Kings 1x08 "The Sabbath Queen"
I learned from last week's (lack of) episode post, and this time, I typed up my reactions as I was watching the episode. This made watching the episode take about three hours, but whatever, I had a test this morning, I allowed myself the afternoon time-wasting.
Given that the further the show goes, the less actual Biblical references there are, I don't know how interesting this will actually be to read, but - well, anyway. My reactions to the episode. Pretty much all of them.
Judging by the previouslies, I have no idea where this episode is going. Interesting.
Hee, wow, that is truly a gun in the first act.
Okay, you know the Silas/Rabin parallels from a few episodes ago (signing the peace treaty)? Silas refusing to have all the guests screened reminds me of Rabin's refusal to wear a bulletproof vest on the night he was assassinated. I'm sure they are not by far the only leaders in history who refused this kind of protection, but still. This is where my mind goes.
EEEE MACAULAY. Okay, he is still pasty white and creepy as hell, but last week My Girl was on TV and I watched him die and actually CRIED, okay? Tears.
Aw, Jack and Lucinda! Man, that is so heartbreaking. Also the way he reassured her was sweet (and his smile reminded me yet again of Itay Tiran), and the "Thank you. Happy birthday, sir," made me lol. And then Jack says "Happy birthday, sir," which is also sad, and yet he is smiling instead of smirking, so also good.
David and Michelle's living room of lame awkwardness. So stoic, David. *eyeroll* Seriously, though, I am burning with curiosity at how David and Michelle's future marriage would look like. How much they'd slowly grow to despise one another, or at least her him, for so many different reasons - Jack and Silas's death, David's women. I wish we got to see that.
Shiloh ice sculpture! Pretty.
I love how the crowd responds to Silas, a mixture of ass-kissing and adoration. And pretty fireworks! I don't quite get what the point of fireworks is if one is indoors, but. And Jack is smiling again! This is such a rare and happymaking occurrence. I cannot help but wonder how his tear ducts will have to make up for it later on in the episode.
Blackout! Hahaha, William's "Happy birthday" whisper. So very diabolical.
Ooh, Thomasina's back! And Silas engaging in his favorite pastime, or at least my fave pastime of his - eating cake.
Man, okay, some of David's expressions? When Michelle suggests they go outside in the dark and he kind of smiles, kind of looks terrified, and as usual, confused? I have no idea what that expression's supposed to mean. Just, what.
OMG "This is permission for us"? Michelle, WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING, honestly. What.
Uh oh, the princess, sir, she's not here. The real problem of course is that with no electricity, her tracking chip doesn't work. Darn.
God, I really love Silas going crazy. Flashback, and someone's explaining that the "plains of Dan" have been attacked - just, you know, for the record, that is where I live. (Except nowadays the Dan area isn't plains anymore.)
Eeee Shepherd family! Okay, so 80% of them might be asses, but they're still really fun to watch. And also I love the same hospital coincidence.
Aw Eli! Is that Eli? Eli is my favorite. Okay, wow, is that a hospital or the House of Lords? That is one fancy structure.
Lol, when Silas calls Michelle a friend of elves, I don't suppose he means the little hobbit!Shepherds? Btw, Michelle is a lot older than I'd imagined at the time of her illness. I'd thought it'd happened when she was a kid.
"Harlow, Several Dumplings and the Sabbath Queen." Wow. References? Like, I'm gonna go with these dumplings are gefilte fish because that's the way I roll, but other than considering that this is an improbable retelling of Hannah's Sabbath Dress, which I'm quite sure it is not, I have no idea what this is. The episode will probably tell me?
Wow, I have to say, Shiloh in the dark is kind of enchanting. I like the improvised street party. I dislike David and the cheesy nostalgia and, oh, everything about him. Oh, what, seriously? No kiss because "someone could see"? Seriously?
Aw, Jack is looking for Michelle! I hate that we're all about protecting poor Michelle and obviously the Prince is capable enough to not only take care of himself but also look for her - and still I like any kind of potential sibling interaction, so. I like front steps homeless-looking woman! Jack looks like he's about to go crazier than Silas, hmm.
Back in the palace: Thomasina is giving orders outranking even God. Yay.
Okay, I rewinded the shot with the forbidden books like 6 times to try and figure out if that was Gothic font or Hebrew Rashi font, but alas, I'm pretty sure the alphabet's Latin. The Sabbath Queen is a little creepy - I'm not super psyched by the fact that it feels more like a witches' Sabbath than the seventh day, but we'll see where it goes.
Aw, I'm probably very kitschy in that I love Silas' line to Michelle: "You're going to live forever." Because in the sense that names equal life, she did; every Michelle today is ultimately named after her. (Hey, I warned you for the kitsch.)
