The Borgias 2.03
Apr. 24th, 2012 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Lucrezia is as usual my favourite and I have a new suspicion whom Vittoria could be based on.
Back in s1 when Paolo mentioned he could neither read or write I had no idea that this would become a plot point. Also, Holiday Granger, all the awards. You can see how the implication of that "suicide note" immediately registers with Lucrezia. And in this season, her scenes with her father are of all the Borgia-Borgia interactions. Because as I mentioned before in the season opener review, she knows him well by now. He does love her, but he also tends to go the road of convenience and/or denial if at all possible unless there's really no other way. See also: Rodrigo's reaction when Lucrezia asked for her mother to attend her wedding last season. He just left and closed the door. In conclusion, only crying will get you nowhere. Russian roulette, otoh, will. And so she point blank blackmails him by putting her own life and that of her child on the line in order to get what she wants. (BTW, the fact that suicide is, as Juan pointed out last episode, the one sin no human, including the Pope, can give you absolution for because you're not alive anymore to repent it really makes the question as to whether Paolo will be buried as a murder victim and get a Christian burial or as a suicide really a big deal, and as in s1, I continue to appreciate the fact this show doesn't go the easy route of of treating corrupt clerics also as unbelieving clerics.) And gets it. That moment when Rodrigo asks what she wants in order to live, realising she's not grieving for grieving's sake (though her grief is real enough, but that's not what this is about) - perfection.
Another way Lucrezia shows her own capacity for ruthlessness is of course her revenge on her brother. S1 showed her willing to kill her husband (that hunting "accident" didn't work out that way, but it could have) after his rapes and brutal treatment of her, and it also showed her willing to use others in a situation like that (in this case, Paolo). But while she had gone in to the marriage with Giovanni Sforza with the best intentions to make a success out of it, he'd been a stranger. Juan is her brother, and I think what settles it for Lucrezia, what pushes her is Juan's lack of repentance and the callousness after the murder, perhaps even more than the murder itself. After all, she had had a do-not-want-to-know suspicion about Djem and her family's involvment in the past. This time, there is no possibility of not knowing. It's even rubbed in. And so you can see her harden and going through with it, taking into account the possibility that an innocent (the girl) would die with or instead of him.
The meal with Vannozza and her children where Juan and Lucrezia both know exactly what the other has done and Juan's toast to family was a bit on the nose in what it was meant to convey (they've achieved the highest social positions but are now turning against each other and going back, reconciliation is no longer possible, this family is falling apart), but it worked for me. (Poor Vannozza, though. BTW, what have they done to Joanne Whalley's hair?)
Meanwhile, we still have a pissed off French king and a plot from last year to wrap up, plus Cesare needs to get on the road to being a future condottieri. I must admit I squeed a bit at seeing Gina McKee as Caterina Sforza again, and got a nice frisson from her encounter with Cesare, knowing what is (likely, depending how fast and loose the show plays with her story) to come. Good set up for future things, show. But what made Cesare's successful bluff with the canons extra great is that it involved this season's OC Vittoria (I love it when characters aren't wasted, especially women, and if their profession never gets forgotten). (So does Rodrigo, given last episode's gem of using Giulia's mad bookkeeping skills and this ep's assinment of Vittoria.) Now, considering that real life Leonardo da Vinci worked for real life Cesare Borgia for a while, and canons were definitely involved (though real ones), I couldn't help but wonder whether Vittoria is actually meant to be a female Leonardo. Which would fit better, date wise, than Vittoria Colonna, and to hell with history, I LIKE the idea of a female Leonardo who also has threesomes with Rodrigo and Giulia Farnese. And flirts with Cesare. While being more into art and the possibility to try out nifty ideas than any of them.
