Mary heads to the balcony outside her chambers and watches as Bash leads in a swarm of chained Protestants. The men were caught trying to flee the country after the roads were sealed and Francis gives him the okay to question them and use any means necessary to get information about the attack on the castle. Unfortunately, though, Narcisse seems to have disappeared, so Francis’s prime suspect, or at least someone he thinks can lead him to the men responsible, is currently blowing in the wind. After Conde pledges his loyalty to Francis, with the king asking him to get the Protestant leader to help find the culprits, Mary comes down to the courtyard and eyes the men chained and standing against the castle wall. She wants to believe that her rapist is there, that she can get the closure she needs by finding him, but she doesn’t recognize anyone in the lineup and becomes fidgety when Francis tries to console her.
Over at Greer’s, she tries to convince Castleroy to go to mass with her, thinking that he needs to separate himself from Protestantism of face being hanged for what happened at the castle. However, still clinging to the intention of his donations and the comfort that the religion brought him after his daughter died, Castleroy rejects his wife’s offer, even as she claims he’s dragging her down. Back at the castle, Mary blames herself for what happened; she thinks that she should have known that the guards who entered her room that night weren’t castle guards, but Francis assures her that none of this was her fault and apologizes for his actions that led to the cycle of violence plaguing the country. He then goes on to confess that the choices he made were a result of the pressure from Narcisse, that he was blackmailed for the murder of Henry and that he had to keep Mary from being culpable just in case Narcisse ever made a move against him. Once he mentions killing Montgomery in order to keep his secret, Francis tells his wife that they will come back from this just as soon as the men responsible for the attack are captured and killed. Later, as the dungeons become too full to accommodate the men that Francis needs to hold, he tells Bash that he can’t go back to the man he was before he was crowned. He has to instill fear in those who seek to trespass against him, so instead of moving the freezing prisoners somewhere warm, he demands they stay outside and suffer.
As a result of the incident, Mary moves her things out of her chambers, which draws the attention of her ladies. She matter-of-factly comes clean about what happened, making Lola and Kenna tear up in the process, and says that she only wants two things: 1) no talk of an heir from anyone in the castle until she can be sure that she didn’t get pregnant and 2) the deaths of those responsible for what happened. Not ashamed of what happened to her, which she views as a strike against the monarchy, Mary is waiting on Francis to kill the men who attacked her before she exhales. While Lola goes to Francis with the knowledge of a countryside villa that Narcisse would seek refuge at in trying times, something that she knows he doesn’t remember telling her, Leith bursts in at Greer’s to tell her of the Protestant witch hunt going on. However, Greer can’t turn to Mary this time, so she’s forced to confront the possibility of losing the man she thought would bring her a greater sense of security. Elsewhere, Francis learns that the prisoners are panicked due to his order to stay outside, a fear that resulted in the death of two guards. Rather than sit on his hands, though, he orders every man in that part of the castle, amounting to about a dozen, hanged in the courtyard as a warning to all those who dare dream of trying something similar.
Catherine goes back in the castle and finds her two girls in the room with Claude as she practices the harpsichord. After unsuccessfully convincing Claude to leave, Catherine smacks her daughter in order to get her away from the girls who wants nothing more than to kill her and return the favor. The little girls try to convince Catherine that Claude deserves to be murdered, that they deserved to be chosen this time instead of her, but when she bucks against their ghostly plans, they warn her that if she doesn’t get rid of Claude, they will. While out in the country, Conde arrives at the home of Hugo, the man who supplied the attackers with the money necessary to buy their weaponry; however, it turns out that Hugo killed himself rather than face the punishment of being involved in something so heinous. When he tells Mary what he found, she inquires about Hugo’s wife and stresses the 
importance of getting the names and information necessary to put something like this to rest. Meanwhile, Catherine interrupts Claude’s conversation with her friends to again attempt to get her daughter out of the castle, this time offering her a sack of gold and urging her to go anywhere she wanted in Europe. However, Claude is through taking orders from her mother and dumps the money out before threatening her if she dares to touch her again. When Kenna approaches after overhearing what happened, Claude snaps at her, calling her “nothing” and reminding her that Catherine will do anything for her blood.
Francis finds Narcisse at the villa and during the physical altercation that follows, the latter uses his resources and loyalty as leverage to save his own life. He notes that if he were to die, his money and men would fall into the hands of the Protestants and that if Francis were to spare his life, he would use what he has to protect the crown and ensure that no one touches him. Impressed at Narcisse’s survival instinct, Francis lets him life, just as Mary opts to spare Hugo’s wife’s life if she were to give any necessary information that will help catch the men who attacked the castle. The woman tells of Severine, the man who attacked Mary – a farmer who became radicalized after the death of his son. He and two other men came to Hugo for money after the attack and Hugo agreed to put it in a peasant house up north, a house that just so happens to be closer to Hugo’s house than the castle. Mary wants to take the opportunity that just presented itself, perhaps the one chance she has at catching who hurt her, and Conde eventually relents, though he notes that they don’t have any protection and that they’ll be outnumbered. Back at the castle, Catherine drugs Claude’s soup and uses a forced apology for everything that she’s done to hurt her daughter to get her to eat it, all the while her two deceased daughters watch in wonder.
