Tom Builder (Rufus Sewell), sporting a more grey-haired appearance, takes a surprsing back-seat in this episode, perhaps amassing no more than six minutes of screen time; and his outlawed lover significantly less.
Set four years later from last episode's events, the series carries on with the formula of brutal and graphic opening. The episode opens with Maude being beseiged in Lincoln Castle surrounded by King Stephen's forces. She's left to starve into submission and surrender. It's left to Maude's brother to come back to save her. The brother succeeds, but gets himself caught by Stephen's men. The same happens to King Stephen in the inevitable confrontation.
Seemingly the sudden playmaker, it's left to Maude to dish out a deal with the primary perpetual conspirators: the evil Archbishop, and the power-hungry mother and son - in ever-increasing wrongness. You know it's not right, but you can't help but watch...
Red-haired Jack, and the noble Prior all get caught up in the mess with quite devastating consequences, a new romantic entaglement retains something potentially happy, positive, and genuinely exciting (a rarity in this rather gritty tale) and we're left on an extremely annoying cliffhanger!
Despite the complexity of the narrative, the episode felt depressingly predictable... The director doesn't know the meaning of subtle! But I still like it, and it still engages, like an early episode of X Factor. Watching more for (unfathomable) loyalty and curiosity from now onwards!
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