Oh my god, that hearty monitor is like a prop from the Twilight Zone.
OMG WTFUCK Sabbath Queen, it looks like an extra from The Mummy.
Aw, Joseph is scared of him! "I don't want any trouble." That is just so twisted. Also handholding and smiling - Jack, I didn't know you had it in you. Also, you do realize that the sky goes black every night, right? That is actually the definition.
David: "You know, most girls grow up wanting to be princesses." Ugh, David, feminism fail, shut up. I can almost see you tell your future daughter to marry your son who raped her right now.
…oh my god, "And someone came and kissed me"? That is not a kiss, Michelle, that is sexual harassment. Ugh, what painting is that? I want to see. UGH DAMN IT. It looked like a Rembrandt so I looked up his paintings and, indeed, it is a Rembrandt painting with a photoshopped in Queen Rose - except the title of the painting, damn it, is "Return of the Prodigal Son". WHY ARE YOU PUTTING NT REFERENCES IN MY BIBLE, WHY. Sadface :-(
(Larger sized Rembrandt here.)
Okay, so I really like the Chancellor! That's good. And Rose, taking charge of everything, lying about the fact that she's supposedly only passing along Silas' orders.
Okay, so the Sabbath Queen: super creepy, super-non Biblically Jewish unless she's supposed to be a reference to the fortuneteller Saul goes to near his death which I really don't think plausible. (Yeah, I know - every new character I meat on this show, I say they might be a reference to the fortuneteller. It's all very vague, I'm guessworking!) Anyway, so this queen feels like she belongs in Supernatural, not in Kings. However, I love the idea that it's the music that's driving Saul crazy. Because music also = David. Also, haha, apparently she's British? …It's kind of amazing how Saul's the one who has to deal with a dying child here (for a second time, actually), when in the Bible it was David who got to witness so many of his children die.
YAY FINALLY A BIBLE QUOTE! Even if it is coming from the mouth of a completely weird demonic character. She will take his crown and give it to "he who is better than" Silas; in Sam 15:28, that's exactly what Samuel tells Saul.
OKAY JFC I'M WATCHING A SHOW ABOUT THE BIBLE. WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE SILAS JUST SIGNED A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL. WHY WHY WHY. Sadface x 1000.
Wow, so William's kind of crazy, huh? Like, Silas may be mentally unstable, but William is just out there.
Wow, Rose, that was bold. War with Gath. I wish I actually knew enough about the situation with Gath (like, say, why they're fighting in the first place) to be able to form an opinion about her call.
Oh, David, you little perv. Okay wait, there are a bunch of good things about this scene! (a) David is naked and appears to be hot! Almost, (b) David knows what sex is! Considering all of his extremely confused expressions up to now, this is a very pleasant surprise, and (c) Michelle asked him to keep going. If he starts quoting psalms or the Song of Songs or something, I will forgive these guys so fucking much.
…yeah, no, so apparently "keep going" doesn't mean "elaborate on that compliment", but rather "guffaw like you're one of this kids on American Pie and take nude photos of the Princess that will definitely be leaked at some point to the net, because they always do." Grrrreat.
OMG DAVID YOU ARE IN BED WITH HER WHY ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT SILAS. Also, "You're filthy?" I find that so hard to believe. "I don't understand." David, baby, you never do.
Michelle's vow: sigh sigh sigh sigh sigh. Abstinence is so very very much not a Jewish concept - not only that, it's actually the polar opposite of mitzvah #1, go forth and multiply. Like, actively not going forth and multiplying is *this close* to sinning, I'm pretty sure. So I don't know what Michelle was trying to achieve here, but it was not working God in any Jewish sense, which makes me sad.
Aw, Silas in the flashback bearing witness to her vow! It's a dumbfuck vow, but Ian McShane makes the moment kind of gorgeous.
Eeep, did Silas kill the Chancellor? Both him and the Sabbath Queen or… whoever that was?
Awwww, Jack is cuddling! And yay MacCaulay! Even though, Rose, that was cold. I still don't know what Andrew did that was so terrible (I mean, really, being a kleptomaniac - that's hardly an offense.)
Jack's rings are sparkly! And wow, his lips are really really red. And AW HIS TEAR DUCTS. I knew they'd come through. Joseph is really almost cute, all strategically-placed-blanket and stuff.
…okay, I am just going to ignore that Michelle/David/God conversation altogether, for the sake of my sanity. OKAY OKAY NO WAIT I TAKE THAT BACK:
David: He gave you your life so you could live.
