Recap / Robin Hood S 03 E 11 The Enemy Of My Enemy

Robin and Gisborne are riding through the forest and pause, uncertain as to whether to trust one another.

Robin: We’ll go no further unless I know I can trust you. I can’t just betray the others and bring you to the camp.

Gisborne: You can trust me. Just don’t ask me to forgive your father.

Robin: Now, you listen to me Gisborne. If we’re going to work together, then we have to leave that behind.

Gisborne: That’s easy for you to say. Your father seduced my mother.

Robin: Well, it didn't take much effort, did it?

Infuriated, Gisborne knocks Robin off his horse and the two begin fighting. Allan witnesses the fight and summons the other outlaws, just as Gisborne admits to Robin he cannot forgive himself for what he did to Marian. Robin informs the outlaws that Gisborne is "one of them".

Back at the camp, the outlaws argue with Robin about Gisborne. Gisborne informs them that he and Robin share a brother, and that they are going to York to release him. In York, it transpires that Archer is having an affair with the Sheriff of York's wife, Gweneth, whilst awaiting execution.

Robin and Gisborne make their way towards York, ambushing a tollbooth as they do so. He relays this information to Isabella, who sends a guard after them. In the forest, Little John argues with the others about Robin bringing Gisborne into the fold, but when it becomes apparent that even Kate is prepared to trust Gisborne if Robin says so, he walks off.

In York, Archer demonstrates to the Sheriff of York his ability to turn lead into gold using "magic powder". At the camp, Allan decides to go after Little John. Archer attempts an escape just as York discovers Archer's alchemical powers are faked. He nearly exposes his affair with Gweneth, but manages to cover it up by claiming he forced himself upon her; he is once more sentenced to death.

Back in Sherwood, Allan catches up with John, who refuses to return after Robin's "betrayal", but as soon as Allan walks off John bumps into Isabella, who reveals she knows Robin and Guy are in York. However, Allan is still watching from a distance. In York, Robin arranges for Gisborne to be taken to York Dungeon in a bid to find Archer. Allan rescues Little John, who agrees to return. John returns to the camp, and the outlaws set off for York. Gisborne finds Archer in the dungeons.

Robin poses as a nobleman and manages to buy Gisborne's release, but Isabella's guard is also there. Robin meets up with Gisborne and Archer, who refuses to go unless they free all the prisoners. However, all three are captured by York's men before long and sentenced to hanging. The outlaws prepare to rescue them from the hanging, but Gweneth intervenes with a smoke bomb. In the ensuing confusion, Gisborne rescues Little John, Isabella's guard is killed and Archer breaks off his relationship with Gweneth. Robin offers Archer the chance to join the outlaws; he runs off on the grounds that his plans don't involve anyone else. Having heard about Isabella, Archer makes way for Nottingham as Guy asks where he's going to sleep at the camp.

