Robin Hood 1x04 "Parent Hood"

This episode is one of my favorites but also one of the most sad and depressing of the series. I loved Roy. I know he wasn't in it for very long, but I loved him. When the show first came out, I was instantly obsessed. I loved it from the beginning. So in that first month I actually rewatched the first few episodes several times and grew attached to the characters instantly. I wasn't expecting to lose any of them so soon. This episode felt like getting punched in the face. I never forgot about him either. I have a tendency to get attached to characters quickly and even if they die early on and the other characters seem to move on, I don't. It's a problem. I went through the same thing with Angel too (if you watched the show, you know who I mean, and it was even harder with that one because I was a fan of the actor too and he died not long after). But anyways, let's get into it. This one's gonna be rough...

Thoughts While Watching:

• I love that cute little wink Robin gave Roy as he ran past, leading the guards into a trap. And that adorable, cocky laugh Robin gave Guy! Jonas is a very charismatic Robin Hood.
• Aww, everyone's giving Roy hugs! Poor Much though lol
• And here's the baby! I love that everybody thinks the baby crying is actually Much lmao
• "What is it? I mean, I know what it is, but..." omg Much...
• "What?! That's how you shut them up!" Omg Allan...you are seriously lacking in parenting skills. I love that scene though. Poor baby.
• Geez, Much. Blaming poor Roy. None of the rest of you thought of the tracks either.
• This baby is very obviously a doll. If that were a real newborn, it would probably get shaken baby syndrome from this.
• Guy knows that's his baby. Is he glad that Robin found it and now he knows Robin won't let it just die out there? If Robin delivers the baby to a convent or wherever he was supposed to take him, the child can't be traced back to Guy. Was that his plan all along or was he really ready to just let his son die out there? He doesn't seem to care at all. I really hate him. I'm sorry, I know this fandom is like 90% Guy fangirls, but I just can't.
• Interesting to watch this episode right now, given the state of things in the world. There was a pestilence in Clun, it's over now, and they're debating about whether or not to lift the quarantine. The sheriff, of course, wants to keep them under quarantine until they starve to death so he doesn't have to provide them with food and can use the land for his garrison. Marian obviously objects to this because she's a sane human being with a soul. Instead of making a real case here, the sheriff decides to be his usual misogynistic self and claim that Marian is only upset because she's still a virgin. Apparently once you've had some good dick you stop caring about whether or not poor people starve to death. Oh, wait, no...that's not how this works at all. Good try, Vaisey.
• I'm already depressed. "My name is Royston White. I fight for Robin Hood and King Richard." I'm about to cry already. He's so brave and tough and completely unyielding. My poor baby, Roy! 
• The bad guys are pretty clever in this one. The horse tracks, using his name to find out if he has relatives nearby to use against him, all pretty solid plans. I've gotta give credit where it's due.
• Here comes Annie and Sir Douchebag of Gisborne refuses to even give her an answer about taking their son to the convent or whether or not he cried. I hate him. I seriously hate him. I hate all guys who sleep with a woman and then treat her like shit afterward, but men who abandon their kids are the worst (I mean in the normal way, like fighting paying child support or not wanting visitation). Men who actually leave their kids to die are the devil incarnate. How did this pig become the most popular character? (Sorry, Guy fans. No offense. I know that was harsh.)
• This conversation:
• Roy: Why do you smile at him, Annie?
• Annie: He has another side. A side he cannot show.
• Roy: You're wrong.
• Annie: Be careful. If I had position, I would be his wife.
• Roy: He tell you that, did he?
• Annie: I'm the mother of his child!
• Me: Wake up, honey. I've been in her shoes before. I can relate to her complete naivety here and it's heartbreaking. But Guy was literally just being an epic asshole to her like five seconds ago. Roy is spot on here. Even though I love him, Roy's kind of an ass too with the way we've seen him treat other people and if I had to guess, I'd say he's probably known many other asshole men in his life. I'm sure he's all too familiar with the bullshit lines men give women to get them into bed. He knew what was really up with that line Guy fed her about how he would marry her if he could. I feel so bad for Annie. She's so trusting and forgiving of a man who deserves absolutely none of it.
• Poor Annie is in such denial here. My heart breaks for her. But Roy is clever and putting two and two together. He knows what "good man" Guy really did with that baby.
• "For every man there is a purpose which he sets up in his life. Let yours be the doing of all good deeds. That's us, lads." I LOVE this line. Allan seems so suspicious of Robin reading and quoting the Quran. It's interesting given the development I know is coming. And I love Robin's response, "I wanted to know what it was that we were fighting." Still loving the anti-war vibes. Interesting too that Will didn't even know what the Quran is.
• Ew! The sheriff painting his toe nails! Gross.
• "Yes, what an amazing coincidence. See, when people say things like, 'I'd sooner kill me own mother,' they don't usually have that statement tested." He's such a great villain.
• I love this scene. When they bring in Roy's mother, Guy goes to the door and raises his arm at the reveal with that look on his face like he's on a game show revealing the prize behind door number two.
• Now we have the main story of the episode revealed. Roy is faced with a choice: kill Robin or the sheriff will kill his mother. Poor Roy.
• "Well, he can't come with either! What are you gonna do? Give him a little dagger? A little bow and quiver?" I love Allan!
• Much is actually pretty clever here, thinking of the horse trick. Everyone acts like he's being ridiculous because he was wrong and I know a lot of that was because of the way he addressed the issue, but it legitimately was an important detail to consider. 
• Why did Roy lie about the baby? It has nothing to do with the sheriff's deal with his mother. He could've just told him the truth. It could be because he wanted to get Robin alone but he couldn't have known that Robin would want just the two of them to go to Knighton.
• If they did believe the mother took Seth out to the forest to abandon him, why are they bringing him back to her? She could do it again! I'm calling Childline lol
• Marian's wearing too much blush in this scene. It bothers me.
• Poor Marian is always being sexually harassed by someone.
• Robin and Marian are very openly conversing here in front of the guards. Not wise.
• Robin and Roy are delivering the food Marian brought, but they're doing it 'social distancing' style by shooting it into the village. Marian says they should just throw it instead. Here's my question: why do either one? The pestilence is gone. There's no need for this social distancing. The guards were blocking the path into the village, but Roy tied them up. They're not in the way anymore. Why not just walk in? I guess that's too simple and straightforward for our heroes.
• "This is no sport for a woman." Robin says, one episode before letting a woman join his gang. So grateful that Robin dropped a lot of this sexism he had going on in the early episodes.
• "Is he yours?" Aw, poor Marian. She was honestly wondering if she was holding Robin's illegitimate child by another woman in her arms. He doesn't even think to answer her right away, so she probably took that as a yes.
• Poor Roy is obviously struggling with this decision. I don't know what I would do if I were in his shoes. I'd like to think I'd do the wise thing and speak up, especially since there's no guarantee that the sheriff would even let his mom go, but I don't know.
• We see Robin's war wound for the first time and the classic "this needle is thick and blunt" line. 
• "And yet when one considers that marriage requires a man, perhaps not." Great reply, Marian.
• "Kiss it better." *Screams in pain* I love it! 
• Why doesn't the sheriff do anything about hearing she was working with Robin?
• This seems like such a weak punishment from the sheriff. I don't buy the humiliation is sometimes better than execution excuse. It just feels out of character for him.
• War flashbacks! I love that they started planting the seeds for that early on.
• Everyone just immediately flips at Roy even though he's clearly crying and there's more going on here. I get that he just tried to kill Robin, but you'd think they'd ask about it first, especially since it came out of nowhere like that.
• "But that doesn't mean this one can go around killing my master!" I love you, Much.
• Will and Allan work so well together in this breaking into the castle scene. I love when they pop their heads out from behind the wall.
• I love the sheriff in this scene! 
• Roy: "You'll rot in hell for this!" The sheriff: "Really? Just for this?" LMAO
• YES! GO ANNIE! KILL HIM! SLIT HIS THROAT!
• The sheriff acting shocked and appalled at what Guy did haha
• And there Guy goes beating the woman he had a child with. Seriously, guys...fuck him. He can't even use the self defense excuse because he wouldn't be in this situation with a knife at his throat if he wouldn't have tried to kill their baby.
• Here come the tears. Roy sacrificing himself so that Robin doesn't give himself up and so his mother and the baby can get away, throwing his tag to John who will continue to wear it until it gets passed on to his son. Oh, my God. This is such a horrifically violent death. I can't even imagine. I can't imagine Roy's mother watching them stab at her son like that. The sound of him screaming his allegiance to Robin as he dies. Holy shit.
• His funeral scene is so sad, especially because they don't even have a body to bury and mourn over. 
• Marian's here and she's been filled in on what's going on. What does she think of Guy leaving his son to die? She never really addresses it later on.
• And aww, we end with Will's gift to Seth. He took Allan's joke suggestion earlier to heart and gave him a little bow and quiver full of arrows. So adorable!