Michelle: You think he wants this?
David: *ducks his face abashedly/disappointedly* How does God not want love?
MASTERFUL. That's my boy! Look, at this moment I don't care how dumb she has to be to buy into his sincerity and not have thought of the same arguments herself - all I care about is that this was David using lines to work his way into the crown princess' pants. You might not agree, but this is totally how I'm choosing to read this scene. There is a spark of the Biblical character here, and it's shiny.
"And a gentleman." *enormous groan*. Seriously, though, Silas needs assurance that David's just a friend? He doesn't trust Michelle?
Aw, that "thank you" to David. Ian McShane really does rock. UGH, SILAS, "If I die, I die with you." I'm happy you want to be happy - I wish you could lend some of those urges to House - but man, you son of a bitch. Stop toying with her that way, and stop doing this to Rose.
That is one crazy huge headline. I've been around a couple of war outbreaks, a PM assassination, and 9/11, and none of the headlines were ever that big. Unity Post kind of feels like a tabloid. "Thousands flee northern border" - that kind of happened here during the 2nd Lebanon war, people movie temporarily south to be out of rocket range. "Port Prosperity evacuated", however, feels… out of character for Port Prosperity, if that makes sense. I thought these guys were hardcore patriots; why are they evacuating?
And wow, she's giving him land? I believe we call that feudalism. Apparently we have a monarchy after all...
Oh, wow. "No one can ever know the king broke with greatness." I'm just gonna keep going with the Rabin parallels even though I know that at this point it's just coincidence and my imagination, but this reminds me of the secrecy that surrounded Rabin having a nervous breakdown on the eve of the Six Day War, in which he was the head of the military. It was only revealed dozens of years later, during the campaign when he was running for Prime Minister in the '90s, I think. And obviously he wasn't the first leader to ever hide medical conditions, but. Coincidence yet again.
OH HEY yay for the ending! That is actually a really cool way to deal with the fact that the Bible has two completely separate and contradicting stories about how David met Saul. In one of them, he's a talented harp player brought before Saul to soothe Saul's trouble's spirit, and Saul takes a liking to him right away. In another, he meets Saul as the boy who defeated Goliath, and Saul doesn't even recognize him there. Here, now, both versions can be canon.
Okay! So, that was that. At some point I'll write up my probably shortened reactions to last week's episode. And, um. Despite occasional lameness, keep going, show. Interesting events are just around the corner.
Next: more Samuels, please?
comments on Dreamwidth.
Given that the further the show goes, the less actual Biblical references there are, I don't know how interesting this will actually be to read, but - well, anyway. My reactions to the episode. Pretty much all of them.
Judging by the previouslies, I have no idea where this episode is going. Interesting.
Hee, wow, that is truly a gun in the first act.
Okay, you know the Silas/Rabin parallels from a few episodes ago (signing the peace treaty)? Silas refusing to have all the guests screened reminds me of Rabin's refusal to wear a bulletproof vest on the night he was assassinated. I'm sure they are not by far the only leaders in history who refused this kind of protection, but still. This is where my mind goes.
EEEE MACAULAY. Okay, he is still pasty white and creepy as hell, but last week My Girl was on TV and I watched him die and actually CRIED, okay? Tears.
Aw, Jack and Lucinda! Man, that is so heartbreaking. Also the way he reassured her was sweet (and his smile reminded me yet again of Itay Tiran), and the "Thank you. Happy birthday, sir," made me lol. And then Jack says "Happy birthday, sir," which is also sad, and yet he is smiling instead of smirking, so also good.
David and Michelle's living room of lame awkwardness. So stoic, David. *eyeroll* Seriously, though, I am burning with curiosity at how David and Michelle's future marriage would look like. How much they'd slowly grow to despise one another, or at least her him, for so many different reasons - Jack and Silas's death, David's women. I wish we got to see that.
Shiloh ice sculpture! Pretty.
I love how the crowd responds to Silas, a mixture of ass-kissing and adoration. And pretty fireworks! I don't quite get what the point of fireworks is if one is indoors, but. And Jack is smiling again! This is such a rare and happymaking occurrence. I cannot help but wonder how his tear ducts will have to make up for it later on in the episode.
Blackout! Hahaha, William's "Happy birthday" whisper. So very diabolical.
Ooh, Thomasina's back! And Silas engaging in his favorite pastime, or at least my fave pastime of his - eating cake.
Man, okay, some of David's expressions? When Michelle suggests they go outside in the dark and he kind of smiles, kind of looks terrified, and as usual, confused? I have no idea what that expression's supposed to mean. Just, what.
OMG "This is permission for us"? Michelle, WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING, honestly. What.
