MGM’s latest adventure drama, Robin Hood, takes us into the annals of British folklore to tell the story of the valiant outlaw who stood up against the oppressive rulers of the land and became a heroic representative of the working class. A period drama with enough adventure and thrill added in, the series takes a detailed look into the lore of Robin Hood and his actions against the Norman rulers. Robin Hood episode 1 takes place right at the beginning of this fabled story, tracing young Robin’s life and the eventual brutal tragedy that would change the course of his life forever.
Spoiler Alert
Who are the Locksleys, and what is their predicament?
MGM’s Robin Hood takes place in medieval times, many years after the Normans successfully conquered England, the home of the Saxon people, and enforced their own laws, as well as their religion, over the people of the land. Heavy taxes and stern respect were to be given by the Saxons to their new rulers, and any act of deference was immediately punished by the law. With total subjugation of the country, Norman lords have taken up lands and estates that were once owned by the Saxons, and the latter have been forced to live in the Great Forests around the villages. There are stern laws in place at these forests as well, as activities like game hunting are forbidden to the forest-dwellers, with it being only a royal activity reserved for the Norman masters.
It is a time when England is still made up of numerous small villages and settlements, where Saxons learn the tongue and the culture of their masters just to fit in with the new society, and when people still proudly carry the name of the village or place they come from. It is in such a setting, during the rule of Henry II, that a man named Hugh Locksley lives a life of extreme discomfort in a settlement in the Great Forest, mere miles away from the estate that once used to be his home. Despite the subtle objections of his wife, Joan, Hugh teaches their young son, Rob, to shoot arrows with great precision, along with the rich heritage of the Saxon people. What is even more annoying for Joan is her husband’s repeated attempts to visit the Sheriff of Nottingham, their local representative of the royal court, in an effort to revive his lost past.
But Hugh is also adamant on reaching a resolution with regard to the Locksley estate that once belonged to his family, who were quite loved and revered in the area. With the arrival of the Normans, though, and their eventual subjugation, the estate now officially belongs to the Earl of Huntingdon, Robert. Hugh still believes that the supposedly fair and noble Sheriff will help him retrieve his lands, because of which he rides to Nottingham in order to meet with the man and make his case. When Hugh is finally granted an appointment with the Sheriff, though, after months of deliberation, the latter states that there is simply no way to fulfill his desire. The lawman reminds him that the land is now ruled by the Normans, and their code states that land once belonging to the Saxons will now be lawfully given to Norman lords.
The Sheriff of Nottingham instead makes Hugh an offer that he believes to be quite fair—that Hugh and his people live at a particular area in the forest and abide by the rules of the King, with the assurance from the state that they will not be disturbed, as long as they pay their taxes on time. Despite not being pleased by this offer at all, Hugh Locksley is pressured into accepting the deal and disgruntledly returns home to share the news with his family. Although he still desperately yearns to return to his family estate one day, Joan does not want him to entertain such dreams anymore and wants him to accept his current fate instead, especially since young Rob is clearly being instigated and inspired by the false hopes of his father. Joan tries her best to raise their son in a manner that would help him assimilate with the Normans by teaching him the language and all about their customs, but young Rob wants to dearly hold on to his father’s cultural heritage. He even sneaks close to the Locksley estate to mark his enemies for the future, and this is what makes Joan extremely concerned.
What happens at the hunting tournament?
Years later, when Rob is a teenage boy, he helps his father with everyday chores and also diplomatic matters in their settlement, while still secretly hoping to take back their rights from the cruel Norman masters. During such a time, the Sheriff of Nottingham decides to go on a hunting tournament one day, along with his friend and political associate, Robert Huntingdon. The sheriff chooses a location near the Sherwood Forest for this tournament to be held, in which his daughter, Priscilla, and the Huntingdon heiress, Marian, are also to accompany the men in order to learn more about their cultural practices. Since Sherwood is officially under the domain of Hugh Locksley and his people, who had been given the responsibility of maintaining the king’s law by the Sheriff himself, they are invited to guide the royal lords through the forest and also participate in the hunt.
Priscilla, now a young woman with seemingly insatiable carnal desires, immediately takes a liking to Rob as he accompanies the group through the forest, while Marian is curious to know more about him but is restrained enough to not treat him like an inferior human being. Despite the Locksleys’ disdain for the noblemen, they carry on with their duties inside the forest but remain cautious about the seemingly friendly gathering turning violent at any moment. Things do not escalate at first, as Hugh sends Rob to serve the lords some of their Saxon wine, just to get him more habituated to such situations where he will be made to feel inferior and insignificant. But when the hunt finally begins, and the men intensely chase a herd of deer through the thick forest, things go awfully wrong for the Locksleys.
Believing that he is shooting at a running deer, Rob lets his arrow fly, but only to realize that he has not only killed an animal but has also injured a man in the process. Two poachers, who had been illegally living or venturing in the forest, had tried to run away when they realized that hunters were nearby, but one of them had been hit by Rob’s arrow, leading the other to stop and surrender as well. Because the poachers are intruders on the land owned and ruled by the Norman king, Huntingdon wants to immediately kill them and aims his crossbow at them, only for Rob to jump in and forcibly stop him. While Rob considers the poachers to be poor, desperate men journeying through the forest in search of food to feed their families, Huntingdon sees them as lowly thieves who must be punished with instant death.
