Kings 1×09: Pilgrimage

Silas announces he is going on pilgrimage. The last two times he did, he thought of building a capital at Shiloh and “a vision for peace.”
“Who knows what I’ll come up with this time?”

Outside, Rose is making sure a new painting of the ministers is up straight for a special unveiling tomorrow. She exchanges a look with Katrina Ghent.



Setting off on his pilgrimage, he tells Jack that he is the “man of the house” while he’s gone. “Consider it practice” he advises, “Make me proud.”
Meanwhile, Jack’s lover Joseph is recording a video. He is saying goodbye. “Behind the lie, I see you for who you really are,” he says, “I love you and I know you love me. And I think everyone should know. No more hiding Jack, you’re too brave to be such a coward. You deserve to be who you really are. I hope this will help.”
He puts the DVD in a slip and into an envelope addressed to Jack. There are two more envelopes on the table, one of them addressed to UNN (Unity News Network).



Michelle surprises David at his apartment. When they walk in, they find it ransacked. He’s been robbed. He scrambles to find the camera they used for their impromptu photoshoot, but it is gone as well.
Suddenly, a knock at the door. Michelle goes to hide. It is Silas. “We’re going for a drive. Dress casual, downstairs, five minutes,” he tells David.

The royal caravan seems to be in the country. They stop and Silas tells David to take the wheel. All the other cars proceed, leaving just David and the King. David is worried.
“I need someone close to me that I can trust, and there are those who I should not trust you,” Silas says.
He tells David he saw him with the butterflies that day. The crown of butterflies that rested on his head. “What do they mean to you David?” he asks.
“It’s hard to put in words,” David replies. He says he grew up hearing the story of how the butterflies had done the same to Silas, how that made him know he’d be king. When that same thing happened to David, he knew it was God speaking to him.
“A nothing farmboy,” David says, “telling me to serve my king.”
“And nothing else?” Silas asks. To which David replies, “What else could it mean?”
Silas gets out of the car and into the front seat with David. He tells him where to go, that he wants to show him something.



Back in Shiloh, Michelle is trying to call David. She is starting to panic and now has people looking into the robbery. She doesn’t want to use “the full resources of the service,” which would mean Thomasina which in turn would mean Rose and Silas.
It appears William is behind the robbery. A man has brought him a duffel bag with belongings taken from David’s apartment, including the camera. An audio monitoring device has been placed inside the piano, the man says and William throws him an envelope of money. He puts the duffel bag into a safe.
Andrew walks down holding a bunch of newspapers as William gets off the phone. He tells his father he is reading all the newspapers that have been printed while he was exiled, cover to cover. If he reads for 14 hours a day, he’ll be able to catch up in two months. William tells him now that he’s home, he can do anything he wants. Things he couldn’t do in exile, now he can. “I just want you to do something,” William says.
Andrew answers, “I just want you to be proud of me.”
“I’ll be proud of you when you make your mark son. You might as well never have come back,” William replies.




Back at Alter mansion, Rose is about to unveil the portrait. Everyone is in attendance, and when she pulls off the curtain, Katrina is shocked that she’s been removed.
In the boardroom, as Katrina comes in as Rose is trying out new chairs for Silas.
Rose reasons that Katrina became a minister too late to have been included in the picture.
“I threaten you is that it?” Katrina asks. Rose dismisses the assistants.
“I have no interest in Silas, I’ve had my fill of old men,” Katrina tells her, “I may have bought my title, but your brother bought your crown. Are we so different?”
“As long as I walk these halls, you will get no respect in this court,” Rose replies, “You accept it and move on. People have disappeared for much less.”
Rose gets up and leaves and Katrina says “Good day ma’am, may God bless you and may God bless your kingdom.”

Outside, Thomasina gives the DVD from Joseph to Rose. They watch it with Jack.
“I hate nothing more than lies,” Rose says. She tells Thomasina to stop all the mail and have it all brought to the mansion.
Jack denies he knows Joseph very well. Rose thinks Joseph is trying to bring him down, trying to extort money from them. Jack suggests he talks to him, but Rose tells him he’s killed himself this morning.
Jack is visibly uneasy, but keeps up the face for his mother.


