Reign: 3x04 “The Price”

Elizabeth: “Why must the fate of nations be decided in a shared bed?”

Well, color me disappointed.

It is not always obvious when a TV series you like jumps the shark. If you love the said TV series, you may not even care it does. But you could not have missed this one, because it was a big flashing neon sign.

I honestly think that Toby Regbo is one of the finest actors they have on this show and losing him will be terrible. But as King Francis’ final hour approached I was cheering, because it was the right thing to do, because it was historically accurate, because they can drag ‘him being seek’ only for so long, and because there were numerous quotes from the creators regarding season 3 being a season about three queens. The chess board was perfectly set up for the bold move, instead they took a coward’s way out.

The ‘Bash looking for Delphine’ story has finally come to an end, though we still don’t know who the killer is. Bash found and saved Delphine so she could save Francis. I hate when people are brought back after they die. Why? Because if they do it once, they can do it again, which makes any death on the series less impactful, because there is always that thought on the back of your mind – ‘it’s okay, they will bring her/him back’. Wasn’t on board when they did it on Buffy, absolutely hated when they did it on Arrow, they did it so many times on The Vampire Diaries that I lost count, and I cringed when they did it here. One thing for Delphine to save Bash, who was still alive, but Francis has already died. For the series that only so mildly touches the supernatural – it was over the top.

Ok, I’ done ranting.

So Mary was ready to give her life for Francis’. How would he feel if he woke up and she was dead? He would never forgive himself. Of course those things never work like that and Mary de Guise paid the ultimate price. What does that mean for Mary, apart from enormous guilt? Will she go back to Scotland? She has to, right?

Let’s talk about our other queens. Elizabeth decides once and for all to rule alone. That was pretty much the extent of the development on that side of the Channel. Oh, and Robert almost choked his wife to death. He was so into it that for a moment I thought we will never get to the ‘falling down the stairs’ part of history.

Catherine is going out of her way to secure her place in the Privy Council. She was sweet-talking one of the members to support her, only she miscalculated. Again. By crippling the poor man’s daughter she got herself an enemy. An enemy that she forgot about. She’s definitely off her game lately.

Narcisse is trying to get on the Council and act on behalf of John, so he could vote against Catherine. Only I’m not so sure that is his intention. Considering how often the rat incident was mentioned, he would rather vote in Catherine’s favor to keep her quiet. This snow ball of lies will hit him hard sooner or later.   

Historical bits

One thing was historically accurate – Mary de Guise died ahead of Francis.

The names of Francis and Mary imaginary children were Anne and James. Mary Stuart had a son named James.

Some observations  

Elizabeth’s strategy was priceless and perfect… just wait for Scotland’s forces to starve, for the French to tire of dying on Scottish soil, for Francis to die and her it is – the victory.

Don Carlos of Spain is quite an obnoxious bastard. He doesn’t deserve any of the Queens.

Wardrobe department

The “Best Dress of the week” Award goes to Elizabeth. This combination of yellow and somewhat dark blue was rather winning

















The “Worst Dress of the week” Award goes to poor Amy











Memorable Quotes:

Elizabeth: “Catholic, Protestant. In truth, I see no difference. There is one Christian God, the rest are just bickering clerics, jockeying for advantage.”
What a lovely take on wars of religion

Francis: “Remember, being king's a performance!”
Surely, Francis, you could give him a better advice than that

Sol’s rating: the episode was great, right up until the last moment – for that just a 2.

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