Thursday, November 21, 2013

Reign (Episode 6)


Reign is a 2013 TV series, broadcasting on the CW network, on Mary, Queen of Scots stay at the French court during the 1550s. 

Adelaide Kane as Mary, Queen of Scots
Alan Van Sprang as King Henry II of France
Torrance Coombs as Sebastian "Basch"

Tension is in the air as King Henry returns from Paris. Mary is in turmoil over her kiss with Basch's. Francis is torn between Olivia, Mary and his love for his older half-brother. Basch's world is turned upside down by the appearance of the pagans. Kenna is waiting for Henry to announce that she is his mistress to the world and discard Diane de Poitier. To her surprise, King Henry returns with Diane in hand.

Sebastian tells Francis and Mary of the butcher's visit the previous night as well as his reason for coming after Mary finds a cursed necklace in her room. He doesn't reveal that his mother, Diane de Poitier, dabbled in the pagan's dark arts and that he shares her connection to the heretics. Mary wakes to the sight of a stag's head hanging above her bed. Now, it is Catherine de Medici's problem. She won't have some heretic invading her room, threatening her guests.

Kenna reveals to her friends that she is Henry's mistress and she gets a luke warm reaction. They question her on whether or not Henry's affections are true and if he really has broken free of Diane's spell. After all, the tiles on the floor say, "DH". Kenna confronts her lover over the matter much to his annoyance. She begins to doubt his feelings for her until she sees his candle light display and this seemingly reaffirms their relationship. The jokes on her because Henry is still visiting Diane's bed.

To fulfill the requirements of the sacrifice, Basch brings a prisoner, who is incarcerated because he stole food for his family, into the forest to die. But it is all just a ploy, he lures the butcher out and kills him, thus fulfilling the prophecy. But because the prisoner now knows of his connection to the herectics, Basch pushes him off a cliff. Catherine finds out who it is that placed the stag's head on Mary's wall and Mary is almost assassinated by one of her ladies. The heretics are burned at the stake.

In light of all that has happened, while their betrothal still stands, Francis leaves Mary, in Basch's arm's, or so he thinks, and runs to Olivia's warm embrace. 

I give this episode 3/5. Alright, I'll admit it. This episode was not half bad. The tension in this episode is constant throughout and I really felt engaged. Coombs really steals the show this time around and Follows plays Queen Catherine well. Less Francis, more Basch! I watched his transformation from good to evil with a keen eye and it didn't feel too sudden like Tomas's was. The tension between Mary and Francis was good but I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him saying, "I'm doing this for France." Francis, please, I thought we were done with this nonsense. As usual, the weak point of the episode was the part on Mary's ladies-in-waiting. The amount of cheese in Henry's display for Kenna was balanced out by the revelation that he is still in love with Diane. AS SUSPECTED! If you can ignore all the usual problems with a Reign episode, this episode is moderately enjoyable.

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