'Miracle Workers: Dark Ages' Episode 9: Prince Chauncley gets engaged and Al packs for Paris
Spoilers for 'Miracle Workers: Dark Ages' Episode 9
The episodes of 'Miracle Workers: Dark Ages' have always been self-contained arcs of hilarity, mostly. But Episode 9 is Part 1 of a two-part finale of the series that ends next week. After all, setting up a royal abdication takes time, be it in real life or in fiction.
As we had left matters last, Al (Geraldine Vishwanathan) and the prince are no longer on speaking terms. While she cavorts around town with Archie Cosmos (Chris Jenks), Prince Chauncley (Daniel Radcliffe) is pantless and smelly looking at his and Al's photo-booth '4-in-one' pictures — only it is a sketch-version of it. And, of course, he has his bard sing him heart-break songs — a bard who is none too pleased about sharing space with his stinky master.
Lord Vexler (Karan Soni) sails in like a knight in shining armor but he has been sent to destroy, not heal. He delivers the prince to his father, King Cragnoor (Peter Serafinowicz), who tells him he has to get married the next day to seal a political alliance with the Valdrogians. The prince, his adventurous spirit curbed by his romantic misadventures, agrees to the proposal, looking miserable as a kicked puppy.
His meeting with the princess at first goes well when they bond over ducks and their parents' bloodthirsty natures. He is almost okay with the arranged marriage. But when his wife-to-be lays out their life together in minute details and then hands him a crown that also doubles as a "gravestone", the prince feels understandably unsettled.
All this season, we have had the prince fight for self-actualization — to be his own man, rather than what his father wants to be. In the process, he has disappointed his father several times over. So when the wedding vows, "written by the parents" for the couple, asks them if they will "forever" forgo all their feelings and only do what their parents tell them to do, Prince Chauncley finally snaps. He says "I do......NOT" stepping back in horror at the life he was about to commit to.
Of course, this means all-out war between Valdrogia and Murkford as the jilted bride explains very nicely before calling out the "blood warriors".
Al, who despite her father, Eddie's (Steve Buscemi), many attempts to make her stay, has left town with Archie to go to Paris. Her fight with her father about leaving already has her confused and when she hears the war horns and realizes everyone in her town will be slaughtered, including her father and brother, she turns back to help.
Archie calls her psycho and breaks up with her and Al and Eddie have the reunion just when Eddie is lamenting that he'll never see her again. And then the war horn sounds again as Mikey, Al, and Eddie look fearfully in the direction of the castle.
Of course, this cliffhanger sets up everything nicely for the last and final episode of Miracle Workers next week where hopefully Al will find a way to defeat the Valdrogians and win the prince's hand.
It has been a fun run with a few slow episodes. But it is the sort of the sweet, absurdist comedy we could do with a whole lot more of.
'Miracle Workers: Dark Ages' airs Tuesdays on TBS at 10:30/9:30c.