Knightfall Season 2: On the Precipice

I haven't had a chance to review each episode of season 2 of Knightfall on the History Channel, but I've seen and much enjoyed all eight episodes.   Herewith a review:

First, it's crucial to keep in mind that this series is about the fall - as per the title - and eventual eradication of the Knights Templar, so the arc is bound to be grim on balance.   Indeed, the eradication is more imminent than eventual, so the Templars are always on the verge of extinction, with victories and survival itself always wrestled from the jaws of destruction, and always in danger of being undone.

On the side of the Templars this season we have Mark Hamill as Talas, who does just what he does in Star Wars as an aged Luke.   His saving of the Templars from burning at the stake in the finale, with the help of the leper order that we saw earlier this season in one of its best episodes, was one of the best scenes of the series.

The general narrative, as it did last year, focuses on three knights in particular - Landry, Tancrede, and Gawain.  The three characters are well drawn and well acted by Tom Cullen, Simon Merrells, and Pádraic Delaney.  Their story arcs are well developed, too, with Tancrede finding love, Gawain pursuing revenge and then redemption, and Landry, as ever, being the leader even though he no longer formally has that post.

King Phillip of France is the prime opponent, amplifying his killing of his wife, the Queen, last season, because she was also Landry's lover, into an all-out drive to exterminate the Templars.  To get this done, he kills the Pope, and gets a new one installed in the Holy See, more likely to support his vengeful quest.  His son Prince Louis and his wife, as well as the Princess, play significant roles in the intrigue and (in Louis's case) the battles.   The epic conflict of faith, decency, and good verses rapacious evil has inevitable parallels to our own time.

At this point, the series's renewal for a third season is uncertain, much like the future of the Templars themselves in the time period depicted.   I'll just say that I really hope the series fares better than the Templars.

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 ... Knightfall 1.9: "More Than You Think" ... Knightfall Season 1 Finale: Threading the Needle

Knightfall Season 1 Finale: Threading the Needle

The Kightfall Season 1 finale very carefully threaded the needle of miracle or natural event with Joan in the forest, speaking of drinking in the blues of the sky, in Landry's arms.

She's dying - from the sword the King thrust into her - and the doctor tells Landry it's hopeless.  As a last attempt to somehow save her life, when the end of is nigh, he remembers that she has the Grail.  He fills it with water and bids her to drink.  Which she does - but to no apparent avail.  Landry, furious with the Grail which didn't come through for him, throws it against a tree where it smashes.

But the miracle occurs.  Her baby is still alive, and the doctor is able to deliver it - a girl - via caesarean.  Joan dies, but their daughter miraculously lives.  Will this be enough to restore Landry's faith?

Probably.  But where was the miracle in what happened?  We know with our science that it's possible to deliver a live baby from a mother who has died via caesarean section.  So, what seems like a miracle to Landry is just quick thinking and knowledge from "Syria" on the part of the doctor, after Landry felt the baby moving in his deceased Joan.

The Templars and thus Knightfall are all about God and miracles.  Just before Joan's death, De Molay saves the day by riding in with reinforcements and beating back the red knights.  Tancrede, quoting Dylan from more than half a millennium later, says earlier and repeatedly that the Templars fight with God on their side.  But was De Molay's appearance with his men an act of God or the result a guilty conscience, clear thinking, and fast action by De Molay on behalf of his brethren?

We face questions like that today, as the world did in the thirteen-hundreds, and as human beings, trying to understand the word around them, the good and the bad and what may or may not be fate, always will.   Faith and science are always in the eye of the beholder.

***

A final thought about the finale: The death of Joan and the birth of her and Landry's daughter echoes the death of Padme and the birth of Leia, and is consistent with the resonance between the Templars and the Jedi that ran through this season.  Joan and Landry's daughter could almost be Joan of Arc, but she appeared about a century after the time being depicted in Knightfall.

I enjoyed this first season and look forward to beholding more.

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 ... Knightfall 1.9: "More Than You Think"

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

Knightfall 1.8: Crucial Moves

One of the best Knightfalls of the season - 1.7 - on air tonight, with twists and turns and highly significant developments at every turn.

Joan turning the tables - or blade - on her cousin was one of the highlights.  Her plan about where to be Queen and raise her children and with whom is a good one, though no doubt it won't quite come to be.

De Nogaret telling the King about the father of Joan's baby closes a crucial loop.  Now that the King knows, there will be no place for Landry in France.  That would actually fit right in with Joan's plan, but there's a lot in the way of Landry living happily ever after with Joan.  He now has the Pope, and soon with have the King of France, as mortal enemies.  And Gawain is no longer a brother in arms, either.

Tancrede alive and coming back was great to see.  Landry's in desperate need of allies.  At this point, there's Tancrede and Landry's mother and I didn't catch the name of the Templar with long blond hair, but he seems pretty strong, too.

History of course tells us that the Papacy and France will survive, but not the Templars.  But we're still a long way from that, and with the surprises of the story so far this season, it's not too much to hope that our Templars and their supporters will have a long, tempestuous life on the screen - or, just the way they and we like it.


