Kurt Sutter wasted no time indulging his baser instincts with The Bastard Executioner. Graphic torture? Check. Needlessly complicated schemes? Check. Overlong running time? Check. Unwarranted Gaelic in the episode title? Better believe that’s a check. Man, if only we could have an overdose or a graphic rape scene, “A Hunger/Newyn” could have achieved what’s known as the full Sutter. All jokes aside, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. It served itself well by focusing only on an A and a B-plot, which lent the proceedings a nice sense of clarity and focus (there was a largely inconsequential C-plot, but it dovetailed with everything else in the end, so I’m giving it a pass).
I think this is low-key one of the weirdest shows on the air right now, and that’s by virtue of Wilkin’s, um, “unconventional” living situation. Jessamy, his wife (so to speak), is totally aware that he’s not Gawain Maddox, but refuses to break character, even with no one else around. There are so many questions about Jessamy – is she just committed to staying alive? Is she in love with Wilkin? Is she just straight-up crazy? Well, spoiler alert, it’s the last one. But her strange relationship with Wilkin leads to some great scenes, such as when she reminds him that they had just come from Pryceshire, and the shire’s chamberlain is sure to recognize him.
In fact, at this point I’d be hard pressed to think of anyone who doesn’t know Wilkin’s identity, with the exception of Love (still can’t get over that nickname). The uneasy alliance between Wilkin and Milus is one of Bastard‘s greatest strength, as Lee Jones shares better chemistry with Stephen Moyer than he does with anyone else. This can be troublesome when Wilkin has to share scenes with, say, Toran or Love or Jessamy, but his scenes with Milus have such life and menace to them that it makes up for it.
But the real success of “A Hunger/Newyn” – seriously, what the fuck is up with those titles, Kurt Sutter? – is due to Flora Spencer-Longhurst. Love has been summoned to Windsor Castle to meet with King Edward II, only to find herself given the runaround by his French dickhead of a chamberlain, Sir Galveston. Love shows great agency in these scenes, and Spencer-Longhurst clearly relishes the chance to show us her inner badass. She steals food from the King’s plate, she rebuffs Galveston’s advances, then when they seek to punish her by dividing Ventrishire into thirds, she drops the mic and says she’s pregnant, so they can’t do shit because there’s an heir on the way. These scenes really took their time with Love’s character, and were a nice break from the murder-by-chicken and eye-gouging that were happening elsewhere (the latter perpetrated by a surprisingly good Ed Sheeran, this season’s first bit of stunt casting, which is also a square on Kurt Sutter Bingo).
Now, the C-plot didn’t do much for me. Berber and Ash decide to stay and protect Annora after one of her fellow mystics has been captured. Calo (with the beard) runs away. At the end all three men are captured. These scenes were the episode’s major stumbling blocks, but when the men are captured they’re taken to Ventrishire, where hopefully they will become actual characters, instead of just names I have to look up on IMDb. Plus, we got some mysticism introduced into the show, with the conflict between the Rosula and the Seraphim. That’s the kind of shit that interests me, and Sutter probably could have found a smoother way to introduce it, but it’s here and that’s what matters.
A Few Thoughts
- So, since Milus knows who Wilkin is, does Leon? Has Milus surmised Wilkin’s true intentions? My guess is no to both, but I’m a dum-dum and I’d like everything spelled out for me
- “Find me a shovel.”
- “A little golden beetle?”
- First of two predictions: Love isn’t actually pregnant, and our bastard executioner will soon be making a bastard of his own
- Second: Wilkin’s adoptive son will accidentally reveal his true identity, and will end up dead somehow. This is a Kurt Sutter show, there is no way that kid is making it to season two
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