Robin Hood 1x07 "Brothers in Arms"

I love this episode. It's a great Allan-centric episode where we learn a lot about his backstory and some of his internal struggles which will become very important later on. He's one of my favorite characters because, in my opinion, he has the most interesting and complicated character arc in the entire series (yes, Guy fans, I said what I said) with the most character development. I personally believe that he's always been a good person inside but he has a troubled past and a lot of baggage that weighs down on him so he doesn't always make the right decisions, but I've sympathized with him every step of the way. This is probably the first episode where we see that story line begin and it will continue throughout the rest of the series. Furthermore, this episode is also the start of my ultimate OTP, Allan/Djaq, so it holds a special place in my heart for that too. Let's begin.

Thoughts While Watching:

• The episode starts with Lucky George, a peddler straight outta the Wild West wearing one of those cowboy style buckskin jackets with fringe, who is making an offer to the peasants to buy their jewelry and other valuables so they have enough money to pay the taxman. How often do they collect taxes? It seems like there's some new tax being collected every episode. Lucky George's facial hair and hat also give credence to the idea that he's a time traveler from 19th century America. Will's spying on him so the gang's going to find out he's carrying a cart full of valuables.
• "This, my friends, is an ambush." That's a great Allan line delivered with an adorable little grin. I love Joe Armstrong.
• They did that thing again where Robin backflips off something and they do a double take of it.
• Poor Much! Robin made him think he really got stabbed and my poor baby looked absolutely crushed and ready to give up on life.
• Allan and Djaq are sooo adorable in the back of the cart playing dress up with the jewelry. I ship them so hard.
• Allan: Maybe if you try wearing a dress.
• Djaq: I will if you will. Or are you afraid of looking too pretty?
• HAHA omg Much. "Surely Robin Hood couldn't take on all of us." Robin and Much are having so much fun making a fool out of Tom. 
• I love how Allan comes out, pissed off, confrontational, and ready to fight, all while wearing a string of pearls around his neck.
• "He's my brother." *punch* 
• "This is Robin Hood, you idiot!" haha
• Robin's so done with this whole family, all they do is lie right to his face lol. Neither brother is great with the first impressions, but Robin lets Tom and his two tongueless friends join the gang anyway.
• Eleri's fiance is one gross looking dude. I can't handle his hair.
• Guy is such a skeevy little creep. Richard Armitage did a great job with this role though. My negative comments about Guy are no reflection on him.
• How did he know? Because Lucky George was dealing in the open and Will saw him! Like, yeah, you do have a spy, but she's not the reason why he knew about this. If you wanted to keep Lucky George a secret, you really weren't doing a great job.
• Aww, the brothers are so cute!
• Allan: He couldn't tell the truth if his life depended on it.
• Much: Runs in the family then.
• Allan: Don't make us gang up on you.
• Tom: Is he disrespecting our family?
• Much: You rob each other in your family.
• And now we learn the story about his friends losing their tongues for praising Robin Hood's work was a bullshit lie, as expected, and they actually lost them for spitting at guards. Not very intelligent then, are they?
• Tom promises not to let Allan down again and the boys share an adorable little hug. I see a lot of Tom in Allan. 
• Now we cut to Guy giving Marian the necklace he stole off of Eleri's neck as a gift. Like, come on, dude. We know you have the money. You can't afford to buy her something new? This makes me wonder if all those other gifts were actually bought for her or if he stole them too. Frickin cheapskate. All his talk later on this season about how he has money to provide for her and how important that is, but he can't even buy her a damn necklace. Shameful. 
