House of David (2026) s2e04

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.

Plot

Flashback to David's first trip to the Tabernacle where his presence caused an outrage. In the story's present day we see David has been telling Mychal about that day. Saul tells Avner to get Joab to kill the one Samuel anointed. Everyone prepares to go to the Tabernacle, except Eliab who is going with Joab and Ahinoam who Saul has banned. Merab tries to reach out to David but he spurns her attempts. Joab takes Eliab on a mission to kill the newly anointed king, but then kills Jesse's neighbours instead of Jesse's household. David rashly charges into battle losing men and Jonathan rebukes him while Merab comforts him.

Meanwhile the Philistines continue in their pursuit of an iron sword as good as Goliath's. The priests of Nob warn Saul that he will have to go through them to get to Samuel. Eshbaal attempts to seduce his wife Dinah, only for her to pull a blade on him. Mychal tells David she won't fight for him if her father has decided he should marry Merab. Eliab considers suicide. Saul attempts to convince Samuel's wife Hila to persuade  her husband to reaffirm his support for Saul as king.

Samuel prays a Tabernacle prayer including words from Ps.86/Ps.103. Jonathan tells Samuel he knows David is the anointed one. Adriel tells David it was he who gave the false name to Saul. The Tabernacle ceremony is completed. David kneels a sings a lament for his slain comrade. Jonathan reaffirms his commitment to David. Mychal tells Merab she won't stand in her way. Sara rejects Jonathan because she secretly holds him responsible for her brother's death. Eliab cannot speak to David, but his other men start to sing in his song as they ride back from Nob.

This episode was fairly mundane, especially given there has already been quite a lot of story-building in the previous two outings. Essentially Saul's court and many others move to Nob to the Tabernacle for the Feast of the Tabernacles and there are various elements of human intrigue on the way: Saul leaves Ahinoam behind as punishment; Eliab thought he was going, but Joab takes him on a mission (but then they manage to make it anyway); Saul is trying to persuade Samuel to re-legitimise him, even trying to get Samuel's wife on his side; David's men, including Uriah, are a bit unsure whether he is really a leader they can follow.

Biblical love triangle

What I wanted to explore a bit more was the love triangle between Mychal, David and Merab, which twists and turns throughout the episode, but, crucially, without ever really getting very interesting. Indeed, while I use the term "love triangle", perhaps a better – albeit less enticing – way to describe it might be as a strategic-marriage triangle. While Mychal and David certainly love each other, David is not at all interested in Merab, and she is only interested in him because she believes he is likely to be the best option for her future.

The problem is that, from a dramatic point of view, this makes things all a little bit dull. Typically, love-triangles are introduced to bring drama and interest into the story, with tension and passion all round. Boundaries are crossed, kisses (and perhaps more) happen, that really shouldn't have happened, lovers/friends are betrayed.

In contrast, House of David's love triangle has some hurt feelings, but it's devoid of any kind of real passion. And the fact that much of the audience will know that Mychal will eventually get to marry David, also doesn't help generate narrative tension. 

Biblical productions (indeed all ancient historical adaptations) tend to lie on a continuum between "the past is another country" and "we're not too different you and I". The programme-makers have to make the story relatable in someway to their audience, but at the same time they know if they modernise things too then far historians and (with Bible films, church-goers) will object. The degree to which a production sits along that continuum varies, though some programme makers opt for doing something that's neither historical, nor very easy to relate to.

House of David's strategic-marriage triangle is a classic example of this. On the one hand everyone "knows" that sons and daughters of kings/tribal leaders were married off to build alliances (although the degree to which this is true is up for debate). But House of David is already so invested in the 'historical' idea that it's Mychal's father who gets to choose whom his daughters marry, that it's not really that unpalatable to us when he picks Merab to marry David, rather than Mychal.

So, while Mychal is annoyed at her sister, it never really feels much more than a sisterly spat that will soon be resolved. Mychal may be put out by her sister gaining approval from their father to marry David, but the show is so committed to this framework that you imagine she can also sympathise with Merab. As this is far outside of the typical audience member's experience (where people tend to marry for love) its attempts at historical context have detracted from its "relatability". 

