RIP Guy - I'll miss you.
So, it's RIP, Sir Guy. No more screencaps of stunning gorgeousness for us to appreciate, no more complex, tortured man for us to ache for. The end of a character who Richard Armitage managed to create despite the best efforts of the dismal shower TPTB had the temerity to call writers.
Not that this episode was that bad - I only glanced at the final ten minutes or so, as my interest died alongside Guy, but it didn't look as puke-inducing as I thought it would. As a card-carrying atheist, to me the whole Bobbin/Marian scene was explained as an illusion of a dying man, not a ghostly vision to guide him to the Other Side.
Neither was Guy's death as bad as the spoilers had led me to expect, other than the obvious fact that he was dead. He died a hero, fighting on the right side, helping the people to escape, acknowledging Archer as his brother and admitting to himself and Bobbin that while Marian had been the love of his life, her heart had never been his. He died as a proud knight, not a dupe, a fool or a coward and gained a measure of peace for himself. He may not have thought that anyone was waiting for him, but neither did he think that he was destined for the bleak and lonely Hell that he had anticipated at the beginning of the series.
RA, of course, gave it his all, as we knew he would - I think the lighting director must have a thing for him, because he is always so beautifully lit. Dear God, those eyes... that man can do more with his eyes than many actors could achieve with a page of dialogue.
I thought that JA did really well here, too - it did make me wonder whether working with Richard encourages other actors to raise their game. Certainly, Lucy Griffiths said that he was the best screen partner she'd ever had and that he had been a great help to her. Maybe if JA had been given more scenes with him that didn't involve their snarling at each other and scrapping, he would have benefited in a similar way and been a better Bobbin as a result? I thought he pitched his reaction to Guy's dying spot on and made all the more poignant the fact that Guy had found the family and comradeship he'd sought all his adult life just as that life was about to end.
So, he's gone. I always thought that Vasey would be the agent, but was disappointed that there wasn't some brief recognition from him that this was the man whom, in his twisted way, he'd once regarded as a son. Simply to dismiss him and gloat over Izzy's poisoning Bobbin grated.
And Izzy? Was it really necessary to have her plunge that dagger into Guy's back, especially after she had said to him that he loved her once? Presumably, it was the marriage to Thornton that made her think he no longer cared, but there was never any evidence that he knew that Thornton was a bastard or that he knew that her marriage was unhappy before she fetched up at Nottingham, and then he extended her his protection and didn't send her packing straight back. (Oh, if only he had!) It was vicious and cruel on the part of the writer and so shame on him!
Two big themes for me never got sufficiently explained. Guy's hatred of Bobbin was understandable, given their back story in episode 10 and bearing in mind that the concept of blood feud was still quite strong in 12th century England, despite Henry II's law reforms. It also explains Guy's determination to take away everything that Bobbin has (including, initially, Marian, although he came genuinely to love her) and his issues with trust, loyalty and betrayal.
But Bobbin's hatred of Guy? Young Guy didn't point the finger at little Bobbin over the arrow incident and little Bobbin was only stirred to fess up to his dad when it looked like Guy was going to be hanged, so the motivation for resentment there was all Guy's. Bobbin never knew about Malcolm and Ghislaine's affair - Guy did, but never told him, so credit to Guy again. Bobbin didn't know the circumstances surrounding the fire - that Guy had been trying to protect his father and hence inadvertently started the fire when the burning log was knocked from his hand by Malcolm, so he couldn't hold Guy responsible for that. So why did Bobbin hate him so much?
And Izzy? When she escaped Thornton, she ran to ...her brother. Despite his issues about the holiness of matrimony stemming from what he saw as his mother's betrayal of his father, he extended his protection to Izzy when he would have been well within his rights to send her back. He only made the comment about getting a good price for her when she pushed him beyond endurance. If a simple apology (which Guy, being Guy, was never going to make as he didn't think he'd done anything wrong) was going to satisfy her, it does beg the question as to why, subsequently, nothing but his death would suffice. I got the impression that in episode 9, in order to save Meg, when he said to Izzy that he would do anything she wanted, if she at that point had asked for a public apology, he'd have given it. But no, she gave the order to proceed with the executions. Makes no sense to me, unless she'd gone completely off her trolley, and apart from a few wild-eyed stares, I didn't get the impression that she was barking.
Oh well that will never be explained now, so back to episode 13. I was amused by the nods to other films etc. Blamire going all Julius Caesar - I expected him to launch into Marc Antony mode and declaim 'Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war', the Zulu tribute (although obviously volley fire works better when you've got Martini Henry rifles up against assegai wielding natives) and the Gladiator moment, although that could be touted as a full circle reference back to Bobbin's first returning from the Holy Land in series 1 episode 1. Mind you, that would mean that the writer would actually have had to have watched that episode - surely not!!
That was the problem throughout series 3 - lack of consistent writing, lack of consistent characterisation, lack of a firm direction in which to go. The fundamental problem with the show was that Guy always had more charisma and depth than Bobbin and RA was always the better actor - oh sod it, he was always the best thing in it!
But...Guy! He should never have died; too much of his story was still untold - they started revealing it far too late. However, RA has given three years to the show, always shining when given drivel and dross to work with and bringing us a character we grew to love because of the way in which he portrayed him. I'll guess we'll never know, but I'd really be interested to hear when he decided to leave. Was it just a matter of his contract being up? Or did that ending to series 2 sour it for him? He really, really disagreed with that ending (although he was far too professional to say until after the series had finished). He'd always felt a fondness for Guy and felt protective of him - he said that he didn't believe that Guy would ever do such a thing and struggled to find motivation for it. Did he feel that his character had been taken away from him? Oh well, as I said, we'll probably never know.
It's time for him to move on, I suppose. Although I'd have loved a series 4 to perhaps take Guy's redemption arc a bit further, he has to do what's best for his career. I hope he's got a few things in the pipeline for us. His Richard III project, for example, would be terrific - I'd love to see his take on that maligned soul's story. We've still got Spooks to come in the Autumn, but I'm selfish - a mere eight episodes of that, good though it is, ain't enough - Armitage addiction needs more feeding than that!!