Robin Hood 2x06 "For England...!"

In my opinion, we've already reached the peak of the series last episode, but that's not to say that everything is down hill from there. The fact that Allan is no longer in the gang leaves a gaping hole in both the gang and my heart, but his time at the castle as "Sir Guy's man" is one of the most amazing storylines of the series. Allan's character development and story arc is the absolute best of any character on the show (yes, even including Guy) so this next twist for him is going to be fun to watch. We left off last time with Robin finding out that Allan is the spy and telling him he never wanted to see him again. When I first watched that episode, I thought we'd lost Allan for good and he was being written off the show. I had no idea how wrong I was! The traitor plot isn't over at all, it's just kicking into high gear. Let's get started with the next episode, the first one without Allan as part of the gang.

Thoughts While Watching:

• I get that the sheriff is being extra cautious, but there's really no reason to kill that scribe. How does he choose between which people he lets live and which he kills? He could've just kept him on as the castle scribe and used him for all of his shady business and made him feel like a valuable part of the anti-Richard movement to keep his loyalty. If you kill all your workers, you're going to run out of people willing to work with or for you.
• HOW did the gang find Allan's stash hidden in a random place in the forest?
• Aww, everyone else yells at or insults Allan except Djaq who just looks about to cry and shakes her head sadly. 
• AWW, MY POOR SHIP! No one else seems to care, but Djaq asks, "What about Allan?" and Robin replies, "Forget him. He's dead to us." And it cuts to a close up shot of her face looking absolutely heartbroken. The rest might be ready to cut him off completely, but she never was. He'll never be dead to her.
• Robin runs off without his gang or a plan or literally anything and Much says, "Why does he do this? Why does he always, always do this?" Poor Much haha He just has that exasperated tone of someone tired of dealing with someone else's shit when they constantly do the same stupid shit over and over again.
• I need to talk about this real quick. Guy brought Marian a bunch of dresses, which is a nice touch because I'm assuming most of her stuff got destroyed in the fire he set (fucking asshole...) and she asks him, "What are we celebrating?" He replies, "The King's birthday." and she asks, "What are we really celebrating?" Which, first of all, I find that exchange really cute for some reason, but it also reveals something important. A whole year has passed between 1x08 "Tattoo? What Tattoo?" and 2x06 "For England...!" That means, theoretically, it's now 1193. However, as I've mentioned before, that means this whole show does not fit the historical timeline since King Richard left the Holy Land in December of 1192 but on this show he's still there in the season two finale and doesn't get captured on his way home until late season three.
• Aww, this is cute even though in context, it's kind of heinous because it's literally talking about him pressuring her so much. They're talking about the Pact and the possibility of marriage in the future and he says, "Meanwhile, there's a pretty dress in it for you." Marian scoffs and says, "Am I so easily won?" and Guy replies, "You must be the least easily won woman in England." This reminds me of something in my real life. I have a friend that, at the time of this conversation, I'd been friends with for nearly a decade and for much of that time we had kind of an off and on almost-relationship of sorts where we would toy with the idea of being together and he was constantly trying to get in my pants but I never let him. One day when we were having a conversation when I expressed some concern over being viewed as "easy" and his response was, "You are not easy. You're the least easy girl I've ever met. Trust me. I've been trying for years and you still never gave it up for me." I had pretty much the same proud look on my face that Marian has here.
• Surprise, surprise...Allan tries to get his nest egg back, but the gang's stolen it. He begs for another chance to be let into the gang, but they won't let him. Now he's all alone without a home, without people who care about him (except Djaq), and without any money to survive. What did they think was going to happen? I'm sorry, but they kind of asked for this to happen. You should've given him a second chance, Robin! Now Allan's begging Guy for a job because he has no where left to turn. Although, he could've just gone off on his own somewhere and perhaps he should've, but as we've seen, Allan doesn't exactly make the best decisions when he feels "stuck." He's the type to just bury himself deeper and deeper into the hole. I can relate.
• Guy actually looks pretty attractive here with his jacket open so you can see the shirt underneath. I'm pretty sure Allan agrees with me because he says, "Ah, nice..." and I don't know what else that line could be referring to, so I guess we have the beginnings of the Guy/Allan ship here?
• Despite Guy trying to appear kind of nasty and tough at first with his "I owe you nothing," it's obvious he does have a soft spot for Allan. He offers him food and then tells him to clean up and meet him at the castle. This is completely opposite from the way the sheriff deals with people who are no longer needed for the job that they were hired for. Season two definitely shows Guy having at least a little bit more humanity and loyalty to others than he did in the first season and definitely more than the sheriff. 
• "With which girl's hair pin?" Aww, so cute! Her hair looks so pretty.
