One morning on the border between Scotland and England, the son of a farming family gets approached by a lone English soldier, who he offers breakfast. However, it turns out that the lead soldier brought many, many of his compatriots along with him, meaning that England is now crowding the Scottish border, just waiting for the provocation necessary to attack. Elsewhere, Catherine is informed of another of Nostradamus’ visions – this one centers on war and the costs of such events, destruction he says will find its way to the castle.
Mary takes her ladies outside for a picnic where they gossip about who gave them their best kiss and whether they’ve even been kissed in the first place. Kenna says that the best kisser she’s had was a man and not a boy, since she doesn’t want to wait until boys their age figure out what to do in physical matters; Greer, however, has yet to be kissed, since she comes from a common family and can’t afford to be looked at as used goods before meeting the man she is to marry. In her mind, he will be tall, dark, and noble Prince Tomas of Portugal, in France to secure a trade deal. Tomas may be the bastard son of the Portuguese king, but he still has the money and land necessary to help her (and her family) move up in the eyes of society.
The festivities get interrupted when Mary gets a visit from her uncle Claude, who comes bearing love and a letter from Mary’s mother. He says that it tells her of the crisis currently facing Scotland, as England is looking for any weakness to exploit in Scotland and that the Scottish don’t have the soldiers necessary to beat their enemy back from crowding the borders. With Henry slow to respond to their request for more men, now is the time for Mary to pull rank and use the alliance that has been cultivated for years in order to help keep her country afloat. Already annoyed that France seems to be keeping her in their back pocket until they need her (vs. helping her when she needs it), she meets with King Henry and Francis where she learns that while France will give Scotland supplies, they won’t front the men (not eight companies, not six) and honor the alliance. Henry argues that they have more borders to protect and enemies to contend with than Scotland does and tells Francis that if they send men to Scotland and get defeated, it sends a message to England that France is soft and easy for the taking. Francis chases after an irritated Mary and informs her that he agrees with her position, that England will be stronger if it conquers Scotland and could come for France afterward, but he knows that they don’t have the power to do anything about the situation now.
Later, Mary agrees to play with Charles and the two kick around a soccer ball that eventually lands in a nearby tree. Mary climbs it to retrieve the ball and looks down to see Charles gone and Greer with Tomas, who she introduces Mary to. After (literally) falling into him, Mary tells Greer that she sees why she likes him and Greer mentions the upcoming boating party, where she’ll pack a picnic basket for the moonlit celebration in hopes of securing her first kiss and the prince’s heart. Meanwhile, Bash and Henry are sparring and the former gets defeated when it’s obvious his mind is now on the enemy in front of him. Francis arrives in hopes of talking to his father about helping Scotland and explains that he thinks they’re trying to poke France to see the reaction; if France acts quickly and harshly, it might scare them off from trying anything else. Henry again says that he has made up his made and Francis challenges him – if Henry wins a sparring match, Francis will shut up about the matter. If Francis wins, Henry sends the men. Francis ends up winning and yet, Henry refuses to honor the agreement, stating that making promises to everybody and then acting your own way is all a part of being king.
In preparation for the boating party, Greer goes to the kitchen and begins ordering what she wants the basket to be filled with, telling Leith that she expects the best. Afterwards, Mary asks her friend what kind of deal Tomas is her for and when she learns it’s for timber, she hatches a plan. She brings Tomas to a nearby bridge away from the castle and offers Scottish timber in exchange for men to help her country, as her alliance isn’t strong and Henry won’t help her in the way that he promised. Since he’s been told to find the best deal that he can, and doesn’t want to anger Henry in his own house, Tomas agrees to ride with Mary to a run-down church that was originally built for Louis VII. Once there, he shows her a box of treasure and asks if it would make a woman think of him kindly. She says yes and he takes a ring, getting down on one knee in front of her. Tomas can’t look away from her and admires her wildness of spirit, hating the fact that she’s struggling so much in France and being forced to deal with her problems alone. If she says yes to his proposal, she’ll guarantee herself the men needed to protect her people; in addition, he’s been declared legitimate by his ailing father, since the next heir is a 3-year-old grandson, and will be on the throne soon enough, so not only will Mary get someone who wants to marry her, she’ll get a strong country and the opportunity to be queen.
Mary confides in Aylee that she hasn’t told Claude about the proposal, which the latter thinks is due to not wanting to let Francis go. Aylee tells her that she should take Tomas up on the opportunity and that Greer wasn’t even a possible candidate for his bride, though Mary does admit to be considering the proposal. At the party that evening, Henry keeps looking at Kenna following an earlier encounter where she rejected his offer to have sex, citing the fact that as a girl, she needed more time. He uses the annoyance as fuel to go after Nostradamus, again huddled in the corner and whispering with Catherine. The king asks the seer to share his wisdom with the crowd, comparing him to Austrian leader Maximillian’s own seer who uses tarot cards, and tell the fortunes of Mary and her friends. First, Nostradamus offers up fairly general platitudes to the girls before telling Mary that the lion will fight the dragon on a field of poppies (and that she’ll fall in love with a man with a white scar on his face) and Aylee that she will never go home and see her family. Once Catherine orders the music to resume, Mary confronts the seer as she doesn’t believe what he was telling her. But why were these the specific ideas he regaled them with? Who does Nostradamus serve? He says that he serves the realm, himself, and the truth.
