After receiving terse last minute instructions – “live, boy!” – from his father, disguised as one of the Knights of God, Gervase is packed off to one of the Knights’ training camps under an assumed name. His first instinct is to engage in a protest of the Knights’ practices, but he soon learns that rebellion is a painful career choice. Gervase confides in a female inmate, telling her some (but not all) of his true identity. Prior Mordrin is facing the reality that the war is becoming too costly to fight, and seeks to end the fighting sooner rather than later. When he learns that the Welsh resistance leader Owen Edwards has a son who may be old enough to have been drafted into one of the Knights’ training camps, Mordrin is eager to find him and use him as a hostage. His desire to reveal his real name to one of his fellow prisoners may prove very costly to Gervase…
written by Richard Cooper
directed by Andrew Morgan
music by Christopher GunningCast: Claire Parker (Julia), George Winter (Gervase), John Woodvine (Mordrin), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), Gareth Thomas (Owen), Patrick Troughton (Arthur), Michael Lees (Governor), Crispin de Nys (1st Knight), Lynn Webb-Turner (Wardress), Rosemary Smith (Barmaid), Owen Teale (Dai), Tenniel Evans (Dafydd), Zoe Nathenson (Kate)
Notes: Much of the series’ backstory is revealed in this episode. The British civil war began in 2000, and it is now 2020. The war would seem to have erupted over different interpretations of Christian beliefs, with Prior Mordrin’s order aggressively pushing for a hardline ultraconservative stance at a time when a “weaker” form of religion was prevalent. Mordrin’s concerns that he cannot afford to wage war much longer would seem to indicate that the Knights of God have effectively been isolated since taking over the U.K., and are receiving no foreign aid or support.
LogBook entry by Earl Green