Robin Hood 1x06 "The Taxman Cometh"

Previously on Robin Hood, we lost our first main character in a heroic act of self sacrifice (rest in peace, Roy) and gained a new main character in the very next episode (yay, Djaq!) when our boys freed a Saracen woman disguised as a man from slavery. The gang is now fully formed and will remain with this setup for the rest of this season and into the next and this is the first episode with Djaq as a full-fledged, official, tag-bearing member of the gang. It's a really fun episode so I'm excited to get into it. Let's get started!

Thoughts While Watching: 

• We open with the sheriff paying a couple of guys to trap Robin Hood in his vault, but we don't get to see who they are yet. Then it immediately cuts to a scene in Nottingham.
• EW!!! That meat is seriously nasty. It was literally green. 
• "Eat! Eat it!" Robin yells as he shoves meat in the butcher's face! I love this.
• Butcher: "They're my economy cuts." Nice try, bro. This very modern wording is an interesting choice. It makes it feel less like historical fiction and more like modern political commentary, but I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing.
• "You'll get another kind of cut in a minute." OOO! Go, Much! I love these moments where he's dead serious and threatening. It really reminds you that as silly as he can sometimes be, this is a man that just came back from war and survived for years in battle. He's badass.
• Our first sewer escape...ew. Using the sewer to escape will become a common tactic used in the show and given their circumstances it does make sense to use it, but it seems like the show itself incorporated it for the sake of comedy, and I just do NOT find this kind of humor entertaining. I think it's just immature. It doesn't really bother me when the gang uses the sewer because, as I've said, it makes sense in the context of the story, but there are a few times when they really try to up the comedy part of it and then it does bother me. I'll point those times out when we get to them, but one that really sticks out involves Tuck in season three and some farting noises. I hate that stuff. It's honestly a big reason why I gave up on watching Merlin and Doctor Who. There are way too many fart jokes in those shows and no matter how much people tell me that the shows are amazing, I just can't handle it. But anyway, I've just gone off on a tangent...back to it!
• I love that Much is just holding a pig's head this whole time lol
• This fake abbess looks enormously, unnaturally tall in this scene. I don't know if she's really that tall or if it's the way the scene is filmed, but she looks like a literal giant.
• Guy seems to genuinely care about her well being. Is it because he cares more about the people he views as his equals, like nobles, clergy, and other "higher ups" of society than he does the peasants?
• Djaq: "You will not make anything. This is a male goat." I love you, Djaq.
• I love how John just yanks him right out of the cart lol
• What exactly is Marian doing in this scene outside?
• You can't buy her love, Guy. It's not for sale. Nice try though.
• He couldn't wait to use the abbess situation to paint Robin as a bad guy and try to get in Marian's pants.
• "This is 1192 my friend, the time for heroes is gone." I like that line.
• Take Allan's advice. Always be nice to Little John. 
• I like this interaction:
• Edward: Gisborne seemed angry, what did you say to him?
• Marian: I said I would marry him and have his children. (sarcastic as hell)
• Edward: You could do worse.
• Marian: Yes, if I married the sheriff. I would sooner be a nun than Gisborne's wife.
• Edward: When is this willfulness going to stop? Not to mention the other nonsense!
• Marian: What other nonsense?
• Edward: The 'night rider' or whatever you call yourself.
• My thoughts: I absolutely LOVE how sarcastic and sassy she is here, but I hate Edward. What kind of a father bullies his daughter into a marriage she does not want? I hope he remembers his "you could do worse" crap whenever Guy backhands him across the face next episode and realizes what a fool he is. That being said, his night rider jibe was pretty good. He rarely gets funny or snarky lines, but that one was pretty great.
• That all being said, I do understand Edward's concern for her. She's definitely playing a dangerous game, more than I think she realizes.
• And now he's kicking her out. Brilliant. Fuck you, Edward.
• I LOVE this scene. I love how passionate Will is, full of righteous anger and a true desire to make a real change for the people. He's the true peasants' hero and their true representative in the gang. He's the only one who knows what it's like to be a peasant under the authority of the sheriff and Guy. Robin is a noble who, while sympathetic to their plight, will never truly understand it and often views himself as better than them, John has lived as an outlaw for too long to understand what things are like in the villages under Vaisey and Guy, Allan isn't from Nottingham and has lived as a thief/trickster for too long, Djaq's not from around here at all and clearly came from a privileged background, and while Much was a serf at one point, he's spent the last few years at war in the king's inner circle and views himself as a displaced noble because of Robin promising him Bonchurch. None of them really understand this like Will does. This is truly his fight. 
• Will: I want that money. I want that money before it gets to London. You think taxes pay for themselves? People sweat for them, give their lives for them. When they save up enough, they can't even afford a decent piece of meat. (LOVE LOVE LOVE this little mini-speech)
• Robin: My friend here lost his mother.
• Taxman: That's not my fault.
• Allan: You're part of the system. (I like Allan's line here in particular, he's supporting Will and completely unwilling to give this guy a pass. He wasn't thrilled about Joderic either, if I recall.)
• This scene between the sheriff, Guy, and the abbess is really fascinating to me. There are some interesting points here being made about the medieval church and we get some insight into the sheriff's personal religious views.
• Guy: I have some sympathy.
• Vaisey: Well, don't. They call themselves "Father Abbot" and "Mother Superior." They call themselves by parents' names so that we don't notice them getting fat at our expense. They are parasites dressed as pious.
• Abbess: There are worse things to dress up as than pious, my lord.
• Vaisey: Ah, that remark was not meant for you.
• Abbess: I think it was.
• Vaisey: Yes, yes it was for people like you. What can I say? I'm not sorry.
