Last week, the mid-season premiere ended when Mary rushed home, eager to potentially rekindle her romance with Francis, only to find him (innocently) in bed with his one-time-only-mistress and subsequent love child. It was truly unfortunate.
This week’s episode begins when Francis comes looking for Mary after she’s been avoiding him for two days. She confronts him about finding him asleep with Lola and the baby, admitting that it hurts her to see them together. But, when he tries to go near her to comfort her, she panics just as she has with every man that has come near her since the rape. Except for Prince Conde, of course, who’s inconveniently in love with her.
The charming, tangled web of love these royals lead.
Did I mention that Catherine is still sleeping with her dead husband? Oh, and seeing her two dead daughters who her still-living, rather promiscuous daughter apparently killed when she was five because she was jealous. There’s nothing stronger than blood, and apparently jealous five-year-olds.
We also have a visitor at court. Bash’s mum, Diane, has stopped by to claim the new lands Francis so kindly appointed to Bash. In case you’ve forgotten, Diane was King Henry’s mistress who had the not so brilliant idea of trying to force Henry to claim Bash, legitimizing him and potentially changing the line of succession.
Luckily for Claude, Bash is actually really good at his job and found one of the nannies that worked with Claude’s deceased sisters before they mysteriously died. She reveals that it was actually her fault the babies died. She left the windows open in their room while she was doing the deed with King Henry and they froze to death. Worried what would happen to her, she framed Claude for the deaths. Quite rude. And scandalous, as royal affairs often are.
Cue the strange, slow-motion montage of Catherine playing in the snow with her creepy, ghost children and dead husband. Obviously, something’s going on with her. Maybe she’s going mad like Henry did in his last few months. But mostly we’re confused because she and Henry hated each other before he died and now all of a sudden she’s in love with him and letting him grope her in random places in the castle we’ve never even seen before? Bizzare.
Meanwhile, inside the castle, Francis and Conde publically and literally fight for Mary’s affection. Just when Francis starts to win, Mary screams for them to stop. Kenna, brilliant as ever, realizes who they’re fighting over. Secret’s out, boys.
When Mary goes to tend to Francis, he feels the need to clarify that one-day, when Mary produces an heir, there cannot be any question as to the paternity of the child. Mary, being Mary, is obviously infuriated and storms out of the room.
Bash tells Catherine the truth about how her daughters died. Well, sort of, because the real truth is that Bash’s mum purposely left the windows open because she was disgusted by the idea that Henry had slept with Catherine thus producing said babies. Bash banishes her and takes back the land he gifted saying this is the last time she’ll ever see him.
But, Catherine is no fool. She puts together the pieces and does what Catherine has always done best, takes matters into her own hands. Suffice it to say, Diane is no longer among the living. Maybe her and Henry will get back together in Hell now that Catherine has also banished him from her life.
However, the episode does end on some sort of high note. Francis offers to stay with Mary for the night and…she accepts! Fingers crossed that everything returns to normal because we miss their steamy bedroom scenes.
Check out this extended preview for next week’s episode:
Tune into Reign on The CW at 9 p.m. on Thursdays.