In MGM+’s action-adventure series Robin Hood, things have been getting intense over the past few episodes, and now even more significant developments set up the stage for a fiery season finale. With Queen Eleanor finally having reached out to France through a letter at the end of the previous episode, King Henry II sends one of his notoriously violent knights to deal with the situation at Nottingham, whose presence immediately threatens the Sheriff. On the other side, certain events at Westminster convince Marian that she will not be as safe or loved anywhere else as by Robert’s side, and so she journeys in the hope of a reconciliation with her beloved in Robin Hood episode 9.
Spoiler Alert
Why does Friar Tuck leave the Merry Men?
Episode 9 begins at Warwick Castle, where Robin Hood and his Merry Men have returned once more, this time not to steal the wealth at the place but to carry out a more vengeful attack against the lord of the region. In the previous episode, the group of outlaws had technically been baited to visit Nottingham Castle and rescue the Saxon prisoners from there, and once the Sheriff and his men launched their ambush, Henry Miller was killed. This lit a fire of extreme anger and vengefulness in the minds of Robin and also Rosemary, who now wanted to be as tough against the Normans as the protagonist himself. Therefore, the group has now returned to Warwick to take the lord of the castle hostage, and they soon take the man back to their camp in the forest.
Most of the Merry Men, and also their leader, Robin Hood, intend to torture and kill Lord Warwick in order to make a symbolic attack against the Norman rulers, and also to send a message to the authorities that they will continue to mete out violence as long as Saxons are harmed. But contrary to the wish of most, Friar Tuck greatly objects to this cruel act of humiliation and murder, as he views it. Tuck does not see the plan to abduct Warwick and bring him to their camp as a just or fair one, and he immediately asks Robin to have his men step down and let the man leave. This creates a particularly strange situation among the group members, since there are technically a few differences between them that have always remained suppressed.
To begin with, Lord Warwick is a ruthless Norman ruler who is notorious for being extremely cruel and exploitative against the Saxons. Just a couple of episodes back, we witnessed him equating the Saxons to beasts in the forest who need to be tamed with whips and lashes. Therefore, even though he begs for mercy and promises to hand over all the hidden wealth at his castle and even lead the rebels to more rich treasures at the royal castle in Westminster, Robin and his men are not in the mood to let him walk away unharmed. When Tuck tries to stop the merciless torture and killing of the man, he mentions how the act would be inhuman and go against the teachings of God, which does not sit well with the others. Friar Tuck is not just Norman but also a Christian, while all the others in the group are Saxons who follow their pagan religion.
Therefore, the others object to Tuck’s warnings, and Little John is the most vocal against him. Two different perspectives are evident here, as people like Little John believe that they deserve to lash out against any Norman ruler who has been torturing and killing Saxons for many years now. On the other side, Tuck is alone in feeling that senseless violence cannot bring justice to anyone and that it only creates more suffering and problems in the world. Those like Rosemary Miller are somewhat stuck in the middle, as she stands frozen when given the chance to execute Lord Warwick and exact vengeance for the death of her brother. Although it was Rosemary who had wanted the group to retaliate after her brother’s murder, and she had been a crucial part of the attack at the castle, she is now unable to kill the lord who is groveling at her feet. As is evident, and as Tuck clarifies later on, she is stopped by her conscience, which essentially keeps telling her that the act of mercilessly killing an unarmed man is not the right thing to do.
Despite Tuck’s objections and then Rosemary’s inhibitions, Lord Warwick is killed by Drew Miller, who was equally interested in avenging his younger brother’s death. As this was what most of the group wanted, nobody objects to the act. However, Friar Tuck is not ready to change his mind to accommodate the morally troublesome decisions, as he considers them, of his fellow outlaws only because he is severely outnumbered. Thus, he decides to leave the group and walks out of the camp just a few minutes later, telling Robin that he is destined for bigger things than such petty acts of vengeance, which can really be seen as crimes.
How does Friar Tuck save Robert’s life?
But as fate would have it, Friar Tuck has to return to the outlaws’ camp within a few hours of him leaving. At the end of the last episode, it had been revealed that the Sheriff of Nottingham had placed one of his own men among the prisoners at his castle, knowing well that Robin Hood and his Merry Men would rescue everyone behind bars indiscriminately. Thus, the sheriff’s spy pretended to be a poor and exploited farmer, and so he was welcomed into the camp without any suspicion. Now, the spy travels back to Nottingham and informs the Sheriff about the location of the cave, and then receives the next order that he has to carry out. The Sheriff tells his spy to kill Robin sneakily and then return to the castle with good news.
Following the order, the spy returns to the camp and sneaks up on Robin while he is alone in the forest behind the camp, and just as the protagonist readies his bow to hunt a deer, the spy prepares to shoot and kill him. This is when Tuck enters the scene once more, as he too had been in the forest at the time, possibly contemplating his decision to leave the group that had become like family recently. He manages to spot the spy right before Robin was shot and immediately jumps on the man to stop him. A scuffle follows in which Tuck ends up killing the spy with a knife. He breaks down in tears, both out of shock from the incident and also out of guilt for having taken a life for the first time.
But as things calm down, and Tuck is brought back to the camp, he eventually admits to not being guilty, for he had killed in self-defense and had not set out to murder someone. Although he returns to the camp and continues being a member of the outlaw gang, Tuck does not hesitate to express his true thoughts to Robert, who has become a very close friend by now. He openly states that Robert, as Robin Hood, is expected to do much greater things than blindly loot and kill only out of vengeance. These words are bound to motivate Robert to change his ways in the future, but as Tuck himself says, he needs to get rid of the dark spirit of personal vengeance that has been gripping him for so long, which will be possible only when the Sheriff of Nottingham has been brought down.
What does Marian experience at the palace?
