(Author’s note: sorry this is going up late. I’m gonna level with you, I blew out my back yesterday and didn’t feel up to writing a review. Plus, I already wrote two reviews of Scream Queens, you greedy motherfuckers.)
“Effigy/Delw,” the bizzarely titled second episode of The Bastard Executioner, definitely suffers from second episode syndrome. It has to introduce new conflicts and new characters, and do so in a land populated by people with incomprehensible names and unintelligible accents. Kurt Sutter is putting a lot on his plate right away, but that’s kind of what Kurt Sutter does. All those gripes aside, it was this episode that came close to convincing me to love this show, for one simple fact: Wilkin Brattle is the Punisher.
Think about it: they’re both soldiers (canonically, Frank Castle fought in Vietnam) whose families were murdered, and now they’re biding their time until they can exact their revenge. Hell, people even call Wilkin “Punisher.” So count me in, because the Punisher is fucking awesome. The Bastard Executioner, however, still has a ways to go.
“Effigy/Delw” (seriously, why isn’t this episode just titled “Effigy”?) introduces us to a band of rebels, because medieval dramas always have bands of rebels. One of them, a young girl named Neya, is captured after a statue of Baron Ventris is vandalized in transit. The Baroness – whose nickname is LOVE, no bullshit, because Sutter is not known for subtlety – wants to talk to her before torture commences, but she’s too late; Wilkin has already gone to work. Since Wilkin and Toran are undercover – and getting increasingly into their “roles” – this was the “Do ____ to prove you’re not a cop” scene. “Pull her fingernails so I know you’re cool.”
The main conflict of “Effigy/Delw” isn’t necessarily with the rebels, though. It’s more Milus and his seriously amazing outfits getting mad at Wilkin’s presumptuousness. Milus is a dangerous man to piss off, and this is amplified by the fact that he knows Wilkin’s identity (there’s a month-long time jump between this episode and last week’s, so I guess that explains how he figured it out, although it seems like this should have been a much bigger reveal). But Wilkin knows that Milus is gay, which I guess isn’t as well-known as I thought.
This wasn’t really a bad episode, per se. It just suffered from too many subplots. For instance, there was an absolutely unnecessary C-story involving the disappearance of Ash, who everyone presumes is dead (Ash is the sheep herder with the white guy dreads, in case you forgot). As of now, Wilkin’s gang lacks any individual identities, so it makes it hard not only to keep track of who’s who, but also to give a shit. Let’s see, Ash has the sheep, Berber is black and a Muslim, the, uh, the guy with the beard likes to eat a lot of fish? Annora and the Dark Mute have a cave full of dead snakes?
I’m way less interested in the rebels, and in their leader the Wolf. I’m less interested in the band of rebels with their painted faces. I’m definitely interested in Wilkin and Toran tracking down their families’ killers and Punishing the hell out of them, so one wishes The Bastard Executioner would focus on that.
A Few Thoughts
- “The anger is for the guilty”
- “What is it you want for Wales?” “I want it to be quiet”
- “We make our own demons”
- This week in unnecessary subtitles: “Executioner’s Quarters” and “Dungeon.” Oh really, the place where Wilkin lives is the Executioner’s Quarters? Thanks, show!
- I liked the flashback, showing young Wilkin apparently at the tutelage of the Dark Mute, who wasn’t always burnt to a crisp
- I’m not crazy about those black and white fade-outs before commercials. Do you guys like them?
- Lastly, Wilkin chopping off Neya’s nose was a pretty good “fuck you” to Milus
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