Camelot Review: Episode 2 – The Sword and The Crown

If you missed the Pilot, get caught up HERE

The second episode of the excellent Starz show Camelot starts on a somber note. After the tragedy that befell Arthur and Kay, they bury their dead and fortify themselves at Castle  Camelot. After the funeral Arthur takes a stroll, alone on the beach, and sees a girl emerging from the water. It appears to be the same girl he was getting it on with in a dream he had in the first episode. Apparently, the young king thought it would go the same way as his dream, but the wet and scantily clad girl doesn’t see it as such.

As some of us already know by seeing her in Arthur’s dream in the first episode, this beach beauty must indeed be Guinevere. Who else could it be? It’s funny in this retelling of the Arthur story how their first exchange goes. Arthur is really excited to see the girl from his dreams, and Guinevere tackles him and holds a knife to his throat for intruding on her swim.

Ahhh, young love…

Spoilers Ahead…

I’m really liking Tamsin Egerton‘s portrayal of Lady Guinevere, there’s something captivating about her presence and she comes off as a real tough broad. I’m sensing a cat fight between her and Morgan in the near future of the series! But we’ll get back to Guinevere later. Let’s move on to my girl, Morgan.

Morgan seems to be into some pretty twisted shit in this story. She performs some ritual in the forest late at night, and is talking to something out in the darkness, which seems to answer faintly with some guttural sounds. The whole scene was quite eerie to tell you the truth. It would seem her magic using is very dark indeed, and from what Merlin says, there is always a cost to using it.

I have a feeling by the time Morgan accomplishes what she wants to, it will be too late. She definitely begins to run off at the mouth to King Lot quite a bit in this episode, and he isn’t having it, so he promptly teaches her some humility. To accomplish this he ties her to a post out on a hill in the middle of nowhere for the entire night, where Morgan is once again speaking to something unseen in the fog.

The next day Arthur is given a mission by Merlin. In order to increase his standing amongst the people of the realm, he shows him a sword, known to all as the Sword of the Gods. The sword sits in a stone high above at the top of a waterfall. Supposedly it has been there several centuries and no one has ever retrieved it. It truly is ‘the sword in the stone‘.

Arthur makes the treacherous climb, reaching the sword, and after much effort pulling it free. However, Arthur ends up taking a nasty tumble from the waterfall. Thankfully, Leontes saves him from drowning. In case you’ve not noticed Leontes, he is one of Arthur’s Knights, and I’ve become increasingly convinced that he is a clone of Aaron Eckhart, but with Justin Bieber hair. Not to say I don’t like the character, because he is a pretty loyal soldier who has Bieber fever.

In a surprise move, Morgan didn’t learn any humility from Lot’s lesson. SHOCKER. She travels to Camelot and warns Merlin of an impending attack. That night of the coronation, Arthur shares a moment on the battlements with Guinevere, until Leontes comes up to join them and it is revealed in a gasp inducing moment that he and Guinevere are betrothed! (Fancy medieval word for engaged)

After they go back to join the party, Lot and his men attack in an attempt to kill Arthur. Ector, Arthur’s adoptive father, is having none of that and is hellbent on getting revenge against Lot for the murder of his wife. They have their showdown, with James Purefoy being his usual asshole self when Lot proclaims that he doesn’t care who Ector is or that his wife died by his hand. In a shocking turn of events, Lot is killed by a mortally wounded Ector in what I can only describe as an ‘extremely epic’ scene. Ector actually pulls the spear Lot used on him further through his body to reach Lot and stab him in the back with a knife thus ending him. I was a bit letdown because Lot was such a good villain, and I wanted to see more of him, but it was a fitting way for such a scumbag to go out.

Alas poor Lot, we hardly knew thee…

Overall, what I thought started out as a boring episode, turned into a very action packed one with a hell of an ending. And the best part for the male audience at the end was seeing Eva Green’s boobs in their entirety, as she once more goes to the forest to summon the dark power she is meddling in. Read about the next episode in my review for episode 3.