Reign: 3x06 “Fight or Flight”

Mary: “I may still be a queen, but I am no longer the queen of France.”

It looks like Reign, it talks like Reign but it doesn’t feel like Reign. not anymore. I knew the absence of Francis, or rather an amazing talent that is Toby Regbo, will be noticeable, but not only was it noticeable, it was screaming. As if I suddenly was watching some other show entirely.

First of all, for an episode that aired just after Francis was killed off, there was way too much sexual context…. from lesbian seduction to Catherine sleeping with a servant it was a non-stop disaster and whereas Claude and Leith ‘courting’ was mildly cute, Amy’s encounter with the doctor was outright disgusting.

Secondly, the episode was foolish, to put it mildly.

Mary as Queen is just not working. At all. What is she doing? I remember back when she was so keen to protect her country no matter what, and now when her country needs her the most, she stays in France. I know she made a promise to Francis, but she is loosing this whole battle of being the queen of her own. Why does Elizabeth worry at all, is beyond me?

Instead of focusing hard on state affairs we spend lots of time in Narciss and Lola’s bed. Quite literally. And why all of a sudden they decided to make Lola such a prude? It just goes against everything we know about her.

I am not against romance or a beautiful love story or any kind of sex, but the major drama at English court didn't do a thing for me. Elizabeth the 1st is one of those historical figures that I admire. Her love affair with Dudley is one of the tales I love to read before I go to bed at night. But with those two I just don’t feel it. There is some amount of chemistry between the actors, but not enough to bring to life that tragic love affair….

Also, quite frankly this plot is very boring, Robert and Amy went away, Elizabeth tricked them to comeback, Amy lied about her sickness so they leave again…. Honestly there was too much screen time wasted on this moving around…..

Now that we covered most of the sex escapades (sorry, I'm not going to discuss Narciss/Catherine/Lola mess), let's talk about what matters.

Now, that Mary released French troops, and she is a widow, she isn’t that much of a threat to Elizabeth, yet that’s not the case. Elizabeth wants to beat her down once and for all and the secret weapon in her arsenal is Gideon Blackburn. We’ll see how that plays out.

The only one who didn’t disappoint was Charles, which was a genuine surprise. Not only was he smart enough not to fall for gifts and favors, he also honored his brother by offering Mary his support and asking her to stay in France until she fined a new husband.   

That is a great idea to have France backing her up, but it also means no Scotland. Considering ratings I’m not sure we will ever get there.

Historical bits

Linlithgow Palace had never been taken by Elizabeth.

Some observations  

After checking Amy’s heart doctor’s diagnose was – melancholia due to the lack of sex! 

Gideon Blackburn. I have no idea who that is, or who he was in real life. Do you?

Wardrobe department

There were few good ones and few bad ones, but today I would like to single out these two: Alexandra’s beautiful dress and whatever Claude was wearing – it looked like three parts of three different dresses…. and colors were all wrong

The “Best Dress of the week” Award goes to Alexandra the servant
The “Worst Dress of the week” Award goes to Claude the princess
 
















Memorable Quotes:

Claude’s table manners 101: “Hiding one's hands is considered suspicious. You could be holding a dagger or waiting for just the right moment to poison a tablemate's goblet of wine.”

Sol’s rating: it felt like there were suddenly way too many women; there were some men, of course, but almost all of them were caught with their pants down. 2 out of 5

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