Leith arrives at the castle and tries to talk Francis into letting Castleroy, who had been taken by the guards in another sweep of the country, go, citing his knowledge of the man’s character. When Francis refuses, Leith calls in the favor he was owed when Francis took his lands and gave them to Narcisse, which ends up getting Castleroy freedom. However, even though Leith encourages Castleroy and Greer to get out of France at once, he shares a look with her that says that won’t be happening. Conde and Mary make it to the peasant house before the man and hide in anticipation of their arrival. Not a moment later, the men come into the darkened room and note that Hugo came through for them, as what they wanted was on the table. What they didn’t anticipate, though, was Mary being under the table and using her dagger to cut two of their Achilles’, with Conde bursting out of the curtains to subdue to third man with his sword. Mary confronts Severine, who she injured, and he tells her that she deserved what happened to her; angrily, Mary hisses that she’s going to live and be remembered while he is to die for what he did, to be forgotten because of how unsuccessful the attempt on her life was. When he insists that God will forgive him for what he did, she throws the lantern down, setting him (and the rest of the cabin) on fire, before urging Conde to kill the three men and let them burn with their lies. She and Conde then make it out of the house and watch it as it burns before them.
The following morning, Mary notes to Conde that she thought she would feel better after getting the justice that she was owed. He tells her that she can’t let this defeat her, citing that France is now her home and that her people need her, while back at the castle, Claude is decidedly woozy, almost as if she were drunk. She approaches Bash and tells him of her lost suitors before nearly collapsing in front of him; unfortunately, when he catches her and hoists her into his arms, with the intention of bringing her safely back to her room, Kenna catches an eyeful of them and presumes the worst, knowing how Claude is. Meanwhile, Greer decides to not join Castleroy in leaving the country, saying that she can’t leave Mary at a time like this and that they would look especially guilty if they fled this soon after he was released. Her plan is to stay behind and make up an excuse for him after he leaves with his children, though she never mentions whether his absence from her life is to be permanent. As they part, he embraces her and tells her that he prays he’ll see her again.
Francis and Mary reconvene after their separate sojourns and exchange information about what’s transpired. He’s killed nine of the conspirators in the attack; she killed the man who raped her and two accomplices. Even though the murder should have exorcised the demons that have been haunting her since the incident, it only highlighted the fact that she blames him for what happened. However irrationally, her mind ties the act to Francis and she can’t have a relationship with the personification of the worst thing that ever happened to her. Since he didn’t give them a chance by being honest with her about Narcisse, she doesn’t feel as if there’s anything to hang onto in her relationship, so she wants them to live separate lives. They can work together as rulers, but that’s all they can be – she’s wife in name only. When he tells her that he loves her, she replies that their love hasn’t exactly brought us to a good place and walks away. As a result, Francis goes to Narcisse and tells the Catholic that he belongs to the crown now; anything and everything Francis asks of him will be done or else Narcisse will be killed and disposed of promptly.
While in her chambers, Catherine receives a visit from Henry, who crawls into bed with her, tells her that the twins found him, and gets her to say that she wants him back. While Conde’s brother Antoine, who he was going to visit before turning back, presses him to remain loyal to the family over the royals, Mary receives the letter she was supposed to get the night of the incident. In it, Conde says that he cannot marry Claude, as he has fallen in love with a queen.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-Although I know Mary pulling away from Francis is going to cause a ruckus, I actually think that it makes sense and that it’s something that shows the rape wasn’t a shock tactic. If the rape was merely a stunt or something purely to raise the ire of the audience, the show would have had Francis and Mary find some type of common ground by the end of this episode; they would have pledged their love to one another, the whole trust spiel would be regurgitated, and everything that this woman just went through would have been cheapened due to plot expediency. Mary is not in the space to be physically or emotionally open with anyone – not Francis, not her ladies, not Conde. She can’t stand to be touched, she’s extremely jumpy, she’s dealing with the possibility of being pregnant by her rapist’s baby and her role in the killing of three men – it would ring false if she ignored the fears that’ve been raised by the rape for the sake of a happy ending, especially since she still links Francis to the incident. That’s a hell of a lot of trauma that she went through and while Reign has been known to play with time, Mary has been very matter-of-fact about her rape in private, so why would she swallow her pride and throw herself back at Francis right now? Eventually, I do think they’ll rekindle, but there’s so much material to mine from Mary’s current mindset and way of looking at life that I think the show will be better if they’re apart for a while.
-And as for the thing that was in the previews, I won’t spoil because I know not everybody watches those. But I do have a theory as to why Mary is doing what she does there and I think it falls into line with what I mentioned above.
