Kings 1×10: Chapter One

A man is writing and narrating. Perry, the court historian Silas has entrusted with writing the story of Gilboa and the crown. He starts his story with a charter, stolen. The charter telling “the story of our liberties and our pride.” “From that day on it was as if a new story had begun. By order of the king, I endeavor to write it.”

The palace is abuzz with activity; our trusty security guards Klotz and Boyden express their hatred towards whoever took the charter.
The chancellors and the assembly are meeting in the boardroom. David arrives and takes his place in the advisor’s seat, but is visibly uncomfortable. Silas glares at him.

Thomasina says the southern tribes have always remained hostile to the crown, and wiretaps have suggested the charter is heading to the Ekron black market.
“We’ve been to war for less insult,” Thomasina says.

Silas tells everyone to leave but David and Perry. He tells David to go find the charter and bring it back. David says he’ll do anything to win his forgiveness with the king to which Silas says “Prove you’re better than the lie.”

Silas says all David will have is his wits, a gun, some money, and a phone “should [he] wish to call and declare failure.” He’ll tell no one where he is going or why.
“Succeed and history will remember you and you’ll have my forgiveness and my daughter. But come back empty handed and that’s all we’ll see… empty hands.”
Thomasina brings in David’s “supplies.”

“Yes sir,” David says. “Off you go,” Silas replies.


Two weeks later and no news from David. We see is in Ekron in the Southern Territories, a place similar to the dark gloomy Gath, yet darker and gloomier. Definitely rougher.

As Thomasina and Silas are walking towards the boardroom, she questions his lack of concern for David and even the charter. “To hell with the charter,” he says, “today we start a new one. It’s time for me to be the hero of my country again.” She gives him a look.

They walk past the lobby, and standing there is David’s mother.

In the boardroom, Silas wants to focus on moving forward. He does a Sarah Palin and pushes energy independence for Gilboa, asks the crowd for suggestions and then tells Perry to begin a new book, “one to be read 1000 years from now, one that began here, today, how we found and followed a vision.”

“The Book of Silas!” Perry exclaims and the people explode in applause.

Meanwhile, Katrina is getting fitted for her gown. Jack comes in.
She tells him she’s found the perfect rock for the engagement ring during a trip to Austeria. They kiss as Rose walks into the room.

Rose: “Seeing the gown before the wedding, no mind for superstition.”
Katrina: “Well young wives have nothing to fear from old wives’ tales.”

Jack walks out, but Rose stops him, saying he had an eye for greatness but not only because of spite he resorts to becoming a laughingstock.
He leaves. Rose then turns to Katrina, confronting her about blackmailing him. She happily tells her about Jack’s willingness to bring down his mother.

Rose: “It will never happen.”
Katrina: “Of course it will. I’m his only chance at happiness left. I know exactly what Jack is and I don’t care. With me Jack can be king by day and a bad boy with whatever, boy, he wants at night. I might even join in. When I marry Jack and knock out an heir, that would make you what? The royal granny? While I take your place as queen.”

She heads off to Austeria for the ring, leaving the queen with a mysterious and dangerous smirk on her face.

Back to the Southern Territories, David walks into a bar. He talks to the bartender. He tells David everyone knows who he is, “errand boy for Silas, looking for the charter.” He warns David, tells him to go home before he gets hurt. Suddenly a woman approaches him saying “What you’re looking for, you’re asking the wrong people.”

He follows her to an abandoned warehouse on the docks. Men are loading a truck and are holding guns and rifles. They search David and find his gun. A man approaches him and David asks if he has the charter. “Maybe I have it, maybe I don’t…” he replies and the other men proceed to beat him up and gets knocked out.

David wakes up in a room. It’s the bartender. He gives him food and coffee and tells David “I couldn’t just let you die cuz you’re an idiot” and had followed him to the docks. He tells David the charter is heading to Ashkelon.
David tells he has to find it as Silas has ordered it, to which the bartender replies “Silas isn’t worth you next trip to the toilet.”

David asks why. “Because of what he did to your father,” he says.
He explains he had fought in the war with his father, and as David knows, they were stationed on the northern front. But they got an order from Silas to be sent to the border towns, still sympathetic towards Gath, to torture them and make them an example for all. They refused the order, but Silas wouldn’t have it. They were dropped there defenseless in heavy combat, left to die.

