Mother of Mercy: The Call of the Horse
In 1307, France is ruled by an autocratic King. We focus on Paris, where a group of rebels calling themselves Knights of Templar, are burnt alive in public. Their condemnation is seen by everyone, and a mysterious red-haired woman watches too. She takes the metal boots of one of the rebels and goes back to her commune of nuns.
The King’s men are sent to find the Holy Grail, which they believe is there. Ermengard, the head sister, is insulted by one of them, which prompts the young woman to draw her sword and cut her head off.
The nuns are parts of the Knights of Templar and a fight breaks out. Everyone except the mysterious woman is killed. Ermengard asks her to take the Holy Grail across the sea to their counterparts in Free America, and that is when we jump into the present day.
Mr Schrodinger and his cat, Apollo, are stuck on an island for 10 years. His makeshift rocket to alert the authorities to his location goes off successfully and they are rescued, but he comes back to an unrecognizable world.
A Korean military personnel informs him that The Algorithm has taken over the world and solved all its problems. The humans now bow to the AI supremo, who whispers into their ears through an earpiece.
We then make another abrupt jump into Reno, where a man and a woman are run off the road by an unexpected cow. The woman’s head is chopped off and police soon arrive, where they find the guy panicking. He is a family man and bribes the police not to tell his family about it.
Simone, a hooded lady riding on a horse, reveals to the man that it was a prank and he has been “hoodwinked.” The cops are con artists and magicians – Guinevere, Morgana, and Lance. Simone works for an organization and takes orders from an entity to hunt down “targets” like him.
Jay is the boss’ assistant and Simone’s good friend. He says “She” (referring to the AI) wants to talk to Simone, but she’s not willing to because “It” (according to her it’s a robot, not a woman) killed Simone’s father.
Simone is a nun too and works at a strawberry plantation near her covenant. They process the berries into jam and then sell it. Simone is very close to her horse, whom she hasn’t named, and Mother, the head sister. They celebrate their birthday by drinking in the barn.
The next day, Mother is flown by another woman in a chopper without any context. She asks the jam bottles to be delivered routinely but during their journey, the nuns stop at a shaved ice stall, despite Mother saying “make no stoppages.”
Simone instantly figures out “It” has tricked them, while a man with a large magnifying glass over the hill shines the sunlight into the bottles, which explode. Simone tries to give chase but is unsuccessful.
Mother announces that the land is being sold and the nuns are losing their homes. She has found services for them elsewhere but Simone knows Mother took “It’s” bribes. While having food at a diner, she is informed by “It” to meet at Simone’s old elementary school.
When she arrives though, she’s abruptly kidnapped by a gang of German thugs. They want to know “It’s” location, and if Simone does not tell her, they will blow up her favourite horse. She steals the remote from their hands and escapes, as someone called Wiley rescues her on a bike. Together, they successfully evade the Germans.
Wiley is part of a resistance against “It”. He asks her to join them and inadvertently presses the detonator which results in the horse being killed. Enraged, Simone goes back to Jay and asks for her next target. He gives her “It’s” name and Simone heads to her elementary school. “It” talks through a school teacher and gives Simone a birthday present.
Simone is not impressed and insults “It” by calling it a robot. “It” asks Simone to accomplish a task “only she can complete.” Simone asks that “it” destroy itself and shut off forever to complete the task. That task actually happens to be finding the Holy Grail and destroying it. Both parties come to an agreement.
The Episode Review
It is quite extraordinary when two masters of their trades come together. Mrs Davis seems like a wild mashup between sci-fi and absurdist comedy, with a touch of inspired action sequences.
The showrunners, Damien Lindelöf (Lost, Watchmen, The Leftovers) and Tara Hernandez (Big Bang Theory) bring their craft speciality to the fore in this wild season opener. This is one of those shows where you hit the play button for episode 2 and then subsequently episode 3 and so on until you exhaust the resource.
There is absolutely no context to the story, just that it is set in the present day and the world is controlled by an omnipotent AI system. Betty Gilpin’s Simone/Lizzie is at a tipping point not just for herself but for the world accepting “It’s” challenge to find the Holy Grail. Episode 1 of Mrs Davis promises an exciting season of thrills and frills ahead.
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Episode Rating
(4)