The Borgias 2.04 Stray Dogs
May. 2nd, 2012 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Cesare invents partisan fighting and Lucrezia gets to be in charge of the family business.
This episode felt somewhat disjointed, though the trailer looks like at least one of my problems isn't really one, to wit, if the scene with Lucrezia and the Cardinals were all we'd get as pay off for the awesome set up of Team Giulia/Lucrezia/Vannozza, I'd be furious. However by the trailer looks like it was only the beginning and early set up for a longer storyline, in which case I still think the sudden water was a bit suspension of disbelief breaking (it would take far longer to clean out and reorganize the old water system of Rome), but everything else was fine. Seriously, I was bouncing on my couch when Giulia not only got Lucrezia on Team Reorganizing The Vatican And Rome While We're At It (besides, I've missed them having scenes together!) but explicitly asked for Vannozza (clever of her to ask Lucrezia first, though), and then we got the triad of awesome. Also, Vannozza's suggestion to get the Cardinals via their brothel secrets makes me hope again we will see the prostitute from ep 2.02 once more. It also made me suddenly wish for someone to write a crossover in which team Giulia/Lucrezia/Vannozza takes on Littlefinger from Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. And adopt Sansa while they're at it. Oh yeah.
This, however, was only the B-Plot. The main plot as such as also interesting to follow, but it did start with a classic fridging. Bad Neil. No cookie. Then again, as usual with most Ursula scenes, it says something non-complimentary about Cesare that the third sentence or so when finding her dead is "she preferred God to me, and this is how he repaid her". Still, given that he's been itching to prove himself militarily since eons and just had gotten his first taste of success in the previous episode, I don't even see why it's necessary to additionally motivate him so he can come up with sneak attack tactics against the retreating French army. On the plus side: the black mask is a nice nod to history (he wore one later now and then, especially after getting syphilis), and I perked up when hearing an Orsini and a Colonna were among his "stray dogs", because both families are among the additional suspects to history's still debated who-killed-Juan-Borgia question. Also, the whole thing provided occasion for a couple of great Rodrigo and Cesare scenes, first the one where Rodrigo lays out the classic principle of let your enemies fight each other so we can later reap the benefits from both being weakened, and later when Cesare can't resist needling his father about how he spent the night. Any Borgia & Borgia interaction on this show is golden, mind you. Loved the scene between Cesare and Lucrezia in the papal chair (ha! I knew Neil Jordan would use that bit from history, though Lucrezia being left in charge happened somewhat later in Rodrigo's papacy, but never mind, handwave, handwave), with its emotional tones in turn both teasing and serious (her "by hook or crook, I shall save you"). How I adore my messed up scheming families!
Not handwavvy what the hell? of the week, other than the sudden water: the duchess of Mantua being the woman with whom Rodrigo had sex in 2.01. It's a biiiiiiit more believable if we're to assume she wasn't a prostitute but one of the Roman nobility, but still.
This episode felt somewhat disjointed, though the trailer looks like at least one of my problems isn't really one, to wit, if the scene with Lucrezia and the Cardinals were all we'd get as pay off for the awesome set up of Team Giulia/Lucrezia/Vannozza, I'd be furious. However by the trailer looks like it was only the beginning and early set up for a longer storyline, in which case I still think the sudden water was a bit suspension of disbelief breaking (it would take far longer to clean out and reorganize the old water system of Rome), but everything else was fine. Seriously, I was bouncing on my couch when Giulia not only got Lucrezia on Team Reorganizing The Vatican And Rome While We're At It (besides, I've missed them having scenes together!) but explicitly asked for Vannozza (clever of her to ask Lucrezia first, though), and then we got the triad of awesome. Also, Vannozza's suggestion to get the Cardinals via their brothel secrets makes me hope again we will see the prostitute from ep 2.02 once more. It also made me suddenly wish for someone to write a crossover in which team Giulia/Lucrezia/Vannozza takes on Littlefinger from Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. And adopt Sansa while they're at it. Oh yeah.
This, however, was only the B-Plot. The main plot as such as also interesting to follow, but it did start with a classic fridging. Bad Neil. No cookie. Then again, as usual with most Ursula scenes, it says something non-complimentary about Cesare that the third sentence or so when finding her dead is "she preferred God to me, and this is how he repaid her". Still, given that he's been itching to prove himself militarily since eons and just had gotten his first taste of success in the previous episode, I don't even see why it's necessary to additionally motivate him so he can come up with sneak attack tactics against the retreating French army. On the plus side: the black mask is a nice nod to history (he wore one later now and then, especially after getting syphilis), and I perked up when hearing an Orsini and a Colonna were among his "stray dogs", because both families are among the additional suspects to history's still debated who-killed-Juan-Borgia question. Also, the whole thing provided occasion for a couple of great Rodrigo and Cesare scenes, first the one where Rodrigo lays out the classic principle of let your enemies fight each other so we can later reap the benefits from both being weakened, and later when Cesare can't resist needling his father about how he spent the night. Any Borgia & Borgia interaction on this show is golden, mind you. Loved the scene between Cesare and Lucrezia in the papal chair (ha! I knew Neil Jordan would use that bit from history, though Lucrezia being left in charge happened somewhat later in Rodrigo's papacy, but never mind, handwave, handwave), with its emotional tones in turn both teasing and serious (her "by hook or crook, I shall save you"). How I adore my messed up scheming families!
Not handwavvy what the hell? of the week, other than the sudden water: the duchess of Mantua being the woman with whom Rodrigo had sex in 2.01. It's a biiiiiiit more believable if we're to assume she wasn't a prostitute but one of the Roman nobility, but still.
