In the forest, the outlaws apprehend a messenger from Isabella to Prince John, who carries a message confirming that Isabella will be able to send three hundred men (along with food and supplies) to join Prince John's forces in the north so they can take King Richard by surprise - for he is returning to England within the month. As they wonder where Isabella has got three hundred men from, Little John and Much arrive: Isabella has taken a hundred men from Clun and another hundred from Nettlestone. The outlaws realize Locksley is next.
Arriving in Locksley, the outlaws take Isabella's men, including her new Dragon Blamire, by surprise and save the men, taking them to the forest. Archer arrives in Nottingham and attempts to convince Isabella that they are half-siblings; refusing to believe her mother would do such a thing, she orders him arrested, but he escapes. Back in the forest, Tuck tries to convince Robin that they should train the men to fight.
- Robin: Tuck, these men are farmers, they’re not warriors.Tuck: The Lord helps those who help themselves, Robin. Your protection weakens them. We are failing in our mission. We’re supposed to be inspiring these men to stand up and fight for themselves, giving them real hope.Robin: These men are terrified for their lives. They’ve forgotten how to hope.Tuck: Then, my friend, it's time we lit the flame in them again.
Back at the castle, Isabella opts to destroy Robin by breaking up the outlaws. She summons Kate's mother, Rebecca, to the castle, and offers her safe passage out of Locksley in return for planting half a locket (that was given to Isabella by her mother) on Robin's person, then giving Kate the other half.
- Isabella: Plant this on Robin. Then persuade Kate that he still loves me, his own true Isabella. [She holds up the other half] Then give her this. When she finds the other half on him, her faith will be shaken. And she’ll realise that a candle still burns deeply in his heart for me.Rebecca: I can't—Isabella: Can’t? I don’t think you understand, you ignorant crone. Every last morsel of food, every animal, every grain of barley within a fifty-mile radius is locked up in my courtyard ready for transportation to the north. Hell is coming, Rebecca. I think you should save your family whilst you still can.
At Locksley, Rebecca gives Kate half of the locket, but Kate insists her claims about Isabella cannot be true. However, Isabella plants the other half of the locket on Robin. Back at the camp, the locket falls out of Robin's pocket, whereupon Tuck discovers it on the floor and Gisborne recognises it as Isabella's. At the Trip Inn, Archer meets a contact and bribes him for information about getting into the castle, just as Robin decides they have to take the castle. Gisborne and Archer's contact both explain about a secret tunnel the Sheriff had built following the failed mission to the Holy Land. The outlaws prepare to go down the tunnel, but pause to start gathering their weapons; Archer has a head-start on them. Robin struggles to convince Kate of Gisborne's loyalty, and cannot bring himself to say that he needs her more than her family does. Kate discovers the other half of the locket; putting them together, she now believes her mother's claim that Isabella still loves Robin.
Archer enters the tunnel and persuades Isabella to let him trap the tunnel in return for payment, as it is clear that Gisborne will soon be leading the outlaws down the tunnel. Isabella has given an order for Blamire to make a proclamation that Allan has been pardoned for services rendered to the Sheriff, which Little John and Tuck hear as they pass through Nottingham. Back at the camp, Robin notices Kate has gone just as John and Tuck return, and John confronts Allan, convinced of his guilt.
- Allan: I haven't done anything! I swear, I haven't betrayed you. Much...[Much stares at him for a moment, then glances at Robin, the doubt evident]Allan: You believe me, Guy.[John makes to attack Allan again, but Tuck pushes him back. Gisborne just shrugs]Allan: Tuck... Robin...[Robin looks at him angrily]Allan: So you think I’m a coward? Is that it, yeah? What, that I’ve... sold you out to save myself somehow, yeah?Much: You've done that before!Allan: I know! And every day I wish I could take that back, you know that![This is met with silence]Allan: None of you? None of you believe me?
Hurt, he makes to leave, but Robin ties him up, unwilling to take the risk; he promises him that once they have taken the castle, they will return and sort this. Back at the castle, Archer finishes preparing his trap for the tunnel. The outlaws set off for Nottingham; Robin, Much and Guy will take the tunnel, whilst John and Tuck have to stop the convoy of men and supplies for Prince John leaving the town. Unbeknownst to them, though, Allan has managed to escape his bonds. Tuck tries to persuade the villagers to join them in stopping the convoy, with little success.
