Lord of Misrule 2023

Rebecca Holland, [Tuppence Middleton], is a newly appointed vicar in a quiet village, and she begins her tenure with a baptism that quietly underlines the town’s uneasy undercurrents. At home, Grace, Rebecca’s daughter, behaves in a disturbing way: she tears at her own hair and binds it as if wrapping a secret gift, and she clutches the family rabbit with a pair of scissors held close to its neck. From a distance, three masked onlookers observe Grace’s actions, and it feels as if she is speaking to them without saying a word. When Rebecca returns, she finds Henry, her husband, cleaning Grace’s wounds from the rabbit incident, and a fault line appears between them. Rebecca accuses Henry of failing to care for Grace, while Henry insists he must concentrate on work to bring new things to the family. Grace has just settled into a recent move, but Rebecca’s worries grow, and Grace overhears their conversation and slips away.

Grace is chosen as the Harvest angel and makes her way toward the village festival. Rebecca senses trouble, though she cannot yet grasp the full scope of Grace’s secret rituals. As Grace moves through the crowd, a circle of girls surrounds her, preparing her for something unspoken. The villagers gather for a performance tied to the old customs, and the scene shifts to Jocelyn Abney, [Ralph Ineson], who is preparing for the Feast of the Fools—the village’s ritualized revelry. Donning the makeup and the role of lord of misrule, he channels a dark energy, urging the crowd to chant the name of Gallowgog, the harvest blight, while presenting himself as fearless before the audience. His performance culminates in a procession toward the edge of the forest, where the field meets the trees, and the crowd is set alight by a ritual energy that feels both ceremonial and dangerous.

As night falls, the bonfires blaze in three separate rings and the villagers dance in a crowded circle around the flames. Rebecca searches for Grace but loses sight of her in the throng. A friend mentions Grace’s absence in a way that sounds almost perfunctory, and Rebecca ventures into the forest to pursue her daughter, following a tall man who seems to vanish into the trees. She eventually returns, realizing that Grace has slipped beyond her reach.

The next day, police questioning begins, but the officers are slow to press the issue, repeating questions in a way that suggests they suspect more than they are willing to pursue. Rebecca asks the officers to leave her house, and she ends up sleeping in Grace’s bed after praying. That night, Grace speaks to her mother in a whisper, as if seeking a rescue. Rebecca begins to suspect that Grace is still alive and imprisoned, and she feels the girl’s presence as if Grace is begging for help.

In the chapter titled The Gift of Blood, the villagers flood the forest in search of Grace, but they return with little more than a slip of wind and the lingering sense that something has departed. A police clip reveals Grace speaking to a man with a triangle tattoo on his hand—the same man who wore the Gallowgog costume during the festival. That discovery sends Rebecca and Henry to the outskirts of the village, where they confront Derry Nash and his grandfather. Inside a campervan, they uncover ominous, handmade devices embedded in the wall and, at the center, a small chair with a Harvest Angel-like figure sitting on a throne, surrounded by animal skins that are still bleeding. It becomes clear that there is a cult involved in the town’s rituals, and Grace’s fate hangs in the balance as Rebecca realizes the scale of the danger.

That night, Rebecca sees Grace in a dream again, pleading for rescue. By the third day, the chapter titled The Gift of Fire unfolds as Rebecca seeks help from the church and the community. She asks the congregation to pray for Grace, but Jocelyn interrupts, claiming that God cannot restore Grace because God does not have her. He repeats an unsettling line Rebecca found at Nash’s property: “He stands in the field and waits.” Rebecca senses that Jocelyn’s zeal may be linked to the same dark force that has taken Grace, and she suspects that Gallowgog has penetrated the town through the people who now control it.

Ida Tremlow, [Jane Wood], appears distressed by an ominous atmosphere, and Mira explains the folklore around Gallowgog and how Christianity supplanted the old ways. The story recalls a 1621 history in which a lord of misrule named Tobias Bron claimed contact with the spirit of the land, promising wonders in exchange for offerings—blood offerings that led to the burning of Bron and his followers when the Church intervened. Rebecca begins to see how Jocelyn has become the modern Tobias Bron, moving to place Grace at the center of a ritual that the town is more than willing to participate in.

Rebecca learns that Jocelyn is teaching children at the school and that their parents are drawn into the same cycle. She begs Henry to help, but he remains skeptical, certain that Grace is simply missing rather than in grave danger. Rebecca attends the vigil for Grace, where the villagers sit in hushed silence while singing the recurring refrain “All Is As Was,” the fourth chapter’s refrain, and where she realizes Grace’s absence is more than simple misplacement. Henry strikes Jocelyn, trying to halt the cult’s momentum, but the town rallies around Jocelyn, and Rebecca is pulled into the crowd’s murmur.

Derry Nash arrives at the scene in a desperate bid to reach Grace and exposes the attempt to lure Grace into the Black Barn—a structure built for ritual offerings. He is killed by the crowd when he tries to intervene, and Rebecca is captured and dragged away to the school. When she comes to, she finds herself beside Jocelyn, who believes the village’s faith in the ritual is absolute. Rebecca’s resolve hardens as she realizes she must save Grace, but the town’s fevered devotion makes that task nearly impossible.

Henry is coerced into sitting in the same position as Tobias Bron’s captives, surrounded by witnesses to a horrifying event that has yet to unfold. Rebecca pleads with the village to reject the ritual, but they remain silent, obedient, and unyielding. Jocelyn reveals his plan: kill a vicar as retribution for Bron’s death, a ritualized revenge that would seal his authority. He forces Henry into the deadly chair, threatening to enact a ritual that will end Grace’s life.

In a brutal culmination, Henry dies at Jocelyn’s hands, and Rebecca, now full of purpose, sings along with the other villagers to the familiar refrain. She is taken to the Black Barn, where she finds Grace in the same room that had horrified her earlier. Before escaping with Grace, she confronts Gallowgog in the open, removing her own fear by offering her hair as a symbolic gift to the dark spirit. When she emerges with Grace, the crowd’s faith falters as they watch her stand unmasked before the devil they have worshiped.

Rebecca explains to the villagers that she has allowed Gallowgog to see her face, a stark contrast to Jocelyn’s masked approach, which has fed their fear. The ritual’s power appears to be shifting. The crowd’s fear dissolves into doubt, and the question of what Gallowgog truly wants remains open. Jocelyn’s power over the village begins to crumble as the crowd’s trust shifts toward Rebecca.

In the aftermath, the villagers burn Jocelyn, ending his reign of terror, and Rebecca returns to her role as the village vicar—with Grace safe, at least for the moment. Yet the ending leaves a disturbing image: a part of the devil seems to have taken up residence within Rebecca herself, a consequence of offering her hair as a surrender to the dark presence that had haunted Grace. Grace thrives in Rebecca’s renewed guardianship, and the town’s mood shifts as the old ways are replaced by a uneasy sense of what has been gained and what has been lost. The story closes with a cautious, lingering sense that the line between salvation and possession has blurred, and that the village will carry the weight of this revelation for years to come.