Reign 1.16 “Monsters” Recap

Olivia wakes up from another nightmare about her time in the cave and Nostradamus assures her that The Darkness can no longer reach her. By keeping her mind so focused on her past, she’s allowing it to sabotage her, but when Nostradamus notices an infected wound on her back, he drains it and finds a tooth from The Darkness embedded in it. Meanwhile, Henry spaces out while in a meeting with a nobleman and lashes out at him when the noble requests aid in defeating a baron in battle. Since Henry has told him to handle the conflict on his own before, he punishes the noble for not listening by pouring candlewax in his ear. Catherine interrupts, though, and talk turns to Queen of the Bean, a yearly tradition where a cake is baked and slices handed out to the servant girls of the castle. The girl whose slice contains a single bean gets to become queen for a day; Catherine cancelled the tradition due to Henry’s erratic behavior and how he could bring harm to both those he loves and France as a whole, but he overrules her and reinstates the contest.

Outside the Queen of the Bean, Francis tells Mary about how his father would have relation with the various queens, resulting in he and Bash going out on hunts while the day-long competition goes on. As they wait, Mary lays eyes on Lord Julian, the man Greer’s parents picked out for her, while Kenna laments that she’s been at the castle for a year without any signs of a suitable suitor coming her way. Mary meets Julian and approves of his engagement with Greer, though things are not as good for Lola, whose suitor will be delayed five weeks. Since she’s about to start showing, she’s understandably upset, but Mary assures her that things are going to work out. Nostradamus informs Catherine that he’s been monitoring Henry’s food and drink intake for days and that there’s no trace of any poison, meaning that he really just might be mad. He then gives her a sedative that induces a coma-like sleep, something they need a Trojan horse in order to get to Henry and slip past his seven tasters. Catherine decides to use Penelope, the kitchen girl who won Queen of the Bean and became queen for the day.

Bash returns to the castle and before he can get out his reasoning, Henry sends him to the dungeon; for his part, Francis doesn’t care, since he thinks Bash came back for Mary. However, Mary sneaks down to the dungeon and sees Bash, where she tells him that he stirs up the type of jealousy and bitterness in Francis that scares her and that he needs to get out of France at once. Bash then explains the reason he can back to begin with (Rowan), just as Catherine fits Penelope with jewelry and promises the girl if she does what she says, the two could become long-term friends. She goes on to explain that Henry has a voracious sexual appetite with even more impressive stamina, with his vigorousness making anytime a woman lays down with him feel like hours; Catherine produces the sedative vial and claims that it’s an aphrodisiac that will help Henry finish quicker and reduce the pain Penelope will have to deal with. All she has to do is put it in Henry’s wine. Elsewhere, Francis catches Mary getting Bash out of the dungeon and learns about The Darkness, a concept he scoffs at. His reaction changes, though, once he hears that Olivia actually survived The Darkness and lived to tell the tale.

Leith barges into Greer’s room the day before he’s scheduled to go to Spain with Lord Castleroy. He tells her he had to see her and she admits that though Lord Julian is everything she wanted, he’s not Leith and the two kiss. Unfortunately, they’re caught by Lord Julian, coming into the room baring a gift for his betrothed. Leith takes full responsibility, claiming to have come on to Greer and that the action wasn’t returned, and though Julian won’t let any harm come to the kitchen boy, the Hungarian Lord cannot bring himself to marry Greer. Francis and Mary get the details of Olivia’s time with The Darkness, but he believes less in monsters and more in fear, pledging that he’ll go out and find the human the pagans are holding up as a symbol of their beliefs. Olivia gives them some vague landmarks to look for on the way to the cave (a curving field of snow, a meadow of fir trees) and Nostradamus comes in to reveal that The Darkness is, indeed, human, that the tooth embedded in Olivia’s back was filed to look like a fang.

Greer cries to Lola and Kenna about the breakup with Lord Julian and how she feels like she’ll never have a future or be able to face her family again. After Mary assures them all that things will get better and that they don’t have anything to be ashamed of, she goes to Henry to try and get Leith pardoned, only to find out that Lord Castleroy has already gotten the boy out of jail. Leith has been signed up for a military service tour that begins tomorrow, but before Mary can leave, Henry tries to get her to teach Penelope how to please a royal by demonstrating what she does for Francis. Flustered, Mary attempts to get Penelope out of the room, fearing for the girl’s life; Penelope, though, won’t leave. Instead, she takes control by tying Henry’s hands together and embracing his love for bondage. In the woods, Bash and Francis lead a search party for Rowan that splits up when they reach the fir trees that Olivia mentioned. Francis is the only one with a weapon and he rants about how Bash wants to be with his wife, while Bash harangues Francis for having everything in front of him and still being threatened. Before the two can fight anymore, they spot nearby tracks that look to be from The Darkness.

Penelope approaches Catherine in the throne room and while she admits she didn’t give the “medicine” to Henry, she assures the queen that she knows how to handle the queen. Elsewhere, Lola is distraught about not being able to fit in her dress and that any time she had to find a husband has run out. Using a suggestion from Greer, Mary tries to get Lola to agree to marry Lord Julian; though Greer was spurned by Julian, he was kind about it and Greer knows how this would help Lola since Lola confessed to being pregnant. Mary also needs this marriage between Lola and Julian to work and Lola relents, telling her friend that if she can sway Julian, she’ll do her best to marry him and better the situations of everyone in her life. Meanwhile, Bash and Francis continue trailing the tracks until one of their horses gets spooked and Bash hears the piercing whistle of The Darkness, the same one he heard while in Rowan’s home. Francis goes out further on the ice and sees that the prints stop and that The Darkness left behind the severed hand of Rowan. Just then, the ice beneath Francis’ feet gives way and the future King of France falls into the water below. Bash ends up running ahead of his brother, busting out an ice hole of his own, and pulling an unconscious Francis to safety.

