After the explosive ending to last week’s episode of the Prime Video Biblical history drama series, House of David, in which Adriel had visited King Saul with information about the anointed king chosen by Samuel, or God, the consequences of this meeting are now dealt with. David, the real anointed king, is naturally believed to be under threat, but he is more caught up coming to terms with the tough responsibilities of being a leader of men. Meanwhile, King Saul makes an approach towards Samuel at the Tabernacle, intending to be friends once again, in House of David season 2 episode 4.
Spoiler Alert
Did Adriel reveal the identity of the real anointed king?
At the end of House of David season 2 episode 3, Adriel, the chief elder of the Tribe of Judah, had visited King Saul’s court and promised to reveal to him the identity of the young man who had been anointed as the true King of Israel by Prophet Samuel, upon the orders of God. But considering Adriel’s conniving nature, it had seemed like he would mislead Saul by giving him the identity of the wrong person, and this is actually confirmed by the middle of episode 4. In the beginning of the episode, though, it seems like King Saul knows that David is the anointed king and therefore wants to have him killed. The series intentionally creates a moment of suspense, as Saul specifically asks for Eliab, David’s oldest brother, to be a part of the secret plan to assassinate his rival, and it seems like a cruel act of fratricide is about to follow.
However, as Joab takes Eliab back to Bethlehem to execute the king’s orders, the reality of the situation is revealed. Adriel had claimed to have seen Samuel visit a house in Bethlehem, where the prophet must have anointed someone the King of Israel. But while telling Saul all of this, Eliab had lied about the address of this house, pointing the king to one of David’s neighbors instead of his own house. This means that Saul is misinformed about the anointed king’s identity, and so he sends his men to the wrong house to kill essentially innocent civilians. He tasks Joab with the cruel murders, as he, the second-in-command of the military, has become a trusted henchman of Saul, and also because Joab originally hails from Bethlehem himself. This is also the same reason why Saul selects Eliab for the mission, as he feels that the two men from Bethlehem will not be suspected by their neighbors at all.
Eliab, however, has no idea about what the secret mission is, and he is a little concerned when Joab takes him away from the Tabernacle and heads towards his home in Bethlehem. Perhaps Eliab fears that something has happened to his father, Jesse, or worse, that King Saul has found out about his brother having been anointed as the new king by Samuel. Therefore, when Jesse takes Eliab to the house of one of their neighbors, a meager farmer, and orders him to kill the man and his entire family, Eliab is absolutely stunned and overcome with a sense of guilt. Despite not wanting to kill the innocent people, especially the young children of his neighbor, who has already been murdered by Joab, he is duty-bound to serve the king. Saul had told Joab to ensure that absolutely nobody in the family survived, as he feared that some later successor in the family might also go on to become king.
Thus, Eliab has to ultimately partake in the extremely cruel and violent act, and he kills all the young children in the house, while Joab goes to finish off the rest of the family working in the fields. This incident has a very deep effect on Eliab’s psyche, as he is consumed by guilt and remorse for having murdered innocent farmers and gone against all the principles and beliefs that he and his family had stood for. After he and Joab return to the Tabernacle and reunite with the rest of the group, Eliab still remains heavily guilt-ridden. He eventually cannot control his emotions anymore and thinks of taking his own life by stabbing himself with his sword. Eliab comes very close to ending his life but is ultimately unable to do so, as he seems to be unable to muster the courage. Eliab lives for now, but his guilt and grief might well turn into anger and vengeance against King Saul in the future, and he might conspire with the king’s enemies to dethrone him.
How does David get Mirab’s support unexpectedly?
Elsewhere, David experiences the difficulties of being made the leader of 1000 men for the first time in his life through an incident that leaves him shaken. As King Saul, his family, and his army march towards the Tabernacle, they receive news of a Philistine attack on the nearby village of Geba. A poor farmer from the village under attack manages to reach the army and share news about the Philistine invasion, which prompts the soldiers to immediately try and take action. Incidentally, David and his unit are the first to react, and since he had been made the commander of the soldiers, David has to take the most important decision about how to approach the nearby village and deal with the Philistine enemies. This is where David unfortunately falters terribly, because of his sheer lack of experience in warfare, and he ends up leading his men straight into the village.
While David probably felt that he and his men would heroically save the villagers from the cruel invaders, quite the opposite happens in reality. Although the Philistines are ultimately driven out of the village, they leave after doing significant damage to the villagers, their crops and livestock, and, significantly, to the Israelite army as well. Numerous soldiers from David’s unit are killed in the battle, including Eitan, who was much loved and revered by the others, which makes the surviving soldiers question his capabilities. After all, it was David’s strategy to directly rush into the village and stop the invaders that had terribly backfired, as the Philistines turned the soldiers into easy targets. It is very obvious to everyone, including David, that his poor leadership had caused the deaths.
As this realization trickles further into his mind, David cannot help but lose his calm, and he has an emotional breakdown. Surprisingly, it is Mirab, his fiancée, who comes to support him at this moment of intense sadness, literally giving him a shoulder to cry on. Throughout the episode, David and Mirab certainly grow closer as friends, as they both come to terms with their united fate. When David questions Mirab as to why she had sabotaged her sister’s romantic life, she does not hesitate to talk about how she has always been overlooked and disregarded throughout her life, because of which she had chosen to take some agency by becoming a part of her family’s politics and had therefore asked her father for David’s hand in marriage. The most obvious sign of them being on better terms than before is when David and Mirab hold hands while being presented to the people of Israel at the Tabernacle, at least keeping up the pretense of being happily betrothed to each other.
