Galavant 1.06: "Dungeons and Dragon Lady"

“Oh trust me, sir, I have been guilting the crap out of her down here!”
-Sid

In the sixth episode of “Galavant,” we see the result of the creative team kind of turning the story structure. I (and probably most viewers) expected that Galavant and his friends wouldn’t make it to Valencia until the penultimate or finale episode. They arrived in the previous episode, however, so the question to be answered is “now what?” The answer is an episode that, while entertaining, was kind of random. It felt like it was marking time, albeit in a way that made me laugh. Ricky Gervais was the big guest star in this one, where he played a wizard who was aptly named Xanax. And we finally got some positive movement on the Galavant/Isabella front. And Madalena may be going to the dungeons. So all of that is definitely good stuff.

This episode picks up right where the last one left off. Madalena and Galavant are in Madalena’s bedchamber, and the big spread of food is all laid out. Galavant tells Madalena that he wants them to have a cottage by the sea together with a lot of children, and he also tells Madalena that he still loves her. Madalena doesn’t seem all that enthusiastic about this. Her plan was to have Galavant around as her kept man/plaything, not start a real life with him. In a big ballad with tango undertones that sort of has a similar sound to “A Whole New World,” Madalena tells Galavant that she loves him as much as someone like her can love anyone. Basically the sex was adequate, and she’d like to keep him around for that.

Meanwhile, King Richard wonders why he can’t seem to do anything right, especially when it comes to women like Madalena. Chef tells him that Xanax, the very aptly named wizard who replaced Merlin, has gotten a good reputation. Chef visits him when he needs herbs…for dinner…sometimes. Xanax, as I mentioned in the introduction, is played by none other than Ricky Gervais. I find Gervais grating sometimes, but I thought he was good in this role. He looked like he didn’t have a lot of patience for King Richard’s antics, and I can appreciate that. King Richard tells Xanax that he wants to understand why he is the way he is. Xanax thinks he can help King Richard with that.

Galavant is sent back to the dungeon, where Isabella is very happy to learn he’s not dead (yet). Galavant, however, still isn’t ready to have much of a conversation with her considering the betrayal and all. Madalena tells Gareth to prepare Isabella to be executed and torture everybody else (which currently includes Galavant, Sid, Isabella’s parents, and the Jester). Gareth, however, is surprisingly slow to comply with these orders. He spends quite a lot of time preparing his torturing tools and no time doing any actual torturing. Gareth may be gruff, but he’s good people. For his part, Galavant can’t do anything other than wonder what exactly Madalena meant when she said she loves him as much as someone like her can love anyone. He’s still holding a torch for her, big time, much to Isabella’s chagrin.

At Xanax’s lair, King Richard, Chef, and a toad Xanax turned into a human are all lying in a circle, ready to have some sort of communal vision that will help King Richard learn what made him so messed up. Halucination Xanax has King Richard walk through an imaginary jeweled door, and Richard finds himself in a scene from his childhood. King Richard’s father has just died, and the kingdom is about to anoint a new King. It’s not Richard, though. Richard has an older brother named Kingsley who everybody (understandably) expects will be the next King. Kingsley, however, doesn’t actually want to be King. He wants to conquer and pillage. He doesn’t want the boring job of actually ruling. Everybody turns to Richard, who is a little fat kid (Richard says he ate for comfort, basically). Gareth, who is also still a kid, is named Richard’s Kingsguard. This basically explains why the two have such a close bond. We later see, however, that Richard still manages to get dumped on, even if he is going to be named King. Richard is supposed to get a fancy sword since he’s going to be King, but Kingsley takes the sword from him before heading off to plunder and pillage and conquer. While the whole Xanax set-up was kind of silly, I did like learning more about King Richard’s backstory. Now if only we could learn more about what made Madalena such a psychopath?

My favorite moment of the episode by far was a big duet between Galavant and Isabella. Isabella tries apologizing to Galavant again, and she says she knows what she did is worse than Madalena, because at least Madalena is evil to Galavant’s face. Isabella is babbling, and Galavant calls her on it. It softens him because he says he knows Isabella only babbles when she is really upset about something. He knows she must be truly sorry for the whole mess if she’s babbling. Galavant finally says that Isabella shouldn’t feel bad about what she did because she was trying to save her parents. They then sing an awesome love duet about how love is “gassy” “bossy” and leaves underwear all over the place. The message being that real love is when you embrace all the little details of your partner, for better or worse. Amusingly, in the middle of the duet, Galavant and Isabella realize that the doors to all the dungeon cells are unlocked.

Galavant and Isabella get quite close during their duet, but they don’t actually get to kiss, because Madalena steps in and ruins the party. Madalena asks Gareth why he hasn’t started the torture yet, and Gareth says he doesn’t take orders from her. He only takes orders from King Richard. Huzzah. Speaking of King Richard, he’s back at the castle (although still a little buzzed). He has decided that he needs to stand up for himself more, and his first action is going to be to break up with Madalena. Madalena, however, has other ideas. She has written to Kingsley, and he has arrived at the castle. He has finally decided he wants to rule after all.