selenak

Continues to be entertainingly swashbuckling. Considering the pilot served up part of Athos' angsty backstory already and this one gave Aramis his own subplot, I hope it's Porthos' turn next time? Not that I minded Aramis/Anne, which was cute. It did make me wonder whether The Man in the Iron Mask will happen in this 'verse, given that Aramis is the main pullstringer behind the intended switcheroo of Anne's twins in the books.

(It also made me wonder whether Aramis/Anne will be the substitution for both Anne/Buckingham and Aramis/Madame de Chevreuse as far as the Musketeer time frame is concerned, because clearly the show won't cover thirty years.)

I was all set to be amused with a touch of complaint at the invention of assassin wannabes who also want a revolution two hundred years in advance, but then it turns out the assassination plan was really just a cover for a good old fashioned robbery, which was amusing and made Vadim (spelling? Given how this show mangles French names - D'Artagnan is still the absolutely worst example - one can't be sure, based on the pronounciation) a clever and non-cliché villain who I wished would have gotten away with the loot instead of dying. (Yes, he had no problem setting up his deceived comrades to take the fall for him and to kill them off, but hey, him and most other people on the show.) I also liked Suzette, and wouldn't you know it, another one episode female character bites the dust.

Given that both Vadim and Suzette die, one can't complain on account of gender, and it does underline Milady's ruthlessness, I suppose, but still. Why kill off all the entertaining guest stars in the same episode that introduces them, show? You made them up anyway, so you can't even blame Dumas for it.

Milady keeping the Queen's diamonds for herself is intriguing, and makes me curious how that will play out in this show. In the novel, the reason why the Queen's diamonds are of interest to the Cardinal is because she's given them to the Duke of Buckingham, her lover/admirer (depending on whom you believe) who also happens to be the most powerful man after the king in England, which, if proven, would completely ruin her with Louis. D'Artagnan and friends getting the diamonds back from Buckingham and to France in time for the Queen to present them to her husband is one of the two main intrigues of the novel. Given Buckingham isn't anywhere in sight or even referred to in dialogue on the show so far, and given the diamonds were stolen by Vadim (and thus their disappearance doesn't incriminate the Queen), I do wonder what purpose they will serve here and why Milady wants them.

Was it just me or did the show imply Louvois hired Vadim originally because he wanted to make a pass?

(Sidenote: the historical Louis XIII. was most likely a repressed homosexual (unlike his younger son, who lived his homosexuality out openly), and the last of his favourites, Cinq-Mars, caused a lot of drama towards the end of his reign. However, Dumas doesn't mention this, and Musketeer film and tv versions don't, either, but I had the impression here that Louvois was meant to be gay (and that Vadim used it to get a job at the palace. So: will this be the first Musketeers version where someone is textually, not subtextually, bisexual or gay?)

In conclusion: bring on the next episode. Possibly without killing off the entertaining guest stars.