Kings: The Sabbath Queen

Among the myriad tragedies of the cancellation of NBC's Kings is the loss of an expanding cast's ability to shine publicly. While the world is well-acquainted with the singular gravitas of Ian McShane and I don't think we have to worry about Dylan Baker getting more work, there are a few standouts that may not get the chance they deserve. For one, Sebastian Stan has never had a role so meaty, not that he hasn't deserved one. Hopefully, he won't be going back to bit parts in indie flicks now. Beyond the principle cast, there are some guests and supporting players that either never got the chance to do anything interesting, or never hit the air before the show got carted to its current Summer weekend slot. This episode features two such actors.

First, poor Macaulay Culkin made a single appearance as Andrew Cross before NBC pulled the plug. A potentially interesting character, the recently un-exiled Andrew might have nicely rounded-out the youth drama that makes up so much of Kings. Instead, all he got to do was be quietly snarky at a dinner party. In "The Sabbath Queen" he didn't do much else, except be disappointed and attempt a quick political gambit that may or may not turn into anything. If Kings hadn't been canceled, I'd call this a waste of dramatic tension. In the current state, it just seems like a premature deflation of a gradual story arc.

What really breaks my heart about this episode is that Saffron Burrows, an actress who never got her due as far as I'm concerned, graces the screen as a stony, ghostly version of Death. I'll admit, I wasn't thrilled with the overall tone of her interactions with Silas. The whole thing was staged like a typical supernatural horror flick instead of hewing closer to the Old Testament mysticism that has made this show work (at least artistically) so far. When she got to actually talk face to face with Silas instead of being scary for the sake of scary, Burrows handled this potentially hokey role with grace and sincerity.

The reason Death is pestering Silas is because we spend a portion of "The Sabbath Queen" in the past when princess Michelle is still suffering from some unnamed terminal illness. A desperate Silas begs the powers that be for her life, but it's not God that answers his call. Death makes a blood contract with Silas. In exchange for his daughter's life, Death demands that Silas one day gives up his crown for "the better man". It becomes more plain as the episode progresses that David is that man, but we pretty much knew that already.

As for David, he and present-day Michelle use a city-wide blackout as a chance to sneak off to the Summer house for some forbidden sex (the best kind there is) and some amateur erotic photography (the worst kind there is). Because this is Kings, their pillow talk mostly involves Michelle's sacred deathbed vow to devote her every living breath to God, which somehow means precluding her own happiness. I don't quite get that logic, but it creates a conflict in the plot, so whatever. Of course, David manages to convince her that their mutual affections are totally A-OK with the man upstairs. So much for sacred vows.

Oh, and there's a violent extremist in the city who wants to kill Silas. He's on screen for a grand total of five seconds, comprised entirely of a photograph of him, then later his Silas-shot corpse. Necessary? Not really. But then again, neither was all that time spent in the past when we know for a fact that Michelle doesn't die from her disease.

Best Moment: Death's chat with Silas. I'm a sucker for well-used guest stars and I like most of the unflinching mysticism on this show.

Biggest Shock: It looks like Queen Rose is responsible for Gilboa declaring war on Gath. Too bad that storyline didn't get as much attention as it deserved.

Episode Rating: 3/5- While it's nice that it filled in some back plot, "The Sabbath Queen" was just tonally ridiculous. The horror movie tropes with the Death plot just don't belong on this show and I was tired of David and Michelle's romance by the end of the pilot. That may have more to do with the blandness of Chris Egan and Allison Miller than it does with the writing, though. Still, when this episode was on task it was pretty interesting.