Episode 4 of the MGM+ action-adventure series, Robin Hood, heats things up for the protagonist and his new friends, as the authorities decide to take stricter action. As Robert and his friends travel through the forest after they had killed Aaron Huntingdon in the previous episode, they come across a few more characters who quickly become a part of the outlaw band. Elsewhere, both Marian and Priscilla continue to be important parts of the narrative, and we are updated about the situations in their lives, while Robin Hood episode 4 also presents the very first heist carried out by Robin, which finally establishes him as the most dangerous outlaw in Sherwood.
Spoiler Alert
What is the Sheriff of Nottingham’s plan for Robin?
Robin Hood episode 4 begins with an important meeting between the Sheriff of Nottingham and the Bishop of Hereford, as the Sheriff explains the whole situation as of now. Robert Locksley has now killed multiple royal guards, and is also most recently believed to have murdered the son of the Earl of Huntingdon, Aaron. The lawmen are not very sure whether Robert himself committed the murder of Aaron or one of his new followers had done the deed, but either way, the entire group is now wanted for their crimes. But catching the young man has proved to be a very difficult task because of his superior knowledge about the forests around the country that he is hiding in. As the Sheriff notifies the Bishop about this situation, the latter suggests that he can bring in soldiers from the garrisons at Warrick and Leicester, as more men are clearly required to find and arrest the perpetrators.
But as the Sheriff quickly reminds him, hiring more men for the job would entail paying fees to more of them, as no soldier would venture out into the woods without payment. With limited resources at his disposal, the Sheriff of Nottingham is unwilling to pay the amount out of his own pockets, and yet he knows that King Henry II would not be sending more funds right away. With the lack of funds now put into perspective, the Bishop changes his stance and suggests that the authorities do nothing about Robert and his friends. According to him, there are way too many thieves and criminals, all of Saxon descent, living in the forests already, and so a few more of them will not hurt anyone. Despite initially being interested in bringing the perpetrators to justice, the Bishop of Hereford immediately changes his stance when the question of money arises, suggesting that he only wants to avoid a situation in which he or the Church would have to pay for the mission.
Incidentally, the Sheriff also senses this reluctance, which is why he comes up with a new plan that he presents a few minutes later. Despite a few around him being fine with letting Robert and his criminal friends live free in the forest, the Sheriff has no such intentions, and he knows that doing so will only seem like a failure on his part. He hates the entire situation, which he still believes has panned out this way only because of Huntingdon’s greed and reckless killing of Hugh Locksley, and wants to reach a solid resolution. As his daughter, Priscilla, reminds him, letting Robert walk free will be a terrible stain on his own career and also on the honor and pride of the Norman rulers, as it would be a message to all Saxons that they can get away with killing Normans. Even before Priscilla voiced her opinion, though, the Sheriff had made up his mind about a new plan to capture Robert.
Thus, he soon tells the Bishop that Robert Locksley needs to be captured no matter what, and so the money required for the operation needs to be paid by the Sheriff and the Bishop, at least for now. He announces a new, much higher bounty on Robert’s head, which would be enough to appoint 200 soldiers for the search and arrest. The city of Nottingham will pay half this amount, while the other half is to be brought by the bishop from his abbey, since the outlaw lurking around in the forest is causing problems for both of them. The sheriff mentions how there are already reports of a mythical ghost haunting the forests and protecting Saxon people by attacking and killing Normans, suggesting that Robert is growing into a revered figure, which they must put a stop to. He assures the bishop that the amount will later be paid back to the abbey from state taxes, and the bishop finally agrees. But this puts into motion a different development, as the Bishop of Hereford travels to the Abbey to bring back the money to Nottingham, and this soon becomes an important plot point later in the episode.
How do the Merrymen gradually come into being?
