‘The Bastard Executioner’ Recap: Crying Fowl
Episode 4 of The Bastard Executioner, “A Hunger/Newyn,” is one that makes you happy you struggled to learn the names Ventrishire and Pryceshire. Storylines were propelled forward by bold moves like Lady Love announcing her (fake) pregnancy to the crown to keep control of her land; Milus scheming behind her back with Baron Pryce to potentially merge their shires; and Wilkin choking Pryce’s Chamberlain with a fowl bone to both keep his identity secret and protect his friends, who’ve been seized for suspicion of committing a gruesome “satanic” murder.
Let’s break it down.
Related: ‘TBX’ Postmortem: Flora Spencer-Longhurst Talks That Lady Love Twist
JESSAMY IS CRAZY
We start with her because we’re relieved the show is making time to deal with Wilkin’s new family life while all the power plays are afoot. Wilkin heard her calling out as she slept — nightmares that may or may not be erotic — and guessed that Maddox used to hurt her and Luca. Wilkin dreamed of his wife Petra lying in bed with him, asking her why she still loves him when he swore to protect her and couldn’t. Their love will exist always, Petra told him, through any trial of time or circumstance. He’s afraid he’ll never find that kind of love again, and she said he already has. (With Lady Love? Or the one-sided “love” emanating from Jessamy?) As he kissed Petra, he realized he was actually in a lip-lock with Jessamy, who believes a husband and wife need to be intimate. To pacify her, Wilkin said he’ll learn to be close. “Learn? Have you not loved me always?” she asked. He looked properly confused.
He thinks she’s worried about the consequences that await them if his true identity is revealed, and that’s why she refuses to break character. Luca, however, knows Wilkin is not his father because Maddox used to tell him he was too dull-minded to learn to read Bible stories. Wilkin promised to teach him if he’d help ease his mother’s worry. Luca asked if he could still call Wilkin father. It was a touching moment that you thought warmed Jessamy’s heart, but cut to the end of the episode and Wilkin coming home to find Jessamy repeatedly burning the boy’s back with a hot knife. Wilkin was appalled, but she said she was doing it because it’s what he’s always done when they need correction. Luca ran to Wilkin who, without hesitating, told him, “It’s all right, son. I’m here.” Has Jessamy officially snapped? Is she trying to grow the bond between Luca and protective Wilkin by hurting the boy? Or is this cycle of violence the only thing she’s ever known and continuing it is her form of denial and grief? It’s not like anyone at Ventrishire would know that Maddox used to beat the boy or even be able to see the boy’s back. Though they need her knowledge of Maddox’s history, you have to wonder if her devotion to “Maddy” makes her a liability. Fans of Sons of Anarchy know what happens to weak links when they become unpredictable…
LADY LOVE IS “PREGNANT”
Lady Love made her way to Windsor, with Isabel in tow, to find out the fate of Ventrishire. Instead of being greeted by King Edward II, she met Piers Gaveston, a historical figure who was definitely Edward’s trusted advisor and possibly his lover. In the TBX incarnation, that was hinted at with the warm embrace he shared with Edward when Lady Love was finally taken to meet the king in the middle of the night, but also countered with Gaveston seeming to focus solely on Love’s looks. Then again, that was perhaps the only thing any man focused on in regards to women during that time period. Gaveston could be like Milus and use sex for entertainment and power, but he doesn’t seem as skilled at it. He’s a boy playing a man’s game.
In that respect, Isabel reminiscing about Love striking a childhood bully who didn’t approve of the friendship between them with a shovel was fitting. Gaveston could passive-aggressively insult Love’s clothing, make her wait for hours at a table full of food that she wasn’t supposed to touch until the king (never) arrived, and march into her room unannounced to sit on her bed and summon her to meet Edward — but Love would not cower. (She’d just quip to Isabel about needing a shovel and hating the French.)
Related: ‘The Bastard Executioner’ Postmortem: Director/EP Paris Barclay’s Deep Dive Into Episode 3
In the end, Edward told her that Gaveston would decide her fate (with his chancellor). Since Edward couldn’t be bothered with the marsh territories, she made her case to Gaveston: For 50 years, her father and grandfather ruled their land with kindness and grace. When Longshanks betrayed them and took Wales for himself, she agreed to marry Ventris so her family would be given safe passage to Scotland and the castle she’d grown up in would go to an heir. Gaveston said the only agreement that mattered was the one she made now. Rejecting him and his hand on her chin, she informed him that the little golden beetle, as Edward had called her, was heading back to her marshland dung heap. Refusing his advances or bait to beg was her only power.
