The Musketeers 2.09
Mar. 21st, 2015 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe official title of this episode is The Accused, but you might as well call it...
In the Empire Strikes Back sense of ending with Our Heroes in peril, devastated and/or reeling from revelations. Also in the sense that this was a suspenseful episode which gave everyone in the ensemble something to do, which I always appreciate. Even Louis gets to say something other than "Rochefort is the only one I trust" (though he says that, too), shows remaing affection for Anne and for once doesn't look entirely stupid for being taken in because the letter to Spain from the kidnapping episode and the faked poison attempt plus Marguerite's blackmailed testimony come to really good use to Rochefort here. The Royal who shines in the episode is Anne, though, and I would call her plan to return to the palace stupid if not for the fact that she had no way of knowing Marguerite wasn't her faithful servant (more about this in a minute), and her flight inadvertendly had ended up making her look guilty, so it was the best she could do based on what she knew, an dit was very brave.
Aramis big confession scene to the non-Athos Musketeers who hadn't known about him and the Queen (and the Dauphin): should give joy to Aramis/Porthos shippers, since while you can explain Porthos' violent reaction by him being extra sensitive to the subject of surprise!fathers imperilng the mothers, and of course by the whole part where bedding the Queen is treason in general in their world, explaining it the slashy way works just as well. At any rate, Porthos goes from the "you idiot, how could you?" to the hug state beautifully. Of course, this confession scene is far from Aramis' most uncomfortable moment in this episode; that comes later, when Rochefort brings up his relationship with Marguerite to Anne. (BTW, I think Anne's stricken look here is less about the "Aramis had sex with another woman" news - which she must have known he would do, since it's Aramis and they had been both determined it would just be that one night after it happened - than about the revelation that Aramis was using Marguerite (which he was). She has/had a somewhat idealistic view of him, and I doubt she thought he was capable fo this.) (Also, if she'd known about his affair with Marguerite, she might have at least considered that Marguerite's loyalties could be split.) And of course the whole time knowing not just the one night stand but by his subsequent behavior, he put Anne in deadly peril, Aramis definitely has the worst day of his life so far.
(Sidenote: while I think he behaved rottenly towards Marguerite, I always wonder whether people complaining about OOCness ever read the books. He's still miles head of book!Aramis in ruthless behavior, and of course book!D'Artagnan in the original Musketeer novel has sex with Milady and Milady's maid Kitty while Constance is abducted; the Kitty affair in particular is very similar to what Aramis did to Marguerite, minus the illegitimate fatherhood motivation.)
Athos and Milady not only get to work together in this episode but also, after the Catherine interlude gives Athos the chance to reverse his original sin by stopping his wife from getting hanged, to passionately make out between spying in the palace. Between this Athos and this Milady, it actually works for me, as does Milady as a continued wild card. (Her distaste for Rochefort - now openly crazy and chewing up what scenery is left in the Louvre - helps as motivation for siding with Team Anne and Musketeers in this one, though given that the show took the trouble of letting her kill Sophia and do nothing about Treville two eps earlier, I don't think anymore they'll do a redemption arc with her. Keeping her as someone who sometimes hinders, sometimes helps - which, come to think of it, is what the Cardinal did last season - otoh so far works well and would continue to do so, so here's hoping. Otoh I can't quite believe the Catherine scene was all the pay off for introducing the character in the first place, so I wouldn't exclude a seaonal cliffhanger where Catherine shoots Milady in the tag scene and we have a hiatus to overcome until we find out whether or not she survives.
Lastly: Poor Lemay! So that's why he was around all season - to endear himself to the audience in order for Rochefort to kill more than a redshirt. And to show himself mysteriously incompetent, because surely if he wanted Constance to testify against the Queen, the better method would have been to try and blackmail her with Lemay's life? (Would have been a good character moment for Constance, too, because she knows her testimony would doom the Queen and Aramis (and the little Dauphin, most likely), but while she doesn't love Lemay, he's her friend. I think she'd refuse to testify anyway (because three lives versus one), but it would be terrible for her and a Sophie's Choice kind of situation, so given the show made Rochefort an expert sadist, I'm surprised they didn't go there.
