Gisborne is back, and he is not alone; by his side are Prince John's Elite Guards and a mysterious weapon. This time, he is determined to catch and slay Robin Hood by any means necessary. As the outlaws run for their lives, Little John gets separated and ends up in a Gladiator circus. Meanwhile, Gisborne's estranged sister, Isabella (Lara Pulver) is rescued by Robin in Sherwood Forest, who is unaware of the siblings' relation.
Tropes
- Adorably Precocious Child: Walt, who strikes up a friendship with Little John.
- Alliterative Name: Bertha of Bath
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Bertha comes across as a good-natured woman who takes in lost orphans, though it turns out she only does so in order to sell them at a good price. Likewise, her kindness at hiding Little John from Prince John's men isn't sincere — she only sees an opportunity to recruit him for her Gladiator Games and later offers him up to the Sheriff to avoid paying him an exorbitant tax.
- Blatant Lies: Robin clearly doesn't believe a word of Isabella's cover story — that she's actually Isabella's handmaid attempting to reach her mistress in Nottingham.
- The Bus Came Back: After being absent for two episodes, Richard Armitage as Guy of Gisborne returns.
- The Chase: The first half of the episode involves the outlaws rushing around the forest, trying to outrun Prince John's elite soldiers.
- Circus Episode: Or rather, circus subplot. And technically it's more of a Gladiator Fight than a circus, though the participants don't call it as such.
- Contrived Coincidence: Sherwood is a big forest, but Robin is in exactly the right place at just the right time to rescue Isabella from Squire Thornton's men.
- Costume Porn: Isabella's beautiful silk cloak and yellow dress.
- Damsel in Distress: Isabella, who is introduced fleeing from two men intent on dragging her back to a husband she's clearly terrified of.
- A Day in the Limelight: Little John gets a subplot all to himself in which he's roped into a gladiatorial circus and befriends a little boy called Walt.
- Demoted to Extra: Allan and Much have virtually nothing to do in this episode. It's especially obvious when all the outlaws are on the run from Prince John's elite guards — we witness individual scenes of how Robin, Tuck, Little John and Kate fare against them, but Allan/Much remain entirely off-screen.
- Doppelgänger Dating: Played with. Isabella is obviously being played by a different actress than Marian, but the physical similarities between the two women are striking (dark hair, fair skin, blue eyes) and it’s obviously the reason behind Robin’s immediate attraction to her.
- Dramatic Irony: As Guy points out, there's irony to be found in the fact that Richard the Lionheart's most loyal supporters are about to be killed by an actual lion.
- Dual Wielding: Bertha wields two whips as she introduces the gladiators to the fighting ring.
- Geographic Flexibility: A never-before-seen orphanage pops up on the borders of Nottingham just when the outlaws need to drop off a posse of orphans.
- Gladiator Games: Little John finds himself roped into one of these, as part of Bertha's Circus Maximus.
- Groin Attack: Isabella knees one of her assailants in the balls.
- Hate at First Sight: It's almost comical how instantaneous Kate's hostility to Isabella is, with the woman barely in plain sight before she's aggressively demanding: "who's this then?" and "what's the reason for her?"
- Help Mistaken for Attack: A slight variation. Little John stumbles across Bertha fending off two men in the forest and leaps to her aid, not realizing that the three of them were actually combat training for their circus.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Robin eventually turns the lion on Guy and his soldiers, though we don't see what happens after they've been barred into their camp.
- Hypocrite: Tuck and Kate immediately start casting aspersions on Isabella’s trustworthiness (even before discovering that she’s Gisborne’s sister), conveniently forgetting that the pair of them were incredibly duplicitous during their initial interactions with the gang – Tuck organized the capture of John, Much and Allan in order to break Robin out of his self-destructive grief, and Kate sold out Robin’s location to Gisborne in an attempt to secure the release of her brother.
- I Owe You My Life: After Little John saves Walt from a falling beam, he promises that he'll repay the favor.
- Irrational Hatred: Kate and Tuck are unreasonably antagonistic toward Isabella from the moment she appears. On learning that she's Guy's sister, Kate insists she knew all along that there was something "off" about her, while Tuck says they'll have to act quickly before Isabella spills all their secrets — even though she's just saved them from Guy's lion and barely even knows their names let alone any secrets (such as the location of the camp).
- I Surrender, Suckers: On realizing she's been found by her pursuers, Isabella appears to acquiesce to having her hands bound... only to then seize the element of surprise and attack them.
- Leap of Faith: While they're running from Prince John's soldiers, Tuck leads the outlaws to a precipice and jumps over the side. The others follow, discovering that it's not as deep as first appears.
- The Load: Due to Kate's immediate animosity towards Isabella, Robin has to make a special appeal to her ("please, for me") to follow the orders that the other outlaws accept without argument, asking her to escort Isabella safely through the forest to Nottingham — something any of the other characters could have done just as easily and with considerably less drama.
