“Kings” Warps the Story of David and Jonathan

This article contains major plot points from Sunday night's episode of Kings, as well as minor spoilers for the next two episodes. 

The new NBC show Kings that premiered last night in a two-hour movie is supposedly a modern-day retelling of the Biblical story of David. Sure enough, the main character defeats “Goliath” – which, in the case of Kings, happens to be a tank.

And the character of Jack, the prince and “true” heir to the throne that David is destined for, is gay – just as his biblical counter-part, Jonathan, probably was.

But that’s just about the only gay element that Kings gets right.

Kings' David (left) and Jack

All photos courtesy NBC

In the Bible, Jonathan definitely loves David – and it’s literally love at first sight. “When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul,” says the Bible’s Book of Samuel of Jonathan and David’s first meeting.

Later, Jonathan is a strong ally of David. He’s the one who warns David that King Saul is plotting to kill him, because Jonathan “took great delight in David.” Even though he’s the actual heir to the throne, Jonathan recognizes that David is the true king, chosen by God.

But in Kings, Jack is mostly a villain – and a pretty stereotypically gay one at that: pretty and perfectly groomed, self-centered and vain, bitter and entitled, scheming, yet ultimately cowardly.

Sebastian Stan as Prince Jack

It’s familiar gay ground, in movies such as such as Cruel Intentions and in virtually every vampire movie ever made. Indeed, the actor who plays Kings’ gay prince, Sebastian Stan, even played a similar role before, in the 2006 film The Covenant.

In the first four episodes made available to AfterElton.com for preview by NBC, Jack isn’t an ally of David’s; instead he repeatedly tries to undermine him. And he does all this in his scheming, mostly cowardly way.

He’s a rich, complicated character, but he’s still a bad guy, the “dark” entitled prince up against the “light” chosen prince, competing for the affections of the current king: think Val Kilmer’s “Iceman” in Top Gun versus Tom Cruise’s “Maverick.”

Ian McShane (left) as King Silas and Christopher Egan as David

In addition, while there are several hints that Jack might be attracted to David, he seems to be motivated not by love, but by jealousy because David loves his sister, the princess, and not him.

But by far the biggest difference between Kings and its Biblical source material is the fact that in the Bible, David is probably gay or bisexual too, and he loves Jonathan back.

“David rose from beside the stone heap and prostrated himself with his face to the ground,” the Bible reads. “He bowed three times, and [he and Jonathan] kissed each other, and wept with each other. David wept the more.”

When Jonathan is killed, David mourns him, saying, "I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women."