While Mary’s uncle Christian drops off a deceased soldier from his company at the home of his parents, abducting the soldier’s young brother as his replacement in the Scottish army, Mary has a snowball fight with Kenna, Greer, and Lola. Afterwards, Greer laments the fact that her father will be coming to the castle to meet Lord Castleroy, particularly stressful since her dowry leaves much to be desired, and Kenna assures her that they all have messed up relationships and that she’s not alone in not being where she expected to be at this age. Mary begins talking about how her relationship with Francis was negatively impacted by the time she spent in the tower before receiving news from Scotland – Protestant rebels have surrounded her mother’s castle, demanding that she surrender and cede her control of the country. As Marie won’t be able to hang on much longer without military aide, Mary wants to pull strings to help protect both her mother and her home country.
But when she and Francis go to Catherine to see about sending troops to Scotland, the Queen tells them that they have worse problems to deal with. Namely, England’s next ruler has been named and it’s not Mary, as Mary Tudor, still alive, effectively handed the crown to Protestant Elizabeth, a move that infuriates Henry. He berates Mary for not being pregnant yet, for draining the castle of resources, and for providing nothing but drama and headaches since she came to stay with them. She responds by informing him that Scotland has been helping France on two fronts and reminding him that it’s France’s time to return the favor, but Henry wonders whether Marie’s death would do everyone a bit of good.
Once Mary and Francis get some time alone, he tries to apologize for what his father said; however, neither words nor threats worry Mary. What does? The thought of losing, so she decides to contact her uncles, since she’s currently a queen with a scant amount of power. Francis takes issue with this, asking Mary if she would even be able to trust her mother’s brother, but she informs him that churches are being pillaged and burned in her home land and that for as dangerously ambitious as Christian is, he has a huge army that could be of service to them. Meanwhile, Penelope approaches Henry’s chambers and gets stopped by the guards before she can enter. She claims to be pregnant with his child and Catherine doesn’t believe it, ordering the guards to take her away. However, Penelope makes enough noise to rouse Henry and when he pokes his head out, he orders Penelope a cottage in the village, suggesting Penelope take up in Bernet with the rest of his mistresses. Once he shuts the door again, Catherine warns Penelope to not press her luck looking for additional handouts. Elsewhere, Greer’s father and two of her sisters arrive at the castle; her mother and the rest of her sisters didn’t come because her father wants to do damage control on Greer’s reputation and begin looking into suitors for his next two daughters.
Bash arrives back in his chambers after spending weeks in the woods chasing the darkness. After informing Kenna of their new home and how much work it needs to be livable, he inquires about her having an encounter with the king and she assures him that she’s made sure to keep her distance. The two begin kissing and when he pulls away, he tells her that he cares about her experience and wants it to be the best it can be, so good that it makes her forget all the other men in her life. He begins undressing her and asks her to tell him what she wants him to do to her – very specifically. On the balcony, Catherine chastises Francis for not controlling Mary and for allowing a vicious killer in Christian into their home. However, Mary’s not so worried. She and her husband go down to meet with the Duke of Guise and things quickly descend from usual pleasantries to business, as the Duke knows why he’s been asked there and mentions rumors he’s heard about the king’s dwindling sanity. His price for agreeing to help his niece? He wants to become Lord’s Magistrate, right-hand man of the king himself and a higher position than the one he had the first time he was at court, before he was banished by Henry for being too power hungry. Even though Francis doesn’t like the idea of kowtowing to the man who undercut his father at every opportunity, the door is left open by both sides.