• Robin reads from the Pact, "By his lasting absence from these shores, he has demonstrated his scant regard for the welfare of his subjects." and then he declares that, "This is outrageous!" But is it though? Would we ever accept a leader today who spent all of their time abroad? Who refused to even speak the language of the country they were ruling? Although, I know in the show Richard does speak English, historically he spoke French. We do accept leaders who spend their entire time in power wrapped up in pointless, meaningless wars, but we don't accept it silently. Many people voice their concerns and express a desire to vote them out or replace them. I get that with the medieval mindset of believing in divine right and with Robin's personal relationship with Richard, this would seem outrageous, but it doesn't seem outrageous to me. Prince John is only worse because he and all his followers are shown to be batshit crazy and evil in the show, and PJ was also incompetent historically as well, but that doesn't mean that Richard is a good or worthy king, just that he's better than the alternative. I completely agree with the statement Robin read from the Pact. By abandoning England, he has proven that he doesn't give a fuck about the English. He puts Rome's war above the well being of his own subjects. It's so hard for me to side with Robin here because the Black Knights are bringing up great points. If they weren't all shown to be evil, it would be hard to know who to root for.
• Robin pretending to be a priest was pretty cute. *low voice* "Be meek and obedient, my child..." *whispers* "Until I know more."
• I guess Robin doesn't realize that Allan betrayed him with Roger of Stoke. He didn't piece together that Allan asking so many questions about the letter was because he was going to feed that information to Guy? Maybe I gave Robin too much credit in the last post. He's usually smarter than this. 
• "By now the king will already know about this plot." Wait, what? How much time has passed between 2x04 and 2x06? We know that Allan didn't go to Guy with any new information between 2x04 and 2x05 and the Roger thing still seemed pretty recent because Allan was still upset about it in the beginning of 2x05. And then there couldn't be that much time between 2x05 and 2x06 because Allan was only just now going back to get his money at the beginning of the episode. It would take over a month, easily, if not two for Roger to reach the Holy Land. Maybe Robin's stretching the truth here to make sure Winchester will go along with his plan?
• I adore Will's musician plan. He's so proud of himself when he's showing off the instruments too and it's absolutely adorable. So is Much calling him a "crafty craftsman." This is such a cute scene!
• "Oh, they're just bells." Aw, poor John! Makes sense though because he uses a staff and he can just put them on it.
• Marian looks really pretty here.
• AWW, DJAQ LOOKS SO CUTE IN HER DISGUISE!!! These disguises are ridiculous, but I love them. Djaq looks so pretty.
• Allan rolls up looking like a mini-Guy and declaring that he's "Sir Guy's man" right in front of the gang. Poor Djaq sees it and is immediately upset and asks Robin what Allan's doing here to which he answers, mockingly, "He's being 'Sir Guy's man.'"
• LMAO omg...Will and Much, while wearing the most ridiculous disguises ever, talking about Allan:
• Will: Did you see what he was wearing?!
• Much: Unbelievable!
• Aw, Will's so brave! He was ready to take the fall when he thought the guard knew about the sword.
• Allan looks so sexy leaning up against the castle wall in his Guy outfit. Guy just laughs at him, but he's checking him out too. I ship it.
• OMG
• Much: We never share dressing rooms.
• Random Dude: You are already dressed.
• Much: It's the principle. We're artists...*gestures to Little John* He's the drummer.
• How can Robin not see how suspicious Winchester is being?
• "Well done, Edward. We wouldn't want her inheriting your looks, now would we?" LMAO I hate Winchester, but I hate Edward too, so that was a nice burn.
• And of course, Winchester is a potential rapist. Marian has to deal with so much sexual harassment and attempted sexual assault in this show.
• OH, THE SUSSEX SCENE! The word "Sussex" was said eleven times in that scene. I absolutely love the sheriff screaming, "I have lost Sussex! SUSSEX!" and that look on his face.
• I think Guy genuinely cared about saving Allan, but obviously not enough to actually follow through with helping him. I get that saving Marian from rape was his priority, but he could've saved them both. If I were Allan, I'd leave after this episode.
• He basically does the same thing with Marian. He is obviously deeply disturbed by the idea of Winchester getting Marian and he desperately wants to save her, but obviously not enough. He half-asses trying to save both Marian and Allan and succeeds in neither (at least until the end of the episode). We start to see some of Guy's humanity, loyalty, and attempts at heroism, but he's got a long way to go because he'll still back down immediately whenever he's at risk. He's still very much under the sheriff's thumb at this point.
• Another blonde girl with a braid. You can barely see the braid on this one, but it's under her little headwrap thing. Much definitely has a type. This girl he's flirting with now, Eve, and Kate all have the blonde hair with a braid going for them. It's kind of nice that they keep that consistency.
• Aww, I like that Djaq kind of warns Much that now isn't the time for his rambling. She can see how upset Robin is and even though she's not sure what's going on yet, she understands that it's serious and Robin needs to be left alone.
• Okay, so...someone messed up in the editing because a Black Knight just appeared out of thin air in the scene with Robin's letter voiceover.
• Robin's suicide mission over this stupid pact is so unnecessary and overdramatic. Also, he's now willing to kill the sheriff, despite knowing Prince John's agreement with him, when two episodes ago he was willing to kill Will to protect the sheriff??? I'm really not happy with Robin at all. He's a dumbass. His loyalty to King Richard blinds him to all common sense.
• It's interesting that Djaq tells Much that he can't read people's private letters, but once John decides that it's okay to read it, she not only doesn't try to stop him anymore, but she actually helps. Is this because she's been outvoted and recognizes some sort of gang democracy in Robin's absence or do they all sort of see John as the second in command who they follow in Robin's absence? Even thinking back to "Tattoo? What Tattoo?" when John knocked Robin out, he gave Much an order and when Robin wakes up, Much explains his unwillingness to untie Robin with a desperate plea of "John said...Little John said!" 
• Aww, poor Much! He can't read. Djaq can though, of course. Robin sucks for never teaching Much how to read.
