The Musketeers 2.07

[selenak]

Murder and genre switches, oh my.



First it looked like your avarage "high born bride forced into political marriage, pines for man of her choice, will (try to) run off after being impressed by true love between our heroes" tale, but then the show turns that around, and reveals "Princess Louise" is actually an assassin and conwoman named Sophia, using the Princess Louise disguise to take out all the people on Louis' council who aren't Rochefort. (I was already wondering why they invented her, because they did a neat job incorporating one of Louis' actual sisters last season, and there's another one available if you want to do that type of story, Henrietta Maria. Err, not that Henrietta Maria pined away, etc, but the first few years of her marriage with Charles I. weren't very good; only when Buckingham got killed did they become one of the few royal success stories in terms of "arranged match becoming love match" trope. And then Charles I. proved he inherited the governing talents of his grandmother, which is to say, none, and the English Civil War happened, but he and Henrietta Maria were famously devoted to each other. Anyway, my point was they could have used her by giving her a fictional Devoted Servant (tm) if that was the story they wanted to tell.) I did not see that coming, which is refreshing.

Also, this plot line interweaves with a Milady subplot that in only a few but excellent scenes makes clear she's not actually on a redemption path. All in all, I'm relieved, because I don't trust this show would be up for a Milady redemption story without downplaying/ignoring what she did to people not Athos & Musketeers. Otoh, keeping her a villain with uncertain loyalties and a far less predictable relationship to our heroes because of that? This they can do, it seems. When Milady watched Treville's near assassination by Francesco without doing anything to interrupt it, it underscored that when there's no advantage to her, there's also no reason for her to bother saving our heroes. (Makes sense. I don't think she cares about Treville one way or another, neither in the negative nor in the positive.) Her encounter with Sophia made me sad she didn't go for the "free Sophia, make her your henchwoman" option, but I wasn't really surprised. Milady doesn't do feminine solidarity. (As opposed to Sophia, incidentally; the show contrasts them here - Sophia genuinely likes Constance and dislikes the way Bonancieux treated her.) jesuswasbatman reminded me of what Milady did to Ninon and her followers last week, which in turn reminded me that as far as I recall - pray tell me if I missed anything - we haven't seen Milady supportive instead of adversarial towards a single other female character on the show. Not because the show doesn't do female solidarity; Constance and Anne both had a lot of sympathetic scenes with other female guest stars before becoming close to each other this season. But Milady? Has no time for other women at all. (It's the type of trait that fanon inevitably erases.)

Now I'm really curious as to what she'll be up to next. I suppose it depends on whether she's currently more into vengeance or whether her pragmatic streak dominates. And if vengeance, then whether she's feeling more vengeful towards Louis for kicking her out after she saved his life because he's petty like that, or towards Rochefort for publically and privatly humiliating her. If Louis gets the top spot, she might just let Rochefort succeed because of that. If it's Rochefort, then I'm slightly baffled as to why she would get rid of a useful witness against him, but maybe she has a complicated plan that will make sense of that. (This also applies if she's just being pragmatic and will go for blackmail next - blackmail surely would be more effective if she had Sophia alive with her?) Either way, I have no idea what her plan is, and I like not knowing.

Speaking of Rochefort, this is where he finds out, contrary to what he thought, that he's not in a "high born woman in political marriage secretly pines for Devoted Servant" story, either, or rather, he doesn't get the Devoted Servant role for this one. That the famous cruxifix Aramis has been kissing all season actually belonged to Rochefort first before he gave it to teenage Anne when escorting her to her marriage is a neat touch, I must say. Presumably the extra kick from Rochefort's pov is that Anne might not even remember who gave it to her to begin with. It also occured to me in the scene where Rochefort had his "five years I spent in that hellhole, why didn't the Cardinal ransom me?" monologue that the writers of this show must have liked the James Bond movie Skyfall a lot, because, and I should have seen this sooner, their Rochefort is clearly Silva. The role of M is divided between dead Richelieu and living Anne. Incidentally, this week's redshirt priest reluctantly telling Rochefort that the Cardinal didn't have him ransomed because Richelieu thought Rochefort was not a little bonkers made me miss Richelieu all the more. So did the Rochefort and Louis scene, because the relationship between Richelieu and Louis was INTERESTING, dammit, and didn't consist of Louis constantly telling Richelieu how wonderful he was for no evident reason, while R. was secretly plotting his doom because villainy.

And lastly: Aramis really was a complete cad throughout to Marguerite, even ending the relationship caddishly by pulling the old "it's for your sake we must part" gambit. At least Marguerite at that point had already seen through him and figured out just how he was using her re: Dauphin and Anne. Aramis, whatever will happen, you have it coming. Marguerite doesn't, but I'm very much afraid she's the type who does end dead in genre tv.

(This being said, Aramis checking himself in the mirror was priceless. He would!)

Oh, and a PS: while I'm glad Treville isn't actually dead this time around - and I honestly wasn't sure about his fate - I'm not sure he'll make it through another season, UNLESS the show kills off Louis instead and goes for an Anne regency scenario. (With still no Mazarin in sight, that's not likely, though.) (Not because the show bothers with history too much but because the show needs someone at the top who isn't as friendly to Our Heroes as Anne is.)

Comments

[jesuswasbatman]

Yes, I really thought that Treville was dead when he got shot, since it would seem to fit into the shape of the season. I liked Allard's line about the beneficence of God and boiling water, showing that they weren't going to go for "our heroes' physician somehow has already discovered everything medical science would in the next 250 years, but it's being surpressed out of religious obscurantism" thing.

[selenak]

Allard's been a good new recurring character in general. Likeable and low key, which suddenly makes me afraid Rochefort might kill him in the finale because of Unfortunate Precedents.

Come to think of it, Treville can't die before telling Porthos the truth, or at least part of it, so I should have known he would survive at least for a few hours more...

[selenay]

I am trying to think of something intelligent to say, but all I can say is "Yes, this" to every point you made.

(Aramis checking himself in the mirror was so Aramis I laughed out loud.)

I miss Richelieu.

[selenak]

Since they killed him off decades ahead of schedule anyway, and I don't see why the writers couldn't come up with some outlandish plot where he only faked his death (we never saw a body!) for some mysterious reason and returns dramatically in a non-Capaldi body because the idea of France being run by crazy Rochefort is just too much. :)