In The Bastard Executioner recap, Wilkin speeds up his plan for revenge, Jessamy is on the brink of betrayal and Love has been keeping another secret….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s starting to become commonplace in Wilkin Brattle’s life to wake up every morning with his fake wife Jessamy skulking over him like some kind of obsessed stalker.
Never mind the fact that she’s delusional and believes that Wilkin is actually her husband Gawain but the sad truth is after so many years of abuse at the hands of the real punisher, the poor woman is clinging onto any sense of normalcy in a life where she’s barely had any at all.
This week on The Bastard Executioner, Jessamy’s lunacy reaches as far as the ears of Milus Corbett, who she runs to after Wilkin informs her that they will be leaving Ventrishire in a hurry later that day and she should prepare her belongings to escape the city.
Of course, Jessamy wants to continue to live in her own fantasy world where her husband is a noble executioner and not the self-loathing abuser her real husband was while he was still alive.
“Oh, the wife — she is quite mad. Take concern in that.”
~ Milus tells Wilkin
That comes a week after Annora gave Wilkin a similar warning about his nutter ‘wife’ and the madness that’s infected her mind, body and soul. If this week was any indication, Jessamy is just now starting to walk down the path of insanity and this is just the tip of the iceberg into how disturbed she really might be.
With that said, let’s recap The Bastard Executioner from this week titled ‘Thorns/Drain’…
Escape the City
Wilkin and Toran load up a wagon full of castle forged swords and shields to give to the bandits they were forced to raid a few weeks back in servitude to the baroness. The plan is to leave Castle Ventris under the guise of exchanging grain down river with some other settlers, but really they are smuggling out weapons to give to The Wolf and his rebel band currently working against the crown.
Unfortunately, Wilkin and Toran are interrupted by a pair of soldiers — one of whom insists on accompanying them to the rendezvous — to make sure they receive safe passage. When he accidentally discovers the weapons stowed away, Wilkin and Toran are forced to kill him, which means when this soldier doesn’t return back later that day, they will be the prime suspects in his murder.
Wilkin decides this action is enough for them to exact their revenge on the soldiers they know are responsible for the burning of their village and the murders of their families while simultaneously breaking their brothers out of their shackles and making a run for it that night.
Wilkin and Toran go on ahead to meet up with The Wolf, who promises to hide them both if they are forced to take action that day and need a place to hide. He appreciate the return of the weapons because after all Wilkin is nothing if not a man of his word.
Wilkin asks The Wolf one more favor before leaving — he needs his solemn vow and promise that at no point from now or in the future will he take any action that could result in harm done to Baroness Lady Love Ventris. She had a close call a few weeks back and Wilkin doesn’t want her to suffer any kind of damage during the raids by the bandits, who are trying to overthrow the government one attack at a time.
The Wolf gives his word but little does Wilkin know that this rebel leader never had any intention of hurting the baroness in the first place.
Family Matters
Love awakens in the morning to a royal decree sent directly from Castle Windsor with an announcement from King Edward II celebrating her pregnancy and the upcoming birth of Baron Ventris’ child. Whether Love wanted the entire shire to know about this now or not is moot because the royal decree must be hung in every part of the city as the king makes it known to everyone that she is ‘with child’.
Seeing as Love is not actually pregnant and still needs to figure a way out of that mess, she decides to spend the day with her handmaiden Isabel picking berries in a local field. The two girls frolic about as if they don’t have a care in the world and even leave their soldiers behind so they can have some privacy to gallivant about the countryside.
What they don’t expect is for two raiders to come put hoods over the their heads and take them captive.
When Love has the hood removed from her face, she’s met by the leader of the rebel army himself — none other than, The Wolf. But despite this seemingly treacherous situation, Love doesn’t look the least bit worried about her predicament.
“One has to protect our history and honor the myth, dear sister.”
~ The Wolf
It seems The Wolf and Lady Love are actually half brother and sister from the same father. While they don’t stay in regular contact, she’s well aware that he’s the fearsome rebel leader and she’s the queen of the shire he’s trying to overthrow.
The two come to an understanding that ultimately they both want the same thing — peace within Ventrishire but to eventually strike back against the king and create a free Wales once again. The Wolf asks for Lady Love to retrieve some jewelry left at their father’s crypt that he could use to sell and provide food and supplies to his soldiers, that way they will continue to follow him instead of splintering off into their own groups — like the one that actually attacked Lady Love’s caravan several weeks back.
Before considering the request, Lady Love asks her brother if he was present when Erik was murdered. The Wolf confirms that he was while also telling her that a noble soldier was the one who actually put him down — and he once served Ventris during the war (it’s Wilkin of course). He also confirms that he was not involved in the raid that ended up killing Baron Pryce’s wife but says that’s cardinal amongst his concerns and why he needs to get his troops in order, thus the necessity for the jewels to provide payment.
Lady Love says she will return to the castle and decide if she will grant his request and give him the family jewels (no pun intended) so he can continue to fund his war against the king.
Caught in a Lie
Milus awakens this week after a romp in his room with a set of twins, a little person and a cage full of rats. While it sounds like a bad bar joke, Milus keeps mum when his reeve Leon comes to see him with news of the king’s announcement about the royal baby.
“It is best left to the imagination.”
~ Milus tells Leon
Milus has a busy day ahead of him including a message from Baron Pryce, who says he’s received a confession from a bandit claiming responsibility for the murder of his wife under the orders of The Wolf.
Milus informs Lady Love of this information, clearly unaware that she’s in direct contact with the rebel leader and she’s been told he wasn’t involved. Now Lady Love has doubts as to which person to believe.
