Galavant Rewatch 2.7, "Love and Death"

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An aptly-titled episode reiterates a strange nuance in medievalist fantasy.

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2.7, "Love and Death"

Written by Robin Shorr, Luan Thomas, Julia Grob, and Joe Piarulli
Directed by Paul Murphy

Synopsis

Fortunately, the way is clear, though there is some confusion about geography.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Overlapping in its beginning with the previous episode's end, the present episode moves through immediate reactions to Galavant's accidental impaling and into the mad rush to save him. They head to Sporin, where a healer is in residence. The healer takes him in swiftly, noting ironically in a long-winded song that speed is needed to treat him--and pronounces him dead.

In Valencia, Wormwood plots an invasion of Hortensia with Madalena and Gareth. Madalena is interested in Isabella's presence and discomfiture. Gareth's gesture towards her evokes an exclamation of love that makes the two uncomfortable and provokes Wormwood's wedding-planning expertise. Madalena flees, and Gareth mulls over being told he is loved in a parodic song.

If there's going to be a running gag, it makes sense to put it on a horse.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Galavant lies dead at the healer's, with Roberta making metanarrative comments and Sid referencing The Princess Bride to no avail. The healer offers some semblance of hope, which Richard tries unsuccessfully to reject; the return of the unicorn reasserts his virginity. Roberta tries to console him regarding his status, and the healer takes what he needs.

In Hortensia, Steve continues to try to entertain and is interrupted by Isabella's news that they will be invaded by Valencia through a miscommuncation. Isabella finds herself in command of Hortensia's forces and wholly unprepared to be so.

Madalena continues to fret about the impending war and her relationship with Gareth. He is smitten, and she violently rejects his advances. Meanwhile, Isabella seeks information about strategies. And the healer prepares the potion he hopes will revive Galavant. It appears not to work, certainly not quickly. Richard and Roberta confer about the situation.

Not the expected anteroom to the afterlife.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Galavant, meanwhile, confronts death amid a strangely cheery song and dance number. He is shown those whom he knew, including Isabella. He sees her plight and learns of the miscommunication that injured her in "World's Best Kiss." The drive to correct the problems compels his return to life. He rises to interrupt Roberta's declaration of love for Richard and his realization of love for her.

Gareth confronts Madalena about their nuptials in advance of reviewing their troops. Their confrontation bleeds over into the review, which continues to be awkward for all involved.

There's a comment in here, I'm sure.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Isabella reviews the resources available to Hortensia. They would be laughable were death not so imminent. Isabella is understandably distraught.

Galavant and his companions make to leave, and the healer offers an undead horde that will fight at Galavant's command. Conflict seems unavoidable.

Discussion

The present episode is rife with references to other medievalist properties. One such is noted above; Sid comments on being mostly dead in a clear nod to The Princess Bride, a reference likely to lodge well with the parents of Millennials who remember fondly having their children see the film (and that seems to be a large part of the expected audience for the series as a whole, which makes the move a good one). Another is yet another comment connecting to Game of Thrones, with the visual reference to the Red Keep. That Richard, Roberta, and Sid turn away from it in search of a healer works well, given the actions of some "healers" depicted there (about which Shiloh's comments are always welcome).

If it's good enough for Aragorn...
Image taken from The One Wiki to Rule Them All, used for commentary.

There's a less overt one, too. At the end, Galavant comes into possession of an undead army. Normally, such a thing is the province of antagonists; using the undead is almost always considered a mark of evil, and the series makes much of being aware of narrative convention. Yet Galavant smiles as he accepts the soldiers. They are a means to an end for him, yes, and they are soldiers about whose deaths he need not worry. And they are a call-back to Tolkien's legendarium, specifically the oathbreakers Aragorn summons at Erech. Aragorn is clearly good, yet he uses forces that read as evil in most any other context; Galavant does the same, though he is less pure than his Middle-earth counterpart (if no more believable).

There's also a tacit nod to the medieval antecedents earlier in the episode. Galavant encounters death amid a jaunty tune, which seems strange--and so fit for parody, in keeping with the series as a whole. At the same time, though, medieval Europe prized death; one traditional conception is that death marked a release from the suffering of the fallen and sinful world, allowing the sanctified soul to proceed closer to God. This does not mean there was not grief for the passing of the dead, as Mia Korpiola and Anu Lahtinen point out, but it was focal, as Alixe Bovey asserts, and so more amenable to treatment in ways other than mourning. Indeed, much was made by Europeans of the High Middle Ages--which Galavant evokes--of the danse macabre, per Emily Rebekah Huber, and the specter of death and attendants amid what amounts to a showtune seems of such sort, indeed. So there's something else the series has gotten right as it has sent up the Middle Ages.