- Tuck: Those of you who can fight must help us intercept the supply train. Those are your crops inside that castle. Your livestock, your brothers. Damn it, men, it’s time to stand up and fight! Take back what's rightfully yours![All this is met with a lukewarm response]Little John: Brother Tuck!Tuck: They’ve been trodden on, John, and they’re taking it! If they would only stand together, they could defeat the sheriff.Little John: Defeating the sheriff is our job, Tuck. Even if it is the last thing we ever do.
In Nottingham, Robin, Much and Guy enter the tunnel. Isabella gives Archer enough money to ensure he can safely disappear; she promises that should he return to Nottingham, she will kill him. Back in Locksley, Kate returns to her mother, who admits that she planted the locket there on Isabella's orders. Realizing Robin doesn't love Isabella, Kate leaves.
In the tunnel, the trap is sprung; the outlaws are sealed in by a balance trap that triggers two wooden gates. In the forest, Allan is seemingly planning on leaving, when he sees a large procession of wagons and soldiers making their way towards Nottingham. He is assaulted by two guards but fights them off, and changes direction, running to warn Robin of what is coming.
Outside the main gate, Tuck and John are alone until they are joined by the villagers, who have changed their minds; Tuck informs them that they will stage a peaceful protest, and give the Sheriff's men a choice of stopping, or carrying out a massacre. In the tunnel, limestone begins pouring in, burying the three prisoners. Robin, Much and Guy form a human pyramid in the aim of reaching the grille at the top so they might hold out longer. Back in the forest, Allan is racing for Nottingham, but to no avail - he is shot down by the guards, and is left lying on the ground just as someone he recognizes steps over his body.
Back in Nottingham, Much and Guy are both sucked under by the torrent of limestone, leaving Robin on his own at the top as the stone continues to pour. As Archer makes to leave Nottingham, Blamire attempts to move the men and supplies out of Nottingham, but is stopped by Tuck and John's sit-in; as Tuck predicted, the guards cannot kill the defenseless villagers. Isabella finally breaks the impasse by shooting Tuck from the battlements, then Kate returns, screaming at the guards to "start with her"; Archer stops the guard from killing her, and then the villagers rise up in full force against the guards, taking Nottingham by storm. Archer and Kate free Robin, Much and Guy from the tunnel.
Isabella runs to Blamire, begging him to help her, but it becomes apparent that all is not what it seems.
- Isabella: The peasants are trying to get into the castle. You have to protect me.Blamire: Can't help. Sorry.Isabella: They're going to tear me to pieces.Blamire: Not my problem. I've got to be somewhere else.Isabella: I just gave you an order! [Blamire chuckles cruelly]Blamire: You've got no idea what's happening here, do you?Isabella: What? You can’t just leave me here to be massacred by this rabble.[Blamire makes to leave]Isabella: Please, for pity's sake, help me!Blamire: If you want to save yourself, hear this. Deliver Gisborne to the tunnel.Isabella: That doesn't make any sense! Gisborne is dead!Blamire: Goodbye, Sheriff. And good luck.
As he leaves, Kate arrives and confronts Isabella about the trick with the locket; a fight breaks out, which finally stops as Robin and the outlaws arrive.
Later, in the marketplace, Robin announces that he is charging Isabella with high treason in the name of King Richard, and that the castle now belongs to the people. However, the celebrations are halted when Much brings Robin and the others to the main gate, where a cloth roll containing something has been left. Unrolling it, the outlaws find it is Allan's dead body. At that moment, an army arrives and surrounds Nottingham, which Blamire is riding out to meet. Gisborne orders the gates closed and shouts to man the battlements, just as the leader of the approaching army comes into view...
- Blamire: My lord.Sheriff Vaizey: Blamire, you old tomcat. How the devil are you?Blamire: The plan is in place.Vaizey: Good... oh, this will be so much fun.[Robin turns and strides into Nottingham as Tuck and Much swing the main gates closed]
Tropes
- Aborted Arc: Kate's vendetta against Guy for having killed her brother Matthew at the start of Series 3 is given a fair amount of attention in this and the previous episode, but the whole thing segues into her insecurities about her relationship with Robin. After that's resolved, her anger and distrust toward Guy are never brought up again, and his culpability in Matthew's death never given any sort of closure.
- Throughout Series 3, it’s sporadically been a point of contention between Robin, Kate and Tuck (and now Archer) as to whether the outlaws should be Training the Peaceful Villagers in the fight against their oppressors. This kickstarted in Cause and Effect in which Tuck advocates for using Robin as an inspirational figure to galvanize the people into defending themselves, while Kate accuses him of giving people false hope and getting them killed when they rally to his cause, thus setting up narrative tension in how the proposed arc might proceed.
