In The Bastard Executioner recap, Wilkin is forced into an impossible situation and his life hangs in the balance after revealing his secret….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
One of the best parts of watching a show written by Kurt Sutter is the unexpected twists he unleashes at the most unexpected moments. It happened numerous times on The Shield and Sons of Anarchy and it appears Sutter is still digging the knife in and turning the blade with his latest series The Bastard Executioner.
Case in point is the looming secret that Wilkin Brattle has been keeping from Lady Love Ventris — the fact that he is the man who killed her husband and then took the identity of a punisher to escape certain death — all while growing closer and closer to the noble lady from Ventrishire.
After agreeing to live under the thumb of her cruel Chamberlain Milus Corbett, who already knew Wilkin’s secret, it seemed like the threat of revealing everything to Lady Love would be a ticking time bomb that could ultimately play out for several seasons.
Instead, Sutter cut through all the mystery with a blade as sharp as the devil himself when he had Wilkin reveal everything to Lady Love in the seventh episode of season one that aired on Tuesday night. It was shocking to hear Wilkin lay it all out on the line while essentially sacrificing himself and it was just as interesting to find Lady Love refusing to accept his surrender and instead saving his life.
Secrets always have a nasty way of getting out, but it appears the massive plot twist that most pegged (myself included) as the series MacGuffin just got doled out before the first season even came to an end!
It’s one of many reasons why Sutter has become such a can’t miss storyteller on television because for all the things you could say to complement or critique him about, predictability doesn’t look to be one of them.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The Bastard Executioner titled ‘Behold the Lamb/Gweled yr Oen’….
A Lady Seeks the Truth
Following up on the events from last week’s episode, Milus brings the man who confessed to killing Baron Pryce’s wife to Castle Ventris where he will be executed. Obviously the man is lying because it was Wilkin who actually burned her alive — unbeknownst to him she was actually in the carriage of course — but someone needs to pay to bring this awful crime to a close.
Wilkin wants no part of this innocent man’s execution, but Milus tries to make him understand that this conviction ultimately saves both of them from actually facing the sword for their part in the Baroness’ death. Milus explains that the man who volunteered owed a great deal of money to Baron Pryce so in exchange for his sacrifice, his debts will be relieved and his family given safe passage into Castle Ventris where they will live.
“I know you think of me as a simple demon. But you know a mere glimpse of me, Wilkin. I’ve lived many hard lives and I survive by seeing the shadow of the axe before it falls.”
~ Milus
Unfortunately, Milus isn’t counting on Lady Love’s own curiosity into the man who confessed because her half-brother The Wolf told her last week that he had nothing to do with Baron Pryce’s murder despite the man who confessed claiming he did it under his orders. Lady Love confronts the man in shackles and asks him why he won’t give up his fellow bandits, but would gladly sacrifice his commander?
She then baits the trap by describing The Wolf as a great beastly man with red hair and when the man says that’s exactly what he looks like, Lady Love confirms that he’s lying but she wants to know why. She gets further proof when speaking to her scribe and finds out that the man who confessed didn’t have a note on his record until just recently when Baron Pryce relieved his debt and Milus gave his family safe passage to Ventrishire.
When Baron Pryce shows up at Castle Ventris showering her with compliments — the same words just said to her by Milus Corbett mind you — Lady Love is starting to put the pieces of this puzzle together.
She finally confronts Milus about his nefarious plans (despite the fact that she doesn’t know exactly how deep they go) to marry her off to Baron Pryce now that her husband and his wife are both dead. Milus swears he had nothing to do with Baron Pryce’s wife meeting her demise but the man who offered himself up puts the crime to a close and allows the two shires to move on and start fresh. Lady Love balks at his hastiness to marry her off just like her father did to Baron Ventris all those years ago, but Milus says his lie was no different than the one she’s telling right now.
Ultimately, both of them are trying to safe the shire.
“Nor do you carry a child — silent or otherwise. We all know our Baron was barren!”
~ Milus
Lady Love finally snaps but the explanation — as vulgar as it might be — starts to make sense to the Baroness because her entire plan has always been about saving Ventrishire from being absorbed or broken apart as King Edward II originally ordered.
She remembers the wise words her grandfather once spoke when it came to governing a town, a shire or an entire kingdom. Wise words indeed.
