‘The Bastard Executioner’ episode 7 review: Wilkin Brattle shares the truth … but to who?

Through the past six episodes of FX’s “The Bastard Executioner,” Wilkin Brattle has slowly immersed himself in Ventrishire using a false name, a title of executioner, and little other than prophecies and revenge on his mind.

Yet, over time the same thing has happened to him that happens often whenever you have a character who starts to immerse themselves in a new world and culture: He makes connections, he feels guilt, and he seeks out ways to make amends. On Tuesday night’s new episode, he made one of his biggest moves to date in order to ensure that he could relinquish some of his pain: He revealed his true self to Lady Love in an effort in order to ensure the freedom of an innocent man, one he harbored great guilt for and believed he should die instead. She would not allow that to pass, and instead forced him to carry on in his charge for the sake of their own greater good. She feels the other self inside her, and recognizes like he does that there is an inexplicable connection.

The episode did close with the fitting execution, a particularly harrowing one that did require Wilkin to show some selfishness, not just on his part, but also for Lady Love.

As to what happens between these two characters, much remains to be seen. However, at the same exact time Lady Love may have competition now in the form of Wilkin’s fake wife Jessamy, who he paid a particularly intimate visit to near the end of the episode.

In looking at how the show has evolved overall since the very beginning, we do appreciate some of the shift away from strictly the brutality (there was some near the end of the episode) to the politics. The same goes for the greater appreciation that we have for Annora. The visual palette has always been there, as have been the performances. At the moment, the series’ true weakness may be that the main narrative fluctuates at times, and we do wish that there was a stronger push behind it. Also, FX in general is running into a problem these days of stuffing episodes a little too long; it is almost as though they are encouraging DVR viewing at this point, given that asking viewers to give up 90 minutes a week for a specific show, particularly one later at night, is a difficult proposition. Episode Grade: B.