Galavant, S2 Ep5 – Giants vs. Dwarves

“Yes, I believe something might just have started.”

There was trouble in paradise in the first of this week’s episodes of Galavant. Gal’s patience with Richard has been wearing thin. When the latter exchanges the jewel of Valencia for what he calls a dragon (but what everyone sees as a lizard), whom he names Tad Cooper, Galavant snaps and storms off to find allies on his own. Richard is likewise upset with his BFF and goes into an amusing song about his new friend, Tad Cooper, in the jaunty and fun “My Dragon Pal and Me,” which had a cute melody even though the lyrics tackled fire and destruction on innocent humans.

Galavant goes in search of the giants whom he hopes he can win to his side. When he finally finds them, he is disappointed to discover that they are just regular-sized blokes who like to call themselves giants. Among them is guest star Nick Frost, who is appropriately named Andre. They have a longstanding feud with the “dwarves,” another group of regular-sized men whom Richard takes up with.

All this leads to a hilarious and awesome Jets vs. Sharks-type clash/dance off complete with aggressive finger-snapping and whistling. This show loves to poke fun at its own genre and does so amazingly. The little tribute to West Side Story was fun and effective.

Roberta saves the day by fixing the bridge that had been the cause of the whole feud and reminding Galavant of Richard’s loyalty. Everyone reconciles and the three friends ride off on their quest. Unfortunately, Galavant still has no army because both the giants and the dwarves decide to work things out together before getting embroiled in another conflict.

Elsewhere, Isabella finally breaks free of Wormwood’s mind control!

When she visits a certain Princess Jubilee (played amazingly by Sheridan Smith), the punk rock bisexual princess goes into a rocking number about how different she is from all the other girly princesses and how Isabella used to be like that too. Smith was superb in the number, though the song sometimes sounded a bit flat. But it was effective enough to shatter the mind-controlling tiara and Isabella returns to her former, badass self. And she rides back to Hortensia with murder on her mind.

Back in Valencia, Sid and Gareth have a few buddy moments together and then Sid advises against Gareth’s pursuing Madalena. The vindictive queen hears of this (from Gareth) and Sid becomes a moving target. Poor Sid can’t catch a break! Madalena also adorably admits that she reciprocates Gareth’s feelings for her as they sit side by side in the throne room. They’re both vicious and warmongering and therefore perfect for each other. And it’s fun to watch them develop genuine feelings for the other after they realized how much they had in common.

“Giants vs. Dwarves” was another fun episode that also served as a turning point for our main characters. Galavant and Richard solidified their friendship while Gareth and Sid dissolved theirs. Gareth and Madalena admitted their feelings to one another while Sid goes on the run. And Isabella is finally back to her old self and ready to fight fiercely for her freedom and to defeat the evil schemes of the wicked Wormwood.