• Abbess: Then I cannot grant you forgiveness.
• Vaisey: Where you come from that must be a devastating thing to withhold, but here...
• (skipping ahead)
• Abbess: Funds raised by the church go to the glorification of God, not war.
• Vaisey: Ah, just as I thought. It's meant to be a Holy War, but it's paid for out of my taxes, not yours, Mother.
• Abbess: I had heard Nottingham under your stewardship was a godless place. I had no idea how godless. 
• Vaisey: Yes, I know. I should've been struck down by now.
• Okay, so onto why I find this interesting. We see the sheriff scoff at the idea of being damned to hell two episodes ago and only seems willing to go along with the laws about the protection of the clergy when there's no way around it. Here we have him openly insulting those who dedicate their lives to their Church, pointing out that they live off the money earned by others (true), that he thinks their piety is an act in order to continue living that way (which I believe was often true in this time period), that he doesn't care about receiving forgiveness, pointing out the hypocrisy in the Church declaring a massive international war effort but they aren't the ones funding it (or giving their lives for it, the poor and starving peasants are the ones funding this), and then he jokes about how he should be struck down by God. What I gather from this scene is that the sheriff is an atheist, which was quite rare for the time period, but not unheard of. Given the things he says, I can't imagine that he honestly believes that going to hell is a real possibility. Please don't take this as some sort of anti-atheist statement or anything, I know that the vast majority of atheists are not evil like he is, but that's what I'm getting out of this scene. Furthermore, a lot of the points he's making about the medieval Church here are SPOT ON. He's not wrong here, he's not even out of line. Now, not all people who work for the church were like this, perhaps not even most, but there were a lot who were and the Church itself was pretty corrupt. 
• Vaisey: "I am comfortable with godlessness. In fact, I would hate to be godlessnessless." That's an absolutely brilliant line. I love it. Keith Allen's delivery was perfect too.
• Wow, this scene:
• Vaisey: I can see you. Underneath all that Mother Superior performance, there's a naughty little girl, isn't there? Am I right? Underneath all the haughty, there's quite a bit of naughty.
• Abbess: How dare you?
• Vaisey: I think you'd probably like to spar with words. I think you'd probably like to spar with actions too.
• Abbess: *slaps him*
• Vaisey: Ouch *smirks*
• My thoughts: Is it wrong that I kind of ship this? Am I messed up beyond repair?
• God, I feel so bad for those people that live outside the walls of Nottingham. They are really in the worst position out of anybody.
• The sheriff delivers the episode title while eating an apple. Love it.
• "Gisborne sniffs around me like a little spaniel." LMAO omg...
• "I am sick of people, and it is always men, telling me what is wise and what is not." Preach! 
• God, I kinda ship this too:
• Abbess: Forgive me, something about you...you are an unlikely novice.
• Marian: You are an unlikely abbess.
• Abbess: *laughs* You are spirited! *leans in* I could use someone like you. *bedroom eyes*
• Guy seems so ticked off and Marian is just not willing to pretend to give a shit. I love it.
• Is that kid actually the fake taxman's son?
• I love angry Little John.
• Yay for Will being the clever one and coming up with a plan to get them out! Also, good for Allan calling Robin out.
• Guy's reaction when the sheriff agrees to pay the man is pretty funny. 
• Robin's pretty smart. I wouldn't have put two and two together so quickly with figuring out the Abbess was a con artist. And the sheriff attacking his guards in anger is great!
• Love Guy's little smirk when he realizes the she was a fake, but shouldn't he be afraid the sheriff will take it out on him? I mean, he's the one who showed sympathy and brought her into the castle in the first place. 
• This is a great Djaq scene. This kid is obviously thinking he can take advantage of the fact that he was left with the woman of the gang, assuming she'll be more sympathetic and easier to manipulate, but she sees right through his attempt. "And on that journey I learned every way there is of trying to talk my way out of bondage, so save your breath." Go, Djaq!
• Obviously someone had to stay with this kid, but I'm wondering why they chose Djaq. Is it because she's not really part of the gang yet the way the others are, like still in training or something? Did they think it would be safer for her as a woman to stay behind? Is it because they think she'll stick out more in town and they needed to be inconspicuous? I don't think it was random, I think there was a reason for this choice, I'm just not certain what it was. Regardless, it doesn't last long. She'll soon be going on all the normal missions just like everyone else. 
• I'm with Allan here. How do we know that exactly? Seems like a clever guess that turned out to be right. Robin seems to have a lot of those, just like with the sheriff being behind most of the deaths attributed to Joe a couple episodes ago.
• Oh, gross! That popping sound is so nasty! Ugh...
• Did Marian buy that yellow cardigan at Target?
• Her bangs are pretty bad too. Her hair was so pretty in the first few episodes. 
• She looks ridiculously modern here. This is a true 20th century Maid Marian.
• OOO!!! Go, Will! OMG I LOVE this fiery, passionate, pissed off Will Scarlett. That backhand, oh my Lord! That intense fury in his eyes! That furious tone of voice! Hot damn! Harry Lloyd is an absolutely brilliant actor.
• I am oddly attracted to this woman. I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her, but she's really something. She has less chemistry with Robin, the only one she actually kissed, than she did with the sheriff and Marian though.
• "Now you see what I have to put up with." Oh, Much... and omg Will's head tilt!
• Were they really just using mud as a cover for the money? Wouldn't people question why they were carting mud around? Was that a normal thing back then?
• "Sir Guy, have I ever indicated that you would have a right to be disturbed?" You tell him!
• I've had the song "Take a Hint" from Victorious stuck in my head during every Guy/Marian scene in this episode.
• "I realized that the daughter I had was the daughter I wanted." Aw, that's sweet. I still don't like you though.
• Jonas Armstrong is hot as hell here. Cutest Robin Hood ever.