“Silas sent your father to get killed David, just like he sent you out on this mission to get killed. Now you think about that before you do anything else for that bastard.”

The bartender leaves to get David something strong, but David gets up to the computer and Google maps Ashkelon. He prints out a map with several possibly locations, takes keys to a motorcycle and goes.

Back in Shiloh, Silas again is walking with Thomasina. They are expecting tonight’s engagement party. She reminds Silas that he didn’t ask her to get Jack’s gift yet. He says he has better than a gift to offer.
He spots David’s mother Jessie. She’s there everyday like “a bitter almond in the cake.” She tells him who she is and asks if he “wishes her removed.” “It’s a public space,” he replies.

That night, everyone is all dressed up for the party. They are waiting for Jack and his fiancé. The doors open and Jack walks in, arm in arm with…
Lucinda Wolfson. He introduces her and they kiss.

“A shame what happened to Katrina Ghent,” William says. Rose adds “Oh its tragedy! But anyone foolish enough to drive those mountain roads in Austeria…”
Rose turns to Silas who says “Or underestimates the mother-in-law.”

Rose gives them a toast. Lucinda can’t believe this is all happening.
William comes to welcome here to the family, “You’ll find we’re very warm.”
“Jack,” he adds, “I’m happy you’re thinking about your future.”

Silas takes Jack to look at his portrait.
“Your sacrifices haven’t gone unnoticed. Or your new discipline,” Silas says. His gift to Jack, on the day of his wedding, he will “designate this country a blood dynasty, with you as my heir, the future king. That’s if you want it so.”
“With all that I am,” Jack replies.
“King Jonathan of Gilboa” Silas remarks and leaves Jack to ponder.

Later on, Silas is at the fire with some wine. Michelle comes in, she can’t sleep either. He can’t shake the image of David’s mother in the lobby. The conversation moves to David. Michelle believes Silas has sent him off for diplomatic training, to help him in his new position as advisor to the king. Michelle is happy. He wants her to be happy.

No regrets for her vow, he asks? “I couldn’t stay a little girl,” she replies.
“I thought you might,” he says when she walks out the room.

Meanwhile, in a car, Jack is with William. He tells his uncle about Silas’s gift and that it changes their plans. No need for a coup, he’ll be king “soon enough.” William sighs.

Jack: “We don’t need to ally ourselves with the enemy. No innocent people have to die. It may take more than a month, like we want, but it will happen. We save all that blood. You’ll still be by my side as planned.”
William: “If only you had half as much mind as charm… your father has no intention of announcing anything. Or going anywhere, heaven or hell. You’ve seen his lies.”
Jack: “This is different, he’s ch…”
And William slaps Jack on the forehead.
William: “No one ever changes! You were given an offer and you accepted. In exchange, you ceded your right to whim. The change of power happens on my clock, not his, not yours… with you at my side. Silas falls and soon. And be sure there will be all the blood required. Only turning back now leaves you in the same ditch.”

The next day, Lucinda is so excited about the wedding invitations and she goes to show Jack, but finds him with another man, Stu, flirting?

Jack: “Lulu! Stu and I were just discussing some security issues.”
He walks over, glances at the invitations and says “That works.” He smiles. “Lulu” is confused. “Anything else?” he asks. She just shakes her head no and leaves.

Meanwhile, David is traveling on the bike. He arrives at Ashkelon Textiles. Nothing there. Next location.
In Shiloh, Silas watches a presentation on the possible windmill farm that could help their energy independence.

Perry narrates and continues to write, it would’ve been easier to just give up, but he pushed on. Progress was made. “Steps taken against the wind with hopes of success. Despite everything.”

David arrives at a gas station, Ashkelon Quality Fuels. His last location. Seems to have been abandoned. He drops the map and gets back on the bike. It fails to start. He kicks over the motorcycle, tosses the helmet.

On the side of the road, no one for miles, he takes out the phone. Giving up? But puts it back. He sees an old billboard on the side of the building…

He takes the phone out again and begins dialing ASHKELON and calls.
“Edom Railyards” the man answers. David asks about a shipment from Shiloh and the man says that yes, there was a big shipment that came through Ekron. David knows where to go.
A van suddenly arrives and he hitches a ride.