Back in s1 when Paolo mentioned he could neither read or write I had no idea that this would become a plot point. Also, Holiday Granger, all the awards. You can see how the implication of that "suicide note" immediately registers with Lucrezia. And in this season, her scenes with her father are of all the Borgia-Borgia interactions. Because as I mentioned before in the season opener review, she knows him well by now. He does love her, but he also tends to go the road of convenience and/or denial if at all possible unless there's really no other way. See also: Rodrigo's reaction when Lucrezia asked for her mother to attend her wedding last season. He just left and closed the door. In conclusion, only crying will get you nowhere. Russian roulette, otoh, will. And so she point blank blackmails him by putting her own life and that of her child on the line in order to get what she wants. (BTW, the fact that suicide is, as Juan pointed out last episode, the one sin no human, including the Pope, can give you absolution for because you're not alive anymore to repent it really makes the question as to whether Paolo will be buried as a murder victim and get a Christian burial or as a suicide really a big deal, and as in s1, I continue to appreciate the fact this show doesn't go the easy route of of treating corrupt clerics also as unbelieving clerics.) And gets it. That moment when Rodrigo asks what she wants in order to live, realising she's not grieving for grieving's sake (though her grief is real enough, but that's not what this is about) - perfection.
Another way Lucrezia shows her own capacity for ruthlessness is of course her revenge on her brother. S1 showed her willing to kill her husband (that hunting "accident" didn't work out that way, but it could have) after his rapes and brutal treatment of her, and it also showed her willing to use others in a situation like that (in this case, Paolo). But while she had gone in to the marriage with Giovanni Sforza with the best intentions to make a success out of it, he'd been a stranger. Juan is her brother, and I think what settles it for Lucrezia, what pushes her is Juan's lack of repentance and the callousness after the murder, perhaps even more than the murder itself. After all, she had had a do-not-want-to-know suspicion about Djem and her family's involvment in the past. This time, there is no possibility of not knowing. It's even rubbed in. And so you can see her harden and going through with it, taking into account the possibility that an innocent (the girl) would die with or instead of him.
The meal with Vannozza and her children where Juan and Lucrezia both know exactly what the other has done and Juan's toast to family was a bit on the nose in what it was meant to convey (they've achieved the highest social positions but are now turning against each other and going back, reconciliation is no longer possible, this family is falling apart), but it worked for me. (Poor Vannozza, though. BTW, what have they done to Joanne Whalley's hair?)
Meanwhile, we still have a pissed off French king and a plot from last year to wrap up, plus Cesare needs to get on the road to being a future condottieri. I must admit I squeed a bit at seeing Gina McKee as Caterina Sforza again, and got a nice frisson from her encounter with Cesare, knowing what is (likely, depending how fast and loose the show plays with her story) to come. Good set up for future things, show. But what made Cesare's successful bluff with the canons extra great is that it involved this season's OC Vittoria (I love it when characters aren't wasted, especially women, and if their profession never gets forgotten). (So does Rodrigo, given last episode's gem of using Giulia's mad bookkeeping skills and this ep's assinment of Vittoria.) Now, considering that real life Leonardo da Vinci worked for real life Cesare Borgia for a while, and canons were definitely involved (though real ones), I couldn't help but wonder whether Vittoria is actually meant to be a female Leonardo. Which would fit better, date wise, than Vittoria Colonna, and to hell with history, I LIKE the idea of a female Leonardo who also has threesomes with Rodrigo and Giulia Farnese. And flirts with Cesare. While being more into art and the possibility to try out nifty ideas than any of them.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-24 09:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-24 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 02:50 am (UTC)...I hope she is Leonardo. And that the Mona Lisa is actually really her psychological attempt to deal with living a double life. It would redeem her a lot for me.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-01 05:24 am (UTC)...if Vittoria is Leonardo, I hope for at least one snarky remark that's directed at Dan Brown. Come on, Neil Jordan, you know you want to!
no subject
Date: 2012-05-04 04:26 am (UTC)Perhaps you should fic it before it gets Jossed.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 11:49 pm (UTC)