Galavant Rewatch 1.8, "It's All in the Executions"

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As the first season of the show ends, power shifts and a redemption arc begins.

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1.8, "It's All in the Executions"

Written by Dan Fogelman, Kristin Newman, Jeremy Hall, Luan Thomas, and Joe Piarulli
Directed by Chris Koch

Synopsis

The episode opens with Galavant and company imprisoned in advance of Richard's duel. Galavant admits to incapacity, and Sid prompts him to kiss Isabella. Galavant demurs, then stumbles into an idea to get himself out of the cell where he is captive.

It would appear to have worked.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Galavant tried to make common cause with Richard. The attempt makes some progress, to which Gareth takes exception. Gareth is increasingly annoyed by Richard and departs, leaving Galavant to take him on a drunken excursion.

It also seems to have worked.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The two confer about Madalena. Richard waxes introspective in his drunkenness, and Galavant sympathizes. The latter urges Richard to assassinate Kingsley. Richard agrees--but drinks himself silly. An ironic song proclaiming their sinister intent ensues, and their drinking continues until they actually make the attempt.

This would seem not to have worked.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Richard and Galavant, drunk, are recaptured. Kingsley attempts to entice Gareth to his side, with mixed success. Richard and Gareth confer again, and Gareth wrestles with his own conscience, somewhat ineptly. Richard sings himself to sleep, and his song echoes across the castle, spurring amity and troubling Gareth further.

The next day, Galavant wakes with an appropriate headache and to the chastisement of his companions. Gareth enters, moving to retrieve Richard and Galavant. Galavant and Gareth fight, and Gareth wins, dragging Galavant away. He deposits the two with pirates, sending Galavant to protect Richard and Richard away to protect him. Gareth and Galavant part amid mutual threats and seemingly grudging respect.

Such grudge. Much respect. Wow.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Gareth returns to the castle and is ordered to execute the prisoners. He opts to release them, instead, save for Sid. Madalena kills Kingsley when he goes to kill Gareth, and Gareth ascends to sit at her side. The two evidently make quite the pair.

This seems to work, indeed.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The released prisoners make their way to Harry's principality--where Isabella is imprisoned in a a saccharine cell. And, as Galavant and Richard are taken to a waiting ship, the season ends.

Discussion

The anachronism at work in the series is particularly evident in the present episode. At one point, Richard makes reference to being "a modern, thirteenth-century man," situating the series in time. There are enough correspondences to observed history to assert that the series takes place in an Earth-like world that is supposed to have the same general historical arcs as Earth, albeit bowdlerized to some extent by being a production of a Disney property. While the specifics can be argued (and doubtlessly are in some parts of the Internet; what isn't?), the audience is clearly called to look at Galavant as emerging from what is known and understood of "real" medieval history. The appearance of various technologies and character tropes emerging from other times has been noted in other write-ups of the series, and need no reiteration here; it is enough to have the reinforcement of the anachronism by a specific time-reference at present.

What is interesting about the time-reference, though, is that it situates the series amid the consolidation both of courtly love as a formalized concept and of romance as a literary genre in prose. Both are things with which the present episode concerns itself--along with the rest of the series. What may seem an off-hand reference to some nebulously medieval time, and what may well have been intended as such (though intent is not a reliable issue, in any event), functions as a clever pinning-down for the series. In the event, it helps to solidify what is an often fluid medievalism in the series, doing so without calling attention to itself except from those nerdier watchers who might already be looking for such things (as might be expected of someone who will blog about television shows for their medieval over- and undertones).

What comes off as less favorable in the episode, however, is its depictions of the principal female characters. Isabella seems to have lost some of her depth of characterization, being infatuated with Galavant despite his bad behavior and continued unwarranted cockiness. Madalena becomes more stereotypically lustful and sinister than she had been in previous episodes. Both cases seem to be flattenings of characters who, like many of their medieval antecedents but unfortunately few of their medievalist ones, were as fully realized as any others in the series, and more than most. It seems as if the show simply cannot allow itself to do well all around--which is a shame.