The couple in the van say they’re from Gath. They dodged the draft and have been on the road ever since. She hands him some pills, but he refuses. She calls him a good boy and starts massaging him. The guy hands him something to drink. She puts a pill in her mouth and kisses him.
“What was that?” he asks. “A goodbye,” she says, “don’t worry about it. Rest. You’re on your way.”

And David is transported someplace else. He is in a bar. He hears the piano piece and sees on the TV that it is his father teaching a little boy the piece… he is the little boy.
“1 and 2, 1 and 2,” he repeats. “Follow the time David.”

Now he’s side by side with his father. “You haven’t learned your lesson yet, David.” David can’t believe his father is right next to him.
“But I failed,” David says. “Remember what I always told you,” his father answers, “If you ever find yourself lost, follow the time. You’ll find your way.”


David hugs his father. He blinks and he is back in Shiloh, at the boardroom.
Silas is standing at his usual place behind the table. “It’s time you learned your lesson David,” Silas says.
Flash. David turns around to see himself, in a suit, with Michelle (looking out the window), Rose, Thomasina, and a group of other women standing behind him.

“Follow the time,” suited David says. Or is it King David? He sits in front of the butterfly at Silas’s place.

He wakes up and is at the rail yard. He searches through the coaches and sees the man from Ekron. He jumps him and demands to know where the charter is.
“It’s shipping out any minute. You’re too late, you’ll never find it.”
One last punch to knock him out and David heads off to look.


Back in Shiloh, Rose is lecturing Lucinda. She bluntly asks about her period, her fertility.
Lucinda: “I’ll be a good wife to Jack.”
Rose: “No. You’re mistaken. You’re not marrying Jack, you’re marrying this country. … You become a vessel for the propagation of his kind. If you can’t manage that, you’ll have failed your only employment.”
Jack comes, kisses her, and tells her the chef is waiting to choose the wedding cake.

Silas is with Chancellor Hanson, Thomasina, and Rev. Samuels. None of the proposals for the energy initiatives are viable. “This might not be the change this country needs. Consider looking elsewhere for your success,” Rev. Samuels suggests.
Silas tells them to push on with the project, but he leaves them to talk to David’s mother.

“The mother of the hero,” Silas says.
“The hero of my son,” she answers.
He asks if he can help her, but she only waits for David. He offers to notify here when they’ve heard something about David, but she says she knows he’s done something to him, sent him somewhere.

Silas: “If David was charged somehow, I can assure you it was for a good cause and you’ll be proud.”
Mrs. Shepherd: “You don’t have good causes. You pretend to be a good man, like you pretend to be a young man. But I don’t wait here out of worry. But to see it when he comes home victorious which he will. His course is set on something. I tried to change it, you set that monster loose. And the shame of it is, you and I will be the only ones that wish it never happened. And will have to watch.”
Silas backs away, she smiles.

At the rail yard, David continues searching and sees a number, 8197. The piano begins to play. Other numbers… 30118, 43, 8032… the voice of his father, “If you ever find yourself lost, follow the time. You’ll find your way.”
And there it is… 12 12… he opens the railcar and begins toppling over crates, searching through them, until he finds one at the very top.
He brings it down and smashes it until it comes open.

He finds a briefcase and the charter inside. He’s found it. In another crate, the Ark of the Covenant. Hmm…


Back in Shiloh, the timetable for the renewal initiative is indefinite.
Thomasina comes in and whispers to Silas that David Shepherd is back.

David walks into lobby of Astor Hall with the charter.
Everyone applauds. He hugs his mother.
He walks into Unity Hall. More applause. Silas tepidly applauses as well. Jack and Michelle both shocked.

David walks to the table and sets down the charter.
“Let all know, I sent Capt. David Shepherd to bring back what we had lost, our pride!” Silas raises the charter. Flashbulbs everywhere.
“You called it the price of worthiness,” David says, “to be seen with your daughter.”
Silas has the boardroom cleared. David tells Perry to stay.
He throws the phone on the table towards Silas.

