doesn't trust her, Robin kisses her some more, and GUY IS THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM!