Robin Hood 104: "Parent Hood"

In which Robin and co. find a babe in the woods, and lose one of their own.

"For every man there is a purpose which he sets up in his life. Let yours be the doing of all good deeds."

Robin quoting the Coran to his men.

This is the episode where the series creators want to show us that not everyone is safe, that characters we care about can and will die.

But before we get to that (and after they find the babe in the woods), Robin continues to be a show-off when he tries to help Marian get food into a quarantined village (that the Sheriff wants to starve so he can use it as accommodation for his troops). Instead of just tossing the food over the wall he shoots it over with arrows grinning as the villagers yell "Bless you Robin Hood"!

Spoilers below!

Unfortunately he gets an arrow in the arm for his pains (soldiers!), which provides us with some more fun banter with Marian as she stitches him up. She notices a nasty scar on his side, allowing the tale to unfold as to why Robin returned home while King Richard remained in the Holy Land. Apparently he thwarted an assassination attempt on the King (Saracen assassin, he has no idea how he made it pas their defenses), but the wound became infected and while he was feverish the King's army rode south, with the King leaving instructions for him to go home and recuperate. 

Their goodbye leads to a great argument on their respective tactics for defying the Sheriff and helping the people:

"Robin: Marian...why is it everything you say to me sounds like a criticism?
Marian: I do not know. I suppose this is the lives we have chosen, always different directions.
Robin: And yours is the better direction?
Marian: I work within the system. It is the only way.
Robin: Not at night. You dress up as, who is it, The Nightwatchman?
Marian: I do not taunt the Sheriff. I do not publicly flout his decisions.
Robin: Ok, so, today, at Clun?
Marian: That was different, it was an emergency!
Robin: And you were wonderful. You were bold and...and I wish there were more emergencies.
Marian: Is it all just a big joke to you?!
Robin: Is it all so serious to you?!
Marian: Well forgive me for being careful, but so far, no-one has had their tongue cut out because of me!"

Of course the Sheriff can't just let Marian's challenge to his authority (breaking the quarantine) stand unpunished, and as a punishment has her publicly humiliated by having her hair shorn on the Nottingham gallows in front of all (long loose hair was a status symbol for noble maidens).

Snip. Snip. Snip.

But the main drama in the episode comes from one of Robin's men being captured by Gisbourne at the start of the episode. Roy gets offered a deal: kill Robin, or they kill his mother. Of course the assassination attempt fails, John is the one who takes it the worst "You were like my son!" and wants to beat him to a bloody pulp, but they all relent when Roy cries "They've got my mother". A rescue attempt ensues (for Roy's mother and the baby's mother, who turns out to be a kitchen maid in the Castle, who doesn't know that the father - Gisbourne - left the baby in the woods to die instead of taking it to an Abbey as promised), a trap is sprung... and to get out of it Roy ends up sacrificing himself for the others.

"My name is Royston White. I fight for Robin Hood and King Richard."

R.I.P. Roy. 😢

Straight out of Sherwood (or not!)

• I actually can't quite think of anything in this episode that comes from other versions of these stories, or from the History books! If you spot something please let me know in the comments.

Note: The notes for this post were taken when I started the series rewatch last summer, but got carried away with the episodes and never stopped and looked back to finish polishing the posts and adding photos, so posting them now. 😅