Back to the countryside, Silas has brought David to Helen’s home.
“Where are we?” David asks. Silas replies, “Oh I’m home.”
Silas’ son Seth comes running out the house, “Daddy! Daddy!”, and Silas takes him into his arms. Helen follows and welcomes him as well with David looking on in awe.
Later, the four of them have dinner. Silas leads the grace before they eat. They hold hands…
“My family, always in my heart when not in my eye. May the time apart in which the time spent together. May there be enough love left over the next time we join hands, amen.”
Silas kisses Helen’s hand and taps Seth’s head. David smiles as Silas tells them to start eating.

Silas and Helen are in each other’s arms looking out the window at David and Seth. They’re new friends. “He worships me,” Silas says to which Helen responds “As he should.”


Back in Shiloh, Jack is drinking in the kitchen as Michelle walks in.
“Spare some” she says and he hands the bottle, she drinks right out of it. She asks what happened, that they used to tell each other everything and she offers to help.
“I doubt it,” he says and she says maybe he can help her. He comes right out and mentions her and David saying he was impressed at her “talent of deceit.” “That’s why I won’t help you,” he says and gets up to leave. She stops him, “You want to see David suffer? This hurts me, not him.”
He tells her, “Whatever it is you don’t want him to see, or hear, or know, you can bury it. Bury it so deep, you can’t find it yourself anymore. But you’ll wish you hadn’t. You want help with things you’ll regret, go to your uncle. I won’t do it.”
Meanwhile, Andrew opens the safe and sees the belongings William had robbed from David. He decides to have some fun and puts on David’s uniform and takes pictures of himself. When he looks back at his picture however, he comes across the pictures of Michelle.


The next day, all of the mail from within a 6 mile radius of Shiloh has been brought to the mansion. Workers are sorting through, Thomasina says they’ve already found one disc. Rose says state secrets have been compromised and announces that 50,000 will go to anyone who finds a tape or disc, 100,000 if found today.
One of the workers brings a disc he’s found to the Minister of Information herself, Katrina.
“The queen was willing to pay 100,000 for this, what are you willing to pay?”







Rev. Samuels comes to knock on Jack’s car window to tell him that Joseph’s funeral is about to begin. “It is an open service. All are welcome.”
Rev. Samuels gives the eulogy, “… a man like us, beloved in the eyes of God, challenged by the traits that God bestow. Such as split can divide a man in two, but not Joseph. He lived as one man his whole life. Despite the inequality, despite the hate, he took his own life, not for loving wrong, but for loving too much.”
Rev. Samuels looks at Jack who is standing, looking from afar.
“Some will say he died a cowardly death. But he lived a courageous life. Let’s remember that.”
Thomasina comes with an umbrella for Jack with a look of sympathy for his loss.

Back home, Rose is scolding Jack for appearing at his “accuser’s” funeral. “I’m trying to bury this story with that boy,” she says.
Jack: “His name is Joseph.”
Rose: “What do I care what his name was? He was trying to ruin you.”
Jack: “No he wasn’t. He was trying to save me.”
Rose: “Save you? From what?”
Jack: “From me. And I destroyed him for it. I’m the reason he’s dead.”
Rose: “Thomasina out!”
They are alone.
Rose: “You said he was nothing to you.”
Jack: “He loved me and I loved him.”
Rose: “No you didn’t. You can’t.”
Jack: “I loved him. I loved him.”
Rose gets up, her back to her son.
Jack: “I cut him out of my heart, because that’s what dad wanted, that’s what you wanted. He’s the only person who saw me, you really saw me. And still loved me, he’s dead.”
She slaps him.
Rose: “Good!”
She hugs him.
Rose: “This mistake of character. This will be our secret.”
Jack: “Mistake of character? This is who I am.”

Seemingly desperate for help, Michelle goes to her uncle, but isn’t home. She waits with Andrew.
“Maybe I can help,” he asks. She says it’s okay, that she just lost something.
He asks what would happen if she couldn’t found what she’s lost and she says it would kill her parents. She decides to leave.


Back to the country, Silas takes David to garden. They’re going to plant 500 amaryllis bulbs before the first frost otherwise the unplanted ones will die. They get to work.
After a while, they take a break for lunch and Silas tells him to ask all the questions he’s been meaning to ask. “I don’t need to,” David says, “but I understand. I wish I could have this, what you have here.”
“You can, every day. Don’t ever be a king,” Silas tells him.