Uh oh, the princess, sir, she's not here. The real problem of course is that with no electricity, her tracking chip doesn't work. Darn.
God, I really love Silas going crazy. Flashback, and someone's explaining that the "plains of Dan" have been attacked - just, you know, for the record, that is where I live. (Except nowadays the Dan area isn't plains anymore.)
Eeee Shepherd family! Okay, so 80% of them might be asses, but they're still really fun to watch. And also I love the same hospital coincidence.
Aw Eli! Is that Eli? Eli is my favorite. Okay, wow, is that a hospital or the House of Lords? That is one fancy structure.
Lol, when Silas calls Michelle a friend of elves, I don't suppose he means the little hobbit!Shepherds? Btw, Michelle is a lot older than I'd imagined at the time of her illness. I'd thought it'd happened when she was a kid.
"Harlow, Several Dumplings and the Sabbath Queen." Wow. References? Like, I'm gonna go with these dumplings are gefilte fish because that's the way I roll, but other than considering that this is an improbable retelling of Hannah's Sabbath Dress, which I'm quite sure it is not, I have no idea what this is. The episode will probably tell me?
Wow, I have to say, Shiloh in the dark is kind of enchanting. I like the improvised street party. I dislike David and the cheesy nostalgia and, oh, everything about him. Oh, what, seriously? No kiss because "someone could see"? Seriously?
Aw, Jack is looking for Michelle! I hate that we're all about protecting poor Michelle and obviously the Prince is capable enough to not only take care of himself but also look for her - and still I like any kind of potential sibling interaction, so. I like front steps homeless-looking woman! Jack looks like he's about to go crazier than Silas, hmm.
Back in the palace: Thomasina is giving orders outranking even God. Yay.
Okay, I rewinded the shot with the forbidden books like 6 times to try and figure out if that was Gothic font or Hebrew Rashi font, but alas, I'm pretty sure the alphabet's Latin. The Sabbath Queen is a little creepy - I'm not super psyched by the fact that it feels more like a witches' Sabbath than the seventh day, but we'll see where it goes.
Aw, I'm probably very kitschy in that I love Silas' line to Michelle: "You're going to live forever." Because in the sense that names equal life, she did; every Michelle today is ultimately named after her. (Hey, I warned you for the kitsch.)
Oh my god, that hearty monitor is like a prop from the Twilight Zone.
OMG WTFUCK Sabbath Queen, it looks like an extra from The Mummy.
Aw, Joseph is scared of him! "I don't want any trouble." That is just so twisted. Also handholding and smiling - Jack, I didn't know you had it in you. Also, you do realize that the sky goes black every night, right? That is actually the definition.
David: "You know, most girls grow up wanting to be princesses." Ugh, David, feminism fail, shut up. I can almost see you tell your future daughter to marry your son who raped her right now.
…oh my god, "And someone came and kissed me"? That is not a kiss, Michelle, that is sexual harassment. Ugh, what painting is that? I want to see. UGH DAMN IT. It looked like a Rembrandt so I looked up his paintings and, indeed, it is a Rembrandt painting with a photoshopped in Queen Rose - except the title of the painting, damn it, is "Return of the Prodigal Son". WHY ARE YOU PUTTING NT REFERENCES IN MY BIBLE, WHY. Sadface :-(
(Larger sized Rembrandt here.)
Okay, so I really like the Chancellor! That's good. And Rose, taking charge of everything, lying about the fact that she's supposedly only passing along Silas' orders.
Okay, so the Sabbath Queen: super creepy, super-non Biblically Jewish unless she's supposed to be a reference to the fortuneteller Saul goes to near his death which I really don't think plausible. (Yeah, I know - every new character I meat on this show, I say they might be a reference to the fortuneteller. It's all very vague, I'm guessworking!) Anyway, so this queen feels like she belongs in Supernatural, not in Kings. However, I love the idea that it's the music that's driving Saul crazy. Because music also = David. Also, haha, apparently she's British? …It's kind of amazing how Saul's the one who has to deal with a dying child here (for a second time, actually), when in the Bible it was David who got to witness so many of his children die.
YAY FINALLY A BIBLE QUOTE! Even if it is coming from the mouth of a completely weird demonic character. She will take his crown and give it to "he who is better than" Silas; in Sam 15:28, that's exactly what Samuel tells Saul.
OKAY JFC I'M WATCHING A SHOW ABOUT THE BIBLE. WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE SILAS JUST SIGNED A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL. WHY WHY WHY. Sadface x 1000.
Wow, so William's kind of crazy, huh? Like, Silas may be mentally unstable, but William is just out there.
