The Borgias 3.02 The Purge
Apr. 22nd, 2013 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which everyone is in a crisis. Err, more so than usual.
Rodrigo feeling himself bereft of God is a very dark Rodrigo indeed, and not just because of the extra paranoia. (Though is it paranoia when they're really after you?) But before I get to that, first someting about the plot twist which probably has most of fandom squeeing and I'm not so keen on, because, like the way s2 from the get go sped things up with Juan's decline and the Cesare-Juan rivalry to the point where one felt "did we miss a few episodes?", Lucrezia deciding to add sex to her relationship with Cesare feels like a case of "isn't that a bit hasty and could have used some build up if you want to do fanservice and go there?" I mean, yes, last season Juan rambled about suspecting them of incest, and we got the scene of Alfonso watching them dance, but I still didn't have the impression sex was something Lucrezia wanted from Cesare; rather, that she was fine with the emotional intimacy of the relationship as it was. BTW, Cesare, too. (I am aware I am in a fandom minority here.) So, for her to suddenly decide to play teasing games and start step one to operation Seduce My Brother, with no trigger event given by the show other than her fiancé not wanting to have sex with her before the wedding, to me feels more like "And now, fanservice" than natural development.
(This being said, I'm glad it's Lucrezia who makes the first step, for power balance reasons. Historical spoiler ahead: given that Cesare ends up killing her second husband, for political reasons, history wise, now presumably for emotional reasons, and that this in every biography and account I've read happened against her wishes, it would have unbalanced and destroyed the relationship for good if Cesare had also been the one who turned it sexual.)
On to the captivating other plots of the episode. Last season, Rodrigo was already struggling with the fact that Savonarola has visions and he does not (Kai Winn would empathize), and that he can't feel God answering anymore. Coming out of near death with a sense that God wasn't there and will not be there when he does die and has abandoned him resulting in lashing out in all directions - at the Cardinals, verbally at Cesare (leading to another terrific intense father son scene), at himself - makes psychological sense. I love the double sense of the title - a "purge" is what Rodrigo initializes (via Ascanio Sforza, who is aware that now that he's burned his bridges with Catarina, he's entirely dependent on the Pope) in the conclave, but through the episode we also see him still vomiting the poison inside, which isn't just physical. The bitter joke he makes that maybe his impotence with Giulia is a blessing, not a curse, since he had a life long problem of controlling his passions is at his own expense. And of course it makes sense that the one exception to Rodrigo's ultra paranoid vengeful state of mind and heart comes in his scenes with Vannozza.
These - and also the impending end of the Rodrigo and Guilia relationship -, btw, are as opposed to the sexual turn of Cesare/Lucrezia something that to me felt naturally flowing from season 2, where Rodrigo while still having affection and respect for Guilia also has started to cheat on her, spent less time with her, and had more and more scenes with Vannozza. Even more to the point, and was is addressed in their scenes in this episode, they have that decades of history, she knows him through and through, and even (and especially) in their argument scenes, they never lost that "married" feeling. He trusts her. So of course he both unwinds and allows himself vulnerability with her.
Giulia and Vannozza having this prickly, mutually respectful relationship and Giulia (not for the first time) asking Vannozza for advice is something I've always liked about the show, so I'm glad we get another one of these as Giulia feels her time as Rodrigo's mistress is coming to an end. At which point the scriptwriters also remember to mention her brother, who hasn't been mentioned before, but Giulia getting a Cardinal's hat for him is rather important for history, since the current Alessandro Farnese will become Pope as well one day. (Also he'll start a gorgeous art collection I admired in Naples last year.)
The fact that the Cardinal's robes are red as s symbol for their willingness to spend their blood in the service of the church has been mentioned all the way back in s1, I think, when Rodrigo insisted on making Cesare a Cardinal, and I forgot to mention in my last review that Giuliano della Rovere prostrating himself on the floor of his cell was a gorgeous visual echo of the bestowement ceremony. In this episode, that meaning of the colour red is brought up again by a protesting Cardinal, who, as Rodrigo foresaw, doesn't dare to call the bluff (?) of an implied torture threat despite angrily pointing out said robes before going on to denounce his fellow Cardinals....and then, as the episode nears its end, Cardinal Orsini asks Rodrigo for the sacrament of confession and tries to use it to kill him, resulting in a brutal physical struggle and Rodrigo for the first time killing someone with his own hands. (We've seen him order people's deaths before, both directly and by indirect insinuation, of course, but this is different.) Remember when he offered Savonarola mercy and Savonarola spat blood on Rodrigo's face? This time, it's Rodrigo's white papal robes, hands and almost entire body which end up covered in blood. He could take this as further condemnation from God, but he seems to take it as a sign that God hasn't abandoned him after all instead, given that he says to Cesare "God must want us to live". Or does he? Impossible to say before the next episode, I guess, which I can't wait for.
Trivia: when Alfonso says to Lucrezia that king Ferdinand of Naples doesn't want a bastard there, this is historical awkwardness to the max because historical Alfonso himself is a bastard (he's Sancia's full brother by the same royal mistress)
- also, letting Rodrigo say "our only son" re: Cesare; look, scriptwriters, I know Joffre was historically insignificant, and it is debated whether or not he was Rodrigo's son or that of Vannozza's husband, but you introduced him as a character in s1 when Rodrigo seemed to have no paternity doubts whatsoever
- otoh, I loved that the kid who played dead Juan in last season's finale was put to further use in Rodrigo's nightmare of being unable to stop Juan from falling or save him (obvious symbolism is obvious); btw it occurs to me that Rodrigo actually does have visions, involving his children at least, because remember season 1's vision of Lucrezia telling him "God may forgive you, but I never will" before ascending to the heavens?