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 1.7: Landry's Mother

Lots of good twists and surprises in Knightfall 1.7 - my favorite was meeting Landry's mother, played by Gina McKee, who made such a good appearance in The Borgias.   I hope she survives at least for a while in Knightfall - her character not only gives Landry crucial knowledge, but provides a balance and grounding in his life that he sorely needs.

Among the important pieces of advice she gives her son is not to trust the cripple - i.e., Gawain - so important in this hour (and beyond) that "And Certainly Not the Cripple" (among the people Landry shouldn't put his faith in) is the title of this episode.  Gawain, like all the Templars Landry both loves and has sharp differences with, is a complex and appealing character.  I hope he survives, too.  So far, these powerful brothers, with opinions both coinciding with and diverging from Landry's, haven't done too well.  First Godrey, then Tancrede, has fallen.  There's not much left in the higher part of the Templar hierarchy.

And the lower part is dealt a death blow tonight, too.  I didn't what happened to Parsifal coming.  He was an excellent character, and I'm surprised he didn't have a much longer arc.  But his death does make the point, in case we didn't already know it, that traitors are manifest.

Speaking of which, De Nogarey, having escaped hanging last week, now has some information that can destroy Landry - he's figured out that the Queen is carrying Landry's baby.   History tells us, and Knightfall is inexorably building up to, the King of France becoming a mortal enemy of the Templars.

With what happened tonight, that's now not much more than a word from De Nogarey away.

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 1.6: Turn of Fortunes

I'm back with a review of Knightfall 1.6, delayed by my watching and reviewing all ten episodes of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams anthology on Amazon.  Actually, when you think about it, there's a a lot of science fiction and even something of Philip K. Dick in the stories of the Knights Templar, especially in the hinted-at, awesome powers of the Grail they're seeking to find and protect.

Episode 1.6 was driven by that, as indeed has every episode of Knightfall so far.  We learn that the power of the Grail is so cosmic that it unites (presumably) good men (and women) of many faiths - Jewish, Christian, Muslim - seeking to gain, or reclaim, and certainly safeguard its powers, by making sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.  You would think it was something akin to nuclear power, with all this medieval ecumenical interest, but we'll just have to see.

In addition, this episode showed an-across-the-board reversal of fortunes, and reversals of those reversals, for more than one major character.  Tancrede is freed without repenting, only to return and repent so you can be taken away by the Arabs who beat him and the Templars at Acre.   We learn that Godfrey let that happen - gave the enemies of the Templars access to the tunnels - again, on behalf of the Grail.   And Landry, nearly killed, comes back weakened and turns out strong.

But in some ways the most remarkable twists of fate belong to De Nogaret.  First the Princess loves him (emotionally).  Then she realizes what he did - murdered her husband, after spying on her through that peephole for years - and lashes out at him.  Her father the King is about to have him hanged, when his uncle, masquerading as a dead person dangling in the gallows, saves him and he makes his escape.

Knightfall continues to get more complex and compelling by the episode, and that's always a good thing in historical drama.


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 1.5: Shrewd De Nogaret

Actually, in Knightfall 1.5 last night, the King's adviser De Nogaret proved to be more than shrewd.  He's shaping up as a stone-cold genius in pulling the strings to get the King and France to do things his way.

As we previously saw, he was no fan of the Princess marrying the Catalonian Prince.  De Nogaret at very least sees his best future (and, at this point, I guess we can say that's also what he sees as best for France) as the Princess marrying English royalty.  So, what does he do about the French and Catalonian marriage, literally on the verge of happening?  He fakes his own near-death, and sets up the Catalonian to be killed by a female Mongolian ninja wielding Greek fire.

That's cool in all kinds of ways.  First, ninjas were Japanese men.  So a woman from Mongolia taking this assassin's role is a somewhat fantastical development - but also consistent with the mythological motif that runs through the Templars already.   And, although Greek fire was legendary, it was as real as death, and its development by the Eastern Roman Empire aka the Byzantines helped them keep off attackers of all sorts for a thousand years after the Western Roman Empire fell.

I'm also really liking the fine tuning of relationships among Landry, Gawain, and Tancrede.  Each Templar is different yet utterly devoted to the cause and convinced of the superiority of his own instincts and analyses.   This tripartite leadership makes for some riveting scenes, as when Landry and Gawain, after making Tancrede literally run the gauntlet, turn to him for help in identifying the assassin (unfortunately not in time to stop her).

Lots of good story ahead in this excellent series.

See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities ... Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder ... Knightfall 1.3: Baby ... Knightfall 1.4: Parentage

Knightfall 1.4: Parentage

Well, I was very glad to see Queen Joan take my suggestion from last week - see my review of Knightfall 1.3 - and sleep with the King to disguise the father of her baby, rather than end her pregnancy.  Joan did get a little help from her maid, we discover at the end of tonight's episode 1.4, but the result is the same:  Joan and Landry's baby will be born, King Philip will think it's his - at least, at first - and that will make for a good continuing source of roiling drama in the years ahead.