Later in the day, Milus receives a visit from Wilkin’s ‘wife’ Jessamy as previously mentioned and she tells the chamberlain that two soldiers — the same who approached Wilkin and Toran earlier in the day — made advances towards her and her husband was enraged and promised to go after them. She requests that the chamberlain put ‘Gawain’ in holding for a few days until he gets his mind right.
Milus now knows that Wilkin was planning an escape and what he had in mind when he returned from his journey that day.
Stigmata
At the caverns, Annora is having another vision or some kind of spiritual journey when she pulls a thorn out of her bloody hand and the wound heels immediately like she’s some kind of 12th century Wolverine.
It’s clear that this strange form of stigmata is a warning sign and she passes along a handful of the thorns over to her devoted follower Ludwig aka The Dark Mute.
Later that day, Annora goes to visit Father Ruskin at Castle Ventris but he immediately calls her out for being a pagan and he has no interest in hearing her spout some outlandish gibberish about her so-called religion. Annora hands over the thorns to Father Ruskin, which he promptly drops on the ground but then she gives him one more.
Annora opens her shirt and pulls a thorn directly from her chest, just like the one from her hand earlier, and the wound heals itself. Father Ruskin is taken back by this strange miracle and Annora warns him that a visitor will be coming to the castle soon and they bring gave danger with them. This ‘crown of thorns’ is a warning to their arrival.
Outside the camp, Annora’s prediction is coming true after we spot Arch Deacon Robinus and his band of religious fanatics including Cormac (played by Ed Sheeran) as they continue to search for ‘the seraphim’. The Arch Deacon wants to search the surrounding shorelines, but Cormac suggests that his master look inside Castle Ventris instead while he looks around the other villages near the coast.
Arch Deacon Robinus and his loyal follower Absolon arrive at the castle on ‘royal’ business before Lady Love offers to put them up for the night. Father Ruskin keeps a close eye on them but when he spots a book in the possession of Absolon, marked with the crown of thorns, he begins to believe that Annora’s warning was true!
What will he do with this information? It remains to be seen! But before we exit the healer and her mute, Ludwig tells Annora that he’s prepared to do his service before he opens up a closet where he’s stored a vast array of weapons as well as a uniform with a cross on the front of it. Was Ludwig involved in the crusades perhaps?
Seeking Vengeance
Back at the castle, Lady Love decides to give her brother the jewels he needs to keep his rebellion going, but only after asking him about the murder of Baron Pryce’s wife again now that they have a witness coming forward and pinning the attack on The Wolf.
She decides to get to the bottom of this by interrogating the supposed assassin herself when he arrives at the castle in a few days. The Wolf takes his bounty and promises to keep the troops in line now that he has provisions to help his cause. Lady Love tells him to be careful and The Wolf says he doesn’t have anything to worry about because the Lord is looking down on him because they do have something in common after all.
“Jesus was a rebel”
~ The Wolf
Meanwhile, Wilkin and Toran are plotting the escape of their brothers and a mass murder of all the people they know were involved in the destruction of their village. But before they can strike, Milus plays his hand instead and tells the fake punisher that his wife ratted him out and now he knows what Wilkin was planning all along that day.
Milus gives Wilkin and Toran one offer to save their lives while also gaining some sense of revenge.
He will hand them over one of the soldiers who was responsible for killing the innocent women and children back at the village in exchange for the loyalty of Wilkin, Toran and the rest of their men, serving Milus directly and any commands he issues. Milus also tells the men that killing this soldier will be the end of it — from here on out they will act on his orders and leave his reeve (the man Wilkin believes killed his wife) and the rest of the perpetrators alone.
“Gather your friends. Torture him, kill him, whatever will quench the thirst of your vengeance.”
~ Milus
They don’t have much of a choice in the matter, but at least their brothers will be free and they will find some kind of relief with one of the murderers turned over to them.
Wilkin returns to the chamber with the rest of their brothers only to find Toran has tortured the soldier in horrifying ways while trying to get information out of him. Wilkin doesn’t believe this is the right thing to do with five of them tearing this one man apart — they are no better than the baron was when he overran their village.
But Toran says that it eats him alive every, single day living and serving next to these people responsible for the death of his wife and the death of his son and if this is the only chance he has at revenge, he’s going to take it. He gets the soldier to give up the names of the rest of the raiding party before Wilkin finally puts a knife in his belly to put the man out of his misery.
“And so we have vengeance.”
~ Toran
Wilkin retires to a grain closet where he’s sitting alone just as Lady Love ventures by and stops for a visit. She comforts him and the two draw close once again as Wilkin gets even bolder and tells the baroness just how beautiful she is as he looks deep into her eyes.
But in that moment, Wilkin is reminded of another warning he received from Milus that day.
If Wilkin ever turns on the chamberlain or seeks revenge, Milus will immediately tell the baroness that her favorite punisher has been lying to her since the day they met and their entire ‘courtship’ has been nothing but falsehoods.
Just when it appears that Wilkin and Lady Love might kiss, he rises from the ground before she stops him to ask about their first encounter in the church all those weeks ago.
Love tells him that when she touched his wound, she saw a vision of a little boy being born (clearly a sign of her pending pregnancy that she needs in order to keep Ventrishire under he rule and also prevent the king from beheading her) and she says deep down she believes Wilkin saw the exact same thing.
As Milus’ words scroll through Wilkin’s head, he’s forced to deny his feelings, and lie to Lady Love about the moment they shared in the chapel that day.
“I felt only the pain of my wounds.”
~ Wilkin
Lady Love is despondent and Wilkin leaves with his head down while living with the regret that he finally connected with someone the same way he did his wife Petra, but because of the secret that continues to loom over his head like a giant noose, he’s force to deny his feelings and pretend they don’t exist.
Don’t miss the next episode of The Bastard Executioner on Tuesday night at 10pm ET on FX!
