Outside, Lord Narcisse meets with Catherine and wonders aloud why the castle wasn’t safe during the plague and about the final days in the life of his son. Narcisse regrets not sending for Eduard when the plague broke, so he decides to retrieve the body from the catacombs and return home to grieve. Once in there, though, he ponders a noble dying in the catacombs when they tend to die in their rooms in situations like this and discovers the lone survivor of the room full of death. As the royals gather to celebrate Francis’ homecoming, Narcisse and his band of men interrupt the party asking for justice for Eduard, as Nostradamus had earlier assured Narcisse that his son had been infected when he was taken to the catacombs. After talking to the survivor, though, he knows that to be false and that Eduard was deliberately infected, so he wants the murderer to be punished without impunity.
Meeting in the chambers, Francis and Catherine gang up against Mary, with the former upset at his wife making a rash decision and the latter mentioning that the nobles could lead an uprising if they’re not happy with the royals. While Mary vows to fix her mistake and spare the lives of the guards who brought Eduard to the catacombs under her command, as well as Nostradamus, Lord Castleroy goes to Leith’s and confronts him about Yvette’s death; he believes that Leith knowingly got into a relationship with his daughter because of who she was, because of her proximity to Greer, and as such, he smacks Leith in the face and warns him against getting around the rest of his family. Back at the castle, Mary approaches Lord Narcisse in his chambers and though he acknowledges that she’s untouchable regarding being punished for his son’s death, he knows that he can do damage to those around her and punish her that way. Narcisse manages to get Mary to admit that she acted out of anger in her punishment for Eduard, though she strikes back when she accuses Eduard of lying about his reasoning behind the attack on the Voland family, something that got under his skin enough to where he decides to draw and quarter Nostradamus and the guards as punishment for Eduard’s death. There’s the added bonus of being able to teach Mary a lesson and show the royals that the nobles are not to be underestimated.
Afterwards, Mary meets with Francis, who chides her on being reckless with Eduard. However, she hasn’t taken kindly to Francis abandoning her in this situation, nor has she forgotten the fact that he abandoned the kingdom and left her to fend for himself. While she’s got the opportunity, Mary gets in a shot about Francis choosing Lola, of all people, to have sex with, but since the two don’t have the time to fight right now, they decide on looking for blackmail evidence that will get Narcisse to back down. Mary then rushes into Lord Voland’s chambers trying to turn up anything that she can, only for Lola to come into the room and tell her about the funny feeling she has about Lord Narcisse. Following some awkward small talk about Lola’s baby, who she’s calling Robert, Mary finds a note from the privy council mentioning that Voland sought out the king really close to the date he died. Elsewhere, Greer seeks out Leith at his place and admits that she feels like she betrayed him by telling Castleroy about his idle threats. Greer believes that she’s poisoned everything, apologizing to him and urging him not to blame himself for Yvette’s death; however, she admits that she regrets loving him and that she needs time in order to move on from him.
Bash learns that Narcisse used the plague as a way to murder families and seize land deeds in order to make himself a more powerful figure. While out near the community grave designed for plague victims and important documents, he encounters a citizen who confirms what the little girl in his hallucination told him – the door between the living and the dead is cracked and due to mistreatment and the way they died, some of the dead aren’t 
When Greer returns from Leith’s, she admits to Castleroy that she went to see her former lover, though she assures him that Leith is wracked with guilt over what happened to Yvette. Castleroy, for his part, is more worried about Greer’s loyalty, believing that she chose his finances rather than him and that her heart still resides with Leith. As such, he’s planning to go on a business trip that will involve seeing his children and informing them of Yvette’s death. Meanwhile, Mary sees Father Lucien at the church and pulls the truth out of him – Lord Voland and Lord Narcisse were collecting money for the church together and ended up letting greed come between them, as they started skimming more and fought over the size of the bounties they brought home. They killed Cardinal Morosini after he got too close to the truth and before Lord Voland could confess, as he grew quite guilty over everything he did, Lord Narcisse killed him. However, Mary can’t do anything with this information because it occurred in confession, so she’s going to have to find another way to destroy Narcisse. Speaking of, Narcisse confronts Francis at the castle about the relationship they have and implies that the lands that feel the king’s people could become closed off to the majority of France if he doesn’t get the vengeance that he desires. While he accuses Lord Conde of being an undercover protestant, Conde tries to appeal to Francis, urging his cousin that they could shift the power now that they’re in charge and that they don’t have to rule in the same way their parents did.
Around dawn, Catherine meets with Nostradamus in the tower and informs him that she doesn’t have a plan to get him out of this mess, claiming that he messed up when he decided to be loyal to Mary. Instead, she promises to keep his memory alive through publishing his works and erecting a statue in Paris, but Nostradamus plays a trump card when he implies that Clarissa is alive without giving Catherine much in the way of details. The entire reason Catherine signed off on the Mary/Francis marriage was because of Clarissa’s death fulfilling the prophecy, so if she’s not dead, then Francis still has a chance of meeting an untimely end; unfortunately for her, Nostradamus gets led away before he can give any more details. Outside, Nostradamus gets each limb bound and finds himself tied to four horses ready to gallop in four opposite directions. Just as he was to meet his untimely end, Mary interrupts the execution claiming to have a hand-written confession from Lord Voland, a confession that had been sent to Rome earlier. Francis comes around, though, with two letters in his hand and succeeds in shoving her out of the scene; he uses his title to get some time alone with Narcisse and makes a bargain that Nostradamus and the two guards live if Narcisse can get some additional land. It turns out, though, that the entire thing was staged, as Mary didn’t have anything in the way of legitimate written confessions.