- That episode ends with Robin giving a Rousing Speech to the men he’s freed from forced conscription, telling them they’ll one day be called upon to assist him in the fight against Prince John; essentially setting up a Chekhov's Army for future episodes.
- The arc came back into play in Do You Love Me? which has the outlaws (including Kate, who is now unquestioningly on board with Robin’s mission) recruiting Locksley villagers to help them ambush Prince John’s carriage, something they prove very effective at doing.
- Yet in this episode, Robin argues against Tuck's attempt to convince the Locksley villagers to march on Nottingham Castle, which requires forgetting all about enlisting the Chekhov's Army of Episode 2 (who are never seen or referenced again).
- To cap things off, the next episode has Archer giving a What the Hell, Hero? speech to Robin regarding his decision to involve villagers in the Final Battle, accusing him of putting their lives at risk for his own ends — though by this point no one has much choice in the matter, and since it’s the very last episode there’s no time left to explore the issue. It's a Zig Zagging example since this episode doesn’t contain an Aborted Arc per se, but rather the end of one that's been picked up and dropped repeatedly throughout the series, without any sort of conclusive resolution on the matter.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Or in this case, Secret Underground Passage, which looks more like an extremely large cellar, complete with pillars and windows.
- Actually Pretty Funny: When John punches Allan under the belief he's a traitor, it draws a smile from Guy at the unexpected entertainment.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Slight variation in that Kate delivers it to her mother as opposed to Robin himself."I thought I loved him! I didn't know I could love someone like that!"
- Always Save the Girl: Archer leaves his two half-brothers to die in the tunnel. Archer stands by as the peaceful sit-in is threatened by the castle guards. Archer watches as Tuck gets shot in the shoulder by Isabella. But when Kate comes storming out of nowhere, yelling at the soldiers and daring them to kill her? That's when he decides to act.
- Annoying Arrows: Isabella shoots Tuck in the shoulder with a crossbow. He reacts with pain, but in the scenes following the siege on Nottingham Castle he's back to perfect health.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Fearing that Robin's priorities lie elsewhere, Kate issues him a simple challenge: "tell me you need me more than [my family] do." He can give her no answer, but instead breaks eye-contact and hurries away with an excuse. She interprets this as Robin still being in love with Isabella, though it's clear to audiences that it's Marian he's thinking of.
- As You Know: When Kate confronts Isabella she says: “You forced my mother to lie to me. You tried to poison me against Robin.” Um... yeah? Isabella was very much present when she did all these things. She even looks a little bemused that Kate feels the need to spell it all out.
- Back from the Dead: Vaizey is still alive and kicking, though the show never provides an explanation as to how he survived Guy's stabbing, or what he's been up to since it happened.
- Berserk Button: For Isabella, anything that threatens to tarnish her memory of her late mother (including Archer's existence).
- By this point, the mere mention of Isabella’s name is enough to throw Kate into a tailspin.
- Little John loses it on learning that Allan-a-Dale has been issued a pardon (which suggests he's once again been working as The Mole for the Sheriff of Nottingham).
- Bitch Slap: Early in the episode Isabella slaps one of her men in the face for his incompetence, and later gives Kate a slap in the face during their Cat Fight.
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: Rebecca initially goes along with Isabella's scheme to break up Kate and Robin, due to her desire to get Kate safely away from the outlaws and out of Locksley entirely. However, on seeing how upset her daughter is at the thought Robin is cheating on her, she confesses her part in the deception.
- Cat Fight: The inevitable conclusion to Kate and Isabella's rivalry over Robin. Despite the fact both are armed with swords and daggers, they resort to hair-pulling and face-slapping instead.
- Chickification: Kate has always been a Faux Action Girl, but at the very least would demonstrate a fair amount of determination and pluck while messing things up. In this episode, she doesn't even get that, spending most of the run-time crying over whether or not Robin loves her, and abandoning the outlaws in their hour of greatest need because she's too emotional over the thought he still loves Isabella.
- Complexity Addiction: Isabella explicitly wants to weaken Robin by using Divide and Conquer tactics among the gang-members. To break up Robin and Kate, she comes up with an elaborate scheme in which Kate's mother Rebecca is instructed to give one half of Isabella's locket to Kate, then hide the other half on Robin, then tell Kate that Isabella and Robin are still an item, the outcome being that Kate will believe this story once she finds and puts together the two halves of the locket. All this instead of just holding Rebecca hostage and threatening to kill her should Kate not capitulate to Isabella's demands and leave Nottingham.