Speaking of Rochefort's sadism, though: poor Marguerite! I appreciate that they show her despair and fear throughout the episode instead of presenting her as a gleeful woman scorned type - she's in a terrible situation that keeps getting worse and worse.
Speculation for the finale: Marguerite will die, definitely, probably an atonement death saving the Queen, or the Dauphin. I really can't see how the show can keep Rochefort in his position at this point, between the rape attempt, the poisoning and the open madness, so if they don't kill him off, they'll have to depower him and let him slink off with the proverbial "one day, I shall return!" fist raised. Porthos will probably manage to get evidence implicating Rochefort and exonorating Anne in Spain. Survival chances for Constance to me look better this week than in the previous episode, paradoxically because Marguerite is so doomed and I predict cliffhanger peril for Milady - which means they won't kill/lethally endanger Constance as well. (This season.) Louis, otoh, might actually die even without a Mazarin in sight, and next season could be Regent!Anne versus the Fronde (with Rochefort as one of the Fronde leaders, maybe, if the show wants to keep him as a villain). Our heroes and Treville will all survive.
Lastly, two nods to actual history in this episode! One is Louis complaining about the Dauphin crying when he sees his father. This is an incident that actually happened and which we know about because Louis complained indignantly to the Cardinal about it (in writing). What really happened: He visited the nursery with his latest favourite, Cinq Mars, little future Louis XIV starts crying, Louis takes it personally, yells at Anne "my son gets a strange education if he cries at the sight of his father, Madame!" and storms off, complaining to the Cardinal about it, convinced Anne put the toddler up to it. The Cardinal, who once Anne had kids was no longer opposed to her (and vice versa), calmed him down.
The other nod to actual French history was the business with Anne's letter to her brother the king of Spain. In the show, she was tricked into writing it by Rochefort. In real history, she had a correspondance going with Spain (and both her brothers there) on her own initiative, and that did heavily contribute to turning Louis against her. (This was before Anne had surviving children. Once her son was the future King of France, her attitude re: Spanish/French power struggles changed.)
In the Empire Strikes Back sense of ending with Our Heroes in peril, devastated and/or reeling from revelations. Also in the sense that this was a suspenseful episode which gave everyone in the ensemble something to do, which I always appreciate. Even Louis gets to say something other than "Rochefort is the only one I trust" (though he says that, too), shows remaing affection for Anne and for once doesn't look entirely stupid for being taken in because the letter to Spain from the kidnapping episode and the faked poison attempt plus Marguerite's blackmailed testimony come to really good use to Rochefort here. The Royal who shines in the episode is Anne, though, and I would call her plan to return to the palace stupid if not for the fact that she had no way of knowing Marguerite wasn't her faithful servant (more about this in a minute), and her flight inadvertendly had ended up making her look guilty, so it was the best she could do based on what she knew, an dit was very brave.
Aramis big confession scene to the non-Athos Musketeers who hadn't known about him and the Queen (and the Dauphin): should give joy to Aramis/Porthos shippers, since while you can explain Porthos' violent reaction by him being extra sensitive to the subject of surprise!fathers imperilng the mothers, and of course by the whole part where bedding the Queen is treason in general in their world, explaining it the slashy way works just as well. At any rate, Porthos goes from the "you idiot, how could you?" to the hug state beautifully. Of course, this confession scene is far from Aramis' most uncomfortable moment in this episode; that comes later, when Rochefort brings up his relationship with Marguerite to Anne. (BTW, I think Anne's stricken look here is less about the "Aramis had sex with another woman" news - which she must have known he would do, since it's Aramis and they had been both determined it would just be that one night after it happened - than about the revelation that Aramis was using Marguerite (which he was). She has/had a somewhat idealistic view of him, and I doubt she thought he was capable fo this.) (Also, if she'd known about his affair with Marguerite, she might have at least considered that Marguerite's loyalties could be split.) And of course the whole time knowing not just the one night stand but by his subsequent behavior, he put Anne in deadly peril, Aramis definitely has the worst day of his life so far.
