Kings: Season 1, Episode 6 Brotherhood

First aired: June 13, 2009

Previously, on Kings: Gilboa and Gath have negotiated a peace, about which the King's brother in law, a big businessman who helped put Silas on the throne, is unhappy. Neither General Hardass nor the prince likes David, who saved the prince and was rewarded with "the best post in the military." David and Princess Michelle have previously spent some time on first base, but due to maneuvering on the part of others and a mysterious betrothal of some kind, they are currently off rather than on. The prince is worried about the prospect of David marrying his sister and outmaneuvering him for the throne.

We pan in on the king in bed, who wakes suddenly and pulls a dagger out from under his pillow. As he rises, we find that he's having a gold-hued vision of walking on leaf-covered ground in a forest. Leaves swirl around him in the air, and then he's awakened by an aide. The aide goes to shut an open window, and we see that a number of leaves have blown in on the carpet. These leaves are generally brown and oaky-looking, but exactly one green compound leaf (with opposite leaflets) lies in the middle. The king picks it up and contemplates it.

We cut to a shot of the Shiloh skyline, before joining the king and the Reverend Samuels. The king describes his vision as an omen, a phenomenon he had feared he would never experience again. The Reverend identifies the leaf as acacia, a "portent of change, of death and resurrection," and perhaps the king has been forgiven. They seem to reconcile, but Samuels warns the king that his family may be involved, and that he should be on the lookout for additional signs. They are interrupted by an ambassador of Gath, who has come to ask a favor.

General Hardass is, unsurprisingly, adamantly against helping Gath, which involves helping resolve some sort of crisis. The prince speaks up in favor of helping and volunteers to lead the mission. The king contemplates the leaf and accedes, although he wants David to tag along. The prince looks sort of not thrilled. The title sequence rolls.

In Gath, which is very monochrome and greenish, David, flanked by officials from both sides and little girls holding flowers, reassures its citizens that Gilboa is committed to peace. The king and General Hardass watch the coverage of the event, and the General calls the prince and tells him to "proceed." The prince was clearly in on something that David wasn't, and that something involves driving into the woods and rifles, which they start assembling or loading or whatever. The prince lets us know that the real mission (ordered by the king at the request of the premier of Gath) is to take out "an insurgent known as Belial."

The queen is in the midst of preparations for her own birthday celebration. She tries to draft her daughter's help, but the princess has an appointment at the hospital to check out the results of her new health care plan. The queen wishes she would find a less noble hobby.

David and the prince prepare to take out Belial, who targets civilians and seems to have a high-placed informant, with the assistance of some Gathian military men. David and the prince square off a little, but the prince wins by outranking him.

The hospital is above capacity now that people can get health care under Michelle's plan, which makes the doctors grumpy. A lady doctor acknowledges, however, that people are getting better care, and that they've quarantined a couple people (mother and son) with a contagious disease that they would have otherwise missed. The disease is a super deadly plague, but the doctors are hesitant to create panic on only "preliminary results."

In the woods in Gath, David steps onto a land mine, and the quick-thinking prince stops him and rigs the mine not to explode when he steps off. Meanwhile, David stares upward through the trees at the sun, the gold hue of which penetrates the gray-green atmosphere of Gath just a tiny bit.

The general is somewhat doubtful about the mission succeeding, and, in conversation to the king, refers to saving the king's life on some earlier, similar mission. The princess barges in with doctor in tow and spills the beans about the plague. The doctor lets us know some specifics: the plague is 100% fatal and highly contagious during the first 12 hours of infection. Michelle wants the king to make an announcement, but it looks like he's not ready to do that yet.

Back to the woods. It seems our team has approached the insurgents' encampment in a manner which put them at risk of being spotted by the enemy. The prince and David sneak forward while the rest of the group remain behind some low stone walls with their guns at the ready. A guys with a gun walks out on the bridge, then hops in a truck that drives over it. Suddenly, guys with guns pop up on the bank opposite the bridge and start shooting our guys behind the stone walls. People run around, shooting at each other.

Back at the hospital, the doctor gives the good news that the infected mother and son came in contact with fairly few people in the past 12 hours, but the mother has passed away and the boy is now alone. Michelle displays her signature lack of a sense of self-preservation, and enters quarantine to hang out with the kid who's supposed to be dead soon anyway. With any luck, the kid is past the 12 hour mark.

One of the guys behind the wall has been shot, but not shot dead, and David briefly struggles to help him. The prince and David go off on their own to try and find Belial.

The grumpy doctor lets the king know it really is plague.

