Prince John has a plan to dry the wells in order that the peasants will love him for giving them water. He tells Isabella his plan knowing that she will tell Robin. Then he informs Gisborne to follow and kill them both.
Isabella does indeed tell Robin the princes plan. He asks why she is helping him and Isabella gives a number of reasons that include being on the winning side.
Gisborne briefly captures them but is knocked out. An emotional and tearful Isabella is close to killing him for making the last 17 years of her life hell.
Robin and Isabella eventually end up in a flooding dungeon. They escape but rather than stay to rescue Kate Isabella pleads with Robin to escape with her and start a new life somewhere else. He refuses as such a life can only be a dream for him. When the Prince and Gisborne turn up she switches sides and denounces Robin. There follows an ambitious four-way sword fight where opponents constantly switch. It's good fun.
At first Isabella's betrayal of Robin didn't ring true to me as she had gone out of her way to help him in the last two episodes. However looking back over this episode the clues are there. When she discussed the reasons for helping Robin the one thing she didn't mention was doing the right thing. She also expressed her resentment of Gisborne on numerous occasions and she clearly wants to escape any dependence on him. Robin seemed a likely way out for her.
At first I was a little annoyed by her betrayal but now I can see the writers are producing a quite complex character for Isabella. She is certainly one of the most interesting characters in the show, walking a tightrope between the men she is trying to manipulate to escape her old life.
Lara Pulver is doing a great job. I can't believe that it's her first TV role.
Toby Stephens continues to excel as Prince John. He even gets to tell Gisborne "You're fired" in true Apprentice style. I doubt they had that phrase in medieval times but he makes it work.
Richard Armitage as Gisborne gets to do little more that glower, but he does it well.
There now follows a few screen-grab type images of Isabella. I can't help myself. =sigh=
(Oh, by the way, no episode next week! Eurovision! Grrrr!)