- Contrived Coincidence: Archer manages to find an informant at a tavern who is willing to sell him information about the Secret Underground Passage that Guy is telling Robin about at that very same moment. This is despite Archer not being familiar with Locksley, and the informant somehow knowing about said passage despite all the workers having been killed after its completion.
- Did Not Think This Through: Kate decides to escalate tensions at the peaceful sit-in protest by shouting at the top of her lungs, storming through the silent crowd, surrendering her sword and goading the nearest guard to kill her by insulting his manhood. If Archer hadn't intervened, she would have been immediately killed.
- Door-Closes Ending: The final shot is of the castle gates closing as the outlaws prepare to be besieged. The shot also serves as a subtle homage to the ending of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
- The Dragon: Blamire. Isabella believes he is loyal to her, but discovers to her horror at the end his loyalties lie with Vaizey.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Exploited by Tuck for his peaceful protest; the Sheriff's men do not have it in them to carry out a massacre of people who aren't fighting back. Averted when Isabella turns up.
- Flaw Exploitation: Oddly averted. Isabella decides to weaken Robin by dividing the outlaws, though as it pans out, her successful attempts to get rid of Kate and Allan have no effect whatsoever on how Robin proceeds with his own plan. He doesn't care that Kate has left him, and Allan's perceived betrayal is something he puts aside to deal with later. Either one's presence at the Protest by Obstruction or in the Secret Underground Passage would have made no difference to how Robin and Guy deal with the Death Trap Isabella has laid for them, and Robin suffers no disadvantage or serious lack of morale for their absence.
- Gambit Roulette: Isabella wants to break up Robin and Kate, and does so by ordering Kate's mother to plant one half of Isabella's locket on Robin, and give the other half to Kate, the logic being that Kate will find Robin's half of the locket and believe that Isabella and Robin are still an item. This entire plan is contingent on the assumption that Kate won't ask a simple, obvious question: how on earth did her mother come to be in possession of Isabella's locket? Heck, Rebecca even tells Kate that she got it from Isabella, and Kate doesn't bother to ask any follow-up questions (such as how, when or why) that would clue her in to the transparent fact that it's all a set-up.
- The plan also relies on a. the off-chance that Kate will even find the other half of the locket among Robin's possessions (she might well have chosen to respect his privacy), that b. she'll leap to the conclusion that he's still in a relationship with Isabella (instead of assuming the locket was given to him while they were a couple and that he just hasn't gotten around to throwing it out) and c. that she won't simply ask Robin about the locket in order to get his side of the story (which would have immediately cleared up the issue, since he does in fact realize it's a stitch-up the moment he learns its significance).
- Get Out!: After Archer has built the trap for her and been paid, Isabella tells him his very existence is an insult to her memory of her mother and that if Archer ever comes back to Nottingham, she'll have him killed.Isabella: Believe this. If I ever smell your fetid odour anywhere near Nottingham again, I will have you dipped in blood and torn apart by starving dogs. My mother was a saint. The fact she could have had a child out of wedlock is bad enough, but some nasty little hustler like you...Be assured, I will kill a thousand times to keep my mother's sacred memory pure.
- Grey Rain of Depression: It's raining when Kate discovers the other half of Isabella's locket in Robin's bunk.
- Hope Spot: The outlaws have taken control of Nottingham, Isabella has been imprisoned, there's news that King Richard is returning to England... and then five seconds after Robin's Rousing Victory Speech, Allan's body is dumped at the drawbridge, followed closely by Sheriff Vaizey at the head of an army, preparing to lay siege to the castle.
- Specifically in regards to Robin's life, a significant sequence in this episode involves Archer and Kate saving him from the limestone in the tunnel, with Kate administering CPR and tearfully saying: "I thought I'd lost you" when he revives. By the end of the next episode, which is the following day In-Universe, he'll die for real.
- In the Back: Allan dies to at least three arrows in the back.
- Incest Subtext: Despite Archer immediately introducing himself to Isabella as her half-brother, there's No Sense of Personal Space between either one of them and a weird flirty vibe to their interactions.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Kate partakes in some of this when she finds the other half of Isabella's locket in Robin's things, and then again when she tells her mother about what happened.
