David and Absalom

At Whit's End, Olivia Parker teases her brother Matthew for spending all his time reading Professor Incredible superhero comics, insisting that she would never get caught up in hero worship. Matthew points out that she idolizes a pop singer just as much. Instead of settling the argument, Whit sends them both into the Imagination Station to meet one of the Bible's greatest heroes, King David, at a time long after he was crowned king.

The two land in a town far from Jerusalem, where everyone already seems to know Matthew as the aide and dart-bearer of Joab, the general of King David's army. Joab scolds Matthew for setting his master's darts on the ground, then leads the children to a strange ceremony: the yearly haircut of Prince Absalom, David's son, whose hair grows so thick and heavy that it must be sheared like wool and weighed. Olivia is instantly smitten, declaring Absalom the most handsome man she has ever seen. But she is stunned when Joab explains why the charming prince is living in exile: he had someone killed. As Joab puts it, "even nice and gorgeous men can make bad choices." Joab, meanwhile, has been working on a scheme to bring the prince home, coaching a woman from Tekoa on exactly what to say to the king.

At the palace in Jerusalem, Olivia is surprised to find that the great King David looks old and weary. The woman from Tekoa tells David a story about a widow whose son killed his brother, begging the king to protect her guilty child. When David promises that "not one hair of your son's head shall fall to the ground," she springs the trap: if the king can pardon her son, why won't he bring home his own banished son, Absalom? David sees Joab's hand behind the whole thing but agrees to let Absalom return, with one condition: the prince may live in Jerusalem, but he may never see the king's face.

The siblings split up. Olivia rides back with Joab to deliver the news, while Matthew stays behind with his hero. But David is not the giant-slayer Matthew imagined. He calls himself the King of Sorrow, a man grieving two lost sons, and Matthew is shocked to learn the truth: the man Absalom killed was Amnon, his own brother. Meanwhile, Absalom fumes that returning to Jerusalem without seeing the king means nothing. When Joab storms off, Olivia stays behind, and Absalom tells her his side of the story. Amnon, he says, was an evil man who destroyed the life of their precious sister Tamar, and when their father refused to punish him, Absalom waited two years and then carried out the law himself. He never mentions that Amnon was his brother. He speaks instead of plans to make things right in Israel, and Olivia eagerly agrees to help him.

The Imagination Station leaps forward two years. Outside Jerusalem, Joab gives Matthew his best darts and warns that trouble is brewing. Absalom, his gorgeous hair fully regrown, parades through the city gates each day at noon, flattering the crowds and sighing, "Oh, that I were made a judge in Israel!" Little by little, he is stealing the hearts of the people from his father, a father whose soft heart, Joab explains, kept him from disciplining his children when they needed it most. Worse, Ahithophel, one of the king's most trusted advisors, is now at Absalom's side. Spying on a secret meeting, Matthew learns the terrible truth: Absalom's trip to Hebron to fulfill a vow is a trick. At the sound of trumpets, messengers will race through the land proclaiming him king.

Matthew races to warn Olivia, but she will not listen. She fires back with what Absalom has taught her: that David once had an innocent man named Uriah killed just to steal his wife. Matthew reveals that Amnon was Absalom's own brother, but Olivia, shaken yet loyal, leaves for Hebron with the prince anyway. Matthew reaches the palace just as the cry rings out through the streets: "Absalom is king in Hebron!" Heartbroken that his own son has turned against him, David orders everyone loyal to him to abandon Jerusalem, and the story breaks off with the king's cry to retreat echoing through the palace, leaving the fates of David, Absalom, Olivia, and Matthew for the conclusion.