We’re now halfway through the first season of The Winter King on MGM+, and as a big fan of The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell — the books on which the show is based — I’ve been pretty disappointed. The show has made bizarre changes that undermine some of the best, most unique aspects of the novels, and the whole thing looks a bit on the cheap side.
I’ll admit: it’s hard for me to judge The Winter King as a show in and of itself, rather than as an adaptation of a book series that I love. When the show more or less follows the books, I’ve enjoyed it more, and that’s what it does in “Episode 5.”
“Episode 5” is basically the end of the two-parter that started with “Episode 4” (I wish they would have titled these things). In “Episode 4,” Arthur invited a bunch of tribal lords to the Dumnonian capital at Caer Cadarn to witness the naming ceremony of the infant King Mordred, Arthur’s true-born half-brother. Meanwhile, Derfel went with Arthur’s lieutenant Owain to collect taxes from a neighboring kingdom, but Owain ended up entering into a side-scheme to enrich himself by murdering a bunch of tin miners and framing the Irish, as you do.
We didn’t get resolutions to either of those conflicts in “Episode 4,” which spent most of its time getting us acquainted with the show’s confusing, neutered, lame version of Merlin. But we get resolution here.
The Winter King Episode 5 review
Obviously Owain doesn’t tell Arthur that he killed the miners, but Arthur suspects something is off. Things get tense when Prince Tristan, who’s from the area, shows up in Arthur’s court, credibly accusing Owain of the massacre (he brings a small child who saw the whole thing as a witness) and demands recompense. In the honor society of medieval England, this means a duel to the death.
Arthur, who knows Owain is lying but isn’t completely sure what to do about it, finally decides there’s no way around it and resolves to stand for Tristan in the duel, thus demonstrating to all the assembled chieftains that he actually does value things like honesty and justice. After all, Owain is his friend from way back, and if he’s willing to kill his friend for breaking the law, maybe he can be counted as a leader against the Saxon threat.
And then there’s Derfel, who was present at the massacre of the miners, was sickened by it, and was disgusted by Owain trying to bribe him into silence. But Derfel still doesn’t want to be the tattle tale who runs to Arthur with the whole story. That said, when Arthur and Owain finally square off, Derfel makes it clear that he’s on Arthur’s side.
Arthur vs Owain
This all leads to the duel at the end of the episode, which is one of the strongest parts of the show so far. To start, I like how it looks. There’s visible rain falling throughout the whole thing; rain doesn’t always show up on film right, but here is looks chunky and palpable. The show still does this weird thing in some shots where the backgrounds are all blurry for absolutely no reason I can fathom, but this fight proves that it can look impressive if it wants to.
The fight is appropriately brutal, with Arthur and Owain stabbing, slashing, grabbing and gouging each other until there’s only one man left standing. The emotional currents are forceful, as well. If Arthur were a different kind of leader, he might let Owain’s transgressions slide and side with his selfish friend over this foreign prince who has an actual grievance. But he puts his principles first and kills Owain, and then mourns him as Owain lays dying in his arms.
This underlines the idea of Arthur being a modern man in ancient times. Everyone around him wants to collapse into factionalism, to line their own pockets and nurse their own grudges. But Arthur has vision, and knows they have to unite in the face of a much greater threat: the invading Saxons. That vision is what makes people like Derfel want to follow him. It convinces the audience, too.
The Winter King adds an abortion subplot
Pretty much all of this is drawn directly from Cornwell’s book, and I enjoyed it. There is one subplot added for the show: after being raped by Gundleus a couple episodes back, Nimue is now pregnant with his child. Merlin encourages her to keep the baby, since apparently the gods will be upset if she doesn’t; I don’t know what druidic dogma had to say about abortion, but sure. Nimue, tortured, decides to abort the baby. We catch up with her after it’s done. Merlin puts some dirt on her forehead, says it will help with her pain, and they resolve to keep moving forward despite whatever theoretical affront to the gods Nimue’s abortion may have represented.
None of this happens in the books — Nimue is not impregnated by Gundleus — and I get the idea that the show added in this subplot to give these actors something to do until their characters cycle back into the main story. Maybe this is just my book-reader’s bias talking, but it felt like the weakest part of the episode and possibly in poor taste. It’s hard to imagine the Nimue from the book thinking twice about aborting a child she didn’t want, nor Merlin advising against it. I almost felt like the producers were trying to sneak a little pro-life message in here, but I don’t know their politics so we’ll chalk this plotline up to a weird way to mark time.
My basic sense of The Winter King is that it’s more or less enjoyable when it sticks to Cornwell’s text and becomes dull and nonsensical when it deviates. But again, that might be my bias. Anyone else watching who’d like to weigh in?
The Winter Bullet Points
- Mordred’s naming ceremony involves both a Christian blessing from a and a pagan augury, where Morgan kills a criminal and then foretells the future from the way his blood spreads on the ground. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of how the new religion and the old exist side by side in this time, and very much in keeping with Cornwell’s books.
Episode Grade: C+
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