We live in an age where illness and deformity are commonplace and yet, Ploppy, you are without a doubt the most repulsive individual that I have ever met. I would shake your hand, but I fear it would come off.
The second episode of Blackadder II involves Edmund becoming Lord High Executioner, with Baldrick as his headsman. Of course, Edmund changes the dates of the executions around, Baldrick executes the wrong man, and Queenie changes her mind so many times about who she really wants to kill and...hijinks ensue.
Tropes:
- Acquitted Too Late: Averted. It looks like Farrow has been pardoned just after Blackadder moved up his execution, but then he learns that it was a different death row prisoner that Baldrick executed.
- Amusingly Short List: After Blackadder comments that being Lord Executioner is itself a death sentence, Melchett says he has a list of candidates. He announces "Candidates for the position of Lord High Executioner", unrolls a scroll, says "Lord Blackadder", and then rolls the scroll up again.
- An Arm and a Leg: When Blackadder impersonates the imprisoned Lord Farrow (whom he's never seen), he guesses wrong about how much of his limb the one-armed Farrow is missing. When Farrow's wife notices the discrepancy, he ad-libs a story that uses this trope, about how he'd lost the remaining portion of his arm in a fight with another prisoner.
- Artistic License – History: Nursie mentions how she put ointment on Queenie's sister after her head was cut off. Except that would have been Mary I of England, who was not beheaded, but died of natural causes. The one who was beheaded was her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. However, it's very possible that Nursie just got the two mixed up, especially since Ludwig correctly says in "Chains" that it was Mary, Queen of Scots who lost her head.
- Ax-Crazy: Queenie reaches new heights of Ax-Crazy in this episode.
- Comforting the Widow: Edmund tries this on Lady Farrow. Unfortunately it doesn't work.
- Comically Missing the Point: Edmund's attempts to teach Baldrick basic maths. Baldrick concludes that two beans plus two beans makes "a very small casserole".
- Drama Queen: Lady Farrow tends to burst into tears at the slightest provocation, along with being generally very melodramatic.
- Dope Slap: Edmund to Baldrick on being told Baldrick is too short to play Farrow.
- Dumbass Has a Point: May apply to Percy:
- He points out the flaw in Blackadder's 'cunning plan' that assuming that Baldrick with a bag on his head is going to be a dead ringer for Lord Farrow, because even with the bag he clearly isn't. Blackadder only manages barely manages to get away with it himself.
- When he offers Blackadder an idea about how they might get around Farrow being pardoned by claiming that he said something extremely treacherous that merited an immediate execution; Blackadder is desperate enough to consider it worth a try, and only dismisses it when he notices that the only head he can find has gone green, meaning that they can't possibly use it to claim that the victim has only just been beheaded.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:Percy: [Looking at a decapitated head] Wait a minute, that's not Farrow!Blackadder: Isn't it?Percy: No, it's Ponsonby!Blackadder: My God! Ponsonby! [kisses the head] That genius Baldrick must've killed the wrong bloke! We're saved.Percy: Saved!Blackadder: Farrow is alive and we're saved!Percy: Hurrah!Blackadder: And when the Queen comes back from seeing Ponsonby ... OH GOD!
- "Fawlty Towers" Plot: It all starts when Edmund changes around the execution schedule to give himself and his new team a day off ... and culminates in Edmund impersonating two prisoners with a bag on his head.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Blackadder has accidentally had Lord Farrow executed (or so he thinks) before his wife is supposed to meet him one last time, so is forced to impersonate him by putting a bag over his head. In a meeting with Lady Farrow beforehand, he tries to prepare her for this by saying her husband has 'changed', which she takes to mean he's been tortured:Lady Farrow: What have you done to him?!
Blackadder: We have put... [Dramatic Pause] a bag over his head! - Fiery Redhead: Queenie.
- Freudian Slip: Edmund to Lady Farrow: "Well, the thing is, you see, none of the other prisoners have such shapely widows, baa, wives I should say..."