Rodrigo feeling himself bereft of God is a very dark Rodrigo indeed, and not just because of the extra paranoia. (Though is it paranoia when they're really after you?) But before I get to that, first someting about the plot twist which probably has most of fandom squeeing and I'm not so keen on, because, like the way s2 from the get go sped things up with Juan's decline and the Cesare-Juan rivalry to the point where one felt "did we miss a few episodes?", Lucrezia deciding to add sex to her relationship with Cesare feels like a case of "isn't that a bit hasty and could have used some build up if you want to do fanservice and go there?" I mean, yes, last season Juan rambled about suspecting them of incest, and we got the scene of Alfonso watching them dance, but I still didn't have the impression sex was something Lucrezia wanted from Cesare; rather, that she was fine with the emotional intimacy of the relationship as it was. BTW, Cesare, too. (I am aware I am in a fandom minority here.) So, for her to suddenly decide to play teasing games and start step one to operation Seduce My Brother, with no trigger event given by the show other than her fiancé not wanting to have sex with her before the wedding, to me feels more like "And now, fanservice" than natural development.
(This being said, I'm glad it's Lucrezia who makes the first step, for power balance reasons. Historical spoiler ahead: given that Cesare ends up killing her second husband, for political reasons, history wise, now presumably for emotional reasons, and that this in every biography and account I've read happened against her wishes, it would have unbalanced and destroyed the relationship for good if Cesare had also been the one who turned it sexual.)
On to the captivating other plots of the episode. Last season, Rodrigo was already struggling with the fact that Savonarola has visions and he does not (Kai Winn would empathize), and that he can't feel God answering anymore. Coming out of near death with a sense that God wasn't there and will not be there when he does die and has abandoned him resulting in lashing out in all directions - at the Cardinals, verbally at Cesare (leading to another terrific intense father son scene), at himself - makes psychological sense. I love the double sense of the title - a "purge" is what Rodrigo initializes (via Ascanio Sforza, who is aware that now that he's burned his bridges with Catarina, he's entirely dependent on the Pope) in the conclave, but through the episode we also see him still vomiting the poison inside, which isn't just physical. The bitter joke he makes that maybe his impotence with Giulia is a blessing, not a curse, since he had a life long problem of controlling his passions is at his own expense. And of course it makes sense that the one exception to Rodrigo's ultra paranoid vengeful state of mind and heart comes in his scenes with Vannozza.
These - and also the impending end of the Rodrigo and Guilia relationship -, btw, are as opposed to the sexual turn of Cesare/Lucrezia something that to me felt naturally flowing from season 2, where Rodrigo while still having affection and respect for Guilia also has started to cheat on her, spent less time with her, and had more and more scenes with Vannozza. Even more to the point, and was is addressed in their scenes in this episode, they have that decades of history, she knows him through and through, and even (and especially) in their argument scenes, they never lost that "married" feeling. He trusts her. So of course he both unwinds and allows himself vulnerability with her.
Giulia and Vannozza having this prickly, mutually respectful relationship and Giulia (not for the first time) asking Vannozza for advice is something I've always liked about the show, so I'm glad we get another one of these as Giulia feels her time as Rodrigo's mistress is coming to an end. At which point the scriptwriters also remember to mention her brother, who hasn't been mentioned before, but Giulia getting a Cardinal's hat for him is rather important for history, since the current Alessandro Farnese will become Pope as well one day. (Also he'll start a gorgeous art collection I admired in Naples last year.)
The fact that the Cardinal's robes are red as s symbol for their willingness to spend their blood in the service of the church has been mentioned all the way back in s1, I think, when Rodrigo insisted on making Cesare a Cardinal, and I forgot to mention in my last review that Giuliano della Rovere prostrating himself on the floor of his cell was a gorgeous visual echo of the bestowement ceremony. In this episode, that meaning of the colour red is brought up again by a protesting Cardinal, who, as Rodrigo foresaw, doesn't dare to call the bluff (?) of an implied torture threat despite angrily pointing out said robes before going on to denounce his fellow Cardinals....and then, as the episode nears its end, Cardinal Orsini asks Rodrigo for the sacrament of confession and tries to use it to kill him, resulting in a brutal physical struggle and Rodrigo for the first time killing someone with his own hands. (We've seen him order people's deaths before, both directly and by indirect insinuation, of course, but this is different.) Remember when he offered Savonarola mercy and Savonarola spat blood on Rodrigo's face? This time, it's Rodrigo's white papal robes, hands and almost entire body which end up covered in blood. He could take this as further condemnation from God, but he seems to take it as a sign that God hasn't abandoned him after all instead, given that he says to Cesare "God must want us to live". Or does he? Impossible to say before the next episode, I guess, which I can't wait for.
Trivia: when Alfonso says to Lucrezia that king Ferdinand of Naples doesn't want a bastard there, this is historical awkwardness to the max because historical Alfonso himself is a bastard (he's Sancia's full brother by the same royal mistress)
- also, letting Rodrigo say "our only son" re: Cesare; look, scriptwriters, I know Joffre was historically insignificant, and it is debated whether or not he was Rodrigo's son or that of Vannozza's husband, but you introduced him as a character in s1 when Rodrigo seemed to have no paternity doubts whatsoever
- otoh, I loved that the kid who played dead Juan in last season's finale was put to further use in Rodrigo's nightmare of being unable to stop Juan from falling or save him (obvious symbolism is obvious); btw it occurs to me that Rodrigo actually does have visions, involving his children at least, because remember season 1's vision of Lucrezia telling him "God may forgive you, but I never will" before ascending to the heavens?
