A carriage carrying Olivia D’Amencourt and her servant Theresa gets stopped in the middle of the road by a young man claiming that Kingsroad is flooded and that they’ll have to cut through the woods. Once they’re in the woods, though, the carriage crashes and the driver gets immediately stabbed by unseen forces. Olivia and Theresa attempt to duck down in the carriage, but Theresa gets her throat cut and Olivia takes off toward civilization. At the castle, Mary and Francis are on the best terms they’ve been on since Mary arrived at the castle, thanks to Scotland’s borders being secured. They declare their exclusivity and seal it with a kiss, just in time for the Harvest Festival that afternoon.
Once there, Mary spends time with her friends and learns of a tradition where one writes down their regrets, attaches it to the stern of a small handmade ship, and watches as they float away for good. While Bash is happy to see Mary so jubilant and in such a good place in comparison to where she was beforehand, Greer sets her sights on Lord Castleroy, a man 14-removed from the throne who made his fortune in the spice trade. But everything she tries to talk to him about always leads back to pepper and when she sees Leith staring at her, she gets jumpy, accidentally knocking into Castleroy and spilling his drink on her. She runs to her room with Leith in pursuit and he tries to help her get cleaned up, since the stain needn’t be allowed to set. As she goes to her room and takes off her dress to give to Leith, Francis shows off the boat he made for Mary, only for their moment to be interrupted when Olivia, Francis’ ex-girlfriend, gets escorted into the room. To add insult to injury, Mary learns that the two shared a math tutor, Olivia left only a few months before she arrived, and Francis was the one who ended up brokenhearted.
Olivia gets taken to a bed where she rests following her ordeal in the woods. She tells Francis of the boy informing them of the flooding and the guttural and foreign dialect she heard from those who harmed the driver and her servant, as well as the fact that she didn’t have anywhere else to go. It turns out that Olivia left Francis because she received a marriage offer, an offer that fell through once her betrothed learned that she lost her virginity to Francis, but he feels responsibility for her and hopes to keep her at court long enough to find a husband that doesn’t care about her being “used goods.” While Greer complains about Lord Castleroy’s fixation on pepper, Olivia enters the room and Mary decides to reach out her hand in friendship, introducing herself to the girl and offering her a place with her friends, as well as a dress for the Harvest Festival. Greer doesn’t think that Olivia belongs at court after what happened with Francis, but Kenna reminds her that there are people who don’t think that she, a commoner, belongs at court, either.
Aylee trips in the hallway and the ring that she was carrying lands at the feet of Queen Catherine, who notes that this is Mary’s ring. Aylee admits to taking things sometimes, which makes her feel better, while Bash arrives in the woods where he finds the bodies of the driver and Theresa strung up by their feet. He cuts down the driver, who he sees is still breathing, and interrupts the blood sacrifice that was ongoing. Meanwhile, Mary takes Olivia into her room to begin the quest for a dress and Olivia mentions that Francis spoke of marrying her and that what they had was true, a relationship full of passion and not built on politics. As Mary’s marriage to Francis is not assured yet, Olivia says that she knows that he’ll choose to be with her, thereby stunning Mary.
Nostradamus comes down hard on Bash for interrupting the fresh blood sacrifice, defiling the faith of the pagans in the woods. The sacrifices have been going on for centuries, but as they were once hidden and limited to animals, they’ve become bolder and have now included civilized people that were lured into the woods under false pretenses. Nostradamus advises him to stay close to the castle for the next few days. In the kitchen, Olivia asks about the location of the wine cellar and runs into the boy who told the carriage to run through the woods, whose voice she thinks sounds familiar but who she cannot place. He expresses surprise that anyone survived the carriage attack, just as Mary talks to Francis about his past with Olivia, including the fact that the two discussed marriage. He confesses that it was in a moment of weakness that the topic was brought up and she mentions that there’s a place in Paris that Olivia could stay, somewhere her reputation wouldn’t get in the way of finding a husband.
Catherine sets her terms for not telling Mary about Aylee stealing the ring, thus branding the young girl as a thief and likely getting her sent away from court in shame. Aylee is to intercept the letters that Mary writes to her mother Marie de Guise and bring them to Catherine before they’re sent to Scotland; Catherine argues that she doesn’t think that Mary’s happy and wants to know how to better her future daughter-in-law’s time at court. 
While Leith couldn’t remove the stain from Greer’s dress and gets told again how there’s too much riding on her time at court for her to get involved with a kitchen boy, Olivia finds out about the Paris arrangement that Mary came up with, which Francis agrees with. She laments that she made a mistake in leaving the castle and that Francis used to be the type of man who put his country before everything. Olivia still loves him and the scandal she underwent was made all the more worse due to dealing with it alone. If she cannot be his wife, she wants to be his mistress, as she would rather have a small part of him than nothing at all. After she kisses him, she tells him that he can have her anyway he wants.