• I'm about to go off on a mini-tangent here, but bear with me. Guy's line about how, "It's simple silver. You have no need of gold or gaudy jewels." reminds me a lot of a scene in Dawson's Creek (one of my other all time favorite shows) where Pacey tells Joey that the earrings she's wearing that Dawson gave her didn't suit her, but that her bracelet did. She jumps to the conclusion that he's saying that either because Dawson was the one who gave them to her (iirc the earrings were Dawson's mom's and he let her borrow them) or because she's too poor to wear something so nice (something she has a chip on her shoulder about throughout the whole show). But Pacey says neither of her assumptions is true and holds up her wrist with the bracelet and says, "This is you. It's not showy or gaudy. It's simple, elegant, beautiful." She tells him the bracelet belonged to her dead mother and he says, "I know...because you told me six months ago." He then brings up a random memory of her mentioning it at school, even remembering what she was wearing that day down to the smallest detail, and she asks, "You remember that?" to which he replies, "I remember everything." and the whole exchange is literally the sweetest, most romantic thing ever. This scene with Guy and Marian is like...the opposite of that. It's strange because the wording is almost the same, I think even Guy's sentiment behind the statement might be the same, but it comes off totally wrong. Pacey knew Joey well enough to know when she was trying to pretend to be something she wasn't and what really mattered to her. Guy is just guessing with Marian. He doesn't really know her at all and it shows. No matter how romantic his intent, it'll never come off that way. The necklace is simple, not because he genuinely thought something simple was better suited for her but because that's what he could get his hands on to steal. Pacey delivered his lines with confidence because he knew he was right about Joey but Guy immediately backtracks and assumes that maybe he was wrong and Marian doesn't like the necklace because it's too simple. No, Marian's not a fan of the necklace because it came from you. The problem here isn't the necklace, it's you. It's you and the fact that you clearly don't know or love the real her, just the idea of her that you created in your head and placed on a pedestal. But it's just amazing to me how almost the same words can have two totally different meanings depending on the relationship between the characters in the scene. Pacey comes off as sweet, understanding, caring, loving, and Guy comes off as a man who is trying way too hard and yet somehow not nearly hard enough. Alright, tangent over. Back to the show.
• Marian accepts the stupid necklace that's about to create a shitstorm of trouble and Guy starts planting a trap for one of his men to try to figure out who the spy is. Of course, Marian doesn't realize it's a trap and she eavesdrops on the conversation and is about to get this poor guy killed. 
• Djaq and Will are fed up with these villagers and so am I. They don't deserve to get these jewels back. Screw them.
• I don't know why Robin's giving her such a hard time about the necklace. I get that he's jealous, but she's made her feelings toward Guy very clear both to Guy and to Robin. She just told him last episode that she wanted help getting out of this situation and he couldn't make time for her then but he sure finds the time to harass her about it now. He knew damn well that she didn't know where the necklace came from, so what's the point in making her feel guilty about it? 
• Does it count if Robin marries them? In the eyes of the Church and the law, would it count? I don't think it would, but I don't know enough about medieval English law to dispute it.
• Aww! Edward looks so proud at the sight of his daughter kicking these guys' asses! She's taking on three at once without a problem. Her fighting skills are actually really impressive. She's better than most, if not all, of the guys on the show.
• So Marian tells Robin about the cart, which is interesting because I forgot that she was originally planning to intercept it herself, and he and Much take off after it. When they get there they discover that it was a decoy cart and a trap laid by the sheriff and Guy. Now that poor dude from a few scenes ago is about to be in a world of trouble when he didn't do anything wrong. I think this is the first time that Marian is directly responsible for getting someone killed.
• LMAO OMG The sheriff whipping Guy on the ass with that stick!!! I love it! There is so much sexual harassment in the workplace here. Poor Guy. His face cracks me up too.
• In this scene we get a little bit of Allan's backstory and some great lines. "Look, I was like him once, out of control. But I've changed because of you, because of being here." I really feel for Allan here and honestly, Robin's being kind of a douche. 
• But of course in the very next scene we find out Tom and his buddies took the gang's stuff and left. And now they're trying to rob Lucky George. "Do I look like I was born yesterday?" Yeah, Tom...you kinda do.