• I don't forgive the brutality of what you're going to do, Robin. What you're going to do is going to get all of Prince John's soldiers to come to Nottingham to destroy it and get yourself killed before it happens, leaving Marian and the gang to clean up your mess alone and try to save an entire town of people (possibly an entire shire, because I'm not sure if the surrounded villages are included) from your stupid ass mistake.
• Seriously, does he not give a damn about all of Nottingham? I hate Robin a little bit right now for putting one man's life above an entire town, possibly an entire shire, of peasants. Fuck the king. And fuck Robin even more for being willing to kill Will for the same thing.
• LMAO The sheriff is the best. "Hood...forgive me."
• It's kind of hilarious that the gang just read that letter, there's this dramatic "oh my God, Robin's going to sacrifice himself!" moment, and then two seconds later it's like, nah, Robin's an ass who got himself caught in five minutes without you guys.
• Allan really did nothing to deserve being in this situation. Why wouldn't the sheriff just torture and kill Robin and leave Allan alone now that he has someone else to kill?
• So in this episode he's announcing Allan as an enemy of the law, but by next episode Allan will be his employee.
• How long did it take them to make this vat of boiling oil or whatever the hell this is? Did the sheriff just have this hanging around, waiting for a chance to use it?
• It looks like they're fighting with giant turkey legs.
• Robin says, "You don't have to do this, Allan. Don't give him the satisfaction. Even if you do kill me, they won't let you go." So what exactly is Robin's plan here? Was he hoping that Allan would agree not to fight him, he wouldn't fight Allan either, and they both just stand there, refusing to fight, until the guards knock them into the hot oil or the gang rescues them, whichever comes first? How would this scene have played out differently if one of them had been switched out with someone else? If Robin had been placed up there with any other member of his gang or if Allan was up there with any other member of the gang? I'm really curious about this.
• Allan responds with, "You know, if you had listened, you might've understood. You should've given me a second chance, Robin." I don't think Allan actually expects either of them to get out of this and this is him saying his peace. He's felt misunderstood since that scene in the Inn and he's hurt by Robin's decision to turn his back on him. And I agree with him here. Robin should have listened and actually heard what was being said, he should've given Allan the chance to explain, and he should've given him a second chance. Robin says nothing in reply and I'm wondering if, for a moment there before Allan swings, if he might've been wondering if that was true.
• Allan is the first one to swing, which is interesting. Even with Robin threatening Allan's life in the last episode, even with him seeing Allan being "Sir Guy's man," and even with his own life on the line now, Robin is the one who reaches out to Allan to ask him not to do this and Robin still doesn't take the first swing. Is this because some part of him still cares about Allan or is it actually about not wanting to give the sheriff the satisfaction? I also don't think that Allan actually wants to kill Robin, but if he honestly believes his choices are give up and die or kill the person who refused to listen, threatened him, and abandoned him, then I can see why he takes his chance. The thing is, if he had refused to fight him, I think the gang would've still stepped in to save the day and this might've been enough evidence to prove to them that Allan was still a good person with some loyalty to Robin, had severed all his ties with Guy and the sheriff, and they might've actually considered letting him back in the gang. But of course, he takes that swing and the fight starts, so that chance goes out the window.
• Robin asks him, "How did you get to be so low?" Is this just about him being willing to take the first swing? Allan, obviously still hurt from the last episode, replies with, "That was always your problem, Robin. So high and mighty, eh? So much better than everyone else." Honestly, Allan's right. He's spot on. These resentments have clearly been building for a long time. Robin does act like he's better than everyone else, or at least like he's smarter than them. Robin, completely unwilling to even hear the truth in Allan's words, replies with, "No, just better than you." The fight's fully on now.
• After Allan knocks Robin's giant turkey leg looking thing into the oil, he actually pauses. They're both in a fighting stance and Allan clearly has the upper hand, but he doesn't strike. I don't think he's prepared to actually kill him. 
• Aww, Much. "I'll give him music." Why did they wait so long? Why did they wait until they were sure Robin was going to lose and Allan was going to win? Makes me think a little less of them.
• Djaq's fighting style here is really good and she looks adorable.
• Aw, John saves Allan from a guard but then hits him with the staff himself.
• Will, knocking out a guard, "Told you I was good with wood." LMAO
• OMG John jiggling the bells in Guy's face to confuse him and then hitting him in the balls! This whole scene is fantastic.
• Oh, Allan...why would you still join up with them after all that?
• What would have happened if Robin had gotten there first? Would he have killed Winchester? Probably. What would happen with Marian? Could she still go back to the castle after being rescued by Robin or would that raise questions? Would she have just gone to the forest? They could just say that Robin only killed him for being a traitor and let her live since it was clear from her chains that she wasn't actually willingly going to be with the traitor, but it would still raise some major red flags since the sheriff and Guy would look at it as him rescuing her no matter how they framed it.
• This last scene sucks, but we do get some information about Much's past, that his mother raised him and he remembers her and the things she told him.
• There is NO REASON for them to be telling Much to shut up, yelling at him, or throwing stuff at him in a not-friendly way. None. They're bullies. Much deserves better. Bullying Much isn't comedy. I hate that about this show. Bullying someone isn't funny and it isn't good comedy.

