Reign - Recap: Follow the Leader

Of course, even if Mary were someone who could be put in her place, she's not exactly someone who'd stay there, and "Coronation" doesn't suggest differently. Despite being told by Francis not to interfere in the urgent search for grain to feed the kingdom, Mary takes matters into her own hands by making a deal with a German duke to exchange grain for Protestant prisoners jailed by the late King Henry for practicing their faith in a Catholic kingdom. All this while Francis is attempting to renegotiate with a loyal nobleman willing to provide his grain for the kingdom in order to allow Francis to avoid dealing with Narcisse (Craig Parker), who continues to withhold his grain from the kingdom under false pretenses. What works best about the central conflict here is that neither side is necessarily wrong in their approach. Francis is trying to explore other avenues to secure grain to feed his people, without having to submit to Narcisse or having to deal with Schuler, the German duke.

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On the flip side, Mary is trying to find the most expedient solution possible since men are getting themselves killed trying to steal chickens and bread from the kingdom, and villagers are killing each other over rotten potatoes. When she learns that Schuler plans to leave within the day, feeling his request for the Protestants' release will not be honored, Mary feels she has no choice but to spring into action. It's the wrong move, but done for the right reasons. Not that it doesn't still anger Francis anyway. He didn't want to risk creating a Protestant-Catholic conflict, particularly now, at a time where his ability to rule is already under question. As Francis succinctly states to Mary, people feared his father, and that cowed them into obeying him. While he doesn't need the people to fear him, he does need their respect, and Francis feels he'll never get it if can't even get his wife to respect him enough to obey him. This clash between Francis and Mary anchors the episode, even far more than the urgent race to find grain, a plot device that very much acts as an ambiguous ticking time bomb. It's not as if there's a timer in the corner of the screen counting down when people will starve to death, but the threat looms close throughout the episode, giving the impression that this is a problem no longer capable of being put off.

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Yet even beyond the central conflict between Mary and Francis, there's still plenty of intrigue going on around court. We haven't gotten nearly as much of Catherine (Megan Follows) so far this season as I'd have liked, so it's nice to see her returning to her sink-or-swim self here, attempting to procure grain from Narcisse directly, and using her de' Medici influence to do it. And it works, as she's proclaimed a savior by the villagers; and yet, Narcisse is the one to call her on her selfish motivations, since it takes a narcissist to know one. It was a relatively lean subplot, yet I found it far more interesting than some of the other subplots this week. For example, while I thought Henry's spirit making contact with Francis last week was wonderfully creepy and surprising, it just felt kind of dull this week. Basically, Francis uses a medium to contact Henry's spirit again, and Francis finds the spirit accusing him of murdering Henry -- which is exactly what happened last season in their fateful joust, more or less. So even Henry's spirit is proven to not exactly be wrong to feel so aggrieved. And yet, we understand why Francis had to do it, since he had to put his people first, the way a king must. He didn't have the luxury of allowing Henry's madness to plunge the kingdom into chaos. We get that, and Francis gets it. But it's not as if Henry's spirit does, and the accusation is enough to give Francis pause. It's a story that should be far more gripping than it is, but I just don't see what possible effect on the story it could have beyond making Francis feel guilty. And what story purpose does that serve?

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In fact, I felt the same way about Bash (Torrance Coombs) investigating the murder of a villager. He comes close to pinning it on a high-ranking nobleman, but Kenna (Caitlin Stasey) destroys the evidence once the nobleman's wife implies that Bash will be killed if he doesn't give up his investigation. Much like the Francis storyline, it's far more interesting in theory than it is in execution. I'd like it a lot less, in fact, if it weren't for the chemistry between Coombs and Stasey, who are a weekly bright spot (I am, admittedly, a pretty huge Torrance Coombs mark, and I find Caitlin Stasey delightful. Maybe it's the contrast between her materialistic desires and her good-hearted nature that makes me like Kenna as much as I do, but I think her pairing with Bash is one of the secret weapons the show has. Once they find a decent story for those two that doesn't involve hokey monsters or random CSI murder plots, I think their connection will pay dividends in storyline resonance.

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Ultimately, the crux of the resolution to "Coronation" relies on Mary deciding to clean up the mess she made, claiming that while some noblemen would call this "a woman's work," she'll do it anyway because she loves Francis. And this willingness to fix her impulsive mistakes, even if she doesn't always learn from them, prevents Mary from coming across as unlikable as she might otherwise. In revealing that Conde (Sean Teale) stole the Protestant prisoners in an attempt to barter for the life of the woman he loves, Mary is able to play upon Conde's sense of duty to get him to return the prisoners so they can get Schuler to trade them his grain, while also using the goodwill she's gained from the nobleman to secure the release of Conde's former lover. By making her a power player in this episode, it legitimizes all of Mary's blustering about why she should be obeyed. Sure, Narcisse might have accused her last week of being someone who beats people over the head with her title, but here, she actually proves why she deserves to have it. She's growing as a Queen, who has the good sense to make whatever sacrifices she needs to make in order to provide for her people. Francis comes to realize that he needs Mary every bit as much as a King could possibly need his Queen, and this results in a coronation that is as much for Mary as it is for Francis. It feels like the culmination of a journey to solidify the rule of these two monarchs who are still learning how to walk the tightrope between duty and justice. "Coronation" was great TV, and another notch in the belt of what's shaping up to be a hell of a season for Reign.