- Have You Come to Gloat?: The gang finds out that Lord Farrow (whom Edmund is trying to impersonate) was missing an arm. He sends Percy to speak with Lady Farrow and find out which arm, but the only idea Percy can come up with is a Something Only They Would Say test to prove that she's not just a "gloater" pretending to be a relative so she can mock the condemned man.Blackadder: "Gloaters". You really are a prat, aren't you Percy?
- Hero of Another Story: Lord Farrow's brother is only seen briefly, but he has worked hard to try and get his brother pardoned, despite the fact that this puts him at risk of displeasing the very Ax-Crazy monarch who sentenced the poor bloke to death in the first place. Eventually, she conceded that he's probably innocent.
- High Turnover Rate: The post of Lord High Executioner. According to Edmund, nobody survives it for more than a week, which is probably why Melchett recommends him for the position.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Lady Farrow attempts to turn her meeting with her "husband" into a conjugal visit, only for Baldrick to walk in and say the visit is over. Edmund desperately insists that it isn't, but the moment is thoroughly dead.
- Mathematician's Answer: From the opening, when Edmund is trying to teach Baldrick how to count:Edmund: Now, let's say I have two beans. If I add two more beans to those, what do I have?
Baldrick: Some beans.
Edmund: Yes ... and no. - Mundane Made Awesome: What is done to Lord Farrow:Blackadder: He will not be quite as you remember him.Lady Farrow: (covers her eyes) You fiend! What have you done to him?!Blackadder: We have put ... a bag over his head.
- Oh, Crap!: In order to help sell Edmund's disguise, Percy tells Lady Farrow that prison may have changed her husband. She's prepared for the fact that he might have lost weight, but when Percy adds "...and some height" she starts getting suspicious and replies "You'll be telling me his arm's grown back next", which makes Percy panic.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Edmund Blackadder with a bag on his head =/= Lord Farrow. However, Lady Farrow doesn't seem to notice, other than his voice initially being too high-pitched, and his left arm being completely missing instead of just cut off below the elbow (and even then, Blackadder quickly makes up an excuse that covers it up), though he does have to resist attempts by her to take the bag off his head. Blackadder's later disguise as the one-legged Lord Ponsonby is even less convincing.
- Please Spare Him, My Liege!: Lady Farrow begs Queenie to spare Lord Farrow's life. Once Queenie figures out what's going on, she decides to.
- Plot Hole: After Farrow's execution, Percy describes him as a tall man with a loud, clear voice, which we later learn is a more-or-less accurate description of Lord Farrow. However, it's later revealed that the man who was executed wasn't Farrow, but Ponsonby, who is a small man with one leg and a speech impediment. Percy couldn't possibly have seen the man he described at the execution. That said, considering the intellectual standards of all involved, Percy may have confused one of the other executed men for Farrow/Ponsonby when reflecting on their final words.
- Prisoner's Last Meal: Blackadder is appointed as the Lord High Executioner. When he meets his staff, Mrs. Ploppy introduces herself as the last-meal cook for the prisoners, adding that she only has sausages.
- Same Surname Means Related: Averted by Ploppy the jailer and Mrs. Ploppy who cooks the last meals. Edmund assumes they must be married but they quickly clarify that it's just an amusing coincidence.
- Smoky Voice: Lord Farrow was apparently this, given that the voice Edmund uses to convince the man's wife almost sounds like Doctor Claw.
- Verbal Backspace: Edmund nearly lets slip Lord Farrow is already dead to Mrs Farrow:Blackadder: None of the other inmates have such shapely widows- AH! wives.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It is later revealed that Baldrick has executed Ponsonby in place of Farrow, so Edmund must then impersonate Ponsonby with ... a bag on his head. And a lisp. Hopping. So, when Edmund was impersonating the actually-alive Farrow, where was he if not in his cell?
- If they thought Farrow was Ponsonby and vice versa, presumably at the time, Farrow was in Ponsonby's cell.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Or more like, Bag, No Arm, Deep Voice.
- And at the end, Bag, Hunch, No Leg, Lisp.
- His great-grandfather was a king,
Although for only thirty seconds.
When put in charge of beheading,
He felt that fame and glory beckoned.
Blackadder, Blackadder, no such blooming luck.
Blackadder, Blackadder, Elizabethan schmuck.
