This week, Galavant reminded viewers that it really is a limited series run (the final episodes air next week), because the top of this week’s hour found Galavant and Co. finally reaching the end of their journey, and by the end of the hour, all the pieces were in place for a climatic finale. In between, there were quite a few plot problems that revealed the limitations of the show’s premise, but the entertaining guest stars and ever clever song lyrics kept things moving along, so let’s get into it.
This week marked Galavant’s arrival in Valencia, and while he is eager to save the kingdom and his lady love, Isabella is racked with guilt over the imminent reveal of her betrayal. To stall for time, she convinces Galavant to head to a local monastery to wash up in preparation for the battle ahead; a monastery inhabited by singing monks led by none other than Weird Al, in the first of two completely awesome guest spots this week. While Galavant is being prepped, Isabella confesses her guilt to Weird Al Monk, and the next time we see her, she’s clearly had a change of heart, because she confronts King Richard to offer up her kingdom’s jewel in return for the lives of her parents and Galavant. Of course, Richard refuses, as he is determined to prove himself worthy of his wife’s affections by killing Galavant, and so with her parent’s lives still at risk, Isabella heads back to Galavant to put the trap in motion. Needless to say, when the knight is ultimately captured and Isabella’s role in it is revealed, Galavant is crushed, Richard is ecstatic, and Isabella finds herself thrown into the dungeons for her troubles.
The wildcard in all of this is Madalena, as she has grown tired of waiting for Richard to be an effective King, and she has decided that once again it’s time for a change in leadership in Valencia. This week, Madalena’s character really comes into her own when the true extent of her ambition and her flair for manipulation is finally put front and centre. Not only does she use the castle’s cook’s affection for her handmaiden as a weapon to get what she wants, but once she discovers that Galavant is on his way to rescue her, she puts her own plan into action; one that saves Galavant from the gallows, places the hapless cook there instead, and summons to the kingdom a mysterious figure whom she claims will execute her evil plan. Also, somewhere in there the cook and the handmaiden sing a hilarious song about what it means to be in love in the Middle Ages, which is easily the best song of the night.
The second act begins right where we left off, with Madalena explaining her intentions to a confused Galavant. While he is still hopelessly clinging to the idea that she loves him, she basically informs him that he’s no more than a pretty face to her, and until her co-conspirator shows up, it’s back to the dungeon for Galavant. Madalena also orders Isabella to be killed and the rest of the group tortured, and all of this is done with such a gleeful flourish and wicked sneer, you wonder why it took the writers this long to give Mallory Jansen something of substance for her character. Clearly she’s having a ball with it.
The other plot line of this episode is far less successful. It follows Richard’s journey to see the magician Xanax (Merlin’s replacement), who is wonderfully and ridiculously played by Ricky Gervais. While I’m always happy to see Gervais in pretty much anything, his guest spot here amounts to nothing more than a wasted opportunity, as he plays a medieval drug dealer who gets Richard high in order to help him understand why no one takes him seriously. This whole section of the episode just feels off and it is deeply unfunny, but it does give Richard some backstory as a second son who unwittingly became King when his bully of an older brother set off to rape, conquer, and kill throughout the land. Still high on his newfound confidence, Richard hightails it back to Valencia to break up with Madalena, but he’s halted in his tracks when it’s revealed that the person Madalena is working with is none other than Richard’s big brother, Kingsley, who’s back and wants Richard’s kingdom for himself. “Oh this is going to be fun,” cackles Madalena. Once again, somewhere in there, Galavant and Isabella finally come to terms with their feelings for each other (through song of course), and when it’s discovered that none of the doors in the dungeon are actually locked, they set off to save the day.
So that’s where things stand heading into next week’s finale. While I confess that these two episodes didn’t leave me as giddy with laughter as previous weeks, I still really enjoy this show, and given its recent slide in the ratings, I have a feeling that next week will be Galavant’s last episodes. I, for one, plan on making the most of them. Check back next week to find out how it all wraps up.
Line of the week: “I know you’re not a hugger, but if you were, I would wrap myself around you like a leather jacket made of love.”
Lyric of the week: “We could wile away each hopeless day comparing open sores.”
I Want To Go Back To Kindergarten
No, this isn’t some arrested development yearning for a lost childhood, nor is this one of those nostalgia trips where people idolize the past through rose tinted glasses. To be clear, I don’t want to be five years old again. I just wish we lived in a world where the rules of kindergarten still reigned supreme. In 1988, Robert Fulghum published a series of short essays under the title, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, and while I’ve never read the book, I get what he’s trying to say. Think about it. What were we taught in kindergarten? Share everything. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Very important. In the wake of the horrific events of the past week, I can’t help but think about another lesson that my kindergarten teacher taught me: Get along with everyone.
To this day, I can picture the one kid in my kindergarten class that I truly did not like, but for the life of me I can’t remember his name. What I do remember is that the feeling was mutual, and we would go out of our way to avoid having to play with each other. However, every now and then, my teacher would force the two of us to work together, and if either of us complained, we were simply told that we would have to find a way to get along. We weren’t being forced to be friends; we weren’t even being told that we had to like each other. We simply had to share the same space and get along. What a powerful concept.
A couple of months ago I moved to Paris for a year abroad, and after ringing in the new year at a party that was clear across town from my apartment, I opted to crash at a friend’s place for the night. The next morning, we celebrated New Year’s Day with a three hour conversation over breakfast, and as this friend is French, I used this time to pick her brain about some of the more quirky aspects of living in Paris. In particular, I was confused about why a movie theatre wouldn’t let me use my credit card to pay for a movie pass, and instead had asked for my bank account details. What started out as an explanation of French banking practices eventually evolved into a fascinating discussion about the differences in culture, attitudes, and customs between France/Europe and Canada/North America. Three hours later, not only did I feel closer to my friend, but I felt like I had really learned something about this country that I now call home, and as I sat on the Metro heading back to my apartment later that day, I wondered if any of the problems that currently plague our world could be solved if people were just willing to sit down and talk to each other and really make an effort to understand their differences. I guess you could say I was feeling optimistic about the new year.
A week later, I was frantically texting that very same friend as soon as I heard about the shooting at Charlie Hebdo because I mistakenly thought she worked in the area, and when she answered that she was indeed all right, I’ve never been more relieved to receive a text message in my life. Two days later, it was her turn to text me when one of the hostage situations broke out in my neighbourhood, and two days ago, we marched together in the largest rally in France’s history to show our support for free speech and our resilience in the face of terrorism. Officials estimate that the crowd in Paris could have been as big as 3 million people, and the sense of solidarity and unity among those 3 million people of all races and religions was something that I had almost given up hope was even possible. It was a wonderful moment in history, and as I headed home, I was hopeful that things really could change for the better. Hopeful, that is, until I got home and read about the massacre in Nigeria of 2,000 people by Boko Haram. That’s when I decided I wanted to go back to kindergarten.
If you look back throughout the course of our history, it would seem that we humans have always been in conflict with one another. We have waged wars over territory, resources, and ideologies, and it is heartbreaking to think about where we could be as a race if we would just stop thinking up new ways to kill each other. So the way I see it, we currently have two choices. We can either throw up our hands and concede defeat to the status quo, or we can stand up together and decide that we can be better than this. We can go back to that magical time when we all got along because our kindergarten teachers were wise enough to know that that was the only way we were going to get anything done. We don’t have to agree on everything, we don’t all have to be friends, and at the end of the day, we don’t even have to like each other, but this world is our classroom, and at the very least, we have to find a way to get along.