But in order to save Nostradamus, Francis had to betray Leith, whose land he gave up to Narcisse and who he requested to see at court. While Bash gets Francis to grant him the title of King’s Deputy, a way for him to have a legitimate title for the first time and a way for him to work at court without being on the council, Mary sends Nostradamus away on a horse before meeting with Francis in the nursery. She then tells him that he should give the baby his name, making it safer than it would have been otherwise, but when she leaves, a nurse maiden comes in to help Francis hold the baby. The maiden turns out to be possessed by the spirit of Henry for a brief moment, only to not remember anything immediately afterward.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“We are the outside world and we surround you.”
-Okay, did that ending remind anyone of the episode of Friends where Joey becomes Jessica Lockhart on Days Of Our Lives?
-But seriously, while I like the show exploring the supernatural and getting that extra little dimension that typical costume dramas don’t explore, the strength of everything with Nostradamus was that it felt grounded while still being otherworldly. It felt like it could be within the same realm as the rest of the show and it was a major motivator in other storylines, so it wasn’t cordoned off in its own little area of the stuff. This, though, feels like a clunky way to make the subtext Francis and Bash are dealing with regarding their father into text, a move that could be a bit too hand hold-y; I get the idea of giving their innermost fears and concerns a personification and making that personification rotating, so that they never know when it’s going to pop up, but this just didn’t work for me.
-However, I did like them interrupting an earnest moment from Francis with something just ridiculous like that. Easily the Reign-iest Reign Moment of the Week (TM) and a juxtaposition that made me laugh, admittedly.
-Props to Reign for being unafraid at showing Francis pleasing Mary. Not for the reasons you’re thinking, pervs, as it’s refreshing to see a show that doesn’t shy away from female sexual pleasure or having Francis do something that we don’t see much of on television, be it cable or broadcast.
-How long do you think Nostradamus will be gone? I was a bit surprised to see him being sent off so soon into the season, but with things not great with Catherine and Lord Narcisse still lurking around court, it makes sense for Mary to get him out of town until things can die down. Also, the whole thing was worth it for Catherine’s reaction to Clarissa being alive and the realization that she might’ve gone down the path she’s on, the path that led to her losing her power, under false pretenses.
-Mary and Francis teaming up to fool Narcisse was interesting, as I didn’t think they were at that place with one another. It was a fun slight of hand by the writers, playing on a previously established dynamic in order to mask the motives of Francis’ actions, and one that I think goes along with the rest of the show, as a theme of Reign seems to be “trust only yourself.” And to have the actions of the characters being questionable could lead to some interesting turns in the narrative later in the season.
-I liked seeing Mary step up against Lord Narcisse. The Mary of early season one wouldn’t have been able to do that, nor would she have went to Father Lucien, and it was a nice reminder of just how much of an impact her experiences in France have had on her. I appreciate that Reign isn’t shy about showing Mary embracing her power and doesn’t back away from having her make mistakes (e.g. killing Edward, as good as it might have felt for her at the time); she might not be a traditional antihero, given that she always feels guilty for doing something bad and she does what she can to make things right, but she’s an interesting character and one without a lot of female contemporaries on television today.
-Similar to Nostradamus, I’m surprised that Lord Castleroy is gone for the time being. I found his dynamic with Greer to be more interesting than Leith’s and while this show is flexible enough with time that he could be back sooner rather than later, it’s a bit disappointing that they seemed to have abandoned the Castleroy/Greer relationship in favor of a more CW-friendly relationship. It’s understandable, given Reign‘s soft ratings and fearlessness when it comes to sexuality, but it’s still disappointing.
-Both Castleroy and Nostradamus leaving makes me especially glad they added Craig Parker as Narcisse. Coupled with the loss of Henry, the show would have felt like it was lacking in strong adults had they allowed Castleroy and Nostradamus to leave and not inserted Narcisse into life as court, the latter of which giving Catherine someone to spar with and injecting a decidedly different energy into such a familiar setting.. Reign might ultimately be a show about Mary and Francis, but it’s a show whose best parts tend to revolve around older characters, so to go from a fairly balanced show as far as age to something much younger within two episodes would’ve been too much, too soon. Parker’s presence adds a lot of heft to Reign and he was especially great during this episode, which makes me excited to see how the rest of his tenure will go.
-Could Lord Conde’s “radical” views come into play later this season? Maybe not those views specifically, but the radicalism that inspired them and the aversion to the status quo that he’s shown. It almost seems like they’re setting him up to go up against Francis, who has tended toward a more conservative leadership style; is there a chance that Lord Conde tries to make a move for the throne and implement his own ideas?
-This was one of the more subtle Catherine episodes in recent memory, yet I think it could have far-reaching effects, both because of her growing paranoia about Clarissa and the string-pulling she was doing with getting Francis to claim the baby due to Mary not being able to get pregnant. That feeling that she didn’t have to deal with Mary and that she was forced into this marriage by the actions of her friend should add a lot to their interactions in the coming weeks and I think that we might be heading for a pretty big blowup when everything comes to a head.
-Next week on Reign: Mary and Narcisse clash over French famine, while Francis fears that his father’s haunting him and Catherine puts on an opulent coronation ceremony.