Why does Mychal take the decision to end her relationship with David?
While these developments help the politics of Israel and David and Mirab personally, they are not at all favorable to Mychal, who had also accompanied her family to the Tabernacle. Mychal actually takes notice of two very obvious signs that suggest that her chances of being with David are weakening by the minute. The first is when Mirab consoles and comforts a crying David after the losses at Geba, and the second is when the two of them hold hands while greeting the Israelite subjects at the Tabernacle. These instances obviously hurt Mychal and perhaps make her grow jealous of her sister even more, but she also gradually comes to the understanding and the acceptance that she will only get more hurt emotionally.
Therefore, Mychal makes a tough decision—to give up on her feelings for David and end their short but genuine romantic relationship, essentially setting him free to carry out the duties of the king’s champion without any hesitation. Despite what he wants personally, David is actually bound to abide by King Saul’s demands of him, as he is now an official member of his court and the king’s champion as well. Mychal does not want to meddle in these matters, and she also states that she does not want the matter to further create rifts in her family.
The house of Saul is already quite divided, with Ahinoam being absent from the Tabernacle and Mirab and Mychal having turned enemies, and so the latter decides to end her relationship to try and bring peace in her family. She is seen speaking to Mirab as well, towards the end of the episode, conceding defeat to her and accepting her fate, but stating that she cannot ever support Mirab in this regard. Although Mychal claims to have acted rationally, she seems to have ended her relationship with David mostly out of a deep feeling of dejection and betrayal.
Does Samuel agree to be by Saul’s side?
King Saul’s pride knows no bounds as he believes that he has had the anointed king and his entire family murdered, and so he makes an egoistic approach towards Prophet Samuel at the Tabernacle to bring the seer back onto his side. The king first tells Samuel’s wife, Hila, to convince her husband to come back to the royal camp, indirectly threatening that they would have to face a lot of difficulties otherwise. The only reason Saul does not have Samuel arrested at the Tabernacle is that the seer is literally protected by all the other priests and spiritual practitioners, who consider him their revered leader. Arresting or attacking the spiritual leader of the kingdom in front of so many priests and subjects would definitely backfire against Saul, and so he tries to make the sly approach through his conversation with Hila.
But Hila remains just as undeterred as her husband, and they show no signs of bowing down to the king’s unfair demands, which causes Saul to directly approach Samuel during the main ritual at the Tabernacle. With the false confidence of having supposedly killed his rival whom Samuel had anointed, Saul tells the priest to forget matters of the past and rejoin his side, threatening that he too will face the same fate if he does not comply. But Samuel remains strong in his faith, especially when he sees David in the crowd and realizes that the king has unknowingly had someone else killed. With no reason to fear anyone, Samuel openly rejects Saul’s approach and makes it evident to everyone that he no longer supports the king. This very public snub is bound to have consequences, as Saul will now probably make even more determined attempts on the priest’s life, which Samuel will fight off with his spiritual abilities.
What does Adriel want from David?
Adriel shortly makes an appearance to David while they are among the thick crowd gathered around the Tabernacle and makes his intentions clear. Adriel reveals that he had intentionally led King Saul’s men to the wrong family in Bethlehem, as he had chalked out an extensive plan to gain personal favors. Telling Saul about the house that Samuel had visited to anoint the new king would have definitely given Adriel some financial or social reward, or at the very least, his acts of betrayal against Saul would have been forgiven. Therefore, he had visited the royal court to do this, and as guessed, his prior betrayals were all forgiven, because of which he can now roam around freely in front of the king and the army at the Tabernacle. However, Adriel had also been cunning enough to hide the identity of the real anointed king in order to try and gain favors from David himself. Thus, when he now walks up to the protagonist among the crowd, he tells David about how he has successfully gotten Saul off his tail and so has ensured that David will get to sit on the throne when the time comes, without any problems. Adriel’s demand is clear—that David should remember him when he becomes a king, suggesting that Adriel wants to become an important minister or advisor in the royal court, and so he simply supports David’s claim to the throne for his own personal benefits.
Are Jonathan And Sara Finally Together?
House of David season 2 episode 4 also sees Jonathan finally approach the healer, Sara, with a romantic proposal, after the latter is invited to the Tabernacle by Mychal. However, as seemed likely earlier, Sara turns down his proposal, stating that the death of her brother is the very reason for her dismissal. Turns out, Sara’s beloved brother had joined the army after being inspired by young Jonathan’s speeches. He had happily decided to fight for Israel in a war that Jonathan had led and in which the kingdom had won as well, all thanks to Jonathan’s individual heroics. However, numerous Israelite soldiers had also been slaughtered in the war by the Philistine enemies, Sara’s brother among them. Therefore, she still holds Jonathan responsible for her brother’s death and so does not want to get romantically involved with him. Jonathan and Sara might still ultimately be together by the end of House of David season 2, but he will have to pursue her more, and more importantly, change her mind about how he is a genuine leader of the kingdom and not just a bloodthirsty warmonger who does not care about his soldiers’ lives.
