- The best knights have been killed off in the Grail Quest, and now everything is going bad with the Round Table.
- People are too much into gossip, scandal, and drama.
- Lots of the knights are interested in ridiculous fashions, and there are several magical objects going around that test whether or not a wife is faithful. This seems to just be asking for trouble.
- The court is now paying attention to Guenever, not because they suspect something, but because they're bored and just looking for trouble.
- Mordred starts spreading rumors that Guenever chased Lancelot off after a loud shouting match, where she accused him of being in love with other women.
- The Queen becomes unpopular during this time, and someone's looking to take advantage of this.
- While Lancelot is away, the Queen throws a dinner party, trying to emulate La Beale Isoud.
- So, she lays on a lux spread with some really juicy apples, knowing Gawain just loves fruit—in particular apples and pears.
- Too bad for Guenever, the Pellinore-Orkney feud is not quite dead. Sir Pinel, a distant relative of King Pellinore, wants to get stuff started again.
- He poisons the apples Guen has brought in especially for Sir Gawain.
- Gawain doesn't have a chance to eat any of the apples before Sir Patrick drops dead from eating one.
- Sir Mador de la Porte accuses the Queen of the murder.
- Back in the medieval times, there weren't lawyers and courts. Instead, you'd hire a champion to take up your side and battle it out in the tournament field.
- Sir Mador is going to fight for himself, but Guenever needs to find a champion, and Arthur can't go there, because he's King. He can't appear to have a dog in this fight.
- If Lancelot had been around, he would have been her champion.
- Instead, she has to humiliatingly beg Sir Bors to do this. And we know he doesn't like women in general and Guenever in particular.
- The stakes are super high, because if Guenever's champion doesn't win she'll burn at the stake.
- Arthur wants to know what her problem is that she can't keep Lancelot around.