Meanwhile, the search for the grail continues to take its intense but meandering course.  As I've said before, I'm much more interested in the people than the grail, and I find it to be at best an ok motivation for everything that's going on.  Far more appealing is in the intrigue at court, and now the imminent war with the English.

Back to Joan and Landry's baby.  If it's a boy, he of course could grow up to be a Templar, and that opens up all kinds of possibilities.  As the Pope told Landry in a previous episode, many a Templar has given into to the temptations of the flesh, which means there already should be some Templar offspring afoot and about.

I can't recall what, if anything, we and Parsifal know about this parentage.   Well, no matter, he's clearly on his way to becoming a Templar in any case.  But the Templars love women almost as much as their stated calling, and it will be interesting to see how that lust and love of various kinds plays out in the episodes ahead.

See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities ... Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder ... Knightfall 1.3: Baby

Knightfall 1.3: Baby

A fine Knightfall 1.3 last night, which revolves around Queen Joan finding out she's pregnant - with Landry's baby.  Since she hasn't slept with her husband King Philip in two years (!), this poses something of a problem.

Her first plan/hope is maybe she and Landry can run away together someplace safe and far from the King.  But she never even gets the chance to tell Landry about their baby, after he, counseled by the Pope, tells her he can't continue their relationship.

The episode ends with Joan putting a small bottle of a powerful and dangerous abortion-inducing potion to her lips.  No one asked me, but I have a better idea:

Why doesn't Joan put aside the potion and sleep with the King? She's not that far along with her pregnancy, so couldn't she plausibly say the baby was the King's? This would also have the big narrative benefit of Landry at some point learning that Philip and Joan's baby (or child, if later) was his.

Meanwhile, he'll have enough to keep him occupied in the tug of war between England and Catalonia over Isabella, and making sure it doesn't turn into a real war. Not to mention the dire words of his Arabic captive.

The essence of the Templars is fighting against  overwhelming odds, and Knightfall has put plenty of that on table.  Which makes for good viewing ahead.

See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities ... Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder

Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder

Knightfall is shaping up as a powerful, wheels-within-wheels kind of story, simmering with all kinds of intrigue and crossed loyalties in just its second episode, 1.2

And we get a new, charismatic character, Pope Boniface, commandingly played by Jim Carter aka Carson (from Downton Abby),* ready to use his authority to shape Europe as God through Boniface thinks best.  He has a worthy antagonist in the irreligious lawyer De Nogaret, close adviser to the King of France.  In this round, Boniface succeeds in averting his own death, and letting the lawyer know that the Pope knows exactly what De Nogaret tried to do.

*Come to think of it, Tom Cullen playing Landry is from Downton Abby, too, as is Julian Ovenden as De Nogaret!

But De Nogaret fares better with Brother Gawain, who will do almost anything - not betray the Knights, but tell De Nogaret about the Grail - for the promise of getting his leg healed.  We know that won't happen, which means that Gawain in on the way to a world of guilt and grief.

By the way, I've got to say that I think the Holy Grail is a weak grand motivator of so much in this story so far, but I'm willing to accept it as the McGuffin.  Far more interesting are the loves and battles of the major characters, and the Pope's vision of a new crusade to liberate the Holy Land once the Grail is retrieved (but why is the Grail so essential for that?).

The love between Joan and Landry of course can't run smooth, and Landry is already showing signs of not letting anything get in the way of his being Master of the Order, including a rendezvous with the Queen.  Significantly, the Pope knows about their affair, which makes him even more powerful. And just for good measure, we have the, I don't know, flirtation of Isabella with her Uncle (coming from Isabella).  Age-wise, she'd go better with Parsifal, but he's still mourning the love of his young life, and she's now betrothed to the Prince of Catalonia.

All of which is good, smoldering tinder for what now promises to be an excellent season ahead.

See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities

 
historical science fiction - a little further back in time

Knightfall 1.1: Possibilites

Knightfall debuted on the History Channel this week, right after its excellent and enormously successful Vikings.  The new series has possibilities.

It focuses on a group in a period of time not often (if ever) seen on television, the Knights Templar in their period of decline, after their losses in the Holy Land, headquartered in France, with a soon-to-be-hostile king.   They're in decline, but still powerful, and reminiscent of the Jedi in Star Wars, fighting a losing battle (at least in the first two trilogies) against the burgeoning empire.  This of course is no coincidence, given that George Lucas modeled his Jedi after the Knights Templar, among other groups.

In the first episode of Knightfall, we see the Templars coming to the aid of the downtrodden, which at this point include the poor and Jews who are being forced to leave their home by the French King, ostensibly to "protect" them for the virulent anti-semitism in his kingdom.  The knights are great fighters, savvy, and in some cases lusty, including one of their leaders have a passionate affair with the Queen.  That, presumably, will be at least one of the reasons he'll turn against them.

In our own history, the Knights Templar were an important group, transcending their time with innovations in everything ranging from banking to societies that pull the strings above and below governments in power.  Freemasons are the best-known group with some connection to the Knights, and there are others.

Knightfall looks to have a keen historical eye, and a sense of the subtle differences among the Templars themselves which makes for compelling narrative.  I'm going to give this series a shot.

 
historical science fiction - a little further back in time