Episode 2: Cause and Effect

As this episode starts, Robin Hood returns to what he originally started doing, in episode 2 of season 1. Robbing the rich, to feed the poor.

However, as usual, the Sheriff is up to no good. He has decided to sell all the able bodied men in the county, to an Irish revolutionist, who wished to throw out the English government, and make Ireland a free nation. And he's willing to pay handsomely, for an army.

The Sheriff is desperately in need of funds to pay off the heavy tax that Price John has leveled on him, and he is perfectly willing to sell the men away from their families.

Strongly objecting to the Sheriff selling her brother, is a Locksley girl named Kate. After a failed attempt to sneak her brother away, Kate escapes from Sir Guy's guards with a little help from a kindly outlaw. How does she repay this kindness, you may ask? She obviously allows Robin to make his own plans, and waits to see how she can best help him save her brother. Right?

Wrong. Becoming impatient with Robin's careful planning, she rushes to attack the soldiers that are guiding the band of prisoners through the forest. Robin and his men follow, attacked by an group of Celts, who have come to see that their new army is well cared for. Most of the gang escapes, along with Kate, but Robin is rounded up, unknown to the Celts, and hauled off to Nottingham with all the other villagers.

The Good:

I must say, that the the new Sir Guy is by far better than the one of the last two seasons. Now that he has 'jumped off the cliff of sanity', I am able to truly appreciate him as a villain. Richard Armitage was spectacular, and the new dynamic between the Sheriff and Guy is very well played on both sides. I've decided that Sir Guy is much better as an all out baddie, than the middle ground he formerly occupied. The real kind of villain that you love to hate.

This weeks guest stars were very good, as well. Especially Fin, the wanna-be King of Ireland. His dedication to the cause of freedom was admirable, as was his appreciation of Robin's leadership skills.

Allan was great, as usual. He had some nice little lines, and seemed to be the only one to have a problem with the fact that once Robin was gone, Tuck became the defacto leader. If Allan continues to mature throughout the season, I could see him replacing Robin as leader, when Jonas leaves.

The Bad:

There will be a lot more in this section this week, that there was last week. Unfortunately.

The Bad, will begin with Kate. She was terrible. Despite the fact that the actress seemed to be giving it everything she had, the character was still utterly unlikable. Like I predicted, they seemed to want to make her as similar to Marian as they could. But to change things up, they made her poor, and she has a mother instead of a father. However, they gave her all of Marian's bad points (yes, she had them) and none of her good ones. She rushes into battle without permission (ala. Marian in 'Get Carter') and then blames Robin for the bad things that happen as a result. She always seems to be shifting the blame for bad things onto other people, even when they are her fault. Plus, the need for the 'sobering influence' in Robin's life, is no longer necessary like it was in Season 1, when Marian was always criticizing Robin. And Kate doesn't even have a legitimate reason for her dislike of Robin, unlike Marian. I'm willing to give her more than one episode to make me like her, however, judging by this first episode, the next 11 episodes may be hard to watch.

Joining Kate in 'The Bad' column, is the episode plot in general. I've heard people accuse this show of being repetitive and unoriginal before, but this is the first time I've considered agreeing with them. How many times will it take for Robin Hood to escape the 'slow and painful death' that the Sheriff is saving for him, before the Sheriff will just say, "Kill him on sight!" I realize that would make for a very short show, the next time Robin got caught, but at least it would make the writers think of another story. Something other than, Robin gets captured and imprisoned, then makes miraculous escape, leaving the Sheriff fuming, "Inconceivable!"

This particular 'miraculous escape' happened to be particularly far fetched, involving hang gliding from the top of the castle battlements, using one of the large canopies they have up there. Don't even get me started on the 'stretching of imagination' which the BBC required us to take, this episode. It takes a pretty bad one to bug me, and these ones were pretty bad.

The Ugly:

Kate. Not necessarily, literally, but her character gets put in 'The Bad' and 'The Ugly'.

Much pining over Kate. Apparently the writers have short term memory loss. Or have they forgotten that Much already has a girl? If they wanted Much to get together with someone, they should have brought back Eve, from season 1. You remember her right? We fans do, however, the writers don't seem to.

What I want to know is this. How did they build those arrow launcher things, without Will? Neither Will or Djaq has been mentioned yet, which makes me mad. The were both important members of the team. The fact that they seem to have build a highly complex system for firing arrows, without the one man who could have designed and created that, is completely absurd, and should have been explained.

In Summary:

I really hope this was just a 'down' episode, and that things will be back to the way they started out in episode 1, again, very soon.

If that doesn't happen... Well, I don't know what I'll do.

~Paige