Reign - Recap: God Knows, I Want to Break Free

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Part of the cause behind this problem is the fact that not every storyline is entirely necessary: we have Greer's (Celina Sinden) indecision about a possible romance with the kitchen boy she made out with last week, as well as a developing flirtation between Lola (Anna Popplewell) and Bash (Torrance Coombs), and Kenna (Caitlin Stasey) finally consummating her affair with King Henry (Alan Van Sprang), becoming his new mistress. But these things take away from what should be the primary focus of the episode, the volatile situation brewing between Tomas, Mary, and Francis (Toby Regbo). Of course, I say all this, but I still had a pretty enjoyable hour with this. It's not exactly edifying TV, but it still manages to be an engrossing watch, despite its faults.

Though things are kept tight-lidded in the early going, Mary and Tomas eventually go public with their engagement, and Francis tries his best to be okay with Mary's inevitable departure to Portugal. But once rumors start circulating that Tomas murdered his first wife, Francis makes it his business to be up in Tomas's, creating further friction between the two men. To make matters more complicated, Francis is clearly still into Mary, surprising her with a kiss during a secret meeting in the woods to discuss whether Tomas is really the gentleman he presents himself as. But he prevents them from going any further with their passions, fearful of ruining Mary's alliance with Portugal and dooming Scotland to an unstoppable British invasion, and not the kind that comes with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Dave Clark Five.

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Francis feels inadequate due to his inability to provide Mary with the protection Scotland needs, so he makes up for it by being her protector against Tomas, who is quickly proving himself to be a total brute. Once the treat is signed and the official marriage arrangement is made between he and Mary, Tomas begins being coarse with her, telling her that she's his property to do with as he pleases, adding that she has no right to interrupt or speak back to him. He even goes as far as to gift her his "whipping boy," a poor sap named Miguel, whom Tomas will beat mercilessly any time Mary crosses him. These are meant to keep Mary in check, and despite being the Queen of Scotland, there isn't a whole lot she can do about it if she wants to ensure that Scotland remains protected, as Tomas makes it clear that he can have his troops pulled at the drop of a hat.

But there's still hope for Mary. Clarissa, the "ghost" that's been aiding Mary since she first arrived in France, plants an official seal among her things. This piece of evidence gets the ball rolling, regarding Tomas's deception: as Mary, Francis, and Bash inevitably deduce, last week's ambush wasn't perpetrated by the British at the behest of Simon (the diplomat sent to treat with the French court), but rather by Tomas and the Portuguese. By convincing Mary that the British were coming, Tomas convinced her that she needed to marry him in order to secure protection for Scotland. Simon was framed, so now Francis and Scott have to prove it before King Henry has the Englishman executed, potentially igniting an international incident. To this end, the brothers attempt to locate Miguel, hoping he will turn on his abusive master, while Mary confronts the prostitute that Tomas enlisted to lie for him. While Mary succeeds in getting the woman to admit that Tomas forced her to say that the flag of the men who attacked bore the English rose, Francis and Bash are less successful, as Tomas has taken Miguel into the woods to ensure his silence...by killing him.

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Miguel is shot in the back by Tomas's arrow, but before the would-be Portuguese prince can finish him off, Bash leaps to the rescue. Though his stabbing last week didn't kill him, he's hardly at 100% when he engages Tomas in a duel. And so it's up to Francis to save the day. However, Tomas proves a more experienced swordsman, and easily subdues Francis, tossing him against a tree and lining up a shot with his bow. But just as Tomas is about to take the shot, Bash tosses a dagger into his shoulder, giving Francis the opportunity to take Tomas at knifepoint. Francis doesn't want to kill him, even despite Tomas giving the prince an earful of his obnoxious macho babbling. But Tomas forces Francis's hand, reaching for his knife and forcing Francis to kill him. Francis and Bash bring Tomas's body back to court along with Miguel, while Mary brings the prostitute back to court as witness, and this essentially solves the case and exonerates Simon of any wrongdoing. Emboldened by her newfound freedom, Mary strong-arms King Henry, in front of the entire court, into giving Scotland the protection they need as repayment for helping France avoid direct war with England. Like with most instances where Mary is given an opportunity to stand up for herself and display her regality, Adelaide Kane shows tremendous poise and remarkable sternness, really selling that Mary is more than just some shrinking violet left to fend for herself in unfamiliar waters. What little gains she makes from one week to the next, she makes herself, for the most part. It's a fascinating portrayal of monarchical politics, even if the presence of a "ghost," in the form of Clarissa hiding underneath Mary's bed, can occasionally make it difficult to really take things as seriously as the underlying story demands. Yet it still largely works thanks to a talented cast that manages to keep the storylines from feeling as disjointed as they occasionally are.

On the subject of that disjointedness, I have to admit that although I wasn't crazy about some of the outlying storylines, the script managed to bring all the stories into the same orbit by the end. Lola proves helpful to Bash and Francis's attempts to stop Tomas, as she's the one who informs the brothers that Miguel isn't in his chambers. Kenna also indirectly saves Simon's life by convincing King Henry to hold off on the beheading just a little while longer, a crucial act that ultimately prevents the king from making a drastic mistake. Even Greer's dalliance with the kitchen boy helps elucidate the theme of class, as she takes him to the masquerade ball since it's the only place where she won't be noticed dating someone who is beneath her, socially. It's all much deeper than it appears to be on the surface, and the show is often more engaging when it invites this kind of analysis by layering its stories with rich dramatic subtext.

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I also enjoyed how the script made light of its own historical inaccuracies. The historical Francis was sickly and frail, so we have a seen here explaining why this Francis is so fit and vibrant: during their meeting in the woods, Mary jokes that Francis is seen as weak to the rest of the world, and Francis displays his frustration at how the painter in charge of his royal portrait mistook him for a sickly boy because he was sitting down in a chair that made him appear smaller. Thus, the painter depicted him as a smaller, more fragile-looking boy. It's an amusing, almost charming little detail. And it extends to other storylines, as Simon explains that the entire incident with Tomas and his own near-beheading will likely be forgotten by history, explaining why this is something we haven't exactly heard of before. I'm not sure it's smart for the show to always do this, but for one week, it's an entertaining way to circumvent the rigid confines of history.

While Reign continues to have its fair share of issues, it remains a compulsively watchable series, addictive in all the ways a good soap opera should be. "Hearts and Minds" is a solid hour of TV, and well worth your time if you love period dramas.