“A mind that is open and a heart that is shut tight.”
~ Lady Love
Lady Love concedes to allow the man to be executed for crimes he didn’t commit because the greater good will be served by his death.
A Death in the Family
With plans in place to execute the person ‘responsible’ for Baron Pryce’s wife meeting her demise, the Reeve Leon and his soldiers (including Denley and Locke, who were also part of burning Wilkin’s village to the ground) are headed out to ransack some local bandits, who may have taken part in the raid against the caravan that carried the baroness.
Because they need extra men for service, Wilkin and Toran are called to duty.
Leon finds the camp and despite Wilkin’s warning that these people were just nomads and not a part of anybody’s war, the soldiers descend upon them because this was never an actual raid looking for information — this was a set up to further the lie started to cover up Milus’ tracks.
So the camp is ransacked and their riches stolen while at least one woman is killed and the flag of The Wolf is planted in her tent to make it look like she was part of the rebel forces hiding out in the woods around Ventrishire. When the men from the camp return home and find their wives slaughtered, a fight begins although the castle trained soldiers dispatch the lowly bandits without much problem except for one who gets away.
Wilkin and Toran give chase, but so does Denly on horseback. The one runaway gets the drop on the soldier, stabs him through the neck and leaves him for dead after stealing his horse.
When Wilkin and Toran find the body they know there is no way Leon much less Milus are going to believe that they didn’t exact revenge on another soldier responsible for burning their village to the ground. Once they make it back to town, both Wilkin and Toran move quickly to secure their friends to make sure they aren’t harmed in retaliation.
But when Wilkin runs into the giggle wenches aka the twins, who tell the punisher that he’s needed at the Baroness’ bed chamber right away, he has no choice but to go there in great haste. Obviously it’s a trap by Milus, who knows that the only person who could pull Wilkin away from his friends is the adoration he feels for Lady Love. When Wilkin realizes he was never summoned there in the first place, he runs back to check on Jessamy and Lucca (his fake wife and son) to make sure they are unharmed.
The distraction is all the time Milus needed to strike back against Wilkin after bashing his big friend Calo over the head with a branding iron. Before killing him, Milus reveals some of his own backstory about growing up in an orphanage and a priest in charge would beat the children with a branding iron just like the one he was brandishing tonight. Milus somehow became the favorite of the pedophilic priest because he would sodomize him regularly — all while calling him his ‘little lamby’. So in return, Milus forces Calo to do the same before he bashes his brains in with the iron.
When Wilkin leaves his home and goes to check on Calo and Ash, who were sleeping in the animal pens as part of their servitude, he’s appalled at what he sees inside. Calo is dead and he knows it’s thanks to Milus Corbett and the debt he’s repaying because he believes Wilkin killed another soldier on his ‘list’ despite their agreement made a week ago.
With the death of another of his brothers, Wilkin decides that something must be done because he can’t bear to lose another and he won’t live under Milus’ rule any longer.
Holy War
The true mission of Archdeacon Robinus and his military arm Absolon were finally revealed this week as they finally got to work in Ventrishire and it had nothing to do with spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Archdeacon first summoned in all of the servants to Ventrishire to the chapel, where he stripped them bare while looking for the heretic symbols that he knows belong to the Seraphim he’s been searching for this whole time. When no one in the shire posseses those marks, Archdeacon Robinus is frustrated but not defeated because he knows the final piece to his puzzle is somewhere nearby.
Meanwhile, Father Ruskin starts doing his own digging when he’s shut out of his own church by Absolon and he refuses to say what the Archdeacon is up to.
Father Ruskin finally speaks to Berber, who tells him about the markings that the Archdeacon looked for with all of the servants and they both realize that the person he’s actually searching to find is Annora of the Alders. She has the strange markings all over her body and the healer is undoubtedly why Archdeacon Robinus came to town.
Berber asks Father Ruskin to seek her out in the caverns and warn her of Archdeacon Robinus’ search. What they don’t know, however, is the scribe (who is also Berber’s boss) overheard this entire conversation and immediately ratted to the Archdeacon to curry favor with the crown.