The next morning, Gaveston delivered the decision: Ventrishire would be divided in thirds — two parts to the neighboring shires, and the coastal region with the castle to him. He’d thought he’d won: All she was leaving with was the gown they’d given her. It’d be of no use soon, she said, just like that decision: She was pregnant with an heir, she told him. It’s what she would’ve told the King had she been given a proper meeting, she claimed. It was a brilliant, desperate play that buys her some time — approximately seven months, since it’s been nearly two months since her husband died…
Let’s assume Love is definitely not pregnant now since Ventris had made their lack of success colorfully clear in the premiere and Isabel looked shocked by the reveal (though technically, Love could be and not know it yet). What’s Love’s next move? Milus will find out about her little announcement, so will she consult with him, knowing that she could use his clever mind to help get her out of this mess and that he’d want Ventrishire to stay within his grasp? Will she try to get pregnant quickly? If so, using whom: Milus, Wilkin, Frenchie? Will she stuff her elaborate gown and pretend she’s pregnant, then take a baby from a peasant (or Jessamy, if Wilkin could get her pregnant?!) as her own? Will she fake the pregnancy, and then a miscarriage once Baron Pryce is free to marry her? Most importantly: Does the vision she had when she was with Wilkin in the chapel in the premiere — of a baby being born — fit into this? Truly, it’s the game-changer that makes this show exciting. You want to know what happens next.
MILUS’S NEW DEAL INVOLVES DEATH BY CHICKEN BONE
So about Baron Pryce… While Lady Love was in Windsor, Milus invited him to Castle Ventris so he could pitch him an idea: To keep her land, Lady Love had to either produce a Ventris heir or marry an appointed noble. What if the baron married Lady Love? Then Ventrishire would be his, and he could finally build that port he always wanted. Milus assured Pryce that Lady Love would do whatever it takes to hold on to her beloved shire and that having him as his Chamberlain would be best, so Pryce just saw two tiny problems: he’s already married to the wife we saw sick with consumption in the premiere, and his Chamberlain, Henry Dyer, is well-connected.
Watching Stephen Moyer sell Milus’s plan was wonderful, from the delicate word choices (Pryce’s wife is “beyond the prospect of a return to wellness”) to the layered expressions of feigned innocence and humility. Milus said he’d think about both issues — and found a way to address one quickly.
Jessamy had told Wilkin that Dyer would recognize Maddox, since he’d stiffed him on wages, and Wilkin had warned Milus, who was arranging a tournament between the shires’ soldiers to show Pryce the skilled army he could have. Milus purposely pointed “Maddox” out to Dyer, knowing he’d threaten to out him. Eventually, after Wilkin nearly killed Leon Teller in the tournament, Milus brought Dyer to the punisher’s dungeon and knocked the man out. Wilkin would have to kill him and make it look like a natural accident, Milus said.
Because Kurt Sutter doesn’t do throwaways (did you notice the twins Milus had sex with in last week’s episode were cozying up to Pryce?), we got the payoff for the earlier reveal in the episode that Milus had eyes on Wilkin as he rode to the Far Caverns every day: Milus had made sure his friends were arrested on suspicion of committing the gruesome, “satanic” murder in the woods. “Everyone you love or care about is either dead or within my grasp to make that so,” Milus said, pressuring Wilkin.
When Dyer came to, he made the mistake of saying that Wilkin’s Bible-reading soul is as false as his name. Wilkin straddled his torso on the ground and shoved a fowl bone down his throat until he choked. It’s the new Death to Beat on this show. As intense as Lee Jones was in the moment, here’s hoping there are outtakes of him laughing and that we get to see them someday. Amazing.
Pryce was equally impressed with Milus’s swift work of Dyer. And he’s cautious — as he should be. How do you trust someone like Milus (unless you grew up with him like Ventris had)?
ANNORA IS A HUNTED WOMAN
It would seem Annora is a Seraph, an angelic caretaker of God’s throne who helps him maintain order — or so I glean from Wikipedia, which makes references to ardor (hence Annora and the Dark Mute getting it on to ready their faith?), fire (the Seraph Tobias tried to set one this episode, and the Dark Mute’s pre-existing burns?), and a quality of clarity (Annora enlightening Wilkin?). The writing on the bodies of the Seraphim is sacred text, and Robinus, the Archdeacon of Windsor, wants to be able to translate it. For that, he needs to find all the Seraphim because you can’t use one to decipher the others. Ergo, he has killed four of them so far, and their scribbled-upon chests and backs hang on the wall. (That’s the Sutter twist, and interesting for Sons fans who remember the burning off of Kyle Hobart’s back tattoo and the story of how that burnt back hung on the prop room wall.)
In this hour, the Archdeacon’s men captured Tobias after killing his Dark Mute-like companion and tortured him to try to find out more information. He wouldn’t talk, so they took his finger, then moved on to the eyes (ewww) under the watchful command of Robinus’s righthand, Cormac, a recurring character played by Ed Sheeran. Cormac appears to be like Milus — he orders the brutality but keeps his hands clean. He was smart enough to go to the map room and figure out possible destinations where Tobias could have been headed. Ventrishire was on the list because, we assume, he was delivering a message to Annora.
Annora already knows danger is coming because she sensed Tobias when he was trapped and willed him to run. Annora has one large drawing of a tree surrounded by symbols, presumably representing the Seraphim. When Tobias died — they cut off his shackled arms so he could be easily dragged to a location where his skin could be removed (gross, but cool in an efficient way) — Annora put a mark through another symbol.
On a lighter note, anyone reminded of Doctor Who’s Cassandra?
So what does it all mean? Are those Seraphim being killed in the woods? Probably not, since they’d need to be tortured and skinned elsewhere? So maybe it’s their companions? Or, maybe they’re random locals attacked and sacrificed by another group searching for the Seraphim — their blood and bodies being used for a locator spell?
If you have a theory, share it.
The Bastard Executioner airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