David: “Then why not stay here? Leave Shiloh behind. You don’t have to be king.”
Silas: “Oh but I do. If it’s in you, to be of service to your fellow man, then you have an obligation to God to do it, be it a policeman, a fireman, a soldier, a king, if its in your DNA, the job fits, you must do it.”
David: “I don’t know if there’s one thing I have to do. Can do.”
Silas: “Lucky you.”

They get back to work.
David asks about Seth, he doesn’t know about Silas being king. He tells David about Seth’s illness, the same Michelle had as a child.
“I fear my courtesy with God is spent,” Silas says. “I fear my blood is poisoned, All my children somehow afflicted. All but you.”
He demands David give him the axe to show him a thing or two, but he throws out his back.



In Shiloh, Katrina shows Rose the photos of Michelle. She also has the video of Joseph.
Rose tells her she’ll restore her into the mural, but Katrina says “We’re way past murals now. I want to see you powerless. So you know how it feels what you do to those around you.”
“You have your way, whatever you want I will do,” Rose concedes.
But Katrina asks Rose to choose which child to save. She’ll still broadcast either one of the photos of the video.
“The fall of prince or princess, your choice,” Katrina threatens.




Thomasina goes to Jack in the boardroom.
“If I become king, my first order of business is to reinstate the guillotine, just for you Thomasina,” he says.
She responds, “I give my life to protect this family. I expect to lose it doing the same.”
“Why,” Jack asks, “We’re all a bunch of conniving cowards hoarding over a carcass.”
“At your worst, yes,” Thomasina says, “but at your best, you bring heaven closer to Earth.”
She hands him the him a DVD. It is Katrina Ghent’s copy. Rose stopped it.
“I don’t even want to know how,” David says, but Thomasina says she thinks he does.


Rose goes to William angry at him “firing” his “ammunition.” But you ordered me to keep an eye on Shepherd he says.
“I came to you because I need a job done clean,” she says, “To protect my family from that farm boy.”
He insists he would never betray them. She asks then who?
William goes up to see Andrew. His room is full of newspapers. It was him. He asks him why he would do that, why he would do it to his cousin?
“You told me to. You told me to do something, to make my mark. You hate Silas and Silas loves Michelle. I hurt Michelle to hurt Silas. I broke his favorite thing.”
“You did that for me?”
“ I love you, I want you to be proud of me.”

Michelle goes to Rose for help, but Rose tells her the pictures will be broadcast tomorrow. There’s nothing to be done.
“It is the queen that is allowing it to happen,” Rose says. “The story will dominate the news. You will be dragged through the mud. But when the dust settles, you’ll be thought of as a woman. Which is what you are. Sexual, desirable, formidable. And you wield that power in ways young girls can not.”



In the country, Silas is in bed resting his back.
“I’ve opened up my entire life to you,” Silas says. “We only really know each other when we know each other’s deepest secrets, when we know what’s in each other’s hearts. I trust you with mine, I want you to trust me with yours.”
He asks David for his deep secret, he doesn’t want anything between them.
“I could keep nothing from my king,” David says. Silas believes him.
David looks out the window and sees the frost has come. The amaryllis will die.
“Maybe next year,” Silas says, “We’ll come back.”



Everyone’s back in Shiloh, Silas makes an announcement in the boardroom.
“I trust both sun and moon rose in my absence?” He gets a laugh.

“This was a pilgrimage like n other. Rather than envision what the country needs, I came to see what we already have. And I want to acknowledge those that might fill these seats when our hearts fail the rest of us. Me son. My daughter. My nephew. My friend. We have so much to learn from youth. Now we’ve all heard it, ‘I wish I knew then what I knew now.’ Well from this day on, I say ‘I wish I know now what I knew then.’ Imagine.”
Rev. Samuels smiles.

Silas proceeds. He announces who will sit in the chair next to him, who will be his advisor. “All the time it was quietly filled, by someone who is earnest when it is not the fashion. Who loves this country almost as much as I do. But above all whose honesty is something I learned I can not do without.”
He calls David Shepherd down to the table.
Rose gives hesitant applause. William has a disgusted look. Jack leaves the room.
David takes a seat, Silas is ecstatic and proud. A huge smile on his face.

Jack is waiting when Katrina arrives in her office. He tells her to ruin him instead of his sister.
“Ruin me and you will crush my mother far worse.”
She offers to save them both and destroy only the queen. But how?
“By marrying me. I always wanted to be royalty.”


