Kenna arrives at the king’s chambers the day following a vigorous round of S&M play, the same day that the annual First Light is to be held. In First Light, a party is held at the castle for all the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes, with the men giving women they’re interested in candles. If the woman is interested in them, they’ll light the candle in their room that night. Henry has a list of eligible bachelors to set Kenna up with, but before he’s willing to do that, he wants her to fool around with Anna, a prostitute he hired. As he watches, Kenna finishes the last of her wine and ends up on the couch with Anna; the next morning, though, she wakes up to find Anna’s body cold and pale next to her, causing her to flee to scene immediately.
Across the castle, Lola isn’t exactly excited at the prospect of First Light, since she’s too ill to be around food. However, she knows that she has to find a husband so that when she gives birth, neither she nor the baby become royal property. Mary suggests kind, well-read Count Philipe Nardin, a man she and Francis encountered on their honeymoon who she believes Lola will grow to love. Meanwhile, Greer watches as Leith prepares the various cakes and treats that were ordered for First Light, as men will often give pastries along with their candles to curry favor with a woman they want to be with. Leith mentions that Lord Castleroy ordered something for Greer and though the two kiss, it’s put out there that nothing can become of their relationship. He leaves her with a letter from her parents in Scotland.
Nostradamus continues caring for Olivia, who has miraculously recovered from the state she was in when she arrived at the castle. She informs the prophet of what she knows about where she went; after she got lost in the tunnels, she ran out into the woods and into a group of peasants who kidnapped her and brought her to The Darkness, a creature who lives in a dark, cold cavern. It fed on her for nights that turned into weeks and eventually months, the only way she survived being the weight she lost from barely eating and drinking. That allowed her to slip out of her chains and back into the forest, where she found a stream and eventually Bash. Speaking of, as Bash says what he thinks are his last goodbyes to Rowan, who assures him that he’s better off away from court, he sees that their door has been marked in blood by the pagans, meaning that one member of the family will be taken by The Darkness. Now that he’s without a family to call his own, Bash won’t let anything happen to Rowan or the ones she loves, so he decides to stay and fight rather than flee the country.
At First Light, Kenna approaches Catherine with word about Henry’s exploits. She takes the queen to the scene of the crime, where the two look upon a body that has been choked to death. Catherine advises her to say that she saw Anna leave with the money, bragging about what it could to for some relative that lives far away from France, while Mary points Count Nardin out to Lola in the First Light ballroom. Just as Lola approaches Nardin, Francis comes to Mary and questions her choice of Count Nardin for Lola; Nardin, though, is very nice and very direct with Lola, telling her that life isn’t all that free away from castle walls and that he’s been forced to find someone to marry this year in order to keep his inheritance. He then calls her beautiful and gives her a candle, telling her that they’ll be wonderful companions.
Elsewhere, Greer attends Lord Castleroy’s planned dinner for two, with Leith serving them. Castleroy points out that he avoided including pepper in the meal, since he knows that Greer wasn’t that interested in it, and he wanted to prove that he was a man that had more going on than his occupation. Just as Leith pours them some more wine, Castleroy’s sleeve catches on fire and Leith uses a table cloth to put it out; Greer checks on Castleroy before tending to Leith and Castleroy praises the boy’s courage and selflessness. Catherine finds Henry muttering to himself while staring at a map of the world and drinking; the main target of his scorn is Mary Tudor, whose condition appears to be on the incline, while Catherine questions the fact that he just killed two women and that the servants have complained about his water turning black. Henry chalks Cecilia and Anna up as messes in his chambers and claims that the headache he has isn’t an illness, as kings cannot get ill, before slamming his cane on the ground and scaring Catherine away.
Nostradamus wakes Olivia up with food and new clothes; he says that it’s time for her to join the ranks of the living, even though she wants nothing more to do with French court. She wants to stay there with him and live out the rest of her days away from other people, as she believes that The Darkness knew that she was a bad person and filled her with evil during her time in its lair. Meanwhile, Francis goes to Lola’s room where he learns that she accepted Nardin’s candle; he claims that she’s simply wasting time with the Count, while she only says that she wants to get to know Philipe before she passes any kind of judgment. Bash boards up Rowan’s home and creates a murder hole with the intention of trapping The Darkness and getting a look at what has caused such chaos in the woods. Rowan and her family claim that they cannot leave even if they wanted to, as there are other families in the woods that will be moved on to if The Darkness is forced to pass them up. Since it cannot be stopped, they decided to lay down and let it down as it wishes with them and to ensure that Bash doesn’t stop them, Rowan slips something in his tea that makes him pass out.
While Leith gets offered an apprenticeship in Spain by Lord Castleroy, which he accepts after Greer encourages him to take it and assures him that things are ending hopefully rather than bitterly, Mary and Francis discuss Lola’s marital situation and he confesses that his reticence about Count Nardine comes from the Count being gay. He then admits to having slept with Lola in Paris, which Mary seemingly shrugs off, while Mary confronts Lola about having to lie to Francis. Mary warns Lola that she’ll resent her if word of the pregnancy comes out and Francis no longer trusts her and to make things right, she has to wed Phillipe and leave France. Lola then learns about Philipe preferring men, but Mary believes that her friend already had her shot at happiness and that all that matters is keeping her own marriage in tact rather than forcing Lola to wed someone who could never fulfill her. Since Lola made a mistake and must fix it, Mary says that she must either wed Philipe or face Francis finding out the truth about the pregnancy.
