Knightfall 1.9: "More than You Think"

In Knightfall 1.9 we finally learn a little more about the Grail - it means "more than you think," Tancrede tells Landry.  And then - Joan returns in her Princess Leia hairdo to the King of France, who knows that's she's carrying not his but Landry's baby.  In other words, no more than a hint of what the Grail really means and does, but the continuation of a compelling all-too-Earthy story.

I'd love to learn that the Grail was given to us by visitors from outer space, but Knightfall, after all, is on the History not the SyFy Channel.  And the story proceeds to some prime all-too-human confrontations, my favorite being Landry on trial.

Gawain's testimony seals Landry's fate, though he would have been found guilty anyway, and it turns out his fate isn't sealed, after all.  Landry's mother explains to the Pope the "more" that the Grail is really about, or can do, and it so impresses the Pope that he frees Landry - leaving us, again, with absolutely no idea of what that "more" is.

Though the Pope's freeing Landry does tell us more than what Tancrede told Landry.  First, Landry's mother actually, presumably, told the Pope this secret of the Grail, whereas Tancrede only alluded to it to Landry.  And the Pope's freeing Landry tells us that Landry is in some way intrinsically connected to this super secret of the Grail.  Again, if this story were science fiction, it could be time travel - Landry was alive at the origin of the Grail - but this is a narrative of dramatized history and religion, not time travel.

Though, as I've been saying about Knightfall since the beginning, there is something undeniably science fictional about this story.   The Templars resemble the Jedi in many respects, and the Grail has power which is more than holy - more, even, than just the kind of magic that magicians do.  Maybe something like the Force.

And that's a good thing, too, for our characters, all in dire straits as this next-to-last episode of the first season concludes.  Landry and the Queen are now each in about the worst shape we've seen them all season.  Who will save them?

I'll be back here next week with thoughts about what the season finale tells us.

See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities ... Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder ... Knightfall 1.3: Baby ... Knightfall 1.4: Parentage ... Knightfall 1.5: Shrewd De Nogaret ... Knightfall 1.6: Turn of Fortunes ... Knightfall 1.7: Landry's Mother ... Knightfall 1.8: Crucial Moves

some real time travel here