Jack goes to give Michelle the camera. “You save my life,” she says.
“No I didn’t,” he replies, “It just feels that way. The truth doesn’t get any easier to tell, it gets harder until it’s gone forever.”
She gives him a kiss on the cheek.



Silas and Rose sit at home. How was your weekend? Fine.
And your pilgrimage? Fine.

A lone amaryllis bulb sits on the table in a pot “safe from the frost, a memento from pilgrimage.”
“So David Shepherd then?” she asks.
Silas nods, “Shepherd.”

Michelle comes in to welcome him home. It’s good to be home.
“I’ve been lying to you for too long and you should know the truth,” she says. His demeanor immediately changes. She tells him about her and David.


A knock at David’s door.
Michelle smiles. “We don’t have to hide anymore. I told my dad everything.”
David looks uneasy, that might not have been the best thing to do.

Silas is at the fireplace. He looks into the fire, he has thrown the bulb in. Anger? Disappointment? Both?




Episode Thoughts

Well, this was definitely a different kind of Kings episode. It was less on the mythology (though we got a little bit), and more on the “real life” backstabbing and conniving.

We also got a fuller look at Silas with Helen and Seth. He is much happier than we ever see him in Gilboa and it seems David was just as surprised yet happy for him as we are.

It was an abrupt end for Jack’s relationship, but we’ll see if Joseph’s video and death will have the kind of repercussions that the episode was hinting at. I wonder if that means less of Jack’s sexuality in the storyline, which I doubt because as shown in this episode, it is him. He is gay, that is who he is.

With Michelle, her good intentions prove not to be the best thing.
David’s relationship with Silas is definitely that of a father and son. Their scenes together, especially in this episode working together and eating lunch, show a connection between the two. For Silas, he sees so much in David, past his vow to death, but it seems as if he is (or was) willing and welcoming David as the future king. David, meanwhile, continues his loyalty despite his relationship with Michelle possibly being the one thing that could destroy that trust Silas has in him.

Rose’s real abilities continue to come out each week. She is definitely not one to take things lying down. And Andrew is so enigmatic. What really is with him? It will definitely be interesting when it is finally revealed what he was exiled for.

The more Thomasina, the better.

And Leslie Bibb is awesome. She should be nominated for a Guest Actress Emmy, but it appears she didn’t submit herself even though she, nor the rest of the cast, have an actual shot. 🙁

And finally, thank you NBC for not yanking the show off the air.

KINGS airs Saturdays at 8pm/7c on NBC. Be sure to check your local listings because affiliates may pre-empted the show or air the episode on a secondary affiliate.
You can also always watch full episodes on Hulu and NBC.com.
And episodes are also available for purchase on Kings - Kings, Season 1 - Pilgrimage and also on Comcast OnDemand.
Order the Kings – Complete Series DVD at now!

4 thoughts on “Kings 1×09: Pilgrimage

  1. A fellow Kings fan! Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be enough of us. 😛

    Well, I have to say I had mixed feelings about his episode. I liked the parts with Silas and David, Ian McShane is an incredible actor.

    But it’s official: I hate the Queen. The part where she slaps Jack… I feel SO SORRY FOR HIM. His parents seem to hate him and his boyfriend just died. Speaking of that, Joseph’s suicide seemed really abrupt. I just hope that Jack gets the courage to stand up and say who he is. He might be my favorite character in the series. Sebastian Stan is really amazing.

  2. Yeah, too bad the show didn’t catch on with America.

    This episode was definitely something different from what we’ve seen so far. I’ve enjoyed the Silas/David relationship. Very interesting and Ian McShane and Chris Egan have great chemistry.

    Sebastian Stan has been the breakout of the show I think. We all know Ian McShane is amazing, but Sebastian Stan has found the right balance for Jack. Joseph’s suicide does seem suspicious and I don’t doubt the Queen isn’t completely clean of the situation.
    Can’t wait for the next few episodes.

  3. Great recap. Just a little correction, might make what Rose says make more sense. When she and Jack are in the room together after she finds out that he went to Joseph’s funeral, she does not says “This must take of character”. I believe she says “This mistake of character. This will be our secret”. Jack responds: “Mistake of character? This is who I am.” So sad this is cancelled. I’m from Canada, by the way and I echo your sentiments regarding the public tendency to ignore intellectual and engaging programming, rather settling for “reality” shows. Keep up the awesome work, dryedmangoez!

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