- Long-Lost Relative: Guy's never-before-mentioned sister Isabella makes her first appearance, whose existence contradicts two seasons worth of Guy insisting that he has no family at all.
- Love Triangle: This episode kickstarts the Isabella/Robin/Kate triangle, with the first two sharing a mutual attraction, and Kate getting jealous over it.
- Loving a Shadow: Isabella's close physical resemblance to Marian, supplemented by her quick wit and prowess with a sword, seems to be behind Robin's immediate attraction to her.
- Mistaken for Servant: Inverted. Isabella tries to pass herself off as her own handmaid, telling Robin she's to meet her mistress in Nottingham, but he's clearly not buying it.
- Moral Luck: The other outlaws — especially Kate and Tuck — are immediately hostile towards Isabella, even though she's a Damsel in Distress who does nothing while in their company to arouse suspicion. She even saves their lives at one point. Yet when they discover that she's Gisborne's sister (which isn't actually a crime!) they act like Robin has done something remarkably stupid in trusting her, with Kate crying: "I knew, I knew there was something off about her!" Their misgivings will eventually prove justified later in the season, but they're not logically seeded in anything Isabella says or does in this episode.
- Ominous Walk: The elite guards approach the outlaws slowly, shepherding them through the forest. This is noticed by Kate and Isabella who wonder out loud why they're not attacking, something that clearly spooks them.
- Out-of-Character Moment: When Isabella explains that her mistress (actually herself) is on the run from an Abusive Spouse, Robin says: "Yet [Squire Thornton] sent men after her. Same may consider that an act of love." This is an astounding statement to put into the mouth of a man whose wife has recently been murdered by her own Stalker with a Crush.
- Parents for a Day: Little John takes on a fatherly role to Walt, then to the rest of the orphans when he learns they're being exploited by Bertha.
- Random Events Plot: Many of the season three episodes fall under the prerequisites of this trope, though this one definitely takes the cake. The outlaws are chased all over the forest by Prince John's elite guards, who are eventually defeated when giant fishing nets are thrown over them. Guy's never-before-mentioned sister turns up, leading Robin to act increasingly Out of Character while the outlaws respond with inexplicable antagonism towards a Damsel in Distress. Guy returns with a secret weapon that turns out to be a decrepit lion, which the outlaws escape by throwing satchels of mustard power at it that Isabella just happens to be carrying. Little John gets roped into rigged Gladiator Games run by a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing in a subplot that has nothing to do with anything else that's going on in the episode. Robin and Isabella's sudden attraction culminates in a final scene in which he steals her belongings, shoves her into a tree, and acts genuinely furious that she didn't immediately divulge her true identity to him, acting as though she's betrayed the trust of a lengthy relationship even though the two of them only met earlier that day.
- Repulsive Ringmaster: Bertha, who runs Circus Maximus and takes advantage of all the people in her employment — including selling the young orphans that she's picked up from the streets.
- Rescue Romance: Sparks fly after Robin saves Isabella from her husband's henchmen.
- Rule of Symbolism: The gladiators don elaborate animal masks before they step into the ring to fight, and Little John naturally wears one of a lion — a fitting symbol for an outlaw who fights for King Richard.
- She Knows Too Much: Tuck is almost absurdly over-the-top about this, raising concern that Isabella will give away all their secrets even though she's only been with them for a matter of minutes.
- Ship Tease: Plenty between Robin and Isabella, whose mutual attraction is apparent to all.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: When the Sheriff comes face-to-face with Little John, he makes a point of taunting him about how Bertha's orphans are sold for a profit, knowing this in particular will enrage him.
- Small Name, Big Ego: In her first episode as an outlaw, Kate makes judgment calls on a perfect stranger, snaps at Much for making a nervous comment before battle, argues with Robin about his orders, and is generally rude and snippy to everyone, all while contributing zilch to the team-unit.
- Standard Female Grab Area: Isabella is incapacitated when one of Thornton's men grabs her upper arms.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Lara Pulver was well-cast as Richard Armitage's sister, what with their matching blue eyes and dark hair.
- Territorial Smurfette: Kate doesn't waste a second in getting peevish at the presence of another woman in their midst.
- Token Girl: Among the merchants that the Sheriff assembles to collect the tax money is a single woman.
- Villains Act, Heroes React: One of the rare episodes in which the bad guys make the first move and the good guys are on the backfoot for the duration of the story. In this case, Guy sets his guards loose on the forest and watches as they herd the outlaws where he wants them to go.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- The lion is last seen being set loose on Gisborne's camp and no explanation is given as to where it goes afterwards.
- When Isabella first appears, she hides a pouch and a small box in a fallen log. When she goes to retrieve them at the end of the episode, Robin reveals that he's taken the pouch of money, but the box is nowhere to be seen