Mary learns that Olivia’s things have been recovered from the carriage and unpacked in the east end, right before Catherine comes over to her and points out Kenna’s new necklace – the same necklace that she was given upon her first anniversary with Henry. She goes on to tell Mary about how you start to notice the signs when your husband gains a mistress, how you know the girls who are more serious and the girls who aren’t. In her situation, she wed Henry at 14 and the two were in love for a while, but since kings are given every opportunity imaginable and don’t have to face judgment for their actions, it wasn’t long before Diane was in their lives. He actually knew her first and had kept her in his heart the entire time before she was named his mistress; Catherine explains that he always felt responsible for her. Mary then confronts Kenna about the necklace and the affair with Henry, which she admits to. However, Henry is in Paris breaking it off with Diane and Catherine doesn’t care about affairs since their marriage is more political than romantic, but Mary tries to convey that Kenna doesn’t want Catherine de Medici as an enemy. Seeing as how Kenna has an offer to become Henry’s official mistress, she proclaims that she only has to answer to him now and not Mary.
Nostradamus informs Bash that the driver of the carriage died and how there’s a creature in the woods, a being who resides in a cave that requires blood sacrifices or else it drains the pagans of life. Meanwhile, it turns out that the Paris arrangement for Olivia has fallen apart, as the family who were to put her up have learned of her reputation. Mary then finds out that something happened between Francis and Olivia, only Francis stopped it, and she demands that Olivia be sent from the castle immediately. Francis pulls rank and uses his position as future king of France to keep Olivia in the country; Mary, though, refuses to have a relationship like Henry and Catherine. Francis reminds her that if they were like Henry and Catherine, he would have already taken Olivia as a mistress, an opportunity that has already presented itself, and Mary tells him to not let her stop him. She flees outside and finds Bash drinking by the lake. Mary laments that she and Francis could never be just a boy and just a girl because while she’s stuck there without recourse, he’s allowed to do what he wants when he wants. Bash wonders why he would ever look elsewhere when he has her and she kisses him. She says that she shouldn’t have done that and he agrees, states that he should have done it, and kisses her while Francis watches.
Mary pulls back and expresses regret at the kiss before leaving to the ship launching. Francis is noticeably distant from her and quickly leaves once the ships launch, finding Olivia and walking off with her as Mary watches. While Aylee delivered the letters to Catherine, Greer finds Leith and kisses him in the hallway, telling him that she doesn’t want to regret her time at court. Catherine invites Olivia to her bedroom and the two talk about the plan they’ve been hatching, where Olivia follows Catherine’s guidance in a bid to break Francis and Mary up. Mary’s short temper played right into their hands and the end game is to make Olivia the next Queen of France, since Catherine is able to control her unlike Mary. She relates to Olivia because she was an untitled rich girl before getting married to Henry and the next step, she says, is to get pregnant. Meanwhile, Aylee confesses to Mary and Mary expresses that she thinks that Catherine is behind Olivia’s reappearance at the castle.
Bash runs into the boy from the road and learns that he’s one of the pagans from the woods. After letting Bash go following what happened with Colin, they can’t allow him to get off scot-free following his attempt at saving the driver. His punishment? Choose someone to sacrifice or the pagans will do the choosing. The boy mentions something about how there’s nothing wrong with sacrificing for the greater goods before falling to his death.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-I liked how they filmed the sequence of the carriage attack, especially the color changes once it entered the woods and the fact that they didn’t show the attackers. Part of what makes the woods a scary place on Reign is the fact that you don’t necessarily know who you’ll be running into and just having the seemingly normal looking boy at the castle implanted the idea that maybe, despite all talk of creatures and blood sacrifices, those who were doing the attacks were regular people. And that idea of someone capable of what the pagans in the woods were capable of being able to slip into society unnoticed might be the most unnerving part of the woods so far.
-To be sure, though, the idea of a creature living in a cave who needs blood is bizarre, especially for a show like this, but I’m going with it for now. If nothing else, it’s an extremely entertaining, if tonally jarring, plot addition and something that adds to Reign‘s (charming) weirdness.
-The last 5-10 minutes of the episode were especially strong, the type of twisty plot maneuvering that shines on a show like this. The suicide was genuinely surprising, while the revelation of Catherine being the puppet master behind Olivia’s appearance was especially juicy and a good way of showing how manipulative and evil she can be instead of merely hinting at it. Plus, Mary being able to figure out that Catherine was behind Olivia is promising, in that she seems intelligent enough to take on Catherine and provide a good battle for (hopefully) seasons to come.
-Good for Greer for putting the pressure from her family aside to be with Leith. I mean, I love pepper as much as the next guy, but Lord Castleroy doesn’t seem like the most stimulating person to spend time with, so while she’s young and unattached, she should be able to indulge and spend time with someone who excites her. I have a feeling, though, that her reputation will soon take a hit and that someone will see her cavorting with him, which should put her in an interesting position.
-I won’t declare my #TeamBash allegiance until Diane returns and we learn why she had him pursue Mary in the first place. But based on everything we’ve seen thus far, I think Bash seems to be a better person and better for Mary, as he’s unaffected by the royal lifestyle and unafraid to be open with her emotionally.
-However, the fight between Mary and Francis was very good. You got to see the similarities between them and Henry/Catherine, as well as how much the ideas of being king and what it means to rule have been entrenched into Francis’ subconscious. Although he may seem meek, on some level, he’s exactly like Henry.
-I almost felt sympathy for Catherine’s story about marrying Henry and him taking on mistresses. Almost.
-Sexy Nostradamus Watch: He respects other religions! And cares about Bash!
–Next week on Reign: Francis notices the growing bond between Mary and Bash, while Kenna confesses to her friends about the affair with Henry and Bash seems to repay his debt to the pagans.