Tropes

• Awkward Kiss: Downplayed, but it’s obvious that Robin and Kate’s goodbye kiss before he heads off for York is one bestowed on him by her and not the other way around. Even having entered a romantic relationship with her, there are No Sparks on Robin's end.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Guy alludes to this when he tells the outlaws: "Do you still believe good conquers evil? You need me to defeat Isabella."
• Bait-and-Switch: Guy and Robin are arguing over who is going to perform the "deliberately get arrested by the guards and search for Archer in prison" part of the plan while the other finds a way to spring them from jail. Robin biffs a loaf of bread at a guard, making it seem like he's volunteering — but he surreptitiously gestures at Guy, who gets arrested in his place.
• Bar Brawl: Unusually for the trope, it's not started by either Robin or Guy — instead they jump into one that's already well underway at a York tavern in order to get arrested and thereby find their brother in the local jailcells.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: By stealing some clothes and disguising himself as a lord, Robin can walk straight into the castle and act like he has every right to be there.
• Bedroom Adultery Scene: The Sheriff of York walks in on one of these between Archer and his wife Gweneth.
• Bribe Backfire: Robin tries to pay for Archer's release from prison, but after the guard collects a substantial amount of money from him, he laughs in Robin's face and refuses his offer. Robin promptly knocks him out.
• The Charmer: Archer is either this or The Casanova depending on how well you think he treats Gweneth. He's clearly using her to get out of his prison sentence and ditches her with the old "I don't deserve a woman like you" line, but he also goes out of his way to protect her at certain points, even at the risk of his own safety.
• Chekhov's Gun: Archer has access to stores of Byzantium powder, which Gweneth uses in this episode to cause a distraction at his Public Execution, and which comes back into play in the Grand Finale.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: On hearing that Archer tried to ravish his wife, the Sheriff of York condemns him to death: "he will be boiled in oil before his head is removed from his body and his entrails as well as another part of his body is fed to the pigs."
• Death Seeker: When Guy is thrown in the York dungeon, an old prisoner immediately requests that Guy kill him.
• Demoted to Extra: Even in the outlaw-centric scenes, Much doesn't do anything relevant and gets only a few lines.
• Designated Girl Fight: Narrowly averted. On the road to York, Kate targets Isabella, knocks her off her horse with an arrow, and has to be held back by Tuck.
• Distinguishing Mark: Guy identifies Archer by the arrowhead-shaped birthmark on his stomach.
• Enemy Mine: Naturally. It's the title of the episode and said explicitly by Guy himself.
• Evil Wears Black: Isabella has donned a fully black outfit to denote her commitment to the Dark Side.
• Fed to Pigs: The Sheriff of York threatens to throw Archer's innards to the pigs.
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Played With. Archer is carrying on an affair with Gweneth, the wife of the Sheriff of York. He's clearly doing it in order to secure his own release from prison, while Gweneth states that she feels unappreciated by her husband. This would suggest it's a sympathetic affair, but when the Sheriff of York walks in on his wife and Archer kissing in their bedroom, he's genuinely heartbroken to see what she's been up to.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Isabella hires a man to discover the whereabouts of her brother and Robin. The scar on his face lets us know that he's evil.
• Hypocrite: Tuck was one of Isabella's loudest detractors when she first appeared, cold-shouldering her and repeatedly insisting that her familial connection to Guy made her untrustworthy. Here, when Robin introduces Guy himself to the team, Tuck accepts his decision without any fuss and even tells the others that Robin being willing to work with his enemy is good for their cause.
• I Am Spartacus: Inverted and Played for Laughs when Guy tries to find Archer in York Dungeon; he announces he wants to free Archer from the dungeon and all the prisoners start claiming they're Archer in a bid to be rescued.
• I Don't Like You And You Don't Like Me: Guy to Kate, and by proxy, the rest of the outlaws.
• I Gave My Word: Robin justifies his decision to enlist Guy's help by telling the outlaws he intends to honor his father's request that they work together to save their mutual half-brother.
• I Lied: Archer makes a deal with the Sheriff of York: if Archer is free to go, Archer will refrain from killing Robin Hood and allow the Sheriff to claim the substantial reward on his head. The Sheriff agrees, Archer turns to leave... and the Sheriff's men surround him. Turns out that the Sheriff prefers the satisfaction of killing both of them.
• Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: Subverted. Guy and Robin are each deeply suspicious of the other, certain that they'll get stabbed in the back at the first available opportunity... only it turns out that Archer, the half-brother they've been sent to rescue, is the one that ultimately betrays both of them.
