Galavant: Two Balls/Comedy Gold Recap

Synopsis of 1×03-04: As their journey continues to Valencia, Galavant, Isabella and Sid have an encounter in Sid’s village as well as with some landlocked pirates. Meanwhile, Richard struggles to connect with Madalena as she begins to show her true colors.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

While this week’s episodes of the eight part series weren’t quite as satisfying as last week, they still managed to be the most fun I’ve had watching TV all week.

Needing to rest after riding for days, Sid offers to stop into his home village to rest for a night. However, it does come with some strings attached: Sid has… embellished some of his letters home, making him out to be a hero on Galavant’s level. They even have a statue for him in the village square and everything. For one night, he asks Galavant and Isabella to lie for him to keep it up. The two agree, effectively making Galavant his squire and Isabella his wife-to-be. That’s another thing: Sid is an adopted black kid who was raised and universally beloved by a Jewish village. That just warms the cockles of my heart. Happy to have their heroic son back home and that he’s found a nice girl, Sid’s parents decide to hold a party that evening for him.

While Isabella gladly plays along with Sid’s embellishing, Galavant is a little less enthusiastic to be reduced down to a squire. When talking with the other squires and participating in a catchy little number called ‘Jackass In A Can’ though, he realizes that maybe Sid feels the same way. At the party, Galavant apologizes to Sid for being so rough on him and tells him why he was hired in the first place: that he was completely himself and wasn’t trying to impress Galavant. He encourages him to be himself with his parents and while we don’t hear it, it seems like dear Sidney has taken that to heart. Awwwwww!

Meanwhile in Valencia, Richard has been trying to connect with the remaining Valencians and failing miserably. I mean, considering that he killed most of them, destroyed their beloved Elder tree for toothpicks, and burned the crops they use to survive since they religiously don’t eat meat, you can understand why he’s failing. After starting a rousing game of ‘Kick the Eunuch,’ Richard decides to hold a party for them to get them to cheer up. Oi, is this king dense. Madalena declares that she’s going to “workshop” with the jester on some jokes for the evening while Richard tries to recruit the executioners to make a song for everyone to dance to. Oh lord, I kind of love this blithering idiot.

At the ball that evening, Richard tries to set everything off, but after burning what’s left of the Valencian crops, an awful set from the jester, and one subpar song and dance off, Richard asks the Valencians to be honest with him about their feelings about him and the night. It seems to be going well and Richard is laughing off the criticisms fairly well. That is, until the Eunuch points out that Madalena is having sex with the jester. Richard orders him killed, but there’s at least an understanding there as to why.

Back across the straits, Galavant, Isabella, and Sid are getting closer to crossing over to Valencia. However, spending that much time together has started to drive the three of them crazy with Isabella’s deviated septum making her a chronic mouth breather and Galavant insisting on complete control of the trail mix. While they’re bickering, they manage to get captured by pirates. However, Galavant notices that the pirates aren’t even located anywhere near the water. Yeah, these are landlocked pirates who got their ship stuck on a hill. They’re all lead by Peter the Pillager (Hugh Bonneville), who I can’t decide is the best or worst of the bunch. Isabella swears up and down that she hid the jewel well, but apparently these pirates aren’t scared of the ‘girl products’ she hid them in. Damn, man…

Peter takes Galavant off to the side, telling him that they once met at Lilith Fair on the Isle of Lesbos. That joke was so bad that I can’t believe I laughed at it. Galavant remarks that Peter once used to be the most fearsome pirate on the sea and asks him what happened. Peter explains that they had spent so long together that his crew forgot how to act as a crew. He makes an offer to Galavant to join him and he’ll let Sid and Isabella go or he can kill all three of them. Galavant stands up for Isabella when Peter calls her a mouth breather because hey, only he can call her that. He breaks free and has Peter by the neck. He decides to use him as a bargaining chip with the other pirates, but it turns out that Isabella and Sid have managed themselves with the other ones. The three agree to help the pirates work together again to get the ship off the hill to gain free passage to Valencia. After some hard work, they succeed and the pirates are off again.

In Valencia, Richard laments Madalena’s infidelity and wonders what he can do to win her back. He goes to the jester, appearing to threaten him, but instead asking him to teach him how to be funny so he can impress Madalena. The jester agrees reluctantly, leading into a very informative number titled ‘Comedy Gold’ about how to tell a joke in various forms. Predictably, Richard fails them all, but the jester doesn’t say anything about it. Richard puts on a terrible standup show for everyone, only managing to make Madalena laugh when he pies Gareth in the face. Later, the jester laments to Madalena that he feels bad for what he’s doing to the king, which leads to Madalena having him thrown in the dungeon because she has no use for a man with a conscience. Well, I guess we now know who the real villain of this show is. Hint: it’s certainly not Richard. I think the recap number at the beginning had a point when it said Madalena is heading “slightly bitchward.”

As the three sail off to Valenica, Isabella admits to Galavant that she has something to tell him. Before she can confess though, he hands her a sack full of the trail mix she wanted at the beginning of the episode. She tries to tell him that she’s leading him into a trap, but he gets distracted by the sea. He tells Isabella he’ll be better about listening, but she forgoes telling him again and that she’s looking forward to seeing her parents. Galavant looks off to the sea with his beautiful face and tells Madalena that he’s coming. Oh poor sweet Gal. He’s going to get his heart broken all over again.

Maybe a bit more quiet than last week, this week’s episodes of Galavant still managed to be a lot of fun while letting us get to know the characters better. We know that Madalena is likely going to be more of a threat than Richard as Galavant gets closer to Valencia and that Gal and Isabella are growing more fond of each other. Hell, even Sid sings “get a room” at one point to them, which they ignore. Will Galavant know about her deception soon? I guess we’ll know next week!