Reign: 4x04 “Playing with fire”

Catherine: “I've learned to never trust the beginning of a book.”

Weddings and resurrections; jealousy and rivalry; and a lot of fire – yep, that pretty much sums it up.

Bianca is alive – who would’ve thought! So Charles didn’t kill her after all, not for the lack of trying though. He literally hunted her, and not only her. That bloody vampire face of his was horrendous. What strikes me the most are his eyes – complete and utter coldness and unresponsiveness and something else very terrifying. I am not sure where they are going with all this madness other than trying to kill him off much much earlier.

Don’t really know why, but I’m always amazed at Narcisse’ ability to turn the situation to his advantage. He saw the opportunity and quickly married off his son to Claude. As soon as they were wed I knew yet another resurrection awaits us. Leith is alive. YAY! Unfortunately he came back too late. Poor Leith. Poor Claude. Come to think of it not once did I ever think I’d be rooting for this couple. Color me surprised.

Leesa is one very dislikable one tone character; and she’s getting worse and worse every week. When her attempt to appoint Spanish cardinal as Lord Chancellor of France failed, she turned to poor heartbroken Claude. What does she care what’s happening behind closed doors? It’s French court, for God’s sake! Also, the background for her hatred that I asked for turned out to be nothing other than simple jealousy. Someone  really needs to send her packing.

Another one who acted out of jealousy was Lord Darnley, when all the greetings and adoration was directed to Mary and James. His jealousy (or is it hunger for fame and glory and power?) almost got that poor child burnt alive. We don’t know Lord Darnley that well yet, and so far he didn’t leave any impression. He was somewhat charming with Mary in the beginning but his slimy soul crawled out pretty quickly though. It is obvious he is not interested in her at all, only in power she represents. We even had THE talk about crown matrimonial. Jeez, he moves quickly.

This episode also clearly stated that this union will be a hard one. Loved what Greer said: “What is survival without even the hope of love?”. Love is certainly NOT an option here, but neither is companionship or mutual respect. Mary has a long road ahead hand in hand with someone she doesn’t know, doesn’t trust – and what’s worse someone who doesn’t deserve her trust in a first place. 

Meanwhile in England Elizabeth scored one more round and managed to get catholic nobles on her side. All she had to do was to kill that poor animal. She has to be careful though and give credit where credit’s due. If it wasn’t for Gideon's very wise counsel she’d have all the nobles slaughtered, since that is her response to any threat lately. He showed her that ‘winning over’ is much better approach than ‘killing’. Yet, instead of saying thank you, she yelled at him. Ungrateful queen is a very sad thing to watch, especially when there are no grounds for it.

Historical bits

In real life Darnley demanded crown matrimonial after the marriage not before.

Royal weddings have never ever happened THAT quickly.

Some observations  

Great casting of Luc Narcisse – the actor was spitting image of Craig Parker.

Poor Gideon; I sympathize, really, but why is his daughter so important to the story?

Greer’s relationships with ex-Lord Castleroy are much worse than I thought. Not that I care. I kinda like her possible romance with James. There were some sparks again amongst the literal fire hell.

Not sure I was even surprised that Narcisse had yet another adult son, an ‘apple that fell some distance from the tree”. Don’t know about that. He seemed sweet, too sweet. He said all the right words, but strangely I’d prefer Darnley who bluntly spoke his mind, than this maybe-threat disguised as flattery.  I’m with Catherine on this one, to clarify – on ‘not trusting him yet’, not ‘killing him off later’ part.

One thing I wonder, how long before Narcisse knew about Leith being alive? It felt as if he knew in advance.

Dan Jeannotte is quickly gaining points in favor of James. Those unnecessary but very welcome shirtless scenes were yam-yam. Hell, even Darnley felt the need to set some things on fire ).

Also, I bet James is the ‘Loyal Watchman’ who sent Mary a note about Darnley.

Was so glad to see the dog alive and well…..

Wardrobe department

The “Best Dress of the week” Award goes to Mary. This dress was very charming.

 

The “Worst Dress of the week” Award – I’m inclined to go with Elizabeth’s dress. It wasn’t awful, but it was somewhat off - perception wise.  

 

Memorable Quotes:

Catherine: “The only monster in this castle is gossip. And we must not feed it, or it will bring us to our knees.”

Catherine: “I'm trying to picture this, Charles. I really am. You and that sweet girl, Bianca, together in a field of weathered bones and putrid remains. Was that your idea of a romantic evening?”

Catherine: “Please tell me you've succeeded in curbing my Spanish mule of a daughter's flight of jealousy.”

Catherine: “I may not be able to get you back from a nunnery, but when the time is right, I can make you a widow.”

Sol’s rating: I’ll give it a 4. Reign seriously rocks this season.