Final Thoughts:

Poor Roy. I loved him and I still miss him. He died a hero. I loved the way he was like a son to John and how quickly he came to care about the gang and Robin's cause. And I loved his interactions with Much because they were always hilarious. I'm especially bitter at the way he's never really brought up again after this. The only real memory of his time in the gang is John wearing his tag. I hate when shows do this. Buffy did this too with one of its characters (Jesse, who realistically would not have and should not have been forgotten so easily by Willow and Xander) and it annoyed me then too (Angel subverted this annoying trope by continuing to bring up the character I mentioned loving at the beginning of the post several times throughout the show). Roy's death hit me hard though. Rest in peace, Roy.

Oh, and fuck Guy. Except not literally, because if you get pregnant by him he'll probably treat you like shit afterward and try to kill the baby. Sorry, Guy fans. I'm sorry. I just can't. On the bright side, this is him at his absolute worst and lowest point, in my opinion, so everything else he does later on isn't quite this bad. He has his moments later on where he shows he obviously has some kind of a soul and a conscience, but that honestly makes this episode even worse. At least if he were a total sadistic sociopath, I would be able to understand how he could do this. But how am I supposed to reconcile the Guy that obviously does have the ability to care about other people with the Guy who would do this to his own child? To me, that just means he must not think infanticide is such a bad thing and that's unforgivable. I hope the Guy fans don't hate me for this, but I can't lie to you. I will NEVER forgive him for this, especially since he has never shown any remorse for it. He shows genuine remorse for other things he does later on, but never for this. The way he treats both Seth and Annie is absolutely pure evil. I honestly think this is worse than anything the sheriff has ever done. It's the single most evil act in this whole show. I cannot and will not forgive it.

The only way I could even think anyone could even try to attempt to justify it is if he thought the sheriff would have the child killed or something so he left him where Robin would find him. But that's a massive stretch and there's no evidence at all that it's true, so...

Anyway, onto the next episode. I am PUMPED for it because DJAQ IS COMING!!! I can't wait!