Duel and Duality
| "Duel and Duality" |
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Duel and Duality is the sixth and final episode of the third series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder.
Plot
The Duke of Wellington (played by Stephen Fry) discovers that the Prince has taken advantage of his two nieces ("I spent a night of ecstasy with a pair of Wellingtons") and challenges him to a duel ("When a man soils a Wellington, he puts his foot in it"). The Prince enlists Blackadder's help and Baldrick suggests that the two change places, as Wellington will have no idea what the Prince looks like, since official portraits never look anything like the person. Edmund isn't keen on the idea, but realises that his mad Scottish cousin MacAdder (also played by Rowan Atkinson) could take his place.
Later on, Wellington decides to visit the Prince, which forces Blackadder and the Prince to swap roles. During Wellington's brief visit, Blackadder proves a far more competent Regent, and helps Wellington to mastermind the Battle of Trafalgar. The Prince, however, proves less than competent as a butler, and finds himself on the receiving end of multiple assaults (both verbal and physical) from Wellington and Blackadder, who gleefully joins in, noting the importance of keeping up the illusion. After Wellington departs, Blackadder goes to see MacAdder; unfortunately, MacAdder is busy with his fish salesman job on the day the duel takes place, and goes back to Scotland with Mrs. Miggins. Blackadder tries to pull out of the duel, but the Prince persuades him to do it in exchange for all his possessions.
Wellington is a friend of modern weapons, and so the duel is fought with Vickers-Armstrong 4pounder cannonettes. Blackadder survives the duel, the cannonball having bounced off a cigarette case, and the Duke, having grown to admire the "Prince," happily declares a draw. At that point however, the real Prince enters and gives the whole game away, bragging about having cheated death. Fortunately Wellington does not believe him; unfortunately, he shoots the Prince dead in a fit of rage.
King George, who has become increasingly eccentric and now believes himself to be "a small village in Lincolnshire, commanding spectacular views of the Nene valley", does not notice any difference between his late son and Blackadder in the Prince's clothes. Having been ordered to marry a rose bush, Blackadder becomes the new Prince Regent (and presumably later King). Just before leaving for dinner with the King and Wellington, he commands Baldrick to dispose of "that dead butler," and as he walks out, the Prince revives and tells Baldrick that he had a cigarette case as well. It turns out that he left it on the dresser however, and this time he dies for good.
Analysis
- The third season of Blackadder is the only one of the series in which Blackadder does not die (the Prince doing so literally in his place), and one of two where Baldrick survives to the end (as he also, alone with Percy, survives in the first Season).
- Blackadder supposedly lived the rest of his life as Prince George and later George IV. This similarly happens in Blackadder II when Ludwig kills Elizabeth I.