“Must’ve been a hell of an adventure,” Silas asks.
“It tested my faith, in many things. Did you intend for me to rescue your charter or die trying… as perhaps you have sent others to die before.”
Perry is listening and taking notes.

Silas: “I intended it, a test of metal. No less than I would ask my own natural born son, to come out deserving or dead.”
David: “Then here I am…”
Silas: “Here you are.”
David: “…my eyes opened…”
Silas: “…to see my arms open wide rejoicing in your triumph! I am giving you leave to press any noble intentions on my daughter. Our country welcomes home its charter and its hero.”

Perry, with his book…
“It is the historian’s compulsion to look at events and see in them the story that needs be remembered, as charged by the king, a new book did begin, and a new day did dawn. And on that day, a leader rose whose name would be carried as long as there is wind. One who suffered and stumbled, but did not fall. Not as Silas would have it, but as fate, or necessity, or God would. It falls to me to write his story.”
And on the front page of the book…

In the boardroom, Silas tells Thomasina to “Do it.”

Do what?
David is on top of Michelle in his apartment when suddenly troops burst in to arrest David… for treason.

Episode Thoughts
So we get to see a glimpse of David as King of Gilboa. Lots of interesting symbolism throughout the episode and I loved how everything was woven together so intricately.

But first, the sad untimely demise of Miss Katrina Ghent. The royal family’s power to dispatch anyone and anything they want to, while understandable in the context of the situation, it’s almost become a sort of dues ex machine-type of plot device. They just snap their fingers and everything is well and good. Surely, someone can get one up on them?

I also can’t help but wonder if Katrina, barring some miracle, is really dead, she didn’t entrust the video and pictures to someone or have them released in the event something happened to her. She knows what goes on in the palace, she no doubt would’ve expected her being offed sooner or later.

Which then also presents the possibility that she prepared herself some sort of rabbit hole she could’ve jumped into when the Queen or anyone snaps their fingers for her to disappear.

Oh well, we may never know. It was great seeing Leslie Bibb though. She was awesome and if Kings even had a chance at the Emmys, she’d be Guest Actress Emmy material.

Always great to see what’s outside Shiloh. Especially since this is a world we don’t know and aren’t familiar with, anytime we get to see more of the country (or a neighboring one), it is fascinating.

I myself had to look up why that angel statue/sculpture in the crate was familiar-ish and discovered it was the Ark of the Covenant, which I then too had to look up. It is very interesting seeing all the Biblical aspects they are including and adapting on the series.

*sigh* Just thinking about what could’ve been makes me all sad that we only have three hours of Kings left to see.

But it should be very exciting. Hopefully David’s come to his senses and it appears he’s at least getting there. Only three episodes left!! Things are just about to heat up.

Episode Caps (click to embiggen)















THREE EPISODES LEFT!
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 and also on Comcast OnDemand.
Order the Kings – Complete Series DVD at now!

5 thoughts on “Kings 1×10: Chapter One

  1. Thanks for the great recap!

    So that’s what it was – the Ark. The more episodes I watch, the more frightening the Queen becomes. Only 3 more episodes? That’s very sad.

  2. I can’t believe there’s only three episodes left! I keep watching and wondering about all the cool storylines we’ll never get to see. I’m sure that Katrina is still alive. She might not reappear before the end of this season, but I bet they would have brought her back later.

    I can’t wait to see what happens next week. Silas treats David as a friend, but now we’re beginning to see another side of him that is much more dangerous. I mean, he’s already tried to have David killed before.

    The scene between William and Jack was frightening. I’m so interested in where this is going and it frustrates me to no end to know that we’ll never know! I love this show too much.

  3. Seeing the Queen just grow more and more evil every episode is fascinating! She didn’t really make a big impression in the premiere, but she’s really developed.

    Silas has always been hesitant with David, but really grew to trust him and boom, trust broken, his worst fears realized. He must think that he will be the next king that Lady Death warned him about.

  4. I think the ark is connected to King Silas request about finding new power source and it would’ve played a major plot in season 2 and more about the past Like with Brian cox character Abedoon

    note in same episode we see David in future or hallucination about being the king of Gilboa so to me this make scene the ark is what makes him king (war weapon&energy source)

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