• In this next scene, the gang finds out they've been captured and are sentenced to death. I'm gonna break down this scene here because I really like it and I think we get a lot of insight into these characters, especially Allan: 
• Will: They're to hang. (Allan's face here is absolutely heartbreaking and Joe Armstrong is doing some incredible acting without saying a word. It looks like he's begging Robin to fix it with his eyes, to come up with one of his half plans and make it all okay.)
• Much: They have lied to us, stolen from us. They're nothing but trouble. (Geez, Much...calm tf down. This is his brother you're talking about. I love Much with my whole heart and soul, but sometimes he can really act like an asshole.)
• John: Let them hang. (same with John, like really?)
• Allan: I agree. (He clearly doesn't. I think that he's almost given up here after hearing how everyone else seems ready to abandon Tom.)
• Much: You do? (Much complains about Tom initially, but he gives a shocked look at LJ's comment and seems genuinely surprised by Allan's. I don't think he expected anyone to go along with the idea of abandoning him. I think he was expecting them to plan a rescue.)
• Allan: My brother had more chances than he deserved.
• Robin: Does he deserve to die?
• Allan: Do we? We go to Nottingham we'll end up joining him on the scaffold. (I don't think that Allan would go to rescue Tom on his own. I think he wants to save him, but I don't think he's brave enough or selfless enough to risk his life alone. He wants the gang to go though so they have half a chance and he's about to make that clear.)
• Will: They took some of our tags. Sheriff's crowing, thinks he's got Robin Hood's men. Now it's like he's daring us to rescue them. (I wonder if Will's reason for bringing this up was really the gang's reputation or if he's trying to come up with any excuse for them to go. I think he's more understanding of Allan and able to read between the lines than some of the rest of them.)
• Allan: My brother was never part of this gang, was he? We trusted them and they let us down. That's it. We'd be fools to walk into a trap for them. *pause* Does anyone disagree with me? (He looks like he's internally begging someone to disagree and when no one does, he looks broken. Fantastic acting from Joe.)
• Interesting too that Djaq remains totally silent in this scene. She looks deeply sympathetic to Allan's cause, but doesn't speak up. Obviously though, we get her opening up later in the episode in one of my (not just one of, my absolute) favorite scenes of the whole series so we know this is affecting her, but when she opens up later it's with Allan one-on-one. I wonder why she doesn't speak up here. Does she feel like she hasn't earned the right yet to weigh in? Is she waiting to see what decision the others will come to on their own? She might be thinking that she can tell a lot about these men and who they really are and what their true values are by what they choose to do here. I know that's what I'd be thinking. This is just an overall fantastic scene. I think we learn a lot more about who these characters really are in this scene alone than we do in some entire episodes. 
• Alright, so now we cut to a Robin/Marian scene where Robin goes to her for advice. It's cute and adorable. He apologizes for being an ass the day before but then a minute later refers to Guy as her "good friend" so he's already being an ass again. But then he tries to get a kiss out of her and it's really sweet. Nothing much comes from this conversation though and she doesn't give him any real advice, just tells him that no matter what he decides, he's still a good man.
• Cut to a Guy/Marian scene. Guy confronts her about the necklace she's not wearing. We hear the sergeant screaming and crying out in pain from torture in the background and Marian wants to know what's going on.
• Guy: Do you know the worst crime a man can commit?
• Marian: Murder.
• Guy: Betrayal. 
• This episode really doesn't have many fluff scenes in it. Almost every scene reveals important information about who these characters are and where their values lie and this is a big one for Guy. This idea about the importance of loyalty and how betrayal is the worst sin a man can commit is going to be an ongoing theme for Guy. It's honestly pretty interesting, knowing what we know about Guy later on, that he feels this way. Is abandoning your sister to an abusive marriage not betraying her? Is loyalty to your own family not important? How does he justify working for the sheriff who clearly doesn't show loyalty to anyone? The master at arms killed for him and he betrayed him and had him killed. Does Guy justify this by thinking that if the master at arms was truly loyal he wouldn't have admitted that he killed for the sheriff? Would he still have been killed if he hadn't said anything about it? I don't know, just thinking out loud. Marian really needed to be paying close attention in this scene. She will betray Guy over and over again (don't get me wrong, he deserves every bit of it) and I don't think she ever realizes how truly dangerous this man is until its too late. 