Queen Eleanor had been nervous about the arrival of her youngest son, Prince John, to England so suddenly, as she feared that his ambitions of becoming the next king would deprive her favored son, Richard, of the title. In order to track John’s movements and intentions, she had appointed Marian Huntingdon to go through her son’s documents and bring her information. Marian had succeeded, and now, in episode 9, Eleanor decides to directly confront John about the situation. From the documents, Marian had learned that John had been in regular contact with the Archbishop of Lille in the hopes of meeting with the Pope and getting his blessings, to strengthen his claim to the throne. Eleanor now reveals to John that she knows about all this, possibly expecting him to take a step back.
However, John is not too bothered, and is only angered at the fact that his mother has been snooping around. He dismissively states that Eleanor is more an untrustworthy snake and traitor than a good wife or mother, and walks out of the private conversation. But he also immediately figures out that it must have been Marian who revealed his secret to the queen. Therefore, he hatches a cruel and simply evil plan to confront her by first approaching her and asking her to accompany him on an outing. When Marian rejects him, saying she has far too much work at the palace, John does not hold himself back anymore and assaults the young woman violently. This shocking experience is enough to convince Marian once and for all that the apparent civility of the palace and civil society are mere facades covering selfish and cruel manipulators. Thus, she immediately leaves the palace to ride towards the forest after being informed of the location of the outlaw camp by Priscilla.
Who is Guy of Gisbourne?
In Robin Hood episode 9, the Sheriff of Nottingham finally visits Queen Eleanor with an exciting piece of news—he has found out the exact location where Robin Hood and his outlaw friends have holed up, in a cave between the Maden River and the Southern Ridge. He asks the queen to deploy 200 soldiers to the location, where he and his own soldiers will be waiting to kill the outlaws and end the crisis. But Eleanor informs him that it is already too late, as King Henry II has already employed the service of Guy of Gisbourne, one of the knights working for him, to come to Nottingham and deal with the outlaw trouble. As revealed in some time, Guy of Gisbourne is an evil and scheming knight who does not hesitate to go to any extent to get his job done.
Because of prior acquaintance, and also because of the similarity in how they think, Guy of Gisbourne’s first friend after his visit to Nottingham is the Earl of Huntingdon, who promises to support him in all his endeavors. Together, they make and execute their first plan to catch Robin Hood and the Merry Men, which is to attack a Saxon village in the forest and kill each and every one of the innocent villagers. They believe that such an act would most definitely draw out the outlaws, allowing them to easily be killed in the process. While the sheriff still has the moral compass to judge and acknowledge that this is a terrible plan since it entails the killing of many innocent people, Guy of Gisbourne does not mind at all, since the people he will be killing are Saxons, after all.
By the end of the episode, it becomes apparent that the Sheriff of Nottingham has already made plans for Guy of Gisbourne, in accordance with the suggestions of Queen Eleanor earlier, although he does not really want to work together with the queen. During their meeting earlier in the episode, the queen had warned the sheriff how the emergence of Gisbourne put his position as the sheriff of Nottingham in danger, as it effectively suggested he had failed at his task of maintaining public safety in the Midlands. As a result, Guy of Gisbourne would be made the next Sheriff of Nottingham after Robin Hood is dealt with, and so he has to act quickly. Therefore, Eleanor had asked the Sheriff to stop Gisbourne from getting to the outlaws at all costs, and we will learn further about this plan only in the next episode.
Are Marian and Robert together once again?
After leaving the palace, Marian rides straight for the outlaw camp and meets with her beloved Robert, whom she first informs of the great danger that he and his men are in. She reveals how her father has found out the location of the camp and passed on the information to Guy of Gisbourne, the knight who has been sent to kill him and his followers. Marian encourages Robert to flee the scene, and despite all her claims earlier, she now changes her stance about love and sacrifice. She tells Robert that she genuinely loves him and will continue to do so no matter what, and her experiences at Westminster have convinced her that his way of life is indeed the most honest one. A significant reason for this change of heart was the earlier revelation from the queen about Robert having asked her for Marian’s freedom and not his own pardon.
However, Robert refuses to take her words seriously at first and tells her that it is far more important for him to protect his people than to be safe with her. For this, he and Drew ride to the castle at Nottingham and witness the numerous soldiers preparing for action. This confirms that whatever Marian had told him was true and that there is an urgent need to clear out the camp. The very next morning, Robert heads back to camp and goes riding with Marian, and this is when he comes across the absolute carnage that had been carried out by Guy of Gisbourne and his men at the Saxon village. In the last scene of the episode, he and Marian are seen holding hands as they look over the ransacked village, confirming that the lovers are back together once again. But Marian’s emergence at the camp, let alone her romantic reunion with Robert, already has Rosemary angered and frustrated, and it will be interesting to see how she further reacts to the situation.
Why do Priscilla and William end their passionate relationship?
Robin Hood episode 9 also shows Priscilla and William Marshal split up and seemingly end their romantic relationship despite their genuine feelings for each other and earnest desire to be together. But the decision has to be taken by William after he is given a very specific and dangerous order by the queen, who wants him to travel to Rome by himself. Eleanor categorically tells him to not take Priscilla along, as it would risk the mission itself, as she orders William to stop Prince John from meeting the Pope at any cost. Her insistence makes it very evident that she wants William Marshal to kill the prince in order to stop him. William realizes the dangerous and seemingly unfortunate position he has walked into, as he will either fail to carry out the order and be killed by Prince John and his men, or succeed and be framed for the assassination. Either way, there does not seem to be any way for him to peacefully live with his beloved Priscilla, for which he breaks off the relationship. Priscilla is shocked and heartbroken, but she is bound to have a reckless reaction soon, after having already decided to expose Marian’s love for the outlaw Robin Hood to the world.