- Last Episode, New Character: Blamire is Isabella's Dragon and leader of the castle guards, introduced here in the penultimate episode.
- Leave No Witnesses: Guy admits to having murdered all the workers after the Secret Underground Passage was completed.
- MacGuffin: Isabella's necklace, which was given to her by her mother Ghislaine. In this case, it also sheds some insight into her psyche, as she breaks it in half in order to put her Gambit Roulette into effect.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Isabella sets up a scenario in which Kate is led to believe that Robin is cheating on her when she finds one half of Isabella's locket amongst Robin's belongings.
- My God, What Have We Done?: The gang's reaction to realizing their mistrust of Allan drove him to his death.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Gisborne makes it plain his only interest in helping the outlaws take the castle is in making Isabella pay for what she's done to him.Kate: Since when have you cared about our people?!Gisborne: I don't! I just want Isabella! She betrayed me to Prince John and I intend to make her pay!
- Obvious Stunt Double: When Robin slides down the roof of a building in Locksley Village early in the episode it's obviously Jonas Armstrong's stunt double.
- Oh, Crap!: Gisborne when he sees Vaisey's army on the horizon.Gisborne: Close the gates. [draws his sword] MAN THE BATTLEMENTS!
- Also Isabella when she realizes Blamire's allegiances lie elsewhere.
- Allan when he spots Vaizey's army moving towards Nottingham.
- Kate when the castle guard starts following through on her demand that he kill her.
- Only One Name: Archer introduces himself to Isabella as: "Archer. Just Archer."
- Relationship Sabotage: Isabella tries to break up Robin and Kate by having Kate's mother plant one half of Isabella's locket on Robin's possessions for Kate to find.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Kate is right in realizing that Robin’s romantic interest in her is tepid, but believes it’s because of lingering feelings for Isabella. The truth is, he's just not that into her and (as the next episode will demonstrate) still too much in love with Marian to ever commit to another relationship.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Blamire pulls one of these when the peasants storm Nottingham Castle, as he has no intention of getting caught in the chaos and he needs to meet with Vaizey.
- Allan tries to do this, having gotten fed up of the gang questioning his loyalty, but when he sees Vaisey's army on the march, Allan realizes he can't abandon them and tries to raise the alarm.
- Having been tricked into believing that Robin is still romantically involved with Isabella, Kate promptly ditches the outlaws and goes home.
- Secret Underground Passage: Apparently Vaizey had one of these dug after his failed mission to assassinate King Richard, fearing he would need an escape in case Prince John sent a reprisal for his failure. Gisborne notes that after it was completed, the workmen who dug it were slaughtered to keep it secret.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Occurs in this episode. Poor Allan.
- So Happy Together: Robin and Kate get a brief flirty moment to open the episode before it all goes south for them.
- Storming the Castle: The outlaws and Locksley villagers manage to overpower the Nottingham guards and take the castle for themselves (only to find themselves besieged in the very next episode).
- Suddenly Shouting: Isabella, when she orders Archer arrested."He must never be allowed to leave the castle. EVAAAAR!"
- Training the Peaceful Villagers: Tuck argues that that is their true mission, as robbing the rich for the poor only makes the poor dependent on them.
- The Unfought: Allan is killed as a result of Isabella's machinations in making the outlaws believe he's been secretly working as her spy, even though the two of them have never interacted with each other on-screen.
- Villain Has a Point: Isabella needles Kate right before the Designated Girl Fight, telling her: "You [and Robin] don't belong together. An ill-raised peasant? Hardly a worthy companion for a man of noble birth." It's meant to be a jealous, classist comment, but Robin/Kate are clearly an Unequal Pairing that is already on the rocks.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: Being Robin Hood’s girlfriend is clearly not how Kate imagined it, as he’s not a particularly attentive boyfriend and is still focused on the Gisborne siblings to the exclusion of all else. When she offers him an ultimatum regarding whether she should stay with him or go home to her family, he’s unable to give her the answer she wants.
- Wham Shot: Vaizey at the head of his army.
- Who's Laughing Now?: The outlaws barely get three minutes worth of celebrating Isabella's defeat before they realize that her machinations have cost Allan his life, and that Sheriff Vaizey is still alive and marching on Nottingham Castle with his own army.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Kate thinks she’s in a Betty and Veronica Love Triangle with Isabella, when in truth she’s Competing with a Corpse.
- "You!" Exclamation: Allan-a-Dale's last on-screen word.
