Part two is written by Robert Banks Stewart so good luck seeing this on the BBC iPlayer any time soon.
The bandits have a fight with Robin and knock him out, but decide not to kill him when their leader, Will Scarlet, recognises the ring he wears. Will tells Robin about the evil abbot who has been living in Robin's house, and then they go to the house where they find the abbot has gone, but he has also stolen all of the furniture - including the DVD player. Oh noes!
All that has been left behind is Friar Tuck, as played by Tony "Ensor" Caunter. Tuck leads them to where the abbot has stashed the stolen items in a barn, and Robin and Will set it on fire. This is only a distraction so that they can ambush the guards and then steal back Robin's things.
Tuck tricks the abbot into going back to Robin's house for some treasure that had been "left behind" but instead finds that Robin has got there first, just like Blake getting there ahead of Travis in Seek-Locate-Destroy. The abbot is sent away with only the things that actually belong to him.
There is a rather dull and historically dubious subplot about King Richard's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine trying to persuade him to make Prince John regent while Richard is away on crusade. Dubious because Richard was Eleanor's favourite son, while John was the favourite of their father King Henry, so she would have been unlikely to side with John over Richard. If the writer had watched The Devil's Crown then he would have known this, but we have to let him off since that wasn't made until three years after this, mew.
All things considered, so far this has been a bit of a dull episode in general, but don't worry, because it is about to get really very good indeed...
Purr purr purr!
Prince John and the Sheriff are having a sauna together. This is completely gratuitous and absolutely wonderful, purr. I think some plot happens as well but you can hardly expect me to concentrate on a thing like that when Paul Darrow has got his moobs out.
Did nobody tell Terry Nation that they were allowed to have scenes like this on Blakes 7? Countdown could have looked very different if they had. Or maybe they just didn't have the budget to have a space sauna on the Liberator? Mew.
Robin finally meets the Sheriff after he hears about the previous scene Sheriff hanging a manny from his estate.
Robin suspects the Sheriff of being economical with the actualité after he describes the hanged manny despite claiming to not have met him. When challenged on this the Sheriff says he saw him when he was hanged - you're going to have to go to bed earlier than that if you want to catch the Sheriff in it, Robin!
When Robin leaves, the Sheriff is convinced he knows nothing that can hinder his secret plan, which he tells to the abbot... er, that Robin knows nothing, I mean. The abbot already knows their secret plan, presumably. However, by the time Sir Guy arrives to do some more plotting with them, the Sheriff is having doubts about what Robin might know.
Robin has kiffs with Marion, but the king finds out about it and he doesn't like Robin having kiffs with anybody else. And in case you think that's me making a little John joke, here is his line of dialogue:
"Do you think I don't know about mutual affection? I didn't ask to take a liking to you, but you appear and I made you my squire, and now in a sense you betray me."
The abbot gets stabbed off-screen and confesses the secret plan, but the priest he is confessing to is more concerned with stealing all of his jewellery. This means Robin is the only one who finds out about the plan to kill the king once he is sailing away to go on crusade. Unfortunately, he then gets captured by Servalan's randomly Scottish henchmanny from Gambit.
The manny who stabbed the abbot turns out to have been one of the Sheriff's henchmannys all along, and he tells the Sheriff that Robin heard the confession. To prove that he is really a competent henchmanny, he then gives the Sheriff Robin's ring to let him know they have captured him, which makes the Sheriff do an Avonesque smile and a Cybermannyesque
"Excellent.""What's to be done with him?""Oh... kill him."
The Sheriff gives the ring to the king as evidence that Robin has run away, and the king is so enraged by this that he outlaws Robin on the spot. And about time too, it took Blake half the time it took Robin to become a convicted criminal, and that in a much longer series. I was beginning to think this whole series was going to be one long origin story for Robin Hood, like one of those Marvel movies we hear so much about.
Will Scarlet rescues Robin from the randomly Scottish henchmanny, and Robin rushes to warn the king about the secret plan to murder him. The king takes his advice about the plot on board, but he also tells Robin to go away and that he is still outlawed. And that's the end of the episode.
A practically purrfect piece of television. Shame about the Robin Hood stuff.
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