-I really like the direction they’re taking Francis. I don’t know if he can pull out of the Evil King life path that killed his father, but I think it’s quite sad (in a good way) for him to talk himself into ruling like Henry and that this gives his character the direction that had been lacking at times in the past. One of the pillars of the show is that Mary and Francis are exactly like Catherine and Henry were at the beginning of their relationship yet they’re self-aware enough to not want to end up like the former rulers did after time on the throne, so the past couple of weeks have been almost eerie in that Mary has sacrificed some of her soul for the sake of the crown (like Catherine) and Francis has decided to rule with the iron fist he never wanted to use on his people – the same one he inherited from his father.
-Let’s talk about how good Adelaide Kane was here. She was obviously great last week, but I think this week was a more affecting performance for me. From the haunted, distant look in her eyes when she talked to Francis about blaming herself for what happened to the tearful breakup you could tell she didn’t want to happen and the anger that emanated off of her when telling Severine that he’ll die a forgotten death, she was as good as she’s ever been, which is one of the reasons I’m supportive of this particular storyline. If you have an actor who’s shining in a story, it never hurts to lean into that and let them continue exploring that part of their character, so if we can get an interesting emotional arc out of this time in Mary’s life and some juicy material for Kane to sink her teeth into, I’m all for this. More of this, please.
-I find it interesting that Reign turned Francis into Henry the same episode that Henry made his return. Was that intentional? I don’t know, but if it wasn’t, that was a nice coincidence.
-For everybody who’s been hating on Lola this season for her allegiance to Narcisse, her tension with Mary, and the amount of screen time she’s received, I point you toward her reaction to Mary talking about the rape and her immediate thought being to tell Francis where Narcisse would be.
-The one thing missing from the ghost storyline is Nostradamus. Why this show decided to send off its supernatural conduit and the one person who could possibly explain all this, or at least help Catherine out and not strand Megan Follows in a storyline by herself, is beyond me.
-Speaking of the ghost storyline, what was that? The girls can now touch flesh and blood people, possibly making them a legitimate threat to Claude, and apparently Catherine can get ghost penis from the husband her son murdered. I get the emotional reasoning behind some of this (she feels guilty over the girls dying, she doesn’t want Claude to get trapped in the same life that she did, she misses Henry), but everything else isn’t hitting with me, mainly because there seems to be no real rhyme or reason behind anything. Reign‘s past flirtations with supernatural stuff have at least made sense, but I’m not quite sure what to make of any of this. What was happening to Catherine while she was fooling around with Henry? Can the girls actually touch other human beings or did they touch Catherine just to freak her out enough to try and kill Claude? Is there a medical reason that Catherine is having all these hallucinations/daydreams or is her guilt strong enough to take over her consciousness? Though I don’t mind a trip to Crazy Town in my kooky costume dramas, I’m going to need this storyline in particular to start coming together a little more or else it’s going to feel like a big waste of time.
-Do you think bringing back Henry this way is a cheat? Because I don’t know. Alan Van Sprang is excellent and the chemistry he has with Megan Follows is pretty damn great, but this feels like a “let’s make the show as convoluted as necessary in order to get back a character we regret killing” and as of right now, I don’t think the show will be better for it. While I buy that Catherine is steely enough to keep everything she’s going through bottled up for the good of her son’s rule, and that everything she’s dealing with might be a manifestation of that unwillingness to share anything with those she loves, is nobody ever going to find out what’s going on with her? And when they do, what type of reaction are they going to have to “I had ghost sex with my dead husband and tried to kill my daughter because my two dead daughters made me”?
-I’m not looking forward to a plot featuring Kenna jealous about Bash and his sister. While being an incredibly worn-out trope that would feel tired on any show, it’s especially frustrating here because Kenna’s not had anything to do all season and to reduce what was once the most pro-active of Mary’s ladies into something this far removed from the action is sad. The show has done well by Lola and Greer this season as far as keeping them relevant and giving them a decent amount of screen time, but Kenna’s very much been left in the dust, something that became more egregious and noticeable once Bash was folded into the main narrative a couple of episodes ago. My number-one wish for the second half of the season is that Reign find something interesting for Kenna to do; even if it is based around Bash, it would be better than her either being invisible or being involved in a narrative cul-de-sac that has nothing to do with anything.
-The Greer/Leith/Castleroy triangle needs to not restart. I like Greer; I like Leith; I like Castleroy; I do not like a Greer/Leith/Castleroy triangle. It’s the show retreading ground it’s already covered and I think there’s quite a bit of material still left in Greer’s marriage with the religious differences, Castleroy being on the castle’s radar, and Greer dealing with the man she married for security not being the most secure option anymore. Plus, it never fully tapped into the age issue and the power dynamic that comes from him helping her sisters, so the constant back and forth of Greer’s confidence in her relationship and the desire that the writers seemingly have to send off, kill, or marginalize any adult character are just absurd at this point. Greer’s had a pretty decent half-season, writers; let her keep up this momentum. Don’t drag her down into a storyline seemingly meant for the Tumblr crowd (I have a Tumblr, so hold your hate mail) and let what could be a valuable character regress into a version of herself she seemingly outgrew.
-Well, Reign is now off until Thursday, January 22nd. The first half of the season has been a bit rocky, but these last two episodes have given me a bit more optimism as far as the state of this season than I had before then. Hope you guys join me when the second half of the season kicks off.