Catherine walks in on Penelope hooking up with a stable boy in the kitchen and after kicking him out, tells the girl that she must do whatever she can to protect the king’s baby and make sure no other man can lay claim to the royal heritage. Her solution? Locking Penelope in the tower, since she knows that the girl isn’t pregnant in the first place. As she leaves Penelope to think about her botched plan, Catherine tells her that she’ll visit every month or so to watch her belly grow. While Lord Castleroy offers to give a royal tour to Greer’s sisters and rejects his fiancée’s dowry when her father presses the issue, claiming that he only wants his future father-in-law’s blessing, Francis interrupts Henry maneuvering his toy soldiers on the map of Europe that he uses for military strategy. Henry says that since the English never wait before making a decision, he’s not going to either, so his plan is to attack England from several sides beginning tomorrow. The soldiers will be marching northeast under the command of a new general, since Henry demoted the most recent general, and Francis tries to impart that the country has zero military strength right now; they’re too spread out and if Henry goes through with this, thousands will die. Henry’s response? To quote the Bible, claiming that God told him that he’ll claim victory.
Francis quickly finds Catherine and tries to explain the situation, only to learn that she’s been in contact with the generals and that they’re under strict orders not to make any moves unless she gives the okay. While Bash continues teasing Kenna, not allowing her to take her skirt off while they fool around, Francis meets with Christian and pieces together that the Duke wants to be his Lord Magistrate – not Henry’s. As the Duke again gives notice that he knows about Henry’s condition, Francis agrees to the proposition, only if the army would be willing to report to him and if they would take him to Scotland. Should Francis die, the promise they just made would be null and void, so he believes that he’s doing his best to ensure his safety. Mary learns of the deal and passionately kisses Francis, which Bash sees as he walks by; as a result, he returns to his room with Kenna and eschews taking things slow, pulling off her skirt and taking her on the bed. In the tower, Penelope confesses to Catherine that she’s not pregnant, but Catherine already knew that and doesn’t mind the deception – in fact, she recruits Penelope to join her ring of ladies, telling the girl that she’ll be sent to Italy to learn manners and the art of deception. If she shows enough progress, then (and only then) she’ll be able to return to the castle.
Greer has a meal with her family and Lord Castleroy and when her father comes down on her in front of her fiancée, this time disparaging her intelligence, Castleroy tells him that he knows that the family mines have been played out for years. After informing his fiancée’s father that he’s not to talk to Greer like that again, Castleroy lays out his plan to give 10,000 francs to each of Greer’s sisters so that they may find men of status to marry, with Greer getting the approval over who they ultimately wed. He wants to ensure that the rest of her sisters can marry for love and refers to his fiancée as being priceless. While Mary and Francis make love due to her gratitude toward him for going to Scotland, as well as the fact that he’ll be gone for months, Bash grows distant during his own lovemaking with Kenna, so much so that she tells him that she wants him to see only her when they’re together and to remember what she feels like.
Francis and Catherine head to Henry’s chambers and he calls them on sending generals to humor him rather than taking his military plans seriously. The troops departed that morning, anyway, and he wants to be the one to lead them, so he dismissed all of his generals as well as his pants in the process. Henry then reminds them that he’s the one that guards his own legacy and that with God’s blessing, he wants to be known as the greatest strategist since Hannibal. Instead of arguing against him, Francis takes his father’s side, volunteering the services of Christian’s army in the process. He believes that France will have to win this war for them to have any future, while Henry is just proud that his son is by his side as they make history together. Lord Castleroy goes to Greer’s room and apologizes for his behavior at the meal and she claims that she’s never had anyone stand up for her like that before. He tells her he’s grown to love her outspokenness and didn’t want to bring her family’s financial status up due to being a gentleman, claiming that everyone deserves a chance at happiness. When he produces their wedding contract and mentions that she now has final approval, she kisses him and surprises herself with how much she likes it.
Mary comes down on Francis for leaving her mother to the Protestant rebels and once again promising to defend Scotland without actually doing anything to defend her home country. Since he will always put France before her and Scotland, she admits that she made a mistake in marrying him, that she had many opportunities to end things but that she didn’t because of how much she loved him. However, with tears in her eyes, she makes him promise that he’ll stop promising her things that he knows he can’t produce and to not allow England to take him from her. As she watches the soldiers leave, Mary tells her friends that while she can forgive Francis for doing what he thinks is best for his country, he hopes he can do the same for her when she has to make a move for Scotland. And she will be making moves, as she’s tired of him endangering her country for the sake of France.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“Surely a bounty of demeaning tasks awaits you in the kitchen.”
