The fifth and sixth episodes of Galavant just finished airing, and things escalated quickly.
Completely Mad… Alena
Only you
Team Galavant finally arrive in Valencia, though Isabella is having very noticeable second thoughts about the whole plan. She makes a valiant attempt to derail Galavant from immediately riding off to the castle to confront King Richard, lining up perfectly with his trap for them, and resorts to pointing out Galavant’s pungent smell when all else fails. Galavant catches a whiff of himself, and agrees to stop at a monastery in order to bathe.
But this is no ordinary monastery. Oh, no. In Valencia, the monks are quite different. They’ve taken a vow of singing, much to Galavant’s horror, and are led by Weird Al. While Galavant prepares himself to head to the castle, Isabella asks if there’s a monk from which she can seek counsel.
Over at the castle, Madalena is growing weary of her husband’s incompetence and that she still doesn’t have the jewel of Valencia in her possession. She realises there’s only one way that she’s getting exactly what she wants, and that’s by doing it herself. She uses some leverage by way of her handmaiden, Daisy Gwen, with whom the chef is in love with, to learn that King Richard is having a “secret meeting.”
She listens in, learning that Galavant is on his way and that King Richard means to kill him — only Princess Isabella (emboldened by her meeting with the monk) has had a change of heart, due to her feelings for him, and refuses to lead Galavant to his death. King Richard offers her the same ultimatum: bring him Galavant and the jewel, or her parents die.
Betrayed… again
Instead of going to Galavant with the truth, Isabella goes along with his new plan of disguising themselves as monks and sneaking in with them when they head to the castle, which is a far better plan than storming through the front door and announcing his presence. He assures Isabella that he’ll take back her kingdom for her, and be reunited with his love, just as he promised he would.
King Richard, of course, is still expecting them and sets his guards on Galavant. While he manages to fight them off and is gaining the upper hand, Gareth holds Isabella captive with his sword at her neck — forcing Galavant to lay down his own weapon in order to save her. This, of course, is when the truth comes out.
Betrayed, once again, they’re all taken down to the dungeon, where Galavant barely has any time to confront Isabella. He, quite rightly, asks why she couldn’t have told him the truth so that they could have worked together on a plan. To which she counters with the question of whether he’d have helped at all — but they’ll never know.
Galavant is taken to the noose with a hood over his head, and as King Richard removes it to taunt him one last time… it’s the chef! What? Madalena had the two of them switched, and Galavant delivered to her room, where a romantic feast awaits them. She informs Galavant that her wicked plot is in motion — she’s invited someone to the castle, and he doesn’t play nice.
Continue to the next page for our recap of ‘Dungeon and Dragon Lady’
Dungeon and Dragon Lady
What is love?
Galavant and Madalena’s reunion doesn’t quite go the way that he was expecting. After professing that he loves her, and that he’d had a whole future planned out for them — which included a small cottage, a garden, and children — before she ditched him for an older rich man. Madalena scoffs at the idea that she’d trade in castles and “stuff” beyond her wildest dreams for being fat, pregnant and growing her own food.
When Galavant implores her to answer whether or not she loves him back, she admits that she does — but only as much as someone like her could ever love anyone. Which doesn’t exactly answer the question, and leaves Galavant more than a little confused about what Madalena wants from him. Other than, you know, the obvious.
Madalena takes him back down to the dungeons, and kisses Galavant in front of Isabella — much to the awkwardness of everyone else — before ordering Gareth to kill the princess and torture the rest of them. How charming.
Meanwhile, the chef has taken King Richard to visit Xanax — the spiritual guide (he can’t call himself a magician any more, for legal reasons). Xanax takes Richard on a trip into his past, in order to figure out just what made him the way he is today. This is where we meet Richard’s older brother, Kingsley, the intended King of the land. That is until he turned it down, so he could travel the world to kill, maim and, well, sow his oats.
Of course, Kingsley couldn’t just allow Richard to take the crown. Just as Richard is about to take the sword that will mark him as King, Kingsley snatches it from his grasp and makes off with it. Which begs the question… who is the true King?
Bet you thought you’d seen the last of me
Back in the dungeon, Isabella implores Galavant to give up on Madalena — she doesn’t know what he sees in her, or why he insists on continuing to pursue a woman who quite clearly doesn’t love him like he deserves. Though, she notes, she did at least betray him to his face, rather than behind his back. They share a duet, during which they both accept their true feelings for one another.
Oh, and figure out that the doors to each of their cells have been open the entire time. It’s a wonder that King Richard managed to conquer Valencia at all with that kind of attention to detail.
In the throne room, King Richard confronts his wife, before asserting that he’s breaking up with her. He orders Gareth to escort her down to the dungeons, but Madalena has one final trick up her sleeve. Always a step ahead of her husband, she’s invited Kingsley back to the castle — and he’s taking back his throne. Yikes.
Things just got a whole lot more complicated ahead of the finale.