• Marian figures out that the sergeant is being tortured and killed because Guy blames him for what Marian did. It's interesting here that she says nothing. She knows that if she confesses, that man will likely be let go and his life spared, and she'd be put in his place. She's courageous enough to be the Nightwatchman, but not enough to confess and be tortured for what she did. She's willing to let someone else take the punishment for her actions. She's obviously deeply troubled by it, but not enough to act. I don't exactly blame her. I'd do the exact same thing in her shoes, but it's revealing nonetheless. 
• Back to the gang! Robin decided to go rescue Tom and his friends after all. Much calls them "three worthless rascals" which is ridiculously harsh. Allan is right there, dude. Shut up. Allan is very grateful to Robin for reading between the lines of his last scene and knowing how important rescuing Tom was to him and being willing to risk a trap for him. 
• Back to this stupid necklace. Eleri is a fucking idiot. Why would she wear it in public? I hate this girl. Guy sees it, takes it off of her, she reveals that she got it from Robin Hood so the wheels are now turning in Guy's head that Robin must've gotten it from Marian, and useless Lucky George is there offering to buy the thing for money. Guy gives it to him for free rather than let Eleri keep it. 
• "My sergeant died an innocent man." Yeah, Guy. So you were the one betraying him then. You were the one who didn't show loyalty. You made an assumption and tortured and killed someone who was loyal to you. How does that feel?
• What's the point of Tom stealing this necklace from Lucky George other than to complicate the plot? Doesn't he have more important things to worry about right now?
• Poor Much has to kiss this stupid, annoying girl. His face is absolute comedy gold though.
• "We have many problems, most of them guard shaped." I love that line!
• Omg, the sheriff is such a ham in this scene! I love it!
• This was honestly a really clever plan. A heartbreaking scene, but clever of the sheriff. If he did this more often, he would've won against Robin. How many times did he have Robin or a member of the gang is in his grasp but did nothing but waste time and drag it out giving them time to rescue the person? 
• This is so sad. Allan's face when he realizes they were too late. The way Djaq holds him back from doing something stupid. The tears forming in his eyes. The awful way the sheriff rubs salt in the wound by describing Tom's last moments and the betrayal he felt at being left to die. This scene is also so important. They will reference it later on when they say they've been too late before and the failure here will weigh on every member of the gang. I think it also plants some seeds of doubt in Allan of Robin's ability to come through for them when it matters (like when he's captured in 2x01 and none of them realize or rescue him).
• Here it is! My favorite scene! I love everything about it. The way it's shot with their silhouettes, Djaq taking control of the situation to take care of Allan because she knows what he's going through, the comforting silence, his quiet crying, it's great. The scene is split so we'll come back to it in a minute.
• Robin warns Marian, she runs home, and Guy is there waiting with her father. The backhand! Edward really had that coming. Guy is an evil douchebag, but Edward was the one trying to push Marian to be with him, so you reap what you sow. No sympathy from me.
• Back to my favorite scene! Will finds them and offers his condolences but Djaq asks him for a moment alone with Allan. She reveals that she also had a brother, a twin named Djaq (remember her real name is Saffiya), and that she "became" him after he died in the Crusades. 
• Djaq: He still lives here inside me, like your brother lives inside you.
• Allan: That's what I worry about.
