The Borgias 2.08 Truths and Lies
Jun. 7th, 2012 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakShow! I' ve missed you last week! So glad you're back.
Micheletto, your sexual double standards for men and women may be period-appropriate, but I still dissapprove. Though I also believe you're envious Caterina Sforza got to have sex with Cesare and you haven't (yet). Anyway, I hadn't expected to see Caterina's son - and this time I remember the name, Benito - again after the famous "I have the instrument to make more" anecdote had been played out. Hmmm. Why keep the character around, show? Methinks to have another suspect in one of the Renaissance's most popular whodunits, i.e. the murder of Juan Borgia, which I believe will be either at the end of the next episode or right at the start of the finale. The reason for this being an effective whodunit is that both in reality and on the show, though not for the same reasons, so many people had motives. So my guess is we'll finish the season with Cesare leaving the clerical state and taking command of the papal forces, with the question as to whether he or someone else killed Juan lingering for the third season to solve. Given that they're piling up the reasons for Juan to die - now he doesn't just have Cesare's syphilis, he has syphilis in the third, fatal degree (which historical Cesare didn't), AND an opium addiction which neither historical Juan nor Cesare did, and Rodrigo is faced with the unsolvable dilemma of knowing on the one hand he needs to get rid of Juan in any responsible position but on the other hand a suicide threat by his son - they really can't drag out the death of the character any longer.
Though Benito might also be kept around for Cesare related reasons, given Micheletto's he'll-be-back-anvils, which would additionally explain why Caterina's many historical children were united into one almost adult son as a character. We'll see, I suppose. We did see Cesare showing his intelligence and ability to wait (to a degree) via Benito already; instead of springing the truth about Juan immediately after learning it, he waits and carefully stages the moment where he introduces Benito to Rodrigo. He has inherited his father's sense of the theatrical. So does Lucrezia - witness the staging of her tryst with Raffaelo (right name?) - though I liked it better last season when she was allowed to use it in a political fashion with king Charles. Lucrezia had such a good arc last season that the writing this season just is lacking, at least post the aftermath of Paolo's death where she blackmails Dad into a funeral and avengers herself on Juan. Not that I don't approve of her getting to have sex without the sanctification of true love (tm), but you can do so much more with the character, and the show knows it.
This being said, I love the Rodrigo and Vannozza scenes caused by this subplot. Their arguments are so very married, and you really do believe these two have spent decades with each other.
Rodrigo's reaction to the news of King Charles' death was perfect. He's probably the character with writing I never have reason to complain about, because the show continues to render him so richly, not being afraid of showing him petty, selfish or ridiculous on occasion while simultanously rendering him heroic, capable of compassion, smart and with all his corruption the one family member genuinenly invested in his religion. (Note the rosary in his hands while he's digesting the Forli news and their implication, including the truth about Juan which, as Don Whats-his-name, Antonio I think, appropriately remarks to Cesare, he already knows. That's the kind of detail I love about the show.)
Meanwhile, Still-Not-Pope Giuliano della Rovere asks whether a man can be good when serving a bad man while in his subplot the young monk he's been grooming to poison Rodrigo goes from sacrificial lamb to murderer for "the greater good" by offing poor Bernardino. Obvious irony is obvious, but works. Now given that Neil Jordan knows nobody in his audience expects Rodrigo to die at this point (he may actually have died of poison, but years later, in both show terms and history terms), I'm expecting some more pay off for this whole arc than just said young monk making the attempt and failing. What could that be? Hm, given that the season opening scene was Cesare using poison as a power demonstration to della Rovere in a "join us, or else" fashion, and della Rovere promptly went and enlisted others in his ongoing quest to get rid of the Borgias, methinks a possible twist could be that the young monk turns around and instead of poisoning Rodrigo joins the Borgia side of things before making the attempt at all.
Trivia note of the week: thank you, Cesare, for asking the question I always want to ask whenever in a story I hear someone say that about drowning.
Micheletto, your sexual double standards for men and women may be period-appropriate, but I still dissapprove. Though I also believe you're envious Caterina Sforza got to have sex with Cesare and you haven't (yet). Anyway, I hadn't expected to see Caterina's son - and this time I remember the name, Benito - again after the famous "I have the instrument to make more" anecdote had been played out. Hmmm. Why keep the character around, show? Methinks to have another suspect in one of the Renaissance's most popular whodunits, i.e. the murder of Juan Borgia, which I believe will be either at the end of the next episode or right at the start of the finale. The reason for this being an effective whodunit is that both in reality and on the show, though not for the same reasons, so many people had motives. So my guess is we'll finish the season with Cesare leaving the clerical state and taking command of the papal forces, with the question as to whether he or someone else killed Juan lingering for the third season to solve. Given that they're piling up the reasons for Juan to die - now he doesn't just have Cesare's syphilis, he has syphilis in the third, fatal degree (which historical Cesare didn't), AND an opium addiction which neither historical Juan nor Cesare did, and Rodrigo is faced with the unsolvable dilemma of knowing on the one hand he needs to get rid of Juan in any responsible position but on the other hand a suicide threat by his son - they really can't drag out the death of the character any longer.
Though Benito might also be kept around for Cesare related reasons, given Micheletto's he'll-be-back-anvils, which would additionally explain why Caterina's many historical children were united into one almost adult son as a character. We'll see, I suppose. We did see Cesare showing his intelligence and ability to wait (to a degree) via Benito already; instead of springing the truth about Juan immediately after learning it, he waits and carefully stages the moment where he introduces Benito to Rodrigo. He has inherited his father's sense of the theatrical. So does Lucrezia - witness the staging of her tryst with Raffaelo (right name?) - though I liked it better last season when she was allowed to use it in a political fashion with king Charles. Lucrezia had such a good arc last season that the writing this season just is lacking, at least post the aftermath of Paolo's death where she blackmails Dad into a funeral and avengers herself on Juan. Not that I don't approve of her getting to have sex without the sanctification of true love (tm), but you can do so much more with the character, and the show knows it.
This being said, I love the Rodrigo and Vannozza scenes caused by this subplot. Their arguments are so very married, and you really do believe these two have spent decades with each other.
Rodrigo's reaction to the news of King Charles' death was perfect. He's probably the character with writing I never have reason to complain about, because the show continues to render him so richly, not being afraid of showing him petty, selfish or ridiculous on occasion while simultanously rendering him heroic, capable of compassion, smart and with all his corruption the one family member genuinenly invested in his religion. (Note the rosary in his hands while he's digesting the Forli news and their implication, including the truth about Juan which, as Don Whats-his-name, Antonio I think, appropriately remarks to Cesare, he already knows. That's the kind of detail I love about the show.)
Meanwhile, Still-Not-Pope Giuliano della Rovere asks whether a man can be good when serving a bad man while in his subplot the young monk he's been grooming to poison Rodrigo goes from sacrificial lamb to murderer for "the greater good" by offing poor Bernardino. Obvious irony is obvious, but works. Now given that Neil Jordan knows nobody in his audience expects Rodrigo to die at this point (he may actually have died of poison, but years later, in both show terms and history terms), I'm expecting some more pay off for this whole arc than just said young monk making the attempt and failing. What could that be? Hm, given that the season opening scene was Cesare using poison as a power demonstration to della Rovere in a "join us, or else" fashion, and della Rovere promptly went and enlisted others in his ongoing quest to get rid of the Borgias, methinks a possible twist could be that the young monk turns around and instead of poisoning Rodrigo joins the Borgia side of things before making the attempt at all.
Trivia note of the week: thank you, Cesare, for asking the question I always want to ask whenever in a story I hear someone say that about drowning.
