The quest continued onward and upward on Sunday night’s Galavant double-header. After last week’s premiere set the stage for our valiant egomaniac, the seriously-in-denial knight and his merry band of misfits journeyed onward towards Valencia with hopes (and motives) secretly at odds with one another. Surely, this one is going to end well! (Haaaaa.)

After the embarrassing “win” against Sir Jean Hamm last week, Gal and pals made their way to squire Sidney’s neck of the woods — only to then be forced into deception and long-form improvisational acting thanks to Sid’s letters home. Chockablock with exaggeration in hopes of making his parents proud, his puffery has gotten a bit out of hand, making Sid quite the local celebrity.

This sort of business is the freshest of hells for Galavant, forced into becoming a squire and doing the things that squires do. And in a very shocking twist that was likely a surprise to absolutely everyone: he wasn’t really a fan of the job! Crazy, right? Thankfully, though, he learned quite a lot about just how terrible he is from singing a tune called “Jackass in a Can,” so — y’know: win some, lose some.

And Sid’s adoptive parents (the neighborhood Jews of his village — because of course: the kid did say “plotzed” last week) were more than ready to pull out all the celebratory stops, so proud they were of their son! Particularly after Isabella told them that she and their son were engaged. So you know that that means: a ball! A real, live medieval ball! Oy, whatta knight!

Over at King Richard’s house, another party — one of a far more “come or die” variety — has taken shape in one of his many, many misguided attempts to make his wife Madalena happy and prove his husbandly worth. He’s a normal guy, you guys! Unfortunately not even forcing a bunch of miserable and hungry captives to “dance, dance, dance until you die” doesn’t really make for a bangarang evening.

But! It did bring about quite a bit of honesty from the remaining Valencians. Unfortunately the eunuch went and ahead and revealed the all-too-obvious bit King Richard was long unable to see: that his wife has been rolling in literal and metaphorical hay with the jester. Bye, bye, eunuch.

So how did this affect the goings-on of the second episode of the evening? Heaps! Because oh, that poor King Richard — ruthless, evildoer that he is — just wants his wife to love him. That’s all! He doesn’t get why she doesn’t love him (love formed under kidnapping circumstances can often be a bit emotionally hazy), so he recruits the jester into teaching him how to be funny (“It’s so easy!” says only people who are incredibly unfunny), cementing theirs — and every other, for that matter — relationship as an oddity of circumstance and earnest idiocy. If they work together maybe, just maybe, Madalena will fall in love with the king, eh? eh?

Our trio of heroes also managed to have a tough time coming together — as is generally what happens after you’ve spent days on end with one another and are really, really, really starting to get on one another’s nerves. But after being captured by some land pirates (featuring Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville!), the trio find their way back to one another — by working together! — despite annoyances, deviated septums, and pesky secrets that — even when they are exposed — fall on deaf ears. The king and Galavant have way, way more in common than either of them would care to admit, methinks!

Thankfully there’s at least one person with a conscious in this whole story: Steve the jester, who called off his dalliances with the queen after realizing his doofy leader was maybe not so bad of a guy (…um!) — or at least the guilt the whole affair made him display a moment of compassion and general human decency.

Next week, it looks as though our motley crew will finally make it to Valencia. Something tells us things won’t go as well as anyone might hope them to — woooopsies, you guys. Denial runs deep — even in the middle ages.

Songs:
“Oy! What a Knight”
“Jackass in a Can”
“Dance, Dance, Dance Until You Die”
“The Lords of the Sea”
“Comedy Gold”

The Knight’s Best Rhymes:
– “Turning slightly bitchward.”
– “Put the sir in circumcised!”

Other Things of Note:
– Everyone caught that suuuuper-timely music joke, right? (“We met before; at Lilith Fair on the Island of Lesbos.”)
– Best quote: “I’m Galavant, I get to eat the raisins!”
– Realest bit of era-specific comedy: “What on God’s flat earth is going on?” – Madalena

What’d you think of tonight’s Galavant? Let us know in the comments.