Mary and Francis return home and while she tells Lola and Greer that she found suitors for them in Paris, Catherine grabs Francis and lets him know that Bash did not make it to Spain. The guards that Francis paid to bring his brother to Spain? Dead, their bodies found on the side of the road. Henry has already sent men looking for Bash, though the royal bastard has been living in the woods since he escaped the attempted assassination. While hunting boar with a bow, he’s tackled by Rowan, a fellow hunter who didn’t want him to get caught in her boar trap. She brings him back to her cabin where he meets her brother, who tells Bash that he’s the first boy that his sister brought home, but their attention soon changes when a wild-haired, pale Olivia comes crawling up to the cabin. Rowan notes that this must be a noble, seeing as how Olivia was wearing silk, and that the cuts on her arm are from the pagans feeding on the poor girl. Rowan and her brother want Olivia and the darkness she carried to their doorstep gone and when Olivia learns this, she begins slicing at her arm before fainting in Bash’s arms.
Lola doesn’t try on the dress that Mary bought her while on honeymoon, citing the fact that it’s snug, but before anyone can question the reason for the snugness, Greer inquires about Mary’s status – is she with child after the honeymoon? Mary explains that she’s only been married a short while and tries to get Lola to eat marzipan, what was once her favorite dessert, before noticing that Lola wouldn’t swallow it. Meanwhile, Kenna walks along the hallways with the widower Archduke and she lays it on thick, talking about how she’s insecure about being with an older, more experienced gentleman and how she wants to save her chastity for the man she married. He falls for it, though, and claims that she must meet his equally pure sister Cecilia – who is busy having sex with Henry after the two scoped each other out during the meeting. The two make it to the window in his chambers and she inadvertently falls out, plummeting to her death.
Nostradamus gets interrupted by Bash carrying Olivia down into his office and grows worried at Bash pointing out Olivia’s bite marks and her talk of being “chosen.” Bash thinks it means that she’s been marked by the creature in the woods, the one the pagans worship, but Nostradamus doesn’t believe nature is malignant; any evil in the woods is manmade. He tells Bash that Olivia needs rest and gentle treatment for the time being and encourages him to get out of the castle for his own safety. Catherine takes it upon herself to give Mary tips on how to properly conceive a child, passing along various aids to rub on her chest and Francis’ erection, only for Henry to bust into her chambers requesting a private meeting. He tells his wife about the death of the Duchess of Bohemia; since he can’t trust his advisors and anyone finding out could lead to war, he puts his faith in Catherine, who thinks he’s trying to put the blood on her hands necessary to keep her quiet. To help him out, she wants Diane’s chateau and although he doesn’t want to give it up, he relents and passes it along to her.
Kenna goes to Lola’s room to confront her about the obvious signs that she’s pregnant. However, Kenna thinks Lola did an excellent job at securing her place at court by getting pregnant and becoming Francis’ mistress; for her part, Lola is worried about how her family and Mary will react to the news, as well as the possibility of no longer having the freedom she currently enjoys. If she’s pregnant with a royal baby, she’s officially property of the royals and no longer her own woman, so Kenna recommends that she talk with a servant she knows had an abortion. While Henry and Catherine clean the blood from the balcony Cecilia landed on and roll up the Duchess’ body in a castle rug, Bash visits Mary in her chambers to warn her about the possibility of Francis having involvement in the attempt on his life. Since Francis views him as a threat to both the crown and his marriage to Mary, Bash thinks that there’s a distinct possibility that his brother could have set up the hit, what with his newfound power. Mary, though, doesn’t think knowing Francis ordered anything would change a thing and chastises Bash for threatening to kill her husband if it turns out to be true. Before leaving, Bash warns her to find out who she’s really married to and advises her to put a candle in the window if she wants to talk.
Lola visits the servant and pays her for the information about where she got her abortion; though the servant cautions that the procedure is incredibly dangerous, she ultimately gives the location and Lola continues weighing her options accordingly. Meanwhile, a priest, one of Nostradamus’ clients, goes to the prophet’s office and begins rifling through his cabinets, only to hear Olivia. He goes to her and finds the girl seizing and possibly having nightmares; when he does an exorcism chant to free her from the demon he believes has its grip on her, she wakes up and stabs him with his cross necklace, killing him. Francis goes to Mary after learning she was talking to the guards about his orders for Bash and she confesses that Bash had been in the chambers with her earlier. Francis is hurt that she would thought Bash’s suspicions just and valid and reminds her that he believed her when she came to him over Catherine’s scheming. He adds that Bash likely killed the guards to stay in France and be closer to Mary, 
Catherine and Henry get Cecilia’s body back to her room and begin penning a suicide note, which they can’t agree on the contents of. Henry’s very particular about what he wants included in the note and the phrasing he’d like to use, including a description of the man she pined after as having the sexual prowess of a lion, and Catherine grows more frustrated at his demands the longer this goes on. In the hallway, Kenna receives a brief peck from the Archduke before pulling him closely and showing him that she’s more than the meek girl she claims herself to be. She chalks up her kissing prowess as beginner’s luck and just as he mentions bringing her back to Bohemia, she witnesses Cecilia’s body plummeting to the ground. Kenna is upset at the awful timing and tells Mary where Lola went when the latter comes up missing the morning of a royal ceremony to commemorate the Archduke’s loss – a cabin inhabited by a woman who gave the servant her abortion.