Tomas, with a white scar on his face, goes after Mary and cuts in while she dances with Francis. He then changes the music to something Portuguese and seductively throws her around the floor in a dance that was all lifts, dips, and seductive body contact. The masses are noticeably uncomfortable, except for Queen Catherine, delighted to see a rift develop in Mary’s union with Francis. Mary leaves the floor once the dance is done and finds Greer going back to her room, crying in the hallway. She thought that Mary, as beautiful and powerful as she may be, could leave Tomas to her, but Greer’s feelings weren’t important to the queen. Just as Greer rushes off, Francis finds his betrothed and asks what that was on the dance floor. Instead of lying, Mary tells him that Tomas proposed, that it was his idea, and that she has finally found a way to help her country, since Henry (and the whole of France) don’t seem to concerned with the impending invasion of Scotland. As much as she doesn’t want to, Mary feels she has no choice but to accept the proposal from Tomas.
At the boating party, Kenna sees that the king has already set his sights on another girl due to her own unwillingness to bed him. While Greer gets the picnic basket she ordered delivered, Mary learns that Tomas married for love with his first marriage and thought that the rest of his life would be consumed by politics – that was, until he saw her up in the tree. Kenna finds Bash and shares a bottle of wine while commiserating about how awful Henry can be, with Bash acknowledging that he knows of their affair and encouraging her to try to get him back vs. simply giving up; Mary tells Tomas that her family needs to confirm everything he’s been telling her, even though his ship has several companies of men that can leave the following day; Francis finds Henry alone and threatens to tell both Catherine and Diane about Lady Kenna if he doesn’t send the troops to Scotland. Henry finally relents and says that the king-in-waiting needs to inform their fastest rider (Bash) and mobilize the companies at once. Elsewhere, Greer tearfully returns the basket to Leith and the two end up sharing its contents while learning more about one another. Greer hears a story about what made Leith switch to inside work and Leith learns the type of pressure Greer is under to marry well, since she has four sisters who need her to raise their status if they hope to find suitable husbands. Leith kisses her and she recoils, telling him that he’s a servant and that this can’t happen again.
Mary learns about the soldiers ordered by Henry and happily informs Francis that she would rather have hope of a marriage with him than a certain marriage with anyone else. The following morning, she brings Greer coffee and the two patch things up over what happened with Tomas, with Greer telling her friend that she’s okay with a potential marriage with the Portuguese prince. She had only convinced herself that something would happen with him and that she would be the heroine of her family, nothing that could have been realistic. Mary confesses to never having been kissed either and is shocked to learn that Greer had her first kiss since the last time they talked. Greer goes to get some breakfast in order to be around Leith, though she isn’t as outwardly affectionate with him as he would have hoped. Elsewhere, Bash returns from battle gravely injured, as he reveals that the English rode from Calais and slaughtered the six companies of men that Henry sent for Mary. Nostradamus, whose vision is confirmed by the carnage, decides to concoct a potion to put him to sleep.
Outside, Henry tells Francis that this was a lesson for him, that lives were always at risk and that the boy is too influenced by his heart, the worst thing to be guided by as a king. However, the carnage was less a result of the men being sent and more about someone warning the English in advance, but Henry won’t tell his son that just yet, since it would impede on the lesson he was trying to teach (e.g. never trust your heart). Mary finds Francis out in the yard and tells him that he did the right thing; in turn, he kisses her and informs her that she should marry Tomas, as there are no more troops to send. Mary agrees to it and sees the dragon flag of one of his ships – the (English) lion will fight the (Portuguese) dragon on a field of poppies.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-Since I was all about the “Mary should marry Tomas” train, I’m assuming that he’ll turn out to be the exact wrong choice for her, his pretty words and pledges of devotion proving to be a smoke screen for something more nefarious. But still, I loved how proactive Mary was for (most of) this episode; it’s a danger that comes with setting television series in this time period, the threat of having stagnant/pawn female characters, so I’m glad that they’re not trying to rein (heh) in her wilder tendencies and inability to be pushed around.
-Sexy Nostradamus Watch: He wears furs, mixes potions, and doesn’t care for common card tricks. Also, he’s super honest and would tell you of your doom in a (sexy, duh) hushed whisper.
-Just when I mentioned that Greer and Aylee didn’t have anything to do, the show gave Greer a storyline and Aylee a conversation alone with Mary. Good job, show. I don’t mind them pulling back on prominently featuring Mary’s ladies, just as long as they each get a turn in the spotlight and they flesh out Mary’s friendships/dynamics enough with each.
-Mary’s entrance when she meets with Henry and Francis toward the beginning of the episode was a delight. Whipping those curtains like the HBIC, I see.
-The only reason I was wary of Tomas as a character is the risk of turning Mary into a Sookie Stackhouse, i.e. the character who every male main character must fall in love with because She’s So Special. The show has done a nice job of keeping that bottled in, both with Francis’ apprehensive approach to the relationship and Bash’s ulterior motives in getting closer with Mary, so hopefully once Tomas is dispatched, they won’t bring forth another potential suitor for Mary for a while.
-Interesting how Greer’s storyline said a lot about the social politics of that time. She may be a commoner, but she’s one of the queen’s ladies and someone considered to be above a servant, so with the pressure on her to marry up, there’s no way she can marry for love. Also interesting that her first kiss and Mary’s first kiss share the commonality of being with someone they can’t have a relationship with.
-Mary’s black and gold dress with the high collar was outstandingly gorgeous. If you can say nothing else about Reign, the show has some killer costume design.
-Kenna and Bash sharing a bottle of wine – oddly funny and quite endearing for each, since they got to share in the misery that Henry brings everyone in his life. Also good because the show is experimenting with different pairings, a practice I always support.
-Next week on Reign: Getting out of her engagement to Francis proves costly for Mary, while Francis and Bash grow suspicious of Tomas.
1 Comment
I think Nostradamus’ prediction about one of them falling in love with a man with a white “mark” on his face was for Greer because later that episode, or maybe at the end of the next one(I’m not sure), Leeth wipes his face with his hand which was covered with flour, leaving a white mark on his face. The camera even focuses on it.