However, on the "historical" side of the continuum there are also problems. The historical David, at least the one from the pages of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and Psalms, was passionate and hot-blooded. More to the point, he was not – by any stretch of the imagination – a one-woman-kinda-guy. Not only did he have at least eight wives, but his lack of scruples in taking a woman he saw from his palace and having her brought into his bedroom, suggests this was probably not the only time this happened (just the only time he got caught). 

But the David from House of David isn't at all like this. There was some initial chemistry in season 1 between David and Mychal, but this seems to have evaporated. David does seem to love Mychal, but their relationship is so oddly pure and chaste. They want to be married, but neither seems to desire sexual intimacy (even delaying it for marriage, or whatever). And Merab doesn't even seem attracted to David, she just sees him as having good prospects.  

Much of this derives from the specifically Christian way the showrunners read David, that is through the lens of Jesus and the New Testament. Three related strands stand out in particular. Firstly David is seen as Jesus' ancestor (see the genealogies in Matt 1 and Luke 3). Secondly, David is seen as a man "after God's own heart" (Acts13:22 citing 1 Sam 13) which tends to be read as about purity of character, even though that doesn't seem to be the focus of either Testament's original use of it. Thirdly, David is seen as a "type" for Christ, that is a foreshadowing, a point of comparison.

Its easy, then, to comprehend why this leads to a specific reading of David: no-one want to think of one's God (i.e. Jesus) being both descended from and similar in character to a polygamist rapist, least of all within evangelical circles where purity culture still holds sway. Therefore, David and Mychal are presented as model teenagers: beautiful, attracted to one another, respectful of the patriarchy, and (presumably) saving sex for marriage.

The problem, then, is that this is not only stretches historical credibility, but is also hard to relate to. Even the teens who buy into the idea of purity culture still typically desire sexual intimacy, they just ascribe to waiting until married. Effectively, then, House of David has taken a character who seems like exactly the kind of person to be involved in a love triangle, and created a scenario where he is indeed the centre of two sisters' attentions, but then contrived to make it oddly lack in passion and desire. You don't have to enjoy onscreen nudity to find its lack of sexual tension dull.

Same issue, different approach?

It's interesting, then, that in this same episode we also get a glimpse into sexual desire after marriage in the lives of Israel's early royals. Mychal and Merab's brother Eshbaal has married Dina, partly out of duty and partly for attraction, but she has never really reciprocated and only agreed to marry him in the previous episode "on condition she doesn't bear him an heir or have to pretend to love him".

Despite knowing this, Eshbaal tries to seduce her. This is hardly surprising for a character who has been set up as the opposite to David. Eventually the two will become rival heirs to Saul's throne and warring kings. David will triumph, but I guess there's a need to contrast him to Eshbaal, so it seems fair when David wins. So Eshbaal tends to be a little erratic, passionate and wayward, even spending some time with the Philistines after an argument with his father Saul.

Eshbaal reneging on his deal cuts no ice with Dina, who pulls a knife on him. When he complains "you'd rather ride a horse than have my child" she answers back. 

"Than have any man's child. So much pain and suffering, a swollen belly, the risk of death! For what? A moment of pleasure?"

On the one hand this is clever way to deal with the fact that Eshbaal (who is admittedly hardly mentioned in the genealogies in 1 Chron 8:33-36; 9:39-42) is never ascribed any children – unusual for a one-time king of Israel, even if the Chronicler tries to air-brush him out of the story – particularly as giving him children might raise issues around succession when he dies.

Yet at the same time Dina's words being delivered in such close proximity to the Mychal-David-Merab relationship reaching its apex read like they could be seeking to reinforce a similar message to anyone tempted to spurn David and Mychal's example. Words like "pain and suffering, a swollen belly, the risk of death! For what? A moment of pleasure?" feel like they are straight from the pages of a leaflet advocating abstinence as a form of birth control.

That said, I quite like Dina's general takes-no-crap attitude. Perhaps that's intentional, a way of catering to cynics like me, giving us a vaguely feminist character to cheer for.

===========
I was going to end this saying "No sex please, we're bronze-aged Levantine princesses", but I imagine the reference to the early 1970s British comedy film No Sex Please, We're British,  starring Ronnie Corbett will be lost to most who didn't grow up watching early evening TV in 1980s Britain.