Galavant 2.07: "Love and Death"

“Please, you must save him. He’s my bestie!”
-Richard

“Love and Death” was an entertaining enough episode that pretty much marked time and set all the pieces up for the season endgame. I didn’t really mind the marking time aspect too much because there was some good character development. Richard finally realizes he can have feelings for Roberta. Isabella is forced to become the strong leader we all know she can be. Madalena and Gareth confront their feelings for each other. Galavant deals with being dead (sorry – spoiler alert!). Clearly there’s plenty going on here character-wise, even if pretty much everyone is still in the same place plot-wise. Well, theer was one big plot development, I suppose, and hopefully that new plot development will give Galavant even more motivation in his quest to save Isabella. Not that she really needs Galavant’s saving, but with what’s coming to Hortensia, she can probably use all the help she can get!

This episode picks up right where the last one left off. Galavant has just been inadvertently stabbed thanks to Sid’s ill-timed sword throwing, and he is in bad shape. Richard, Roberta, and Sid take him to a healer named Neo who lives in some remote caves. Neo seems like a pretty incompetent healer, though. He says Galavant doesn’t have much time left, but instead of healing him, he sings a song about time being of the essence. By the end of the song, he pronounces Galavant dead. After some begging and pleading by the rest of the crew, Neo says he’s working on a potion that might be able to revive Galavant, but there’s a catch. The final ingredient needed is a beard hair from a middle-aged virgin. Richard tries to deny he can help, but then the lovely virgin-detecting unicorn makes an appearance, and he has to admit the truth. Roberta is sweetly cool about it, and Richard donates the hair for the potion.

In Valencia, the planning for the invasion of Hortensia has begun in earnest. Gareth tells Madalena he has given instructions for Isabella to be taken alive so Madalena can do the honors herself, and Madalena accidentally says she loves him for that. Wormwood hears “love” and instantly starts wanting to plan a wedding for Gareth and Madalena. Madalena gets really freaked out by this and runs off, and Gareth sings a silly (and kind of adorable) song about being in love for the first time. Later, Gareth asks Madalena if she wants to share a trunk for the journey to Hortensia. He kneels down to adjust one of his boots, and Madalena runs off, petrified that he’s about to propose. I really, really don’t want to like Madalena, because she’s a horrible person, but I couldn’t help but feel for her just a little bit in this episode.

In Hortensia, Isabella receives a Save the Date for the Gareth and Madalena invasion. This turned out to be the result of a rather epic screw-up by Wormwood’s hapless assistant, Barry. He was supposed to send out Save the Dates for the wedding, while the invasion was supposed to be a secret. Although there wasn’t really even a wedding yet, anyway, so even sending out Save the Dates to the wedding was a bad move. Before Isabella can do much of anything about the invasion, Harry, her parents, and all the other Hortensians gathered around start touching a “not it” finger to their nose. Apparently this is Hortensian tradition, and the last person to touch their nose has to lead the army. Isabella is the last one to touch her nose, and she reluctantly takes on the job. Isabella starts by going to what looks like the Hortensia library, and she asks some monks there to provide her with battle strategy scrolls. The monks don’t seem to be much help, though (and they’re not the Weird Al Yankovic led monks).

In the caves, Neo is wrapping up the potion brewing. After Galavant is given the potion, we see him in what appears to be purgatory. Death, accompanied by a bunch of undead singing and dancing women, sings a song about how it’s time for Galavant to say goodbye. He does say goodbye to many characters from the series, including Richard and Roberta. Everything changes, though, when Galavant sees a vision of Isabella. She’s in the library, looking through scrolls, desperate to find a way to save Hortensia. She also makes a reference to how Galavant broke her heart, which naturally upsets Galavant, because he has no idea what he might have done to hurt her. As Death his trying to take him away, Galavant knees him in the crotch. Meanwhile, in the land of the living, Richard finally realizes he has feelings for Roberta, and the two of them are about to kiss over Galavant’s dead body when Galavant wakes up. Poor Roberta just can’t catch a break!

Back in Valencia, Madalena and Gareth are standing before their army, and they are about ready to leave for battle. They take the opportunity to work out their relationship issues by talking through the soldiers. Basically one of them would say something like “soldiers, I love you.” With it obviously being meant for the other person. Ultimately, they decide that they have something special that they haven’t experienced before, so they want to take it slow. The first army is now ready for battle. Unfortunately for Isabella, the Hortensian army isn’t so ready. She asks to see Hortensia’s weapons, and she finds out that they are all either toys or made of candy. That’s what happens in a kingdom run by a pre-pubescent boy, I guess! Galavant, thankfully, is having better luck rallying a third army. Neo likes Galavant and his friends, so he decides to give them a gift. He’s been experimenting with zombies, and they could make a deent army. So the man who came back from the dead gets a zombie army to help him rescue his love. Who would have thought?