Final Thoughts:

That was a mostly fun episode, though there was a decent helping of angst as well. It's the start of the Pact storyline which will continue throughout the rest of the season but then it magically disappears after that without any real closure. What happens to the Pact? If they ever reveal that I don't remember the answer, but I kind of have a feeling that they don't. This is one of the most annoying MacGuffins ever though. They really expect me to give a damn about this piece of paper over people's lives? I really don't. I get that it's evidence of treason, but since I also don't give a damn about the king, it's really hard for me to care about this Pact, especially when they expect me to value it more than human life.

This is also the start of the Allan working at the castle storyline, which certainly had a bumpy start. He begs Guy for a job, gets taken on, is nearly killed by the sheriff in a method that would be extremely painful and had the added bonus of mental torment because he's faced with the decision of whether to try to kill his former friend, but then he finally passes the interview process and lands the job at the end. Actually, I wonder if that's what this was about. Once the sheriff got Robin, he certainly didn't need to kill Allan anymore (not that he needed to kill him even before, he just wanted to kill someone), but that whole fight to the death plan may have been a way to test Allan's loyalty. If Allan had refused to fight Robin, he would be shown to still care about Robin and could be double crossing them. Same for if Robin refused to fight him. But if they were willing to fight and Allan was willing to try to kill Robin, then it's proof that his loyalty to Robin is truly gone and he's safe to bring on the team. Worst job interview process ever.

But we now have the shift to the second part of season two in place. The first five episodes were all about Allan still being in the gang but spying for Guy and them going on regular missions and learning about the Black Knights, but the rest of the season is all about Allan working at the castle, openly being a traitor, stopping the Black Knights, and getting/protecting this Pact. Everything before this point was sort of the build up to the season's main story arc, but now we're going to really get into it. See you in the next episode!