House of David (2026) s2e03

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). There are some major spoilers in what follows even though most are 2500 years old.

I'm running short for time, and don't have much to say for this one, but I'll start with a plot overview and see what follows from there.

Plot

Eshbaal is tortured by the Philistines, almost to the point of submission, but resists. He then appears before Saul and tells him he killed his captors to get free. Eshbaal also confesses that he was crowned and says he is willing to marry Dina, whom he slept with previously, leading to his banishment. Mychal comes to see David and they talk about "the story of Joseph" (Gen 50:19-20 quoted). Avner tells Saul Samuel is free. David asks Saul to let him marry Mychal (in vain). Mychal and Merab discuss who should be David's wife. David learning to fight meets Uriah. Training montage! Saul tells Ahinoam he knows about her crowning Eshbaal. Saul sends off Eshbaal with Jonathan and David to negotiate Eshbaal's marriage. Ahinoam sends away Besal, her seer. Doeg is tormented by dark visions. Saul explains to Mychal why it's best Merab marries David, and that it was her idea. Eliab's refusal to be supportive of David catches the Eshbaal's attention. Yahir, the leader of Dan, asks David to hunt with him. Eshbaal attempts to wed Yahir's daughter Dina who he supposedly seduced in series 1. Avner has Besal killed. Mychal has testy exchanges with Merab and Ahinoam. While Jonathan praises David's conviction, Saul chides Ahinoam for making decrees without him. David's party get ambushed killing Dan's leader. David asks for time before his wedding. Eshbaal proposes to Dina while Jonathan is falling for Sara. Adriel tells Saul it was David who was anointed by Samuel.

Eshbaal

This is quite an episode for Eshbaal. It opens with him (rather than one of his sisters) doing the voiceover for the opening montage, a montage in which he also stars. We see his torture, and it looks like he will succumb, but then he rallies and manages to attack his captors. We last see him in this montage holding a knife to the Philistine king's throat. He later claims to Saul that he killed his captors, but this is not actually shown. It may be true, but typically when TV shows leave such a door open, it's because they are going to walk through it a little later. We will see.

Eshbaal also reconsiders his relationship with Dina, daughter of Yahir, the leader of the tribe of Dan, and offers to marry her. She initially is not at all tempted by the idea, blaming him for disgracing her, but gradually a different side to the story, and to Eshbaal himself, emerges. Eshbaal does seem genuinely taken with Dina and he manages to either convince her of this, or at least charm her to a sufficient degree that she eventually confesses he didn't sleep with her.

From a dramatic point of view Eshbaal is a real gift to the script writers. On the one hand from re-constructing the purported history behind the biblical stories he would have been a very significant character: the son of Saul, and the only one to survive the Battle at Mount Gilboa (1 Sam 31).

But on the other hand, he's shrouded in mystery. Not only is there the ever-changing nature of his name (he's called Eshbaal or Ishbaal or Ishboseth at different points in the original texts), and the fact that he's not even mentioned in the first list of Saul's sons in 1 Sam 14:49, but also the fact he's barely mentioned until he appears being crowned by Abner/Avner in 2 Sam 2. It's possible he was much younger than Jonathan, Abinadab/Ishvi and Malchishua, or that he was a separate character who somehow got drafted into the Saul chronology (he's not crowned king in Chronicles, everyone just supports David as soon as Saul is killed).

Anyway, this leaves the writers a blank canvas which the writers of House of David have used to provide a bit more social interest to keep the dramatic flow of the series a bit more intact. And here they put it to good use. Eshbaal is very relatable, and both kind and realistic in his words to Dina. Dina agrees to marry him, on condition she doesn't bear him an heir or have to pretend to love him. At the end of the show he tells her he finds her "intriguing" she reveals that they never slept together, her father just assumed that they did (Eshbaal had passed out drunk).

Other stuff

Just a couple of points here. Firstly Mychal and David meet early in this episode and David reads to her from the written text of Genesis. Recognising what he is reading Mychal joins in and finishes his words from memory. This is sort of interesting from a few angles. Firstly, many scholars think that the text of Genesis was not in final form by this point. Of course, it could be that they have the J source in front of them (though even that would be pushing the timings), but that seems unlikely. Secondly the idea that Mychal would be reciting it also feels rather unlikely. This is something borrowed from The Chosen as an apologetics-driven way of promoting the reliability of the Bible and it feels even more out of place here, than there.

Lastly Queen Ahinoam (as pictured above in a conversation with Saul) gets a line that sounds rather portentous: "One day you will know what it's like to make terrible decisions in order to save the ones you love". She says this to (I think) Mychal, so it's not a nod towards something in the Bible, I don't think, unless it's to do with 1 Sam 19:11-17, where she puts an idol in the bed when Saul is trying to  kill David. But perhaps it just relates to another invented subplot inserted to keep the drama flowing.