• Instant Costume Change: Robin follows a wealthy man into his house, we hear an exclamation and punch from behind the door, and a second later Robin emerges wearing a fine new set of clothes. It's not even a Jump Cut considering we see passerbys on the street wandering past during the off-screen confrontation.
• I Want Them Alive!: Spoken word-for-word by Isabella in regards to Guy and Robin, though why she cares at this point is a mystery.
• Lack of Empathy: Guy is torn up with remorse over the murder of Marian, telling Robin: "I can't forgive myself!" But when faced with the distraught sister of another of his murder victims, a boy who was just as young and innocent as Marian, not to mention killed in the exact same way she was? He couldn't care less.
• Last Kiss: Archer gives Gweneth a lingering goodbye kiss.
• Let Me at Him!: After knocking Isabella off her horse, Kate has to be held back by Tuck to prevent a further physical confrontation.
• Likes Older Women: Archer's affair with Gweneth is born more out of necessity than anything, though he did seem genuinely fond her.
• Look Behind You: When Isabella's henchman demands to know where Robin Hood is, Gweneth says: "behind you." Naturally he refuses to fall for such an obvious ruse, which is how Robin (who is in fact, behind him) manages to kill him so effortlessly.
• Mythology Gag: Most of this episode takes place in the city of York. The very earliest ballads of Robin Hood placed him not in Nottingham but Yorkshire and the Forest of Barnsdale.
• Out of Focus: The outlaws are very much relegated to the subplot this episode (though Little John and Allan get a few scenes to themselves) with most of the screen-time devoted to introducing Archer and detailing Robin/Guy's attempts to rescue him.
• Parrying Bullets: Isabella manages to block the arrow Kate fires at her with the blade of her sword, though she does fall off her horse in the process.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Gweneth begs Archer to take her with him as he prepares to leave York. (He doesn't).
• P.O.V. Cam: For a brief moment we get Guy's point-of-view as he lies on the ground in Sherwood, seeing Kate standing over him with her sword ready to plunge into him.
• Public Execution: The Sheriff of York has Robin, Guy and Archer placed on horseback with nooses around their necks in the public square, foregoing even Isabella's promise of a reward for the satisfaction of killing them all.
• Reaction Shot: The baffled looks on the outlaws' faces when Robin tells them that a) his Back from the Dead father has told him to b) work with Guy of Gisborne in order to c) save their mutual half-brother is fairly priceless.
• Rookie Red Ranger: Archer is obviously being set up as the man who will Take Up the Mantle of Robin Hood, though it's subverted at this early stage by him being completely uninterested in either of his half-brothers or the outlaw cause.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Archer has befriended an old man in the dungeons of York, who doesn't survive the attempt to escape York Castle.
• Sexual Euphemism: Gweneth and Archer speak coyly of the latter's "mysteries of the Orient".
• You Killed My Wife/Brother: Averted. Despite Guy being responsible for Marian and Matthew's deaths, Robin insists the other outlaws put this aside and focus on the mission to save Archer. Incredibly, the murder of Kate's brother is treated as a bigger obstacle to Guy's acceptance within the gang than that of Marian's fatal stabbing (Matthew is brought up five times, Marian only twice).
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: On hearing Robin describe Guy as "one of us", Little John abandons the outlaws in disgust.
• Shoot the Rope: Robin does this to save Guy's life in York after he's left with a noose around his neck, not noticing that Archer is about to do the exact same thing. The half-brothers simultaneously Shoot the Rope, with Archer demonstrating that he's just as accomplished an archer as the famous Robin Hood.
• Taking the Heat: To save Gweneth when they're caught by her jealous husband, Archer tells the Sheriff of York that he forced himself on her and that she was trying to fend him off.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Guy and Robin clearly hate every second of having to work together.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The Sheriff of York and his wife Gweneth, who stands One Head Taller than her husband.
• Villainy-Free Villain: While he travels to York, Robin orders the rest of the outlaws to stay behind in order to "protect the people from Isabella." We have yet to see her inflict any sort of suffering on citizens of Nottingham or any of the outlying villages.
• White Stallion: Interestingly, Guy and Isabella each ride a white horse in this episode, in direct contradiction to the heroism this trope usually conveys.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After Little John is taken captive by Isabella's men, Allan gestures from behind a tree for John to fake a leg injury so that he can sneak up on them.