The Rise and Fall of William De Nogaret
Things were initially looking up for Knightfall‘s resident villain. Hailed as a hero, King Philip showers him with promises of properties and a knighthood. Isabella continues to bat her eyelashes at him in a decidedly un-niece-like manner. Then his mysterious uncle shows up, and is none other than the Cathar Malraux…remember the guy BBQing Mother Superior’s arm from Episode 105? Yeah. That guy. He brought De Nogaret the army he paid for. Apparently De Nogaret has a plan to strike at the Templars, “deal with the Pope” and find the Grail. Ambitious much?
But alas, what goes up must eventually come down. He gets to enjoy being “Sir William” for roughly 5 minutes before Isabella accidentally discovers the tunnel full of peep holes. She is, in a word, upset.
Rihanna’s gotchu, princess. Source
Sentenced to hang, we think we may have seen the last of his smirking, scheming face, but no! He’s rescued by Uncle Malraux and rides off into the sunset. Jk, he wears a dirty cloak and hangs around town. Whilst checking in with the turncoat Gawain, he sows serious seeds of discord between Gawain and Landry by questioning whether or not Landry would let him seek healing by drinking from the Grail. He also learns the juicy news that Landry has knocked up a married woman. Once Joan’s pregnancy is announced he puts two and two together. Uh. Oh.
The Warrior(ish) Queen Joan
There’s been an (not adequately explained) attack on Navarre (or maybe an uprising?) by Joan’s cousin, Queen Elena of Catalonia. Joan is incensed and wants vengeance RIGHT THIS INSTANT. She gives Philip a thorough dressing down when he tries to explain that mustering an army takes, you know, more than five minutes.
So she leaves, under cover of darkness and before King Philip can yell at her for making him look weak in front of all his friends military generals. Unfortunately for her and her righteous anger, the nobles in Navarre are not exactly impressed with this Queen who a) they have never met and b) brings no army. Joan is confident that Elena will retreat when she learns of her presence and the imminent arrival of the mighty French army, but Elena is way ahead of her. Proving that she’s not at all intimidated, Elena sends her a bag full of bloody hands. Ummmm…parlay sil vous plait?
Landry is in a downward spiral
Oh Landry. These last few episodes have not been kind to him. First, he gets taken by the Brotherhood of Light. He mysteriously arrives back at the temple, bloodied and in chains, then proceeds to play bad cop/bad cop by chain-whipping Roland and demanding to know who he works for. His aggression clearly not spent, he then expels Tancrede from Templar order forever. Somebody get that man the 14th century version of a Xanax. He needs to chill out.
We then find out through a series of flashbacks that Landry’s agitated state is pretty justified. Tortured and deceived by the Brotherhood of Light, his world is rocked when he learns that Godfrey was indeed a part of the Brotherhood AND he was responsible for the breach in the tunnels at the Battle of Acre. The breach, you’ll recall, that resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of civilians and lost the Templars the Holy Land and the Grail. That’s a hard fact for Landry to accept, and another thread in his emotional tapestry unravels.
I’ll address Landry’s path to the Grail in the next section, but now I think I need to address Landry’s mental state. He’s carrying a huge load of emotional burdens. His grief over Godfrey’s death; his guilt over his affair with Joan and the pain of ending their tryst. The devastation that another man will raise his child. The hopeless feeling that God has abandoned him and left him without a purpose. It’s a lot for one person to bear, and he’s letting it negatively affect his relationships with everyone else. In other words, JUST LET GAWAIN DRINK FROM THE DAMN CUP, OKAY???
All roads lead to the Grail
The Grail quest was front and center (and successful! yay!) these episodes. Basically everyone is looking for it. The Brotherhood wants it. The Templars want it. De Nogaret wants it. Roland and his mysterious bosses want it. The Pope really wants it.
After a lot of torture and a bit of haggling, Rashid of the Brotherhood agrees to help Landry find the Grail if he promises to keep it out of the wrong hands. A clue to its location is offered in exchange for Landry handing over the person responsible for killing Rashid’s son. This is revealed as the real reason Landry expelled Tancrede; he hoped to protect him from the Brotherhood’s revenge and was going to offer himself in Tancrede’s place. Tancrede shows up and surrenders anyways, but the two have a heartbreaking goodbye and reconciliation in one of the best scenes of the season.
It’s okay, Obama. It made me cry too. Source
The clue sends Landry back to the orphanage where he was raised, the place he first met Godfrey. The fact that it’s now a smoking ruin seems to mean their quest his hit a dead end. On a return visit a dirty, possibly crazy/homeless woman shows up and admits to burning down the orphanage on Godfrey’s orders. (Spoiler alert, she’s his mother, which I’m sure all of you figured out in about 3.5 seconds). After some cryptic conversations and lot of Mulder-style “TRUST NO ONE” doom and gloom, she leads him and Gawain to a nunnery, where the Grail is in the care of none other than Mother Superior. You can chop her arm off but you can’t keep a good nun down!
Landry finds the Grail hidden in a tree (that appears to bear both apples and oranges…right?? I’m not just seeing things?). Gawain, keeping his vow to God to play Judas, attempts to kill him and take the Grail. He throws some accusations around, Landry does a lot of deflecting, but defeats Gawain, sparing his life as token of their former bond as brothers. His mother urges him to find a new hiding place for the Grail (Um, why? The nunnery seemed pretty darn safe) but Landry insists he’s bringing it to the Pope. Brace yourself, Holy Land…you’re about to be re-taken. Again.
Why’d you have to go off and die, Parsifal?
I think I’ve been pretty transparent with my dislike of Parsifal. He is whiny and makes terrible decisions. His minimal participation in the main story arc seems mostly unnecessary.
It FINALLY looked like Parsifal might be drifting into the realm of relevancy. AND THEN HE DIED. But let’s back up a little.
Adelina courageously faces off with Roland, taking a hard beating but maneuvering him right into the Templar’s hands. When she is well enough to leave, she gives Parsifal the message we saw Roland write a few episodes earlier. She also gives him a very promising kiss, but obviously that’s going absolutely nowhere now. Wah waaaah.
He is outraged when he learns that Roland, the murderer of both Godfrey and his fiancee, will be leaving for Genoa to face justice for previous crimes. Unable to follow the Templar way of submitting his need for personal revenge to God, he turns vigilante and kidnaps Roland under the guise of taking him to Genoa. Roland insists that he won’t admit who he works for, but an ax to the gut swiftly changes his mind. He whispers the answer to Parsifal and DING DING DING! That boy is suddenly relevant!! Relevant/scary, because his next move is to kill Roland with just a straight up ax to the face. We did not need to see that, Knightfall writers/directors/producers. The sound would have sufficed.
Parsifal rushes back to the Temple with his shocking discovery and obviously picks the absolute worst person to tell. His crucial news dies with him. What the EFF, Pierre??!? You little traitor!
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