‘The Bastard Executioner’ Recap: Winning By a Nose

After last week’s dense two-hour premiere of The Bastard Executioner, creator Kurt Sutter streamlined his story this episode to give us all a chance to begin to admire Lady Love, to watch Milus have (sad) sex with twins, to wonder why Annora is pulling a snake out of a dead, chopped-up body, and to be grateful that Wilkin did not use the medieval torture device known as “the pear” while questioning a young rebel girl. Let’s break it down.

Related: ‘The Bastard Executioner’ Postmortem: Director/EP Paris Barclay’s Deep Dive Into Episode 3

Sons of Anarchy fans no doubt noted that the episode opened with a montage, which felt comforting. After the deaths of Ventris and Milus’s brother in the premiere, Wilkin was with Annora at her cave practicing his new punisher skills on animal carcasses, while elsewhere an apprentice was working on Ventris’s effigy under the eye of a master. Lady Love informed her handmaiden that she was done mourning her husband, but Milus wasn’t.

We got more of Wilkin’s backstory: As he recounted to Annora, a young woman left him with monks when he was young and told them he was fatherless. We saw a flash of young Wilkin learning to fight while a pre-burn Dark Mute looked on. So was he a monk, and that’s why he looked slightly uncomfortable at the end of episode 2 when Annora got naked and helped him strip? Or was he just watching Wilkin practice as some kind of scout? Why would he keep his face hidden from Wilkin if Wilkin knew him when he was a child? Judging from the way the Dark Mute asked Annora how “the boy” was doing, he has affection for him. Are we thinking young Wilkin was made to believe that this man he cared for was killed during a fire, perhaps to urge Wilkin along his journey to become a knight? If the Dark Mute was willing to burn himself for the cause, then it’d explain how he’d have the conviction to kill Petra and Wilkin’s unborn child to keep him on that path… Anyway, we should probably remember that Annora told Wilkin his mother is “gone” and watches over him with the angels, and that Annora and the Dark Mute were apparently once "lost” spiritually as well.

The main story of the episode revolved around the young rebel girl Nia who got caught by Ventris’s knights after she broke the nose off of the effigy while it was en route. It was a test for both Wilkin and Lady Love: Wilkin was asked to torture information about the rebels out of the girl whose politics he actually agrees with, and Lady Love wanted to find a way to spare the girl’s life without looking like she governed by"feminine frivolity" or “Welsh leanings” in the eyes of Milus or the crown.

Wilkin only managed to take Nia’s fingernail before Love arrived to talk with the girl. All Nia would tell her is that she wants Wales to be quiet again (as does the baroness). But again, Love is the star of CSI: Ventrishire and figured out from the make and scent of Nia’s garment that she was from a fishing village. Executive producer Paris Barclay, who directed the episode, spoke of the challenges of filming that lengthy scene by the sea between Love and Nia’s uncooperative, steadfast mother, who refused to arrange the meeting Love requested with The Wolf to better understand the rebel plight. But it was all worth it for Love’s line, “I do not understand your hatred of me, and clearly you do not understand my love for you.” In short, the Welsh people consider Nia, the daughter of a beloved Welsh lord, a traitor for sleeping next to English wardog Ventris. They don’t believe the reason she married him is the same one she stated now: To stop the bloodshed and oppression of her people.

Wilkin suggested they ask Nia’s brother for information, since he felt bad about her getting caught during his raid. He told them about the weapons the rebels hide with them (double agent Wilkin is gonna have to replace those). That would have been enough to spare his sister had the rebels not attacked Lady Love’s caravan on the return to the castle. The siege wasn’t quite as memorable as the premiere’s battles, but we got to see Milus in action and learn that the Father has a badass past. Toran, Wilkin’s friend, had to save Leon Teller, who wears Petra’s cross necklace, in the battle to keep up appearances and preserve their chances of discovering which men helped slaughter their village. Later, having gained the men’s trust and respect in battle, they learned the identity of a second man (who’d bragged about being at their village). But that’s only two names in nearly a month. Wilkin’s impatience will definitely cause friction with Toran and the others.

In the end, Lady Love made a decision that managed to surprise and, all things considered, was the absolute best she could do. It wasn’t until Wilkin actually cut off the girl’s nose that I realized that’s what Love’s order had been instead of death. A judgment forced by obligation, she’d told Wilkin when they’d met in the chapel, which is quickly becoming their special place. It’s private and has beautiful lighting, and yet, there’s that door that Milus can always crack open to get more and more annoyed that Lady Love is more interested in Wilkin’s counsel than his.

It’s a delicate dance the show must do with Wilkin and Lady Love: Wilkin has a smile reserved just for her (which we also talked to Barclay about). But although he genuinely enjoys and respects her, he has to lie to her. And Love, however appreciative of the fact that his level head rules his deadly body, has to always be smart enough to notice the things that don’t match up with his story. After all, we see how she figures everyone else out: She would notice that his scar looked fresh in the premiere and that his swordsmanship was more refined than your average punisher’s in this hour. She has to recognize it, and believably compartmentalize her doubt after he gives her a reasonable answer so they continue to be allies. As Milus said, Maddox serves her, but Wilkin belongs to him. That’s going to be fun.

Those are the parts of the story that are easily followed — the quest to avenge Petra’s death and the power plays inside and beyond of the castle’s walls. The idea that Jessamy, the executioner’s wife, refuses to break character is fascinating. As is Milus’s use of sex as power and him crying during it with the twins (because they were a grief gift and reminded him that his best friend is dead)? How will Lady Love and Wilkin both stay loyal to their current job titles while their hearts are sympathetic to the rebels? And what schemes does Milus have up his sleeve to keep Wilkin from influencing Love (besides threatening to shred him body and mind or condemn his “family” to death)?

Then, there’s Annora, Wilkin’s visions of Petra, the dead body in the woods, and the snakes. That’s harder to process. You find yourself asking if the symbolism is religious, Welsh, or just made up for this show? Should we know if those snakes hanging in the cave represent the lives of Welshmen lost? And that’s why a “snake” tried to strangle Wilkin once he got the order to maim the rebel girl? Who killed that man in the forest and why? (It’s part of the bigger mythology of the show, Barclay says.)

I assume the vision of Petra answering Wilkin’s question of whether she’s there to help him or haunt him with, “We are given that choice with every encounter, my love. You must decide” — and Annora telling Wilkin that we make our own demons are related. Is the message, also taking into account Annora’s chat with Wilkin’s Muslim friend about not judging anyone’e religion, that everyone creates their own faith? That if we believe it, or see it in a vision, it’s real to us, regardless of whether it’s real or fated?

If you have theories, share them in the comments. Until next week…