Mary gets Bash to take her through the blood wood, just as Henry and Catherine come into the throne room and learn that Cecilia couldn’t write. As such, the Archduke claims that the note was forged and Catherine leaps into action, telling him that the lover mentioned in the note was responsible for the forgery, yet it wasn’t that he killed her. It was that Cecilia was walked in on by Catherine while in the arms of another man and became so ashamed at her actions that she throw herself to the ground below to preserve her family name. The note? Was written to keep the secret. When the Archduke wants to see the lover who made this happen, he’s taken to the body of the priest that Olivia killed; Catherine claims that the death was unintentional, the product of overzealous interrogators, and the Archduke decides to avoid scandal by telling his family that his sister drowned in the river. Henry and Catherine then assure him that France will do anything to maintain its friendship with Bohemia.
Mary and Bash make it to the abortion clinic just before Lola was to go under the knife and Mary gets Lola to agree not to go through with it, that it’s not the end of the world to be pregnant. She then figures out that the reason for Lola’s odd behavior was that she slept with Francis, causing Lola to cry; after they leave, Mary tells Bash that she believes Francis and that since there’s nothing here for him, he needs to leave the country. He cannot care for her, as she is married, and if he has to hate someone, she wants it to be her and not Francis. Bash, however, pledges to protect her. Mary then confronts Lola about the deception and how she knew that Mary still loved Francis; Lola then tries to get Mary to take a vow of secrecy about the pregnancy while she considers her options. Back at the castle, Henry and Catherine exchange pleasant words about their experience with the Archduke, but when Henry goes in for a kiss, Catherine pulls away.
Bash goes back to Rowan’s with the intention of telling her goodbye and leaving France, only for the two to kiss. While Henry practices his sword fighting, Kenna laments what happened with the Archduke and how she still doesn’t have a proper suitor; Henry claims that that’s okay and that they can play until he finds someone decent. The two then kiss with the window open and only a few steps separating Kenna from becoming Cecilia. Nostradamus goes to Olivia and asks her what she remembered from the murder; she simply tells him that the darkness is close and that it’ll devour his soul.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“And what? She caught cold?”
-“If you don’t know, then you probably shouldn’t be having sex!”
-“It’s a suicide letter, not an enticement to pilgrims.”
-“You kiss like the French.” “Well, we are in France.”
-“That’s awful. But not now.”
-“You’re very charming when you’re not trying to kill me.”
-For those curious about Bohemia, it’s basically present-day Czech Republic.
-This episode worries me, you guys. For all its positives, which I’ll get to in a second, I kind of hate this whole “Lola’s pregnant” deal. I like giving Anna Popplewell something to do because she’s lovely and I think Lola is an interesting enough character, but this is an incredibly soapy move even for this show and I don’t think it’ll delve into any interesting character development for anybody involved. It makes Mary extremely unlikable (I know, time period context and blah blah blah, but still, she was very wrong for coming down on Lola and not Francis); it’s hinged upon a secret, which is the type of flimsy storytelling I’m not a fan of; and it’s another in a long line of examples of the plots centering on the younger folks being dwarfed by the adults on the show.
-Henry and Catherine’s plot was the most overtly comedic the show has done thus far (the suicide note sequence was genius, as did the suggestion they pass the blood off as spilled wine) and though I was a little curious about the tone, I thought it was an excellent watch, thanks in large part to the chemistry between Alan Van Sprang and Megan Follows. The difference between the adults and teenagers on this show is that there’s a lot of texture to the writing for Catherine and Henry, their history together and complicated dynamic (they kind of like each other, yet she’s bitter about how he’s treated her and he’s afraid to open up too much) making their shared time on screen crackle. If you watched this episode without having seen the rest of the season, you’d know exactly the type of relationship they have, as most of the layers were touched on without being too heavy-handed or one-sided. The younger plots, meanwhile, lack the uniqueness and emotional complexity of everything with Henry and Catherine, often falling onto familiar teen soap territory and not pushing through to something more invigorating.
-Henry’s final scene with Kenna: foreshadowing of her death later this season (his creepy stare at the camera, him getting her in front of the window) or visually interesting misdirect?
-The only other look at the camera that I liked was Nostradamus’, as the quick cut of Catherine, Lola, and Mary was a bit on the nose and didn’t add anything stylistically. Nostradamus’, though, followed Olivia’s warning about the darkness coming and would have made an excellent final image. The entire episode was less than 40 minutes, so everything in the final montage, as well as the exterior shot of the castle, rang a little filler-y to me.
-Favorite dress: Kenna looked so gorgeous in the white dress Mary got her in Paris.
-I believe Mary said husband 432 times this episode, most of them during her final conversations with Bash and Lola. We get it; you’re married. Take it down a notch. Also, the next time she needs to go into the blood wood, she can do it herself, because pushing Bash away and then playing on his attraction to her by asking favors of him is kind of gross.
-Did Rowan say her name during the episode? Because I didn’t have it in my notes and had to look it up on one of the photos provided by the network.
-This is just a me thing, but I hate it when shows put abortion on the table and don’t follow through. I get why Reign didn’t, but rare is the show willing to go through with abortion as a story choice and not an attempt to edge itself up.
-I think I have a bigger role on Reign at this point than Greer does. #FreeGreer
-This is your weekly reminder that Catherine de Medici is a genius and we should all bow down to the queen. I was genuinely impressed by how quick she was on her feet with the Archduke and how she used what Nostradamus told her to her advantage. There’s a reason she’s made it this far and I wouldn’t be shocked if she’s the last character standing.
-Olivia killing the priest with his necklace was the most Reign-y that Reign had been in a bit and I love it.
-Also really funny: Catherine pausing when the topic of putting something on Francis’ erection came up. The hand up, head down thing that Megan Follows did killed me.
-Also also funny: Henry and Catherine being confused about how the servants washed their clothes. I think they dip them in something?
-Next week on Reign: A matchmaking event is held at the castle, while Kenna turns to Catherine after Henry flies into another rage and Bash learns firsthand about the horrors of the woods.