Final Thoughts:

This was such a fun episode! It really gave Will, Marian, and the sheriff several moments to shine. The fake abbess was a really great guest character and played off of everyone really well too. I have one final thought that is probably going to be a bit controversial to bring up, but here goes anyway. This show sometimes seems to cast roles where the race/ethnicity of the actor/character is integral to the story, such as in the casting of characters like Djaq, Prince Malik, Bassam, and the several other Muslim characters we see in the season two finale. But other times they seem to take more of a blind casting approach, such as in the characters of the master at arms in episode three, the fake abbess, Tuck later on (unless they gave an explanation for him, I can't remember). Given the time period, wouldn't it have made more sense to give these characters some kind of non-English accent to imply that they aren't from England originally or some kind of a throwaway line about how their family maybe wasn't originally English even if they themselves are? As it stands, with this mix of whether or not they choose to use blind casting, it doesn't make sense why other characters would instantly pick up on Djaq as a Saracen and foreigner but wouldn't think twice about the rest of the characters of color. Just to be clear, I am NOT saying that those roles should have been given to white actors (I actually really love the diversity) and I am NOT saying that there weren't any people of color in England in the 1100s, just that it was much more rare and those that would have been there would have likely not had an English accent. If they went with blind casting the whole way through it would be one thing, but when we're supposed to view Djaq as a Saracen who can be easily spotted as such but supposed to view the non-Saracen characters of color as English people who blend in, it can get kind of confusing. I think utilizing an accent or a throwaway line here or there for at least some of the characters could have resolved this issue so it would make more sense within the story. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. It's just something I've thought about. 

Alright, see you next time for one of my absolute favorite episodes and the birth of my OTP!