• This is so important and will come up again later a few times. Whenever Allan is captured in 2x01 and waiting in the dungeons, he uses the name Tom to hide his identity, in a way "becoming" his brother just like Djaq did. But unlike Djaq's situation, Tom was a man with some serious faults. He wasn't trustworthy and he betrayed the people who cared about him and were going out of their way to help him every step of the way. That same episode he will make the decision to start betraying the gang. In the episode where the gang finds out they have a traitor, Djaq figures out that it's Allan before anyone else. She brings up Tom again in that episode when Allan claims that the traitor might be "stuck" and unable to confess. She says, "your brother said he was stuck" (which no, Tom never says that on screen in this episode) and he responds that he was an idiot to which she replies, "no, he was a good man underneath it." Finally, in season three, Allan will die alone believing that the gang has given up on him in much the same way Tom dies here, believing that Allan and the gang didn't care enough to come rescue him. Allan says here that the idea of Tom living on inside him is what he worries about and it's something he will struggle with for the rest of the series. For Djaq, the idea that her brother lives on in her is something comforting, but for Allan it's not comforting at all. She's right, Tom will live on in Allan and it will be the cause of every downfall he faces. This scene is just so integral to Allan's character and I love everything about it. These two simple lines here are full of foreshadowing.
• I love how John throws Lucky George into the cart. Angry John is the best. 
• Marian's plan wasn't a bad one given the circumstances. Making it look like a robbery was clever, just not clever enough.
• What on earth could possibly be going on in Guy's mind in this scene? He knows the necklace was given back to Eleri. Why would he assume he was wrong? If I were him, I would assume that there was some kind of trick and Robin gave it back to her. Does he think Robin found a replica to give to Eleri to make her feel better? What is his thought process here? Is he just in denial? Does he know she's lying but he just doesn't care because he can use it as an excuse to bully her into marriage? I don't understand. It's obvious that she's lying.
• So Guy claims that now that he told the sheriff he believes she's the traitor she has to marry him to save her own life. I know Guy/Marian shippers don't like to acknowledge this, but telling someone that because of something you did they now have to marry you and sleep with you or they'll be killed is rape. No way around it. If they had gone through with the marriage and he slept with her, it would have been rape. There is no way to truly give consent when you know you'll be killed if you don't go along with it. 
• She agrees to marry him but is somehow able to include a clause about waiting until King Richard returns which honestly I'm not sure why he agrees to this. 
• The scene is set up in such a way to make us feel bad for Robin but he's going to continue to be an ass about this even though he knows her life was in danger and Guy is trying to force her into marriage/rape her, so forgive me for not caring about Robin's feelings. I mean, I do feel bad for him here, but I stop feeling bad when he continues to taunt her about her relationship with Guy for the rest of the season because he knows she agreed under duress. To me, that's taunting a sexual assault victim for being assaulted. 
• And finally, the episode ends with stupid Eleri's stupid wedding. I just cannot bring myself to care. That woman stirred up the world's biggest shitstorm with her stupidity. How hard is it to not wear the necklace in public? Like damn.

Final Thoughts:

I love this episode for so many reasons. First, we get two great moments for the Allan/Djaq ship: the sweet and fluffy moment where they're flirting and playing with jewelry in the back of the cart and the serious, heartbreaking scenes after Tom dies where Djaq takes charge and stops Allan from doing something stupid, gets Tom's things for him, sits with him in silence while he cries, and opens herself up to him to try to comfort him. So far she's been trying extra hard to act like a man and to act tough and somewhat emotionless. I believe she's doing this as a way of protecting herself, sort of putting up these walls around herself, and to make the others treat her as an equal because I don't think she trusts that they will treat her equally if they view her too much as a woman (and at this point, I think she's right about that). But when it counts, when she needs to in order to be there for Allan, she's willing to let her guard down and let him in. I love it. I absolutely adore these two. I'm forever going to be bitter that they didn't end up together. Don't get me wrong, I love Will, but I have many reasons for preferring Allan/Djaq over Will/Djaq and I'm going to bring these reasons up as we get to them.

This is also such an amazing episode for Allan individually. As I mentioned above, I really consider this episode to be the first one that starts off his storyline that doesn't really pick up until season two. This episode was the one that laid the groundwork for the stuff that comes later. I think there are a few more moments in season one that add onto that and one of them is in the next episode when Djaq gets captured. The next one is a very Djaq-centric episode (I love these episodes that focus on the gang members!) so as I'm sure you can guess, I'm really looking forward to it! See you next time.