The Greatest Enemy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Greatest Enemy is the 13th episode of Robin of Sherwood, a 1980s television show created by Richard Carpenter. It is the last episode of Series Two.

This episode was written by Richard Carpenter and Directed by Robert Young. Music by CLANNAD.

[edit] Cast and characters

• Robin Hood - Michael Praed
• The Sheriff of Nottingham - Nickolas Grace
• Lady Marian of Leaford - Judi Trott
• Much - Peter Llewellyn Williams
• Will Scarlet - Ray Winstone
• Little John - Clive Mantle
• Guy of Gisbourne - Robert Addie
• Friar Tuck - Phil Rose
• Nasir - Mark Ryan
• Herne the Hunter - John Abineri

[edit] Plot summary

The episode opens with Will Scarlet (Ray Winstone) watching Nasir (Mark Ryan), who is meeting with two Arabs. When they realise they are being watched they run away and Scarlet returns to the outlaws' base. They speculate about whether Nasir is planning to leave the group. Meanwhile, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Nickolas Grace) is visited by the king's herald, Hubert de Giscard (Robert Daws), who tells him that unless he captures Robin Hood (Michael Praed) he will be removed from his position.

Robin and Marion are walking through the forest when Robin is called by Herne the Hunter (John Abineri). Herne asks Robin "Who is the greatest enemy ? Always with you. Sometimes at your shoulder." Robin says that he has sensed that this enemy is close and asks Herne if he will be nearby in what is coming. Herne tells him that he will not but also tells Robin that they cannot be parted. He sends Robin away.

The Sheriff has summoned Edward of Wickham (Jeremy Bulloch) and his son Matthew. He threatens to destroy the village and enslave its people unless they decoy Robin and his band into Wickham, where the Normans will be waiting in ambush. The outlaws duly turn up at the village (without Nasir, who is still missing). Robin is cautious and sends Will Scarlet in to scout. The group realise it is a trap and fight their way out. Will Scarlet and Little John (Clive Mantle) are captured by Normans with crossbows. Robin, Marion (Judi Trott), Friar Tuck (Phil Rose) and Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams) manage to escape into Sherwood. However the Sheriff has a new tactic - he is hunting them with dogs.

The episode cuts back to Nasir, who kills the men he has been talking with after they try and murder him.

In the forest Robin remembers Herne's conversation with him. Tuck is exhausted and cannot run any more. The others leave him hidden in a tree but when the Normans go past, his shoe falls to the ground and he is discovered. Meanwhile Robin, Marion and Much try and lose the dogs by walking along a stream but their scent is picked up and they are driven out of the forest onto open ground.

Nasir is returning to the outlaws' base when he comes across two escaped villagers. He tries to rescue Scarlet, Little John and Tuck but is forced to surrender when the Normans hold knives to their throats. Captive with the other outlaws, he explains to them that the Arabs were Assassins who wanted him to rejoin the sect and that he refused - hence their disagreement.

Robin, Marion and Much manage to hold off the Norman soldiers who are laying siege to them - although the Normans have crossbows, the outlaws' longbows have more range. However, the Sheriff sends troops to encircle them and Robin realises what he is doing. He explains the situation to Marion and tells her that it is only a matter of time before they are encircled. She asks him if they are going to die. When he replies that "Everyone dies." she questions him and he tells her that "It is not over yet". He leaves her watching the Normans and goes to Much, telling him that he and Marion need to escape to Sherwood and that he, Robin, will cover their escape. When Much asks him when he will join them Robin promises to join them later in Sherwood. Much accepts this.

Robin goes back to Marion. She refuses to leave him. He tells her that she will win by surviving and asks her to show courage, reminding her that she is a crusader's daughter. They say a tender farewell, with Robin expressing his love for her and regretting that he has run out of time with her. He gives her his sword Albion and she and Much escape before the encirclement is complete, leaving Robin with their remaining arrows. Robin covers their escape and fights until he has only one arrow left. Then he fires the arrow at the sky, breaks his bow over his knee, and walks to the brow of the hill to meet the encircling Normans. The Sheriff gives the order to fire and the Normans loose a volley of crossbow bolts.

Meanwhile, in a scene echoing the events of the first episode, a hooded man goes to the forest and meets Herne the Hunter. With actual echoes of the conversation with the first Robin on the soundtrack, he is told to string a bow "to give it purpose" and told that "you, too, must have purpose." When Herne questions him as to why he came to the forest, the man replies that he heard a voice. Herne asks him what it said. The hooded man tells Herne that it said "Nothing's forgotten, nothing's ever forgotten." As the unknown archer describes the voice, it is heard on the soundtrack and is clearly the voice of the first Robin (Michael Praed).

Herne rejoices, saying "Then he is free." The camera pans into a view of the canopy of trees in Sherwood.

Meanwhile, in Sherwood, Much is puzzled by Marion's sadness until Marion convinces him that Robin is dead by asking why, otherwise, he would have given her the sword Albion for safekeeping.

In Wickham Guy of Gisbourne (Robert Addie) contemptuously tells the captives that Robin is dead. They disbelieve him at first but realise it is the truth when they work out that he has not told them that Marion and Much are dead. As they grieve, a hooded man, whose face we do not see, breaks in through the wattle and daub wall at the back of the hut. He frees the prisoners (with the exception of Edward, who is afraid of reprisals) and covers their escape into Sherwood, shooting Gisbourne in the arm. The Sheriff's men are too frozen by superstitious terror to attack him. He turns and leaves quietly.

The freed outlaws cheerfully return to their camp in the forest. Once there, they meet Marion and Much, see that Marion has Albion, and realise the truth.

In Wickham, the Sheriff is angry and bitter, declaring that he was foolish to believe that it would ever be over. Gisbourne tells the Sheriff that the Norman troops believe that Robin has not died.

The scene cuts to the lake where the outlaws remembered their dead in the first series. As before, they fire flaming arrows into the water in Robin's memory. As each does so he or she remembers a specific interaction with him. Afterwards, the mysterious hooded man who freed Scarlet, Nasir, Tuck and Little John appears and fires his own flaming arrow into the lake. Everyone turns in shock to look at the unknown archer.

[edit] Date

Officially (according to the novelisation) this episode takes place in 1208. The chronology at www.robinofsherwood.org suggests 1200 as a more plausible date for several reasons.