Back inside the forest, Robert and his friends, particularly Little John, mourn the death of the latter’s pet dog, which had been killed by Aaron Huntingdon. Robert still feels guilty over the murder of Aaron, as he feels that the young man was innocent and did not deserve to die. Although John reminds him how Aaron and his father had come searching for them in the forest, which had essentially gotten the boy killed, Robert does not seem too convinced. Meanwhile, Ralph too is very shaken by the earlier incident, as it was she who had killed Aaron, and the only comfort that Robert can give to her is to remind her how she had done the deed only to protect her brother. Soon, the group starts moving deeper into the forest, and the Millers consider going to the nearest woodcutter village to satiate their extreme hunger, though doing so would be very dangerous. Therefore, the group decides to spend the night and search for food the next morning by robbing any wagon coming down the path.
As luck would have it, they spot a wagon carrying supplies to the Abbey, and although John is not very keen on robbing them as they are ‘God’s men,’ Robert does not mind, since these men follow the Norman Gods and not theirs. The small wagon, filled with food and supplies, is stopped by the outlaws and looted, with one of the guards running away and the other, who is also the driver, attempting to fight back. When given the chance to run away like his companion, the driver refuses, stating that he cannot return to the Abbey, as the Bishop will terribly beat and torture him for his failure. Therefore, the driver happens to stay on with the group, at least for now, and Robert offers him some food as well. Over the next few hours, the driver introduces himself as a Norman named Friar Tuck, who has complete faith in the Christian religion and their Gods but is disillusioned by the corrupt and selfish nature of the Bishop.
It is really through Tuck’s profound words that Robert starts to think a bit differently, for he realizes that even the lower rungs of Norman society are exploited and harmed by their rich lords and authoritative figures like the bishop and the sheriff. Tuck sternly states that his God has never betrayed or harmed him, but the Bishop, who claims to be God’s representative on Earth, has only been fooling and looting people like him for a long time. He admits that it is a failure on the part of people like himself and other Norman simpletons who have placed the Bishop on a pedestal solely based on his own claims, and so Tuck is now ready to correct his mistakes, joining Robert’s group of outlaws. As is known by all, Friar Tuck would go on to become one of the most important members of the group, and in fact he comes up with the bright idea of the first heist the group executes some time later. Before that, two more people, thieves by profession, come searching for food after realizing that a wagon had gone off-route. Spragart and Mary, as they are called, also happen to be Saxons as well as thieves, and so they too join the group, giving shape to what would later be called the Merrymen—the group of loyal friends and supporters of Robin Hood.
How does Priscilla use Huntingdon to take agency of her own life?
It had already become evident in the previous episode that the Sheriff of Nottingham had known about his daughter, Priscilla’s lewd actions with the captain of his garrison, and despite his best attempts he had not been able to directly talk to her or advise her on the matter. Therefore, he now comes up with a plan to send Priscilla away to the convent at Hereford Abbey, where she will spend the next few years receiving strict instruction in religion and moral codes before she will be brought back to Nottingham once a perfect suitor for her has been found. The sheriff believes that this step will protect Priscilla from herself and from the mistakes that she will inevitably end up committing that might ruin her life forever. But he does not have the tenacity to tell his daughter about this plan directly and instead asks the bishop to do so.
The Bishop of Hereford is to visit Locksley estate to oversee the funeral of Aaron Huntingdon, and the Sheriff asks him to take Priscilla along with her so that she can represent him and his family at the event. The Sheriff also asks the Bishop to take Priscilla to the convent directly from the estate, clearly so that she will not have the slightest chance to protest or stop the plan from being executed. Despite knowing how difficult things will be, the bishop tells Priscilla what is to happen to her while on the way, and staying true to her character, she soon cooks up a scheme to stop the plan and change her fate, taking agency of her own life. At the Locksley estate, Priscilla feigns a romantic interest in the Earl of Huntingdon and convinces him to let her stay the night at the place, making it very evident that she will get intimate with him in exchange.