Even worse, the Earl of Huntingdon is absolutely livid at Rob Locksley’s audacity, and he announces in front of the Sheriff that he has been severely insulted by the Locksleys and that he will never forget this show of insolence. Robert Huntingdon directly marks the Locksleys as his sworn enemies, which will surely have an impact on the plot later in the season. The sheriff himself wants the poachers to be punished instantly by being beheaded for their flouting of the king’s rules, but Hugh appeals in their favor, stating that they too should get a fair trial back at Nottingham, where their accounts and excuses would also be heard. Despite not being too convinced, the Sheriff agrees to Hugh’s demand and has the two poachers arrested and dragged back to his castle. As would become evident over the next few days, this hunting tournament and its dramatic events would change the course of the Locksley family forever.
How does Robin and Marian’s romance take shape?
Soon after the tournament, Robin sneaks around the Locksley estate once again, this time in search of Marian Huntingdon, who had uttered something unusual while she marked him as the champion at the end of the hunting tournament. Instead of showing disdain and disgust at having to smear the blood of the fallen poacher on Robin’s face, indicating that he had won the tournament, Marian had softly wished that the supposed noblemen who indulged in such cruel acts should be the ones to have blood over their bodies. This had made it clear to Robin that Marian was very different from the other noble folks, and the two instantly had a connection. Although they cannot talk much during this interaction, as one of the Huntingdon henchmen intrudes and drives Robin away, Marian soon returns the favor by visiting his humble home in Sherwood.
Robin and his family are preparing to attend the wedding of one of their fellow forest-dwellers at this very moment, and sensing a mutual interest between the youngsters, Joan invites Marian to go along with them. Despite knowing that she will be in trouble if she does not return home soon, Marian agrees to accompany the family and is absolutely enthralled to learn about Saxon culture and their ritual of being married by the village elder under a tree that they consider holy. As a young woman raised under the strict confines of Christianity, she has a hard time believing that a marriage can even take place without the presence of the church priest. She also gets acquainted with Robin’s cousin, Will Gamewell, and thoroughly enjoys the time she spends at the wedding.
It is also at this very spot, when Marian and Robin get some time to be alone, that she suggests that he call himself Robin of Sherwood instead of just using his first name so that he can proudly accept his place of belonging and make it a part of his identity. Impressed by her even more, Robin gently asks for a kiss under the mistletoe, which is considered to be an extremely pious and lucky act in his culture, and Marian is more than happy to comply. The two youngsters have a budding romance between them, just days after their first meeting, but they are sure to face challenges along the way. In fact, Marian has to face her stern and heartless father right after returning home, as he brutally beats her for being away from home for so long and also for lying about where she had been.
Why is Hugh betrayed by one of his own?
Interestingly, one of Hugh’s own people, a man named Alwin, is the one to betray him, as he is seen visiting the castle of the Sheriff of Nottingham to provide some definite proof about Hugh having broken the law. Although we are not made aware of what exactly Alwin says, it must have something to do with Hugh still harboring rebellious thoughts and wishing to rise up against the Norman rulers of the land, all of which he reveals to the Sheriff at the behest of the Earl of Huntingdon, who clearly wants Hugh to be arrested and executed. Alwin was also the one who pressured Hugh into agreeing to the offer made by the Sheriff many years later, in which the Locksleys were given the chance to live peacefully in the forest instead of being allowed to move back into their estate. Alwin is clearly a character who is ready to do just about anything to gain the favor of the masters of the land and, as revealed towards the end of the episode, does not even hesitate to turn against his own kin. Although Alwin is technically only indirectly responsible for what happens to Hugh, Robin will surely bring the man to justice, most probably by taking things into his own hands.
How does Hugh Locksley die?
The ending of Robin Hood episode 1 shows the tragic fate of Hugh Locksley, who is arrested by Norman soldiers in the middle of the night, only on the basis of the testimony that Alwin had given to the Sheriff. Neither he nor his family is ever told what the charges against him are, and Hugh is simply thrown into a jail cell at the Nottingham castle for the night, being told that his hearing will take place the next morning. Since this is all a conspiracy hatched by Huntingdon, he had sent his closest henchman to ensure that Hugh would be killed that very night. Therefore, the henchman enlists the help of one of the poachers, who are still kept imprisoned inside the same cell, and tells him to stab Hugh Locksley to death, promising to free him and his friend in exchange.
The poacher does attempt to stab Hugh, but what follows helps Huntingdon’s plan even further, for they now have no direct connection with the man’s death either. While Hugh fights back against the poacher armed with the knife, a royal guard comes to the cell to stop the fight. The poacher now unwillingly kills the guard, and then immediately flees the scene, along with his friend, with Hugh being the only one who stays back to help the guard survive. Thus, when the other guards rush to the cell, they find Hugh Locksley alone with a slain guard, with his hands bloodied and a knife lying beside him. The very next morning, Hugh is hanged to death on the charge of having murdered a royal guard. Amidst the crowd is also Robin, who had come to find more information about his father’s arrest. Seeing his father framed and killed by those supposed to uphold the law of the land lights a fire in his eyes that would go on to burn all oppressors in England.