Father Ruskin rushes to see Annora, who finally reveals why she’s so important to the Archdeacon and the church in Windsor. It seems she’s part of an ancient religion sect and the bearer of the Book of Nazarene — the ancient text that some believe is another account of the life of Jesus Christ — and the book itself is what the people have tattooed all over their bodies. When Father Ruskin realizes what she has and who she represents, he knows why Archdeacon Robinus is so desperate to find her.
Unfortunately, she’s already been discovered because her Dark Mute Ludwig, who is dressed in full Knight Templar armor now, spotted spies looking towards their cavern as soon as Father Ruskin arrived. She’s passed along some valuable information to the father, but will she get away from the fanatical Archdeacon or end up as window dressing with her skin pulled from her bones like all of her fellow brothers and sisters?
Confessional
Wilkin makes another appearance in Lady Love’s bed chamber, much to the chagrin of her handmaiden, but this time he’s not there on a ruse played by some giggle wenches. No, he’s finally confessing to all of his crimes.
He tells Lady Love that his name isn’t Gawain Maddox, but instead it’s Wilkin Brattle.
He was a soldier under King Edward I, in a garrison with Erik Ventris at the head before he was led into an ambush and left for dead if not for a miraculous intervention. Wilkin got his revenge when he killed Baron Ventris several months back, confirming that he was the bandit responsible for murdering her husband. Of course, Love already knows that her half-brother The Wolf told her that the person who killed Ventris was noble and pure of heart.
Wilkin goes on to take responsibility for Baron Pryce’s wife meeting her demise as well and says that he can’t allow an innocent man to pay for his crimes.
Finally, Wilkin confesses his feelings for Lady Love and reveals that he saw the same vision she did in the chapel that day he first arrived in Castle Ventris. It was a vision that she was holding a baby boy — their baby boy — but it’s a prophecy that can’t come true because he’s going to be executed for the crimes against Baron Pryce. All Wilkin asks is that his ‘family’ is spared because they only went along with his disguise because the real Gawain Maddox was a terribly abusive man.
He also asks that his friends are spared and released after his death. Wilkin steps in and kisses Lady Love for the first and presumably last time before he exits the room.
From there Wilkin visits his home where he tells Jessamy that she’s a good mother before taking her to bed in the kind of embrace she’s longed for ever since he arrived. It’s his final parting gift that she could feel the kind of tender love she deserved after her mind splintered thanks to the brutal marriage she endured while living with the real Maddox.
Finally, Wilkin arrives at the holding cell where the prisoner is being held and before anyone can say a word, he snatches his wife’s cross from around Leon’s neck, pulls a sword and when Toran yells out ‘Wilkin!’, both of their covers are officially blown. Just when it looks like Wilkin and Toran will get their revenge on Leon and Locke (two of the final people involved in the slaughter of their families), Lady Love appears and orders them to all drop their swords and never mention this altercation again.
She summons everyone to leave the room except Wilkin.
Lady Love then burns his confession and says that she needs him to continue to play Gawain Maddox for her as well. Wilkin refused to tell her who put him up to killing Baron Pryce’s wife, although she has to know deep down that it was Milus but regardless if Wilkin dies, she will have no one looking out for her as she enters truly treacherous waters in the near future. Wilkin is also one of the only people in Ventrishire who knows that she’s not actually with child because they shared a vision that said they would have one together instead.
Wilkin says his sacrifice is needed because an innocent man shouldn’t pay for his crimes. Lady Love hits him with a hard truth while also delivering the best line of the night.
“So you choose who lives and who dies? Well, you must be so relieved to be down from that dreadful cross!”
~ Lady Love
Lady Love finally tells Wilkin that she will not accept his confession and that he needs to go back to being Gawain Maddox for now and for the foreseeable future as well. He’s a valuable asset to Ventrishire, but more importantly she needs him by her side even if Wilkin can never actually stand next to her.
In the end, Lady Love allows Baron Pryce to escort her to the execution, while Milus smiles in the shadows as he believes his plan to marry the two royals is finally coming together. And finally, Wilkin Brattle transforms back into Gawain Maddox as he ties the convicted murderer up to a pair of horses with his arms and legs tied to each animal. As the horses charge away, the man is literally ripped in two and now he’s paid for his sins.
Well he paid for somebody’s sins and as Wilkin stands there with blood all over his face, he knows he still hasn’t paid any of his own but it will come to pass one day.
The Bastard Executioner returns next Tuesday night at 10pm ET on FX