(Sidenote: while I think he behaved rottenly towards Marguerite, I always wonder whether people complaining about OOCness ever read the books. He's still miles head of book!Aramis in ruthless behavior, and of course book!D'Artagnan in the original Musketeer novel has sex with Milady and Milady's maid Kitty while Constance is abducted; the Kitty affair in particular is very similar to what Aramis did to Marguerite, minus the illegitimate fatherhood motivation.)
Athos and Milady not only get to work together in this episode but also, after the Catherine interlude gives Athos the chance to reverse his original sin by stopping his wife from getting hanged, to passionately make out between spying in the palace. Between this Athos and this Milady, it actually works for me, as does Milady as a continued wild card. (Her distaste for Rochefort - now openly crazy and chewing up what scenery is left in the Louvre - helps as motivation for siding with Team Anne and Musketeers in this one, though given that the show took the trouble of letting her kill Sophia and do nothing about Treville two eps earlier, I don't think anymore they'll do a redemption arc with her. Keeping her as someone who sometimes hinders, sometimes helps - which, come to think of it, is what the Cardinal did last season - otoh so far works well and would continue to do so, so here's hoping. Otoh I can't quite believe the Catherine scene was all the pay off for introducing the character in the first place, so I wouldn't exclude a seaonal cliffhanger where Catherine shoots Milady in the tag scene and we have a hiatus to overcome until we find out whether or not she survives.
Lastly: Poor Lemay! So that's why he was around all season - to endear himself to the audience in order for Rochefort to kill more than a redshirt. And to show himself mysteriously incompetent, because surely if he wanted Constance to testify against the Queen, the better method would have been to try and blackmail her with Lemay's life? (Would have been a good character moment for Constance, too, because she knows her testimony would doom the Queen and Aramis (and the little Dauphin, most likely), but while she doesn't love Lemay, he's her friend. I think she'd refuse to testify anyway (because three lives versus one), but it would be terrible for her and a Sophie's Choice kind of situation, so given the show made Rochefort an expert sadist, I'm surprised they didn't go there.
Speaking of Rochefort's sadism, though: poor Marguerite! I appreciate that they show her despair and fear throughout the episode instead of presenting her as a gleeful woman scorned type - she's in a terrible situation that keeps getting worse and worse.
Speculation for the finale: Marguerite will die, definitely, probably an atonement death saving the Queen, or the Dauphin. I really can't see how the show can keep Rochefort in his position at this point, between the rape attempt, the poisoning and the open madness, so if they don't kill him off, they'll have to depower him and let him slink off with the proverbial "one day, I shall return!" fist raised. Porthos will probably manage to get evidence implicating Rochefort and exonorating Anne in Spain. Survival chances for Constance to me look better this week than in the previous episode, paradoxically because Marguerite is so doomed and I predict cliffhanger peril for Milady - which means they won't kill/lethally endanger Constance as well. (This season.) Louis, otoh, might actually die even without a Mazarin in sight, and next season could be Regent!Anne versus the Fronde (with Rochefort as one of the Fronde leaders, maybe, if the show wants to keep him as a villain). Our heroes and Treville will all survive.
Lastly, two nods to actual history in this episode! One is Louis complaining about the Dauphin crying when he sees his father. This is an incident that actually happened and which we know about because Louis complained indignantly to the Cardinal about it (in writing). What really happened: He visited the nursery with his latest favourite, Cinq Mars, little future Louis XIV starts crying, Louis takes it personally, yells at Anne "my son gets a strange education if he cries at the sight of his father, Madame!" and storms off, complaining to the Cardinal about it, convinced Anne put the toddler up to it. The Cardinal, who once Anne had kids was no longer opposed to her (and vice versa), calmed him down.
The other nod to actual French history was the business with Anne's letter to her brother the king of Spain. In the show, she was tricked into writing it by Rochefort. In real history, she had a correspondance going with Spain (and both her brothers there) on her own initiative, and that did heavily contribute to turning Louis against her. (This was before Anne had surviving children. Once her son was the future King of France, her attitude re: Spanish/French power struggles changed.)
no subject
Date: 2015-03-21 10:09 pm (UTC)I too was surprised that Constance wasn't offered a choice to save Lemay, though Rochefort may not have realised that their friendship was genuine as opposed to a construct of his imagination.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-22 04:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-21 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-22 04:57 am (UTC)