Recap: GALAVANT is Back!

Episode 201: “A New Season aka Suck It Cancellation Bear”

Our past season of the stunning musical-comedy adventure Galavant left us with our hero, Galavant (Joshua Sasse) and King Richard (Timothy Omundson) sailing away on a pirate ship, our heroine Isabella (Karen David) locked in a prison to await her marriage, and our dearest evil queen Madalena (Mallory Jansen) taking control of Valencia.

And for a while, I worried that might be all we get. But Galavant is back and better than ever, or at least we can hope so.

We find our hero and ex-king right where we left them, more or less, traveling back to Richard’s home, in order to return him to his throne and to allow Galavant to gain a following him so he can save his truest love Isabella.

Speaking of, Isabella is still trapped in Hortensia. And still set to be married to her 11-year-old cousin. Along with her, the Chef and Gwen are also serving the castle. Isabella is defiant as ever and as determined to escape to see Galavant again.

In Valencia, Madalena is as ruthless as ever, and bent on taking over all the lands around her. Gareth (Vinnie Jones) has taken Richard’s place beside Madalena. Galavant’s manservant Sid (Luke Youngblood) is still stuck in Valencia.

And we get all of this within the first musical number.

When King Richard spots land and insists it’s the safest place to come ashore, as expected, he’s a bit wrong. This, of course, doesn’t work out how as planned and the pirate ship crashes.

In Valencia, Madalena is shown dealing with subjects in her usual terrifying and ruthless way, while Sid questions what his role will be.

In Hortensia, Isabella is still very hopeful of Galavant’s return to her. Her parents, however, are doing their best to get Isabella to agree to marry her cousin, insisting that Galavant will never return.

After some complaining and traveling, Richard believes they’ve wandered into the Enchanted Forest, where an evil queen lives. A bit more walking reveals the Enchanted Forest to be a pub. It’s quickly clear to Galavant that they’ve walked into a gay bar, although Richard is a bit more clueless. Soon, our “Queen of Queens” played by special guest Kylie Minogue makes an appearance, triggering the number “Off With His Shirt!”, forcing Galavant to become this gentleman’s club new bartender. When Galavant and Richard attempt to leave after the song, the evil queen proclaims that as long as Galavant can keep making money like he was, he stays in the Enchanted Forest.

Meanwhile in Valencia, Gareth is feeling a bit miffed at his lack of title, so he convinces Sid to be his assistant, in order to help him become King alongside Madalena.

Isabella consults with Chef, and he offers to try and get the key so she can escape the prison she’s in.

Richard, while fulfilling his job waiting tables, is grabbed by his Uncle Keith, who gives Richard the means of escape.

Gareth confronts Madalena with Sid’s help, and earns his place as king.

Back to the Enchanted Forest, Richard knocks Galavant out with a bottle and they escape out of the never finished ladies room of the pub. Together, they set off to help Richard become the king he was always meant to be, and for Galavant to rescue Isabella.

 

Episode 202: “World’s Best Kiss”

As for the second episode, traveling on foot isn’t easy for a King (especially a spoiled one like Richard). He complains for much of his and Galavant’s journey before they must stop when his boot breaks. Richard angrily accuses Galavant of only caring about Isabella and claims that Gareth was the only one who truly cared about him. Galavant ignores these accusations and reminisces on his kiss with Isabella.

In Hortensia, Isabella asks to give Chef her special amulet (was she really wearing that before?) to her parents so they can remember her when she runs away. She plans on leaving the next day, during the changing of the guard. She also dreams of Galavant, beginning the number “The World’s Best Kiss”. When she wakes, she finds the Chef still waiting, having never actually handed him her amulet before breaking into her dreamy duet with Galavant.

In Valencia, Gareth and Madalena are clearly having some… artistic differences. Gareth insists he has some of his personal touches around the throne room.

Galavant and Richard arrive at a “pre-Renaissance pleasure faire” with the hope of being able to fix Richard’s boot and move along. Galavant takes the shoe and is off to find a cobbler. Richard wanders over to the petting zoo where a unicorn is stabled. The magical creature is instantly drawn to him, which Richard denies after being told that unicorns are only attracted to “children and those who are pure of body.” He quickly leaves the enclosure and rushes to find Galavant, who is angry about the cobbler taking all day to fix the boot. King Richard confronts Galavant about his less than pleasant mood, and asks if Galavant is worried about the “terrible” kiss Galavant and Isabella shared. In order to cheer him up, Richard recommends visiting a fortune teller.

Cut to Isabella, trying to quickly escape the palace. As she attempts said escape, she hears Prince Harry calling out. She’s grabbed and confronted by Jester, who is playing a game of hide and seek with Harry. Jester is sympathetic to Isabella’s predicament and agrees to help her escape.

Richard and Galavant enter the fortune teller’s tent and are greeted by name, much to their surprise. Galavant asks about Isabella, but the fortune is interrupted when the fortune teller’s staff starts ringing … you know, like they do. He takes the call and then grumbles about how he wishes he didn’t have such a thing that would let him contact anyone in any realm. Cue the realization moment.

In Hortensia, Isabella is reaching the main gates with Jester just as the changing of the guard begins. She thanks him and says her goodbyes. Inside the palace, the special amulet Chef now has begins to ring. He and Gwen question what to do, and Gwen suggests answering it. It’s Galavant and Richard! It’s left to Chef to explain to King Richard about Gareth’s betrayal. Galavant demands to speak to Isabella and Richard takes off to sulk.

Meanwhile, all is not well in Valencia. After seeing his painting thrown in the moat, Gareth begins a fight with Madalena that leads to them throwing each other’s belongings out the window and into the moat. Sid is fought over, Madalena trying to throw him into the moat below as well. Sid does his best to mediate, and the song “Let’s Agree to Disagree” begins. The number ends with Gareth and Madelena throwing Sid out the window, agreeing to find more objects to throw out.

Chef is able to catch Isabella before she escapes, and she does her best to correspond with Galavant. However, due to connection issues very reminiscent of a bad cell phone signal, Isabella receives the impression Galavant will not come for her, and Galavant believes that they are more in love than ever. Isabella drops the amulet due to her shock that Galavant does not love her. The amulet shatters.

Richard is sulking, and when the unicorn is once again drawn to him, he pulls a sword from a stump and points it at the creature, telling it to go away and threatening it. Galavant approaches and tries to cheer up Richard. He questions the king on the sword in his hand as they stand to walk away: he writes it off, saying he just found it in a stump and plans on keeping it. As they leave, the camera pans to show the plaque on the stump that reads “The Hero Sword: To Be Drawn By The One True King.”

We then cut to Isabella, singing a mournful reprise of “World’s Best Kiss” as she returns to her prison, clearly broken up over the misunderstanding with Galavant.

Richard believes they have finally made it to the castle, but quickly realizes that something has happened to it as it simply isn’t there. The camera zooms out and the indention where the castle should be is shown to finish off the episode.

There’s an exciting season to come for our heroes, and personally I can’t wait. At the beginning of episode one, I felt that there was a slight awkwardness that wears off as the show settled back into its style of music and self-aware comedy. By the end of the second episode, I once again was well immersed in the story and excited to see where it could lead. I’m especially pleased with how much focus it seems will be put on Richard and Galavant’s friendship this season. It was a promising beginning to very special experience.