Cursed – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Fey Queen

The Taking Of Gramaire

Episode 8 of Cursed begins with The Weeping Monk leading the Red Paladin through the trees and following a trail of blood. This leads them straight to Nemos. With two of the monks riding for Father Carden to let him know, our rebellion’s time at the hideout is seemingly coming to an end.

Thankfully a scout gives everyone at Nemos the heads up and together, the group set their sights on taking Gramaire back from the Red Paladin who now occupy it.

The Weeping Monk eventually arrives at the Fey hideout with his men but finds it completely empty. While he tasks them to burn Nemos to the ground, Nimue and the others put their plan into action.

As she rides her horse up to the gates of Gramaire, the doors open and the entire army march out to meet her head-on. Turning, she flees into the woods and leads the men right where she wants them. Eventually they come to an opening in the road and she channels her powers into the Earth and kills a whole group of Paladin guards.

With the rest of the army retreating to the castle, they cower in fear at her power while Vallus, one of the leaders here it seems, goes one on one with Nimue in a sword fight. She seizes her opportunity and manages to slay the man, leading the rest of the army to cower in fear. As Arthur and the others pop up above the battlements and make their presence known, the monks flee into the woods.

In the wake of this, Sister Iris looks upon the body of the dead Paladin, clutching her knife tightly. She clearly wants revenge on Nimue but for now, she has to bide her time before striking. At the same time, Morgana starts seeing visions of the dead man outside the bell tower and heads in to investigate.

Merlin & The New World Order

Meanwhile, Cumber introduces Merlin to Father Carden who happens to be in his tent. While news of Uther’s true lineage spreads across camp, Father Carden and Merlin come to verbal blows over their allegiances. When the duo leave, Cumber and her daughter discuss the Fey Queen and what this means for their prospective possibilities of ruling the land. However, alternate forces spur too as Father Carden meets with Uther and his Mother, forging an allegiance moving forward.

Merlin heads out and meets Widow in the woods who unveils herself to show Nimue’s face. Upon seeing this, Merlin races back inside and speaks to Cumber about their plan. Getting nowhere, he instead heads back on the road just as the Fisherman watches him and heads out.

The Fey Queen

After taking Gramaire for themselves, Nimue meets with Ector in the throne room after a reunion with Pym. It turns out she survived the Viking encounter along with Dof with also happens to be there in the infirmary being tended to by nurses.

Nimue uses her power and tries to heal Dof but unfortunately is unable to do so. It’s too late and he passes away leaving her only with his necklace for company. In the wake of this, Nimue arrives in the throne room and forces Ector to relinquish control to her.

Arthur tries talking to Nimue about Rue Gorge and what they need to do to secure Gramaire. Unfortunately she refuses to listen, annoyed at all the “lectures” and challenges him over his true intentions surrounding the throne.

In the woods, The Weeping Monk ambushes Gawain while he’s out scouting and they fight. The Monk gets the upper-hand though and overpowers him, knocking Gawain down but refusing to kill him given the orders he has to take the man alive. Unbeknownst to him however, Squirrel watches from the shadows.

At Gramaire, the Red Paladin and armies of Pendragon both march toward Nimue as she and the forces inside the castle watch on helplessly.

The Review Write-Up

With another minor character killed in Dof, it does raise the question surrounding just why the Vikings have been taken in to be healed if they’re supposed to be enemies to the English. Then again, a lot of this series has failed to really make the most of its various ideas and form it into a more cohesive whole.

Speaking of which, there’s more deus ex machina here, this time in the form of The Weeping Monk getting the better of Gawain but having instructions to take him alive. While this in itself is fine, given he nearly burned Gawain alive inside the mill last episode it does seem like more of a convenience than anything else.

That’s before even mentioning the battle tactics of the Red Paladin completely abandoning their posts for one horse-back rider and charging into the woods after her. If this is supposed to be a feared military unit surely they would have sensed something amiss as Arthur and others somehow managed to sneak inside. A bit of military discipline would have probably foreseen this as a trap.

Once again Cursed seems cursed to continue these pressing questions and plot contrivances. As we fast approach the finale, it looks like we could also be gearing up for a trademark Netflix cliffhanger at this rate; a proverbial cherry on this disappointing cake.