As Huntingdon agrees to the proposition and also decides to break the news to the Bishop himself, upon the insistence of Priscilla, of course, the Bishop cannot say anything to him because of his position as an earl. Thus, Priscilla successfully avoids being taken to the convent directly, and she soon fools Huntingdon as well, executing her plan perfectly. Deceiving the earl with pillows stuffed under the wraps on her bed, she sneaks out of the estate and rides back to Nottingham, where the sheriff is obviously shocked to find out his daughter has not been put into the convent already. A feisty confrontation between the two follows, with Priscilla successfully taking agency of her life, reminding her father that she is not to be messed with, as she does not care for the patriarchal system placed in society. The altercation instead ends with Milange, the Sheriff’s trusted employee, imprisoned, as he impulsively pulls out his dagger to defend himself against the Sheriff’s angry outburst, quickly realizing his mistake.
What happens to Marian at the royal court?
Although Marian starts settling in at the royal court in Westminster, she cannot forget her beloved Robert and does not even want to do so. She writes emotional letters to her lover but cannot send them, as she has no idea where Robert is, and it is also not safe to write letters to a fugitive from the royal court, and so Marian keeps them with her instead, hoping to have Robert read them some day in the future. She continues to be groomed by Queen Eleanor, although the latter still keeps up with the very indirect approach that she had taken in the previous episode as well. This time around, she tells Marian how she is technically kept imprisoned in the country by her husband, as she is not allowed to leave England, and yet how she manages to run the country from the very confines of the court. Eleanor also introduces Marian to the Earl of Pembroke, William Marshal, who is surely going to be an important character in the series, especially since he is sleeping with the senior-most attendant at the court, the Dame d’honneur, Celene de Fitzou.
Marian seems quite interested in meeting, or at least seeing, the youngest prince, John, suggesting that some sort of romance between the two might pan out in the future, when the prince will make an appearance at the English court. For now, though, Marian comforts herself with the memories of her night with Robert, when she had witnessed a Pagan wedding in the forest for the first time and also shared a passionate kiss with him. Robert’s cousin, Will, who has immediately turned into a Casanova among the servants and pages at the royal court, shockingly tries to make a move on Marian as well, stating that he can help her get over her sorrows and forget her past through sexual means, but she immediately turns him down, making their relation quite complicated and awkward.
Did Robert and his friends successfully execute their first heist?
Back in the forests of England, Robert and his new friends come up with a new plan to stop the law from pursuing them, obviously upon the advice of the new member of the group, Friar Tuck. It is Tuck who suggests that they loot the very bounty money that is about to be used to look for them, which would leave the authorities with no resources to conduct the search and ensure that the legal persecution against them would come to a halt. Tuck explains how the money is to be transferred from the abbey to Nottingham by a carriage, and so the group prepares to stop it with a fallen log to block their path and then loot all the money inside.
Although the plan mostly goes accordingly, Tuck had not expected so many royal guards to escort the carriage, a special measure taken by the Bishop, since such a big amount of money was being transferred. As a result, two members of the group, Henry Miller and Mary, are fatally wounded by the soldiers before Robert almost single-handedly kills them all with his exceptional skills with the bow. This is also when Spragart introduces Robert as Robin Hood, giving him the name that would become famous in the days to come. The group ultimately succeeds in killing all the soldiers and looting all the money being carried inside the carriage, even though they lost two important members in the process.
Why is the Bishop allowed to walk away alive?
An unexpected move at the end of the audacious heist is Robert taking the significant decision to let the Bishop of Hereford, who had been travelling in the carriage with all the bounty money, walk away alive. As the bishop comes out of the carriage and is shocked to find all the soldiers lying dead around him, he is taken hostage by the Merrymen. It is satisfying to see Friar Tuck land a number of strong slaps on the corrupt bishop’s face as punishment for having looted and exploited the poor all this while, and the others also snatch away the crucifix on his neck, marking the attack as a clear act of resistance shown by the Saxons over their Norman rulers. But Robert allows the Bishop to ultimately walk away instead of killing him, just to send a firm message to Nottingham about how it will be impossible to stop him and the justice that is swiftly headed the Sheriff’s way. It is also a bold message to the rest of the Saxons living in the forests to come out and unite against their treacherous rulers, and this act now makes Robert Locksley the notorious and also beloved Robin Hood. Just as expected, the Bishop somehow makes it back to Nottingham and tells the Sheriff what has happened to the bounty money, which definitely spreads serious concern and fear among the ranks of the authority.