Back at the castle, Henry remarks that the gossip about Greer and Leith is the first interesting thing he heard about her, while Lola chats up Lord Julian in a bid to help her reputation and her friendship with Mary. Lord Castleroy approaches Greer and informs her that he helped Leith for her; he knows she has a good heart and he wants to marry her so that all rumors about her can be put to rest. He then tells her that he knows the world will be cruel to the next sweet girl who opens her heart to someone others don’t see and when he proposes to her again, she accepts, causing him to hug her. Across the room, Olivia has rejoined society and attempts to get Nostradamus on the dance floor, to no avail. Francis, wrapped up in a blanket in front of a fire, tells Bash that the men did find the cave of The Darkness; however, they only found blood, with no sign of Rowan. Bash admits that he saved his brother because of their familial bond and that he wants something that’s his own, while Francis promises to slay The Darkness in the name of each of its victims, including Rowan. Just then, Henry comes into the room, furious about Bash being released from the dungeon. He rambles about how Bash is a threat to everything he wants and admits to being the one to pay Francis’ men; Francis gets in between his father and his brother and talks Henry down from killing Bash, saying that Bash saved his life that day and that if he were to be harmed, it would be like Henry harming himself. Henry backs down, but he warns the both of them that if his next plan doesn’t work, it’s their lives. Both of their lives.

Nostradamus admits to Olivia that the last time he danced with a woman was with his deceased wife, who died along with their young children in the plague. As a result, he dedicated his life to saving others; Olivia then tells him that he saved her before kissing him. While Lola and Greer convene on the balcony and watch Leith head off to the military, Catherine confronts Penelope about the sedative again, only this time the truth is revealed. Henry spryly comes into the room and chastises Catherine for insulting his queen, who he claims to be in love with. When Catherine goes for the crown, he warns her against insulting Penelope and it’s revealed that Catherine was given the full dosage instead. Luckily, she manages to stumble into the hallway and tell Mary to get Nostradamus, who quickly administers treatment. Bash then fetches Mary and Francis so that they can witness Henry’s final solution – marrying him off to Kenna. Henry titles Bash Master of Horse and Hunt and the wedding goes on with Kenna in tears. However, while Bash doesn’t like Kenna, he does have more power now and he orders a search of the woods.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-Do you think that was actually Rowan’s hand on the ice? Or could The Darkness have used another hand since he knew Bash would come out looking for his friend?
–Reign-iest Moment of the Week: A human tooth being embedded in Olivia’s back. And when Nostradamus held it up, it looked almost like a shark’s tooth in shape/size, so I’m especially curious what The Darkness really looks like. Give me your worst, show.
-So, we’ve been at the castle for a year now, which is surprising even considering the larger time jumps (e.g. wedding-coming home from honeymoon) the show has taken recently.
-Where are Little Henry and Charles? They’ve been MIA since the episode they were kidnapped. Don’t become Joffre Borgia, boys.
-I still have no idea what they’re trying to do with Big Henry. Are they planning on taking him so far into irredeemability that there’s no other choice but for him to die? Or is there some type of “cure” for his madness that will be put on the table in the final episodes of the season? A death would be interesting, as it’d cause the entire court to scramble for power and impressively shake things up, but is the show willing to throw itself off balance like that?
-So much romantic tragedy/angst tonight with the shotgun wedding of Bash/Kenna (who have shared less than a handful of scenes alone together) and that gut punch of a final look shared between Greer and Leith. The former will be intriguing to watch due to how little we know about their dynamic, and how each of them will use the other for their own personal gain, while the latter had some nice counterbalance with another beautiful scene with Lord Castleroy. (That hug!) Although I immediately latched on to the idea of Greer and Leith and think they have the best love story on the show, it was inevitable that they were to be parted and if she has to marry someone else, it’s good that it’s Castleroy, who seems like such a good guy and who will do his absolute best to take care of Greer emotionally and financially.
-Good for the show for not sidelining Catherine with the coma plot. I think it could be fun to see how the castle operates without her and how her absence impacts people like Francis and Henry, but Megan Follows is too good to be out of commission for long.
-Dark horse for best relationship on the show: Nostradamus and Olivia. I like seeing her try to break through with him and it’s nice for him to have a connection with someone outside Catherine. Obviously, considering his past and what she recently went through, this is less grand love for the ages and more two people who need somebody while in their darkest hours. It’s a bond forged in experience and support and even if nothing comes from it, it’s a character combination that I’m glad the show is exploring.
-Hopefully now Francis can be less of a douche toward Bash since Bash saved his life. And the show can straighten out his characterization, which has been a bit inconsistent and plot determinant.
-Henry might be off his rocker, but the line about Greer kissing a servant being the first interesting thing he heard about her was deliciously catty. Would that cattiness be the main symptom of Henry’s ills.
-I was a bit disappointed that Lola’s confession happened off camera, only because it had the makings of a great scene that played on the dynamic between the girls. It’s especially disappointing because Mary, Lola, Kenna, and Greer have felt more distant in recent weeks and part of the foundation of the show is their friendship.
–Reign is off next week, but on April 10th, Mary uncovers a secret clause in her marriage contract.