Galavant 1.07: "My Cousin Izzy"

“It’s too late now, isn’t it? It’s out there. It’s ratting around in my head taking up space where fight thoughts should be.”
-Galavant

“My Cousin Izzy” was a fairly entertaining episode with some of the best music since the “Galavant” series premiere. Galavant had a big ballad about his “Moment in the Sun” (that we didn’t actually get to hear much of because he kept being interrupted). And Chef and Gwynne had an adorably dark “Sweeny Todd”-esque duet about how they should poison the food of all the royals. The season is rapidly coming to a close, and this episode sets us up for the big finale. It was kind of marking time, plot-wise, but it was a fun way to mark time. We also got to learn a bit more about what makes Galavant tick, which is always welcome. Now if only we could learn more about what made Madalena so heinous other than growing up poor. Because there has to be more to it than that.

The episode opens with a flashback to “30 winters ago” that features a young Galavant. Not all that surprisingly, young Galavant was a bullied kid. His father (played by the awesome Anthony Stewart Head of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Merlin” fame) finds Galavant sitting, dejected in his “underarmor.” Galavant’s father tells his son that he needs to learn to suppress his emotions, because that’s the only way he will ever be a true hero. He starts to sing the song I mentioned in the intro about Galavant havings his “Moment in the Sun,” but he’s interrupted by his nagging wife. It was great to get to see Tony Head sing again – the only other show where I’ve seen him sing is “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” where he has a coffeeshop performance in the fourth season and of course does a great deal of singing in the sixth season musical episode, “Once More, With Feeling.”

In the present day, Galavant and crew are still in the dungeons (although they seem to be solidly locked up now – very strange considering they discovered the cells were unlocked in the last episode. Galavant really wants to save everybody (himself, Isabella, Sid, Isabella’s parents, and the Jester), and he is convinced that will be his “Moment in the Sun.” He starts singing about it, but then he gets interrupted. Unfortunately for Galavant, Isabella’s parents don’t approve of him. They tell Isabella that they have written to her cousin Harry asking him to come save them, and they remind her that she is engaged to him. Isabella wants to talk to Galavant about their feelings for each other, but Galavant says he’s in “hero mode” and needs to put all that aside for a little while. He does, however, sing a little more of “Moment in the Sun” before all the prisoners are brought upstairs to the throne room.

In the throne room, Madalena introduces the whole sorry cast of characters to Kingsley. Richard and Kingsley are going to duel for the kingdom. Since he’s nothing if not a coward, Richard wants each of them to choose a champion to fight, “Game of Thrones”-style. Kingsley immediately chooses Gareth because he knows that will really upset Richard (Gareth has always been Richard’s champion since childhood). Richard is stuck choosing Galavant. Galavant, for his part, is super psyched about this and starts singing (again) about how he’s going to save everyone and it will be his “Moment in the Sun.” This time however, he is interrupted by a good chloroforming.

Everybody is brought outside to the big tournament field for the duel. Inside, there’s a cute (but sad) scene between Chef and Gwynne where Gwynne says she doesn’t want to get too attached because they are both probably going to die. There are multiple royal families fighting, and when that happens, the poor are always the ones to suffer in the aftermath. Galavant and Isabella also have a bit of a moment, where Galavant tells Isabella again that he has to put his feelings for her aside for now, because if he didn’t, they would definitely affect his mindset in the fight ahead. Just as the duel is supposed to start, Prince Harry and his army arrive. It turns out that Prince Harry is a little kid. My reaction to that was just “Ew!”

King Richard is nervous about losing his kingdom, so he delays the big duel by saying that protocol dictates the need to throw a big welcome feast for Prince Harry. Chef is asked to put all the food together on very short notice, and he’s pretty pissed off about it. In the course of a very Sondheim-esque, right out of “Sweeny Todd” duet, Gwynne convinces Chef to poison all the food for the feast. They plan out a separate, painful poison for each course of the meal. This number was very entertaining (although quite morbid). Ultimately, though, Chef can’t bring himself to be a mass murderer. Over the years, he has learned the food allergies of all the members of King Richard’s court, so he decides to include ingredients everyone is allergic to instead (must be mildly allergic, because nobody goes into anaphylactic shock or anything). Chef figures that if they (all the servants and the poor) are going to die, they can at least enjoy watching the discomfort of the royals first. Gwynne is happy to be reminded that there are still goodhearted people in the world.

Meanwhile, back down in the dungeon, Sid hears all the commotion outside and thinks Galavant is dead. He and the Jester work up a plan to free themselves and Isabella’s parents (they steal some keys off a guard). After some sneaking around, they wind up in the throne room, where the big feast is in chaos due to everyone having allergic reactions. Sid throws Galavant his sword, and Galavant starts fighting people, but the fighting doesn’t last for long. Galavant and Isabella get close to each other (Galavant warns her off eating the crab she’s allergic too), and they almost kiss, but Galavant starts singing “Moment in the Sun” (again) instead. If only he wasn’t such a darn narcissist! Anyway, Harry decides to leave because Isabella clearly has feelings for Galavant. Richard decides he’s going to fight in the duel himself, even though it means he’s going to have to fight Gareth. No matter who wins, though, everyone agrees on one thing. Chef is going to have to die for the allergy attack.