“My name is Wilkin Brattle”
Warning: spoilers follow from the episode below.
As far as episodes of The Bastard Executioner go, “Behold the Lamb/Gweled Yr Oen” had it all. Betrayal, confessions, proposals, threats, murder… heck it even had a gruesome quartering in the show’s final moments, making it a jam-packed hour indeed. Luckily with so much going on, we also advanced leaps and bounds in our story.
Driven by a desire to finally confess his sins and lift the weight from his shoulders, Wilkin finally revealed his true identity to Lady Love, taking that chance away from Milus for the first time. Turns out old Brattle learned a thing or two about the consequences of lying to his friends when poor Calo was killed earlier in the episode, and he couldn’t bear to see another innocent life taken. Even if that man was willingly giving his life in order to pay off his debts and leave his family in good standing.
It was an epic moment in the series that came just at the right time — following last week’s reveal about Lady Love’s secret Wolf connection — because it gave Wilkin back some of the power he’d lost and gave Lady Love a true ally for the first time. Well, other than her maid in waiting, whose one-liners are some of the show’s best. I doubt anyone thought the Baroness would actually let Wilkin go through with his confession given her own sentimental attachments to the punisher, but it broke up the monotony of Milus calling the shots (especially surrounding murder and Baron Price). Unfortunately Wilkin is still too noble to call out the real manipulator in this situation, but at least now if the truth surfaces Love will know who was really in her corner.
Given Love’s general distrust of Milus it also came as no surprise that she saw through his matchmaking charade and turned down Baron Price’s proposal. The ensuing confrontation between Milus and Love at least cleared the air between them, with her calling him out on his manipulations and he reminding her that everyone knew her husband wasn’t able to produce an heir. With so many lies piling up they still need each other in a strange way, but Wilkin’s confession is the beginning of all that changing.
Plus it meant the beginning of some potential sex scenes, something there hasn’t been too much of in this show other than those conniving twins. Between Wilkin’s passionate make-out with Love and his little charade with the wife, it will be interesting to see the fallout of both in the coming weeks. Am I crazy to wonder if Jessamy might be trying to get pregnant sometime soon?
On the more brutal side of things it was Calo who lost his life on Tuesday night thanks to Milus’s retaliation over Denley’s death. As sad it was to see Calo go, he never felt like a full-time playing in this war anyhow and so it wasn’t a gut-wrenching death the way a bigger player might have been. It’s a shame we didn’t spend a little more time on the character ahead of time in order to blow that brutal punch of loss, but then again there’s still plenty of episodes left to go before the end of the season.
The way things shook out in the episode, Annora could be included as a potential character we’d have to say goodbye to. While justice would be for Wilkin to ultimately kill her and dole out revenge for his dead wife, for now she’s on the Archdeacon’s short list of sought-after gals. When will people learn not to run around caves whispering about their secret plans when there are enemies present, anyhow? If anything it’s the priest who is going to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, but with the Silent Mute ready for battle I’m sure Annora will come out of this the better too. And I actually wouldn’t mind. While her presence felt like overkill during the first couple of episodes, she and the Mute continue to enjoy limited screen time that makes their story just a little more intriguing. If you like dead snakes and bloody rituals and all that jazz, that is.
As for the big kill of the night — the man being quartered? No real opinion here, other than it was quicker than I’d imagined it would have been given the pilot. Oh, and yes — Lady Love did pick an appropriate dress.
Kurt Sutter and co. couldn’t have packed more into an hourlong installment of The Bastard Executioner, as Love finally confronted Milus about his scheming, Wilkin confessed his true identity and we bid farewell to one supporting player. Meanwhile, the hunt for Annora intensified and Baron Price made a proposal that Love might not able to resist for much longer.