The prince and David spot Belial and plan to sneak in to camp via the grabbing-some-guys-and-stealing-their-clothes approach. A hooded David sneaks around enemy camp and tosses a grenade under a jeep before diving into a thankfully empty tent. (Does he think the tent offers any protection?) The jeep explodes, and there is much yelling and running around on the part of the insurgents as the prince successfully nabs Belial. In the tent, David spots some weaponry with Gilboa's butterfly insignia; he stops the prince from killing Belial, telling him, "someone on our side has been arming Belial. We need to find out who."

Michelle is still with the kid, of course; he coughs, and she leans forward, the better to soak up any stray pathogens, I suppose. The queen has arrived, and stands outside quarantine with a look of mixed anger and fear. She lets a little of her frustration loose on the king, who has just joined her, then stomps off. The king wants his daughter removed from quarantine, but the less grumpy doctor demurs. Things go a bit echoey for the king, then he decides to shut down the city.

The king hashes out the shut-down with his staff and General Hardass. He exchanges some snark with his brother-in-law, who breaks from his usual character and offers some medical resources for free.

David goes to look for a vehicle while the prince roughs up Belial. The prince rambles on a bit about coins and then wallops Belial with a metal tube that does not look like a coin wrapper. Belial does not immediately crack.

The king goes to see the Reverend Samuels in his church, which has these really, really pretty marble pools with floating votives. The king is pissed at God for sending a plague, and asks the Reverend to help him institute a 12-hour curfew. Samuels interprets the plague as a sign that the king has a traitor close to him, and advises him to "cut off the poisoned limb."

The prince takes a break from beating Belial, who goes on about Cain and Abel for a while. It seems Belial is in favor of both Gilboa and Gath falling and some new, unified nation arising in their place. He also makes some comment about the war not ending as long as someone profits from it. The prince chokes Belial some, David tries to stop him, the prince knocks him down and takes aim, and Belial makes a snotty comment.

The Reverend broadcasts the curfew announcement in mellifluous tones from his empty, but still beautifully candlelit church. He asks everyone to light a candle in the window as a sign that they're following the curfew. (This must be a great country to be a candlemaker in.)

An aide lets the king know that they've heard from David and the prince, who are heading towards the border with a living Belial in tow. General Hardass is concerned by this. The aide also lets them know about the Gilboan weapons. The aide is sent off, and the king comes to the conclusion that the traitor is his brother-in-law. General Hardass offers to assassinate the brother, but the king asks for proof of his guilt instead.

The prince moans about David saving his life in the war and preventing him from becoming a hero the easy, if kind of dead, way.

The king asks his queen why she isn't with Michelle, and she responds that he's closer to their daughter than she is, and that she doesn't want to watch her daughter die. The king then tells her about the poisoned limb business, and that he has to kill someone to save his family. She tells him to "cut," even when he warns her obliquely that it's her brother.

In the hospital, the kid goes blind, then dies. Michelle still looks healthy, if sad.

General Hardass has uncovered incriminating photos of the king's brother in law with Belial. The king gives the assassination order, and the general nods. A candle by the general suddenly goes out. The general tries to relight it, but the candle goes out again. The king raises his eyebrows. The general leaves, and we see him later giving an order over the phone to shoot anyone who approaches the border.

David and the prince pull up to the border and are shot at by a large group of Gilboan military men. They reverse crazily into the woods and jump out. Belial takes advantage of the hubbub to knock the prince down, but David shoots him and saves the prince's life, again. Now out of the car, the prince is able to make himself recognized.

The general informs the king that his brother-in-law will be dead soon and that it will be staged to look like a suicide. They briefly discuss omens, about which the general is skeptical, and the king reveals he has stayed the order to kill his brother-in-law, and that he knows, via the candle thing, that the general is the real traitor. The general, backed into a corner, reveals his dissatisfaction with the peace with Gath. The king gets the last word by stabbing him with the same dagger we saw at the beginning of the episode.

Grumpy doctor arrives and says the quarantine worked; only 10 people died, those who came in contact with the woman and boy.

Michelle, still in quarantine, takes a sample of her own blood and hands it to a heavily protected hospital worker. The queen waits around the corner.

The king sits in Samuels' church, then notices the arrival of David and the prince. He is very pleased with them, and makes them responsible for his own protection, before leaving unprotected by them. The prince notes to David that it's not easy to kill a man and that he considers himself in David's debt.

Michelle finds David in his apartment, so she's apparently clear of plague. Without saying anything, she sits beside him and they embrace in a relatively chaste manner.