Mary goes into her bedroom to find many First Light candles lit and when Francis tries to get intimate with her, she pulls away, telling him that they’ve vigorously tried to have a baby for months and that maybe tonight, they could not try. He explains that he doesn’t make love to her to have a baby; he wants to have a baby with her because he loves her, a sentiment which changes her mind and the two make love accordingly. Greer joins Lord Castleroy on the balcony and while she thanks him for his generosity in giving Leith the apprenticeship when she asked, she can no longer accept kindness from him and rejects his advances once again. Meanwhile, Bash wakes up in the middle of Rowan’s cabin to find the family asleep and a young goat tied to a post in the room. The Darkness enters and after it slaughters the goat, Bash makes a noise and Rowan looks at him, her eye contact dooming her to be taken by The Darkness.
Nostradamus takes Olivia to a nearby pond and baptizes her, telling her that evil is a choice and that all that matters is what she chooses to be. He encourages her to hang on to who she thinks she is, for it will be her salvation, and she claims that she feels anew. While Bash goes out looking for Rowan and gets the idea to go to the castle for extra help in tracking The Darkness, Mary and Lola make up from their earlier fight, though Mary still has doubts as to how long the affair between Lola and Francis was going on. Lola reminds her friend that she wants nothing to do with Francis like that and that he is not his father, while Mary encourages her friend to save herself and not rely on a man to do so. Later, Greer meets Lola on the balcony and explains that she received a letter two days ago from her parents that said they arranged a marriage for her, with her suitor pulling up to the castle as they speak.
Henry approaches Kenna in the hallway and utters the same sentence he did before killing Anna. However, Catherine interrupts him and learns that he went to the physician, receiving tonics for what was supposedly wrong with him. However, he claims he’s done kowtowing to women after receiving a sign from God that he’s meant to be king and he warns Catherine that there will be others like Anna and Cecilia in the near future.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“I see a lust in your eyes that won’t easily be extinguished.”
-So, I’m all about Crazy King Henry and his crazy eyes and the show flashing a big neon sign that says KENNA IS GOING TO DIE THIS SEASON. It’s weird and it’s off-putting (when he said the same thing to Kenna that he did Anna, I might have gasped) and it’s Reign at it’s Reign-iest; however, do we really need another serial killer on television? The context in which it developed is interesting and I like how they’re flirting with his sanity, but it’s worrisome that a week after a cliché pregnancy plot we get what could end up as a retread of the past five years of television. Alan Van Sprang is awesome, though, so I’m not going to write this off just yet.
-Speaking of the pregnancy plot, let’s talk about how atrocious Mary and Francis are. Francis fights so hard to not be his father, yet he tries to control the private life of the girl he slept with once (and we don’t even know if the Count is even gay), while Mary treats the girl she claims to hold as a friend like any of the nameless, faceless peasants that reside in her kingdom. In particular, Mary blackmailing Lola into marrying Nardin due to her silly little insecurity and inability to hold her husband accountable for his actions was, although true to the time period and a sign that the Mary who arrived at the castle is long gone, gross to watch and might represent the end of her being a likable heroine.
-I mean, I get the parallels between Francis/Henry and Mary/Catherine, particularly if the show pursues Francis’ obvious feelings for Lola and turn her into the Diane; it just feels a little heavy-handed and way too soon, with Regbo and Kane not possessing that x-factor that Van Sprang and Follows have that keeps their awful behavior firmly on the entertaining side of the television spectrum.
-I dig that Catherine de Medici is the Olivia Pope of her time. This show would grow by leaps and bounds if it was just Catherine cleaning up the messes that everybody gets themselves in, with episodes punctuated by her sharing a drink with Nostradamus. Get on it, writers.
-Everything with Bash and The Darkness was pretty good, as well. I totally buy him staying behind to protect Rowan, both because he cares about her and because he wants that sense of belonging/having something to fight for, and the show has not yet gone wrong by embracing what the hell’s going on in the woods. Also, what the hell’s going on in the woods? We didn’t get to see much of The Darkness, beyond a glimpse of his lair in Olivia’s flashback and some shadows in Rowan’s cabin, so I’m still unsure what exactly it’ll be and how it’ll look.
-Petition for a flashback episode focused on Olivia’s journey from the castle to the woods to the lair of The Darkness to Rowan’s cabin.
-I might have gotten a teensy bit choked up at what Nostradamus told Olivia about evil being a choice and how all that matters is what you choose to be. Darn you, grizzled prophet voice. Another weird reaction: I felt some deep, deep empathy for Lord Peppercorn when he lamented people making fun of him for being excitable about things he likes. I can relate, Lord Peppercorn.
-Hey, everybody, did you know Greer was still on this show? The show just remembered and put her to very good use, as everything with Lord Castleroy and Leith was strong. In particular, her romance with Leith had stretched about as far as it could have feasibly gone, though I’m curious if they’ll pull him back into the fold if/when he works his way up in the merchant class, and I’m especially curious to see who her parents chose for her.
-Something tells me that no one will want to join Bash in the fight against the bloodthirsty creature in the woods that controls a legion of violent pagans. Might just be me, though.
-I get the reason why Mary is jealous of Lola and Francis beyond the surface level stuff, but I think it’s hilarious that she thinks she has a leg to stand on when she nearly married his brother. I also like how Mary and Lola discussed super secret lady business in the echo-iest hallway in the universe. With guards listening.
-That love scene between Mary and Francis was the biggest piece of fan service of the series thus far. I generally don’t mind them as a couple, even though as individuals I’m souring on both, but can we not write bad fan fiction? If we’re going to do fan fiction, we could at least do good, compelling fan fiction that feels like it has a purpose beyond evoking squeals from legions of teenage girls.
-Next week on Reign: Bash saves Francis’ life while they’re in the woods exploring the latest threat, while Henry and Greer deal with servants and a new couple is forced into a union.