Wow, Rose, that was bold. War with Gath. I wish I actually knew enough about the situation with Gath (like, say, why they're fighting in the first place) to be able to form an opinion about her call.
Oh, David, you little perv. Okay wait, there are a bunch of good things about this scene! (a) David is naked and appears to be hot! Almost, (b) David knows what sex is! Considering all of his extremely confused expressions up to now, this is a very pleasant surprise, and (c) Michelle asked him to keep going. If he starts quoting psalms or the Song of Songs or something, I will forgive these guys so fucking much.
…yeah, no, so apparently "keep going" doesn't mean "elaborate on that compliment", but rather "guffaw like you're one of this kids on American Pie and take nude photos of the Princess that will definitely be leaked at some point to the net, because they always do." Grrrreat.
OMG DAVID YOU ARE IN BED WITH HER WHY ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT SILAS. Also, "You're filthy?" I find that so hard to believe. "I don't understand." David, baby, you never do.
Michelle's vow: sigh sigh sigh sigh sigh. Abstinence is so very very much not a Jewish concept - not only that, it's actually the polar opposite of mitzvah #1, go forth and multiply. Like, actively not going forth and multiplying is *this close* to sinning, I'm pretty sure. So I don't know what Michelle was trying to achieve here, but it was not working God in any Jewish sense, which makes me sad.
Aw, Silas in the flashback bearing witness to her vow! It's a dumbfuck vow, but Ian McShane makes the moment kind of gorgeous.
Eeep, did Silas kill the Chancellor? Both him and the Sabbath Queen or… whoever that was?
Awwww, Jack is cuddling! And yay MacCaulay! Even though, Rose, that was cold. I still don't know what Andrew did that was so terrible (I mean, really, being a kleptomaniac - that's hardly an offense.)
Jack's rings are sparkly! And wow, his lips are really really red. And AW HIS TEAR DUCTS. I knew they'd come through. Joseph is really almost cute, all strategically-placed-blanket and stuff.
…okay, I am just going to ignore that Michelle/David/God conversation altogether, for the sake of my sanity. OKAY OKAY NO WAIT I TAKE THAT BACK:
David: He gave you your life so you could live.
Michelle: You think he wants this?
David: *ducks his face abashedly/disappointedly* How does God not want love?
MASTERFUL. That's my boy! Look, at this moment I don't care how dumb she has to be to buy into his sincerity and not have thought of the same arguments herself - all I care about is that this was David using lines to work his way into the crown princess' pants. You might not agree, but this is totally how I'm choosing to read this scene. There is a spark of the Biblical character here, and it's shiny.
"And a gentleman." *enormous groan*. Seriously, though, Silas needs assurance that David's just a friend? He doesn't trust Michelle?
Aw, that "thank you" to David. Ian McShane really does rock. UGH, SILAS, "If I die, I die with you." I'm happy you want to be happy - I wish you could lend some of those urges to House - but man, you son of a bitch. Stop toying with her that way, and stop doing this to Rose.
That is one crazy huge headline. I've been around a couple of war outbreaks, a PM assassination, and 9/11, and none of the headlines were ever that big. Unity Post kind of feels like a tabloid. "Thousands flee northern border" - that kind of happened here during the 2nd Lebanon war, people movie temporarily south to be out of rocket range. "Port Prosperity evacuated", however, feels… out of character for Port Prosperity, if that makes sense. I thought these guys were hardcore patriots; why are they evacuating?
And wow, she's giving him land? I believe we call that feudalism. Apparently we have a monarchy after all...
Oh, wow. "No one can ever know the king broke with greatness." I'm just gonna keep going with the Rabin parallels even though I know that at this point it's just coincidence and my imagination, but this reminds me of the secrecy that surrounded Rabin having a nervous breakdown on the eve of the Six Day War, in which he was the head of the military. It was only revealed dozens of years later, during the campaign when he was running for Prime Minister in the '90s, I think. And obviously he wasn't the first leader to ever hide medical conditions, but. Coincidence yet again.
OH HEY yay for the ending! That is actually a really cool way to deal with the fact that the Bible has two completely separate and contradicting stories about how David met Saul. In one of them, he's a talented harp player brought before Saul to soothe Saul's trouble's spirit, and Saul takes a liking to him right away. In another, he meets Saul as the boy who defeated Goliath, and Saul doesn't even recognize him there. Here, now, both versions can be canon.
Okay! So, that was that. At some point I'll write up my probably shortened reactions to last week's episode. And, um. Despite occasional lameness, keep going, show. Interesting events are just around the corner.
Next: more Samuels, please?
comments on Dreamwidth.