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“Never forget the outlaws!”- Robin
We begin at the Treeton Mine, where dead workers are being hauled out of the actual mine. A young man named Rohan has just lost his uncle, and he urges his father to tell Gisborne that they’re all on strike. His father does so, and it earns him a sword through the stomach. His family is being made to pay for the burial (they can’t work and get food until Gisborne says so), and anyone caught helping the family will be hanged. Gisborne is a little unsure about sacking all the workers, but the Sheriff assures him that there will be workers in the morning who will do as they are told.
Out in the forest, Robin is waking everyone up by shooting arrows at them. Much guesses Robin is bitter about not being able to enter the sheriff’s archery competition (prize being a silver arrow). Robin denies being bitter about it but continues to show off until Will comes running saying that one of their traps worked and they’ve managed to stop a cart. Turns out the man driving it was bringing slaves for the Treeton Mine, Turks by the look of it, and Robin doesn’t appear too pleased. Back in Treeton, the Night Watchman delivers some food to Rohan and his family, but Gisborne sees. He confronts the Watchman and inflicts a wound. A back hand to the face in return allows the Watchman to get away. We see the result of the wound as Marian is trying to stop the bleeding back at home. She obviously had a little bit of a head start on Gisborne. In a rather round-about and nervous way, Gisborne asks Marian to be his personal guest at the Sheriff’s fair that afternoon. She ends up agreeing (he even gave her a shawl so she wouldn’t be so embarrassed of her hair). He makes comment about encountering the Night Watchman and says that he’ll catch the outlaw. Not good for Marian. Edward is not pleased to learn that Marian has been running all over the kingdom helping the poor for the last few years. He says it noble of her but dangerous as they get into Guy’ coach a little later and head off to the fair.
Back in the forest, Robin is putting a plan into place. He’s getting the cart driver really drunk. They need him to get into the mine to shut it down for good. Eventually, John just punches the guy in the face. Right around the time Robin discovers one of the slaves speaks English. He’s smaller than everyone else. And there’s a reason why that we discover later. Much has agreed to ride in the cart as a spy to spread the rumor that all the prisoners have Turk flu (and that it’s contagious). Much is talking to the young Turk boy and says that it would be easier to free them all if they just renounced Allah and said they believed in the Christian god. The boy challenges Much to renounce his God if it is so easy, which makes Much very uncomfortable. So it turns out Allan is going to be going into the mine with the prisoners, and he’ll be positioned so that if the cart driver tries anything, Allan will kill him.
The prisoners ask to wash and pray before they go to the mine (which Robin easily translates from his time in the Holy Land). And as Will goes to tell the boy (Djaq) that Robin says they need to go, he realizes something very surprising about Djaq. He is in fact a she! They get to the mine to find Gisborne and the Sheriff watching the soldiers march in formation for some entertainment. Rohan shows up, and Robin manages to convince him not to kill Gisborne or the Sheriff. Instead, he’s going to help Robin and company destroy the mine. The plan to trick the Sheriff’s men into thinking the Turk Flu exists works quite well, and the guards end up taking off, leaving Robin and his gang free to light the mines on fire while the Sheriff and Gisborne return to Nottingham for the archery competition.
Just as Djaq helps Will start the fires, Little John falls through a covered up mine shaft. Together with the other Turks (and Djaq’s medical knowledge from her father who was a physician) she manages to revive John and they haul him out just in time. Robin fends off the Sheriff’s men (who have come with the Sheriff and Gisborne since the cart driver who Robin let run off told them where Robin was and what he was doing) in an impressive set of stunt fighting. He’s just so fluid when he fights. It’s like watching Roger Federer play a really amazing game of tennis. Shortly before they left Nottingham, Gisborne noticed blood on Marian’s sleeve (the sheriff had ordered all the men present to roll up their left sleeve so Gisborne could try and find the man he fought) but she covers it up by saying she cut her hand while peeling an apple and some of the blood must have gotten on her sleeve.
Anyway, the other Turks run off, but Djaq still sticks around and it’s a good thing, too. She tells them that Rohan is going to kill Marian to make Gisborne suffer. Marian manages to talk Rohan out of his decision to kill her just as Robin arrives. Rohan has entered the archery competition (presumably so he could get a bow to use to kill Marian), so Robin agrees to make sure Rohan wins the silver arrow. They’ll be able to melt it down and feed the villagers in Treeton all winter. Not a bad day’s work. And of course Robin wins. And they do a little bait and switch so that when the guards catch who they think is Robin, they really get Rohan, and the Sheriff has no choice but to hand the arrow over. Back in the forest, Allan is still wonky from the plant root he used to make himself look sick (he swallowed it and he shouldn’t have), and Djaq ends up joining the gang. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see how she fits in with all the boys.
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