Cursed premiere recap: Katherine Langford becomes a sword-swinging heroine

Cursed Season 1 premiere: The legend of the Lady of the Lake.

In a world vastly different from 13 Reasons Why‘s melodrama, Katherine Langford returns to Netflix as Niume of the Arthurian legend known as The Lady of the Lake. But as Cursed Season 1 is an origin story, we meet Nimue at the beginning of her journey.

The episode begins with Nimue riding into town on her reliable steed, Old Boy. We immediately get the sense that something is amiss given the stage behavior of the birds and the ominous darkness. We quickly meet one of Nimue’s only friends in her village, a young boy named Squirrel who enjoys pickpocketing.

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Within the first moments of the episode, Cursed Season 1 establishes that Nimue is an outcast. Passerby call her a witch, sneer at her, and generally look at her with an obvious sense of disgust.

Then she sees a vibrant flower floating by, guiding her toward a clearing in the nearby forest. There, she notices a deer that seems to whisper to her.

“Death is not the end, Fey queen. Save them,” says the deer.

But before Nimue can question why Bambi is talking to her, someone shoots the animal dead. Two rowdy men arrive to collect their bounty. They both treat Nimue like a disease, joking with one another not to get too close, as she’s a witch. But one of them makes a cutting remark about her father abandoning her and Nimue loses her cool.

We see green veins start to climb up her neck as she harnesses some kind of magic that turns his bow into a snake-like entity that coils around him and strangles him, almost to death. Luckily, Nimue’s mother Lenore intervenes and snaps her out of the angry fugue state before Nimue can finish murdering him.

However, during her episode, Nimue sees flashes of an incident that happened when she was younger, evidently, her father may have left because he thought she was a curse or would bring darkness to their land.

Fast-forward to a strange ceremonial service where Nimue, her mother, and other residents from the village gather around a pyre to worship “The Hidden Ones.”  They choose Nimue as their Summoner and everyone is pissed that the Dark Gods chose her. But Nimue isn’t interested in being a “Summoner” of any kind.

Her mother tries to make her understand that her abilities are a fit and she should be grateful to the Hidden Ones for bestowing it upon her. Instead of listening, Nimue decides she’s done with the village and runs off to try and board a ship and get out of dodge, her friend Pym following her.

Elsewhere in this lush new world presented by Cursed Season 1, Episode 1, we are introduced to Father Cardin, a man I assume is going to be a major antagonist throughout the season. Cardin leads the hateful group of Red Paladins, who all wear red robes and burn Fey villages up and down the coast as a means to purge the world of magic.

Back in the village, the residents retrieve a Moon Wing who has been badly burned by the Red Paladins. She tells them what the group has been doing, slaughtering children and families. But worst of all, she whispers, is the Weeping Monk, who wears gray robes instead of red. He works for the Paladins to hunt down any Fey that manage to escape and is quite chilling to look at it, especially thanks to his creepy slow-mo entrances.

Now no Arthurian story would be complete with Merlin, the legendary wizard. We meet him while he’s getting drunk and dealing with a few rogues at a bar. A seed is planted that Merlin might have lost is magic, as a local legend says.

Merlin also works for King Uther Pendragon, who is not very happy with the wizard considering he promised that he would bring the rains to end the drought and has not achieved his promise yet. The people are getting restless and blaming Uther for their ongoing strife.

Back with Nimue and Pym, the pair make it to the docks only to discover the ship has already left and will not return for six months. Looks like Nimue is stuck for a while. She and Pym decide to enjoy the day and look at the various vendors selling thread, fabric, and other wares. Then they stumble upon a charming, male singer, and Nimue is instantly attracted to him, as he is to her.

Who is it? Arthur of course! Arthur invites the girls to join him for an ale in a pub. Inside, they meet an older man and Nimue tries to hustle him. She agrees to bet on the dice roll since she knows she can use her ability to change it so she’ll win. It works, but at the cost of revealing she’s a witch.

With all the men now after her, she and Pym flee to the woods. Arthur follows, surprising them and offering them a place to stay at his camp as it turns to night.

As for Merlin, he stumbles upon a baby with three faces attached to its head — creepy stuff. Later, he notices similar imagery in a book.

How does Cursed Season 1, Episode 1 end?

Nimue and Arthur bond by the fire, practicing fighting styles and even getting close to a kiss. The girls eventually leave him and begin their trek back home when a horse on fire rides by. Sensing what could be ahead, Nimue rush back to find the entire place overrun with Red Paladins.

Pym gets scooped up by a Paladin and Nimue rushes forth to find Squirrel. She tells him to run into a hidden place in the woods and keep hidden.

Continuing her journey, she finds her mother bleeding on the ground. She tells her daughter to take an oddly-wrapped package to Merlin and leave her behind. Nimue doesn’t want to abandon her mom, but then another Red Paladin enters and prepares to finish Lenore off. She creates a distraction, sacrificing herself so Nimue can escape.

Nimue takes off running as we bounce back and forth between her and Merlin. Finally, the wizard manages to make it rain, but something is amiss. Instead of water, the skies open up and pour down blood. The king makes the mistake of drinking a bucket of it, thinking it’s water.

Merlin stands on the edge of his castle balcony and is struck by lightning. It catches him on fire and burns a strange sword-shaped scar into the length of his body as he crumples to the ground.

While trying to escape, Nimue is hunted by wolves. She manages to make it to a clearing in the woods and climbs on top of a rock slab there, but the wolves are quick to jump up and bite her.

Finally, she realizes that her package could help her, slowly unwrapping it and revealing a magical sword. Then Nimue attacks the wolves, slaying each and every one of them as the screen turns red with the blood splatter.

The entire first season of Cursed is now available to stream on Netflix.