-“Nothing bothers me more than problems I’ve already solved coming back to be problems again.”
-“You just let the devil into our home.”
-“Don’t make friends with rats. They bite.”
-“Define utterly. Because this is a man who’s ridden a pig through the throne room in nothing but his underthings.”
-“Oh, stop groveling, as much as it warms me to hear it.”
-I’m assuming since next week is going to follow Francis on the road to war, we’ll see Martin, the dead soldier’s 14-year-old brother, out on the battlefield, as well. That was a sad cold open, watching the Duke basically abduct the boy from his home and not allowing him to mourn his brother, and you have to wonder just how long this show will have Martin last in the cold, dark world away from his family.
-I really enjoyed the snowball fight, since this show always spring even more to life when it remembers that Mary, Lola, Kenna, and Greer are friends. Also cool was that it was paired with that cold open, both focusing on the end of innocence (Martin being drafted, the girls discussing their marital difficulties, Mary learning about the situation in France).
-I’m very curious when they’re going to drop Henry’s intensity; he’s been on volume 11 for quite a while and while there’s a certain creepiness that permeates throughout the show when he’s on screen, the constant manic state and nobody being willing to do anything about his continued descent make his appearances feel a little same-y. Even when he’s losing his pants and plugging away at his latest military strategy, you just want to see something different, something human from him and I don’t know if that’s possible to wring from this character anymore.
-That being said, I did like Mary standing up to him when he came after her. That’s something even Catherine has shown herself unwilling to do, so whether it be from her naivete or the recklessness required due to Marie’s situation, good for Mary. Same with her final argument with Francis – while I hated that she pulled back toward the end, it was so nice for her to rip into him for how he’s treated her since they were married. It also helps that Mary and Francis are much more interesting to me when they’re fighting than when they’re all over each other, so this type of episode is where the show truly shines.
-No Nostradamus this week. I’m assuming him and his chest hair are still mourning Olivia’s departure and actively avoiding Catherine’s company for the time being.
-I would watch a spinoff about the ladies Catherine sends out to seduce leaders far and wide, with Catherine acting as something of a 16th century pimp. I would also watch a spinoff about Penelope going to Italy and learning the art of deception, because that just sounds too cool.
-Let’s talk about how literally every single Bash/Kenna scene made me blush. Him telling her that he wants her to forget every boy that smiled at her and every man that flirted with her? Hey now.
-You’ll notice every line quoted is something from Catherine. As per usual, she injected so much energy and humor into her screen time and I especially loved how over Penelope she seemed by the end of the episode. Yet Catherine knows that Penelope can be a good pawn for her in the future, so rather than banishing her or having her killed, she effectively puts the girl in her back pocket for later use.
-I like that it looks like Henry invented Risk.
-If you don’t love Lord Castleroy after watching this episode, I don’t know what to tell you. I was beyond touched by how he treated Greer this episode, since it was obvious that she didn’t grow up in the greatest home environment due to her father wishing she was his son, and the fact that he already did his research over the mines her father owned? Perfection. In a court filled with morally gray characters and a whole lot of deception, greed, and backstabbing, Lord Castleroy is a pure, generous soul and someone whose appearances I always look forward to, someone who brings a little light into the darkness the show has been shrouded in. Plus, it’s nice that the show gave Greer an older, desirable love interest that didn’t turn out to be controlling, sexually abusive, or packing some type of daddy/daughter complex that he projects onto her.
–Next week on Reign: Mary hires a mercenary to help her save Scotland, while Francis prepares France to wage war on England and Lola fears Lord Julien will betray her.
