“Gunpowder” Recap, Episode 2: Regicide is a Messy Business
Robert Catesby (Kit Harington) is on the move: as the location-hopping second installment of Gunpowder opens, he and his cousin Thomas Wintour (Edward Holcroft) are in Spain, attempting to win the Spanish King—the self proclaimed protector of all Catholics—to their cause. They’re given an audience with the Constable of Castile (Pedro Casablanc). Catesby, asking for supplies, announces that “[m]y purpose is to kill the King of England.”
In England, the relentless Lord Robert Cecil (Mark Gatiss) continues his pursuit of Catesby and his Papist contacts. Cecil travels to Ashby St. Ledgers, the ancestral home of the Catesbys, where Robert’s cousin, Anne Vaux (Liv Tyler), watches over his son, Young Robert (Tom Sweet). Cecil fails to coerce Anne, who says “[Y]our life has become your trade, sir: both are conducted in darkness,” but he manages to manipulate Young Robert into revealing that his father is in Spain.
Back in Spain, The Constable brings Catesby and Wintour to witness the burning at the stake of Jewish heretics, and announces that “Spain cannot support your design.” Rattled by the horrific spectacle, Catesby tells Wintour that “fallen princes” cannot be of help, but the solution is to rouse their own Catholic countrymen in rebellion. In London, Cecil’s operatives intercept a ciphered note sent from the Constable of Castlle to an English Papist, and he orders it be decoded.
Catesby and Wintour journey to Brussels to meet in secret with the mysterious Protestant leader in exile, Sir William Stanley (Robert Gwyllim), and with Guy Fawkes (Tom Cullen). Fawkes joins up with Catesby’s group, and Stanley vows to raises an army of Papist loyalists to invade England after Catesby’s gunpowder plot eliminates King James I (Derek Riddell) and much of the Parliament. In London, Lord Cecil has deciphered the Constable’s letter and informs the King that it suggests the King of Spain will pursue a peace treaty regardless of whether the English monarchy keeps persecuting its own Catholic Papists.
Anne Vaux is keeping Father Henry Garnet (Peter Mullan) in hiding at Ashby St. Ledgers, and Father John Gerard (Robert Emms) arrives in a panic to inform them of the new laws being enacted, laws that make English Catholics de facto enemies of the state. Garnet will only pray, but Gerard is willing and able to join the resistance. Catesby, Wintour and Fawkes return to England and meet with the growing group of conspirators, including Jack Wright (Luke Neal), Thomas Percy (Daniel West) and Father Gerard, and they all swear their allegiance to the cause on the bible.
The Constable of Castile arrives to meet with King James in London, and warns that the Spanish King will end the peace treaty negotiations in five days if the English laws discriminating against its Catholic citizens are not rescinded. King James later berates Lord Cecil for his bad advice, saying “your foolishness has tangled us up,” and warning that if Lord Cecil cannot find a way for both the new laws and the peace treaty to continue, his job is forfeit. Realizing that the false Spanish cipher note was a ruse, Lord Cecil charges his right-hand man Sir William Wade (Shaun Dooley) to organize a secret meeting with the Constable. Once Lord Cecil and the Constable meet, Lord Cecil barters with the Spanish official (including allowing Spanish ships to use English ports) to ensure the integrity of both the peace treaty negotiations and the English anti-Papist laws.
Catesby and Wintour move across the English countryside, gathering promises of support and men from their Protestant allies. Catesby is not shy about describing his plan to those who join him:
"On Tuesday next, the King, his counselors, all the Commons and the Lords will be utterly obliterated. Our army will march on Coombe Abbey, we will seize the King’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth, we will place the child upon the throne. Northumberland shall be Lord Protector … we shall restore the England of happier times."
Catesby later finds his son, Young Robert, sleeping in his bed, the same bed where his wife died giving birth to the boy. Catesby is at first angry, but suddenly realizes that he can no longer blame his son for the death of his beloved wife. He embraces the boy, saying “I have not been the father you deserve,” and that everything he does, the “good and the bad,” is all to see him safe and happy. The next morning, Catesby departs for London.
As King James arrives at the House of Lords to inspect his seat and bewail the disrespect of the Parliament, we see Guy Fawkes and Thomas Percy, posing as merchants, purchasing the lease to the undercroft beneath the building. Catesby and the conspirators arrive in a tavern and meet with Father Gerard in a private room. They are observed by one of Lord Cecil’s spies who informs on them, and Sir Wade is sent with a small group of men to arrest Catesby and the other conspirators.
After deciding on the purchase of 4,000 pounds of gunpowder (it was easy to obtain the stuff illegally in those days) to level the House of Lords, the meeting of conspirators breaks up. Catesby, Fawkes, Wintour and Gerard linger and are ambushed by Wade’s men. After a stiff swordfight where Fawkes proves his value as an ex-soldier, the conspirators escape. Wade manages to capture Father Gerard in the ensuing pursuit, and has Gerard taken to the Tower of London.
Catesby has been lightly wounded in the skirmish, so Wintour takes him home to Ashby St. Ledgers where Vaux binds his wound. He visits with Father Garnet, who encourages him to abandon his plans. Catesby refuses, but he asks for Garnet to take his confession, which soon turns into a new vow to kill the King, punctuated with a refusal to repent.
Catesby returns to London where he learns that Father Gerard has been captured and is under torture by Sir Wade in the Tower of London. Catesby and Fawkes locate two Tower torturers eating a meal in a tavern, and Catesby forces one at knife-point to take him to Father Gerard inside the Tower. Sir Wade discovers that his prisoner is missing, but Catesby and Father Gerard manage to elude the search and escape through a sewer to the Thames where Wintour and Wright are waiting for them in a rowboat.
The second episode ends here, with the successful rescue of Father Gerard and a close-up of a very worried Catesby, who, despite brutal setbacks, is determined to carry out his plan. In fact, one could say a theme of this episode is that nothing ever goes according to plan. Yet the die is cast. With all of their bad luck and a multitude of enemies, it seems that Catesby and his conspirators might have succeeded by nothing more than sheer force of will. This desperate determination of the characters drives the narrative forward in engaging fashion, even in the moments when the pacing gets a bit sluggish.
“Episode 2” amps things up with some neat swordfighting action and fine acting from the principals. Liv Tyler struggles with her weak accent in some scenes, but she’s very good as Vaux. I’m still extremely impressed with Cullen—the devilish charisma of his Guy Fawkes allows him to devour every scene he’s in. Harington and Gatiss are solid, as expected, and I also like Holcroft’s performance in his small role as Thomas Wintour, though I don’t know if he is going to be given much more to do in “Episode 3.” This installment also slows down enough for Catesby to have a touching scene with his son, and in a show where there’s no love story, Gunpowder has to take its moments of happiness and warmth wherever it can find it.
If you felt a but discombobulated somewhere around the midpoint, don’t despair: “Episode 2” has a lot of ground to cover, hopping between locations like a hunted rabbit. This geographical whack-a-mole, whether intended or not, works to the show’s advantage, adding to the sense of the chaotic scramble of the characters as they try to carry out their plot before their numerous opponents overwhelm them.
Here is the BBC One first look teaser for “Episode 3” of Gunpowder.
Verdict: If you liked the coiled tension of “Episode 1” then you probably liked “Episode 2,” which keeps all the conspiracy balls rolling. It bodes well for an explosive “Episode 3” tonight.
Next: Our review of Gunpowder, Episode 3
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