New Babylon – As the first episode of New Babylon begins, a young boy, Django, watches a massacre before he is approached by someone with a torch. Weapons are confiscated before people are allowed to enter New Babylon. Hattie gives birth while John Ellis (Nicholas Pinnock) prepares to entertain the city’s visitors. He tells them that Isaac Borowka (Slavko Sobin) will rip someone’s heart out and they’ll get drunk. A man steps forward to challenge Isaac. John tells him that his reward will be no less than $100 if he wins. Django (Matthias Schoenaerts) gives John his name before bets are placed on the fight.

As the fight continues, Isaac pulls out a knife and cuts Django’s hand. When Django knocks him out, the onlookers yell for him to kill Isaac. Django doesn’t touch him and instead sits down nearby. Ellis refuses to give Django his money while saying he considers it a donation to the poor community. John warns him that he will kill him if he isn’t gone by sunrise. Outside, Seymour, Phillip, and Kevin notice that the horses are dying. They argue about whether God did it. Seymour claims their father’s vision is to be their tyrant. He claims the land is cursed. Sarah (Lisa Vicari) tells John about Hattie having a son. John reveals a stranger beat Isaac so Sarah worries about the money he has lost.

He admits they lost most of what they had. Sarah thinks their marriage will restore confidence. Two women tell Django about John Ellis who let them in after they killed a man with very bad manners. Django says he is looking for someone who used to own the tobacco case he has now. Since he has about four hours left, he is told to get some rest. In a flashback, Django meets the man with the tobacco case and learns where he got it. He tells Django about the town full of crazy people and the white girl who sold him the case. In the present, Django goes sneaking around. He gets attacked by John who tells his boys to get him out of there.

Sarah tries to find out what is going on. John’s boys prepare to hang Django. Sarah rushes over with a shotgun. She remembers Django teaching her how to shoot when she was young. After Sarah shoots him down, she tells John that no man will die tonight if she wants the wedding to happen tomorrow. In Elmdale City 35 miles south of New Babylon, Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) gets ready and joins other bandits. They agree to give the sinners what they deserve. The group goes to a brothel. Elizabeth kills a woman in private before starting a fire. Then, the shooting begins. In the morning, the guns are returned to the guests as they leave New Babylon.

One of John’s sons grabs Sarah while she sleeps and forcibly takes her outside. He throws her in the mud before telling her she will not get married today and she will never replace his mother. Elizabeth makes it home where her son Adam (Joshua Parker) speaks to her. She tells him that she has been spreading the Lord’s word on Earth. Phillip asks Sarah if he did it again. She admits it is getting worse. He recommends telling father because he is crazy about her. When she asks about the stranger, he says his father will deal with him after the ceremony. Reuben (Romario Simpson) tells John that they intend to leave once Hattie is well enough, but she isn’t eating enough.

John asks if he is going back to being a slave. Reuben says they fought a civil war so things are supposed to be different now, but John isn’t sure about that. Elizabeth is told that they’re getting married today. Django and the townsfolk listen to Sarah talk about bringing their babies into the world. John learns they don’t have much food left so he decides to cut his family’s share down. In a flashback, Django and Sarah return home to tell Margaret that they have enough meat for winter. Seymour tells Sarah that something is wrong with him. He is going to promise he’ll never do it again, but he thinks he will. Sarah tells him he isn’t condemned because none of them are.

They’re told it is time. Sarah rides away, sits alone, and looks at the sketches in Django’s notebook she picked up earlier. Then, she goes back for the wedding. Midway through, she says she can’t and runs away. Django watches her go while Elizabeth prays.

 

Django Review

The opening episode of Django set a decent pace and showcased plenty of gore. The dark western follows Django as he reaches New Babylon and finds his long-lost daughter Sarah who is on the verge of marrying the town’s founder John Ellis. In the background, John’s nemesis Elizabeth plots to destroy his plans.

The story has the chance to become interesting as it develops and gets into the finer details, but the episode was tough to watch at times. The accents are pretty bad although that is understandable since it is a big ask of the performers. At times, the scenes look great, especially those out in the open, and the towns appear authentic.

Unfortunately, some of the scenes are too dark making it difficult to know exactly what is going on and who is doing what. These things may not matter too much in the long run, but it was messy and hard to follow. As a result, some of the names mentioned in the recap may be incorrect. Django may develop with time since The English took a while to get going as well.

We’ll see. The opening episode showed some good aspects though and it’d be easy to overlook the accents if the story comes together. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Django will be available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.