After last night’s viewing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail I thought it would be nice to give all of you another modern interpretation of the Grail. This interpretation comes from a TV show that began in 2005 called Criminal Minds. The show follows the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU); a team of FBI profilers based in Quantico, VA. They are called to work on cases that extremely violent in nature to create a psychological profile of the criminal. It is an interesting show if you enjoy a different type of crime drama, but be prepared for some pretty disturbing stuff.
Anyways, I would like to bring talk about two episodes they had called “The Fisher King.” They were a two part finale of the first season. The general gist was that there was a killer who kept mailing clues to the members of the BAU about a series of murders. Just so happens he calls himself the Fisher King. The killer kept repeating, “The youngest is the most important.” Now I must warn you. Major spoilers!!!!! There were 3 or so killings, and then the killer began referencing a girl that has been missing, who the team still thought alive. The plot thickens!
Here is where the Grail stuff comes into play. It turns out that the killer was a man who was horrible injured in a house fire; his whole family died except for his daughter who he eventual put up for adoption while he was in the hospital. The man, covered in horrific scars, ended up in a sanitarium for a few years…it just so happens that one of the guys, Reid, on the team’s mother lived there. She had been a professor and loved The Quest for the Holy Grail and liked to share the story.
Turns out when the man was released, he kidnapped his daughter because he thinks she is the Grail. He also thinks Reid is Percival, and if he asks the right question, all his wounds will be healed. Reid refuses to ask “the question” and tries to emphasize that fact that his daughter is real and alive. Turns out man is wearing a bomb!!! Here is their exchange:
"Just ask the question and I will be healed and you may take the grail. Just ask the question, Sir Knight."
"I can't. Mr. Garner. A fisher king wound cannot be healed by someone else. It's not a wound of the body. It is a wound of the memory. It's a wound that only you can find and that only you can heal. There is only one very important question, only one that matters. Can you forgive yourself?" says Reid.
"I couldn't save her. Tell me where she is and you can save her know. You already know where she is. I sent your mother the map."
Garner realizes there is no way he can be healed. "No, I can't forgive myself." Then he blows himself up while Reid dashes away.
Don’t worry…they save the girl.
However, this is an interesting take of the Grail story. It takes a story that was meant to be taken at face value, and turns it into a story of the failings of the mind.
Here is a website with detailed descriptions of the episodes!!
http://www.tv.com/criminal-minds/the-fisher-king-1/episode/700959/recap.html?tag=episode_recap;recap
http://www.tv.com/criminal-minds/the-fisher-king-2/episode/805102/recap.html?tag=episode_recap;recap
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It's very interesting how this overlaps with the use of the Fisher King/ Grail quest in the Fisher King that Lenny talked about. Arthuriana as a psychological outlet/ healer seems to be a modern trend. Huh. I suppose the idea of being healed from trama (really painful wounds) by someone listening to you (asking the right questions... like a counselor) works!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think you're right. Who thought being a good listener was so valued?? Haha.
ReplyDeleteBut it makes sense that the psychological aspect of Arthuriana would be picking up popularity. I feel as if the "mental sciences" (I don't know what to call it...) have been getting more attention in the past decade than before. Well, I think Freud got a lot of attention in his day, but I feel like psychology is coming back into style! Arthuriana leaves its self open to this kind of use because it is fantastic and sometimes dream-like.
Hi Tara, (re: Morgan Nov. 16)I posted a comment a few days ago but it disappeared into cyber space. I do not have the sdame background as you do as this is my first Arthuriana other than a child’s encyclopedia and the Yankee at the Court of King Arthur courtesy Comic Classics.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do not recall a convent girl image for Morgan (I am one myself!) in any of this semester’s selections. Obviously, I am forgetting the earlier reading. Going back to Malory, Morgan is a complex character like so many of his other characters. One cannot say that Malory has flat characters as his delineation of Launcelot, Gawayne, Guinevere and Arthur can testify to that. I see Morgan as a ‘strong’ female figure albeit a scheming one, who from the beginning due to some unexplained enmity, hates Arthur. That in itself is paradoxical as she is the one who takes Arthur to Avalon with his head cradled on her lap. One could argue that Arthur was injured and would have recovered had she not ‘taken’ him with her. There are a few things that Malory does not explain as his ‘sources’ had no explanation for them and I suppose he could not radically change the story of Arthur and his knights, even if he could embellish them occasionally.
One reason that Morgan is demonized is that in the middle ages men were apparently afraid of women who did not behave like chattel but had a will of their own. Morgan is shown in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a plotter, scheming to destroy or embarrass and mortify Arthur’s knight(s) as when she emasculates Gawain, and tries to cause Guinevere’s through fright at seeing the Green Knight. She is successful at effeminizing Gawain as he sits at home being seduced by Bertilak’s wife and gossiping with the ladies, while the ‘men’ go out to hunt and bring in their kill skillfully dismembered.
She wants to rule along with her lover, Accolon (spelling?), for which she is willing to murder her husband as well as Arthur. Interestingly, she never collects a force to challenge her brother, perhaps because no one would have sided with her. What is still more puzzling is that her son is a knight of the Round Table. This makes her a demon in another way—female sexuality, a thing to be feared. Morgan sacrifices other relationships and scheme to destroy others for power or for the man she takes as a lover? Even then, we are told that she has had other lovers and takes Launcelot prisoner. Is that the root of her hatred for Guinevere? Launcelot, the noble knight? We are told that she tried her best to draw Arthur’s attention to the lovers with the horn and shield, and of course also tries to kill Guinevere with the cloak. Once Guinevere would be killed, Launcelot would be up for grabs.
It is interesting that her schemes fail repeatedly. One could ask is it because Arthur has to meet his end at the hands of his son/nephew and Morgan’s schemes cannot change that?