Reign 1×11 Review: Inquisition

This episode was busy, busy, busy!  I feel the plot was a bit convoluted and had too much going on for me.  I was disappointed to see Catherine spin so far out of control and the events of this episode made me pause and wonder where the end of this season is going to find our characters.  Not wanting to give too much away in my introduction, let’s start on my thoughts and try to make sense of “Inquisition”!

Catherine has put herself in quite the sticky situation.  I must admit I was rooting for her to succeed in this episode and couldn’t believe she chose the route that she did in the end.  Catholics condemn suicide, and I had a hard time picturing her choosing that option.  We learned some interesting details about her that, due to this episode’s frenzied pace, probably won’t get further explored.  I must say, I was a bit shocked when King Henry’s friend turned out to be Catherine’s lover and the father to her daughter Clarissa!  While I was on Twitter during the episode, many people tweeted their confusion in regards to Catherine’s reaction to Nostradamus’ story about Clarissa, with others hitting the nail on the head and calling Catherine being her mother.  Hearing Clarissa’s story and how cruelly she’d been treated only deepened my dislike for Nostradamus, as he only continued that cycle of abuse with his talk of “monster” in previous episodes.  Henry accusing Catherine of adultery (regardless of how true that fact turned out to be) was quite amusing because kings always seem to want to murder their wives for accusations of which they themselves are guilty.  Now, Catherine is no saint, but neither is Henry.  With each episode, he gets more and more blood thirsty, which makes me hope that the writers will side with history when it comes to his fate on this show.  Historically speaking, Catherine outlived Henry, Francis, even Mary* herself but her fate on the show seems quite uncertain.  Will the writers take that final push into historical fan fiction and kill Catherine, having Bash and Mary ride off into the sunset and explore what might have been with our tragic Scottish queen?  Or will they produce a miracle at the very last minute that will save Catherine from her doomed fate?  At this point, only the writers know and we fans can only speculate.

Congratulations, Reign writers!  All the good will you garnered with me about Bash last week has been soured somewhat by the events in this week’s episode.  They seem to want to fashion Bash into Saint Sebastian, champion for Queen Mary who would never do anything evil, wicked, bad, or nasty to her and will always hold her best interests at heart, unlike King Henry or Francis.  Boring!  Now, while I criticized Francis in my previous review for being condescending towards Mary, I still like him as a character.  Why?  He is flawed and doesn’t always make the right decision, despite his noble intentions.  Yes, he can be a bit of a jerk, but he still cares about Mary and they had great chemistry.  Mary and Sebastian have had some great emotional scenes and work well together in terms of finding solutions to their problems, but there isn’t much chemistry in their more intimate scenes, both of their kisses coming off (to me) as awkward and with no real heat.  There’s no UNF that makes my heart flutter and crave for more.  And what about the other characters?  Greer and Leith…what’s going on with them?  Will we see Kenna try and find someone special, despite her now sullied reputation, thanks to King Henry?  Francis and Mary might have been the main draw of the first half, but later on, they began to give other characters screen time as well.  This half has been very Catherine plotting and Mary and Bash heavy, with no one else getting much screen time (unless they were contributing to the plots of the aforementioned three).  I hope after the events of the next episode “Royal Blood” (airing February 27^th) that things will slow down a bit and the writers will show other characters some love, plot-wise.  Every episode cannot be a pulse racer, sometimes you have to have those filler episodes.  But those episodes better not have two-dimensional villains or ridiculous plot lines!  Not another Tomas of Portugal style plot, I beg of you!

To quote Les Miserables, “can you hear the people sing, singing the songs of angry men?”  Well in Reign’s case, it’s angry fangirls and our song is simple: WHERE IS FRANCIS?  This is the second episode where we haven’t heard so much as a peep from him, and it’s really starting to bum me out.  Frary fans had to be content with Bash during the first half, so why should Mabastian fans get an easy road?  It’s quite ironic that Mabastian, the pairing that should have been the underdog, has become the popular ship while Frary has become the underdog.  I want to see how Francis is coping with his new unofficial role as bastard and Mary and Bash’s betrayal.  It appears he will finally reappear in “Royal Blood” with the possibility of something developing between him and Lola.  The plot summary for this episode reads, “When Clarissa kidnaps the younger children of King Henry and Queen Catherine, Mary and Bash work with the Queen to find them, with tragic results. Meanwhile, when Lola attempts to help her brother with a debt he owes, Francis rescues her, causing the two of them to grow closer.”**  Hmmm…how very interesting!  How will this affect Mary’s relationship with Lola?  Will she grow jealous and show that a fire still burns somewhere in her heart for Francis?  And what “tragic results” will befall the situation with Clarissa and the children?  If I had to guess, I would say Clarissa will die, but only time will tell.

Those are my thoughts on “Inquisition”.  It was a bit messy but overall an okay episode.  I’m looking forward to the Feb. 27^th episode and what Francis’ return will bring to the story.  What are your thoughts?  Was “Inquisition” a hit or a mess with you?  Comment below and thank you for reading!

Notes:

*Fun fact- Mary Queen of Scots was executed on February 8^th, 1587 while Catherine de’ Medici died on January 5^th, 1589.

**- Source for summary- http://www.buddytv.com/slideshows/reign/reign-episode-12-photos-francis-helps-lola-45264.aspx

Author: Sarah Sue

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