Galavant Rewatch 2.9, "The Battle of Three Armies"

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The final confrontation of the series begins in earnest in the penultimate episode of Galavant.

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2.9, "The Battle of Three Armies"

Written by Rick Wiener, Kenny Schwartz, Juan Thomas, Julia Grob, and Joe Piarulli
Directed by John Fortenberry

Synopsis

It's an interesting look.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Steve, armored and still in motley, sings a recap of the series's recent events. Major tensions are laid out that have emerged throughout the series, and Steve's performance is acknowledged within the show as a good one.

Immediately after, Gareth marshals his large army, while Wormwood and Madalena withdraw to observe from afar. Gareth is understandably upset at the plan, and becomes more so as evidence of Madalena's trafficking in dark arts emerges.

Across the field, Isabella confers with her parents about the relative states of the invading and defending armies.  Isabella tries to rally her forces, doing surprisingly well at it--though she realizes their precarity.

Galavant, Richard, and their army arrive to see the invading and defending armies arrayed against one another. Richard begins to realize his peril, and Galavant makes to ease him. Richard also tries to get his "dragon" to breathe fire, to no avail.

Gareth agitates to get started as Wormwood and Madalena delay. The changing plans vex him, as does the continuing involvement of magic. The three mark the arrival of Galavant and his army, and Gareth moves to attack, Madalena remaining behind.

They had been doing well for themselves.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

The armies advance upon each other, their strains of the marching song that emerges reinforcing their relative strategic positions. In the middle of it all are Vincenzo and Gwen, whose cottage lies amid the battlefield that is soon to be. Vincenzo sees the advancing armies and muses on their likely impending doom.

Battle is joined. Madalena and Wormwood muse on the battle's progress, and Wormwood recognizes the Sword of the One True King in the opposition to their forces. Madalena demurs at the proposed use of the dark arts, and Wormwood plays upon her vanity to convince her to employ magic. And amid the chaos, Richard reconsiders his choices, Gareth advances upon him, and Galavant and Isabella meet again. She is not happy to see him, nor Richard to see Gareth; both pairs reconcile before a wave of magic turns the undead army upon the living. Wormwood enhances them and tutors Madalena in how to work her will.

Gareth realizes that he has been betrayed by the woman he had loved and had thought loved him as the living armies retreat to the fortified town of Hortensia. The undead press the attack against the barely-fighting retreat to the inner ward. A pause in the attack permits a parley. Madalena tries to reclaim Gareth; he refuses, deciding to stand with Richard and the others against Madalena's outright evil. The attack resumes.

Discussion

There might be a seeming disjunction at the beginning of the episode in seeing Steve, the jester, in armor. The incongruity of the demonstrably cowardly comedian in armor amuses, certainly, and the idea of a court performer as a warrior seems at odds with itself. It does have a significant medieval antecedent, however: Sir Dagonet. In Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, the linchpin of English-language Arthurian legend, Sir Dagonet is the fool of Arthur's court, explicitly described as such. The story in Malory of Le Cote Male Tayle offers one of the clearer examples of that description; Dagonet is used as a challenger to discredit Le Cote Male Tayle, as I have argued. For the court fool to appear in knightly array, then, has a centuries-long literary history; for Steve to show up in it is not a bad thing, nor altogether at odds with the "medieval" in which Galavant trades.

More prevalent than the connections to the medieval, though, are the connections to the medievalist, particularly in references to Tolkien. The title of the episode calls back to The Hobbit and its climactic battle at Erebor. Isabella's rallying speech borrows heavily from Theoden's at the Pelennor. So does Galavant's armor (with a helmet in the present episode, no less!). Both tie back to one of the major avenues through which people apprehend the medieval, per Paul B. Sturtevant's The Middle Ages in Popular Imagination. But the avenue is not the destination, certainly, and many people stop on the road long before reaching its end.

There is another thing to note, as well. As in previous episodes, the expectation seems to be that the audience's sympathies will turn towards those who have done horrible deeds because they are focal characters who have been hurt by others. In the present episode, Gareth seems to be the character with whom audience sympathies are expected to run. But that he feels himself betrayed by Madalena--who has already betrayed several others and who should not be trusted therefore--and that he reconciles with his friend and king--whom he had himself betrayed--does not erase the evils he himself has done. Gareth may try to make a distinction between being "a horrible human being" and "evil," but it is a distinction without much difference; an afternoon of humane feeling does not offset years of foul deeds and seasons of on-screen wrong-making.

Forgiveness may be possible, but it is not so swift or easy as all that.