Starz’s new darkly satirical period drama The Serpent Queen tells the story of Catherine de’ Medici, one of the most reviled monarchs in history, and takes viewers to 16th century France as she explains her life story to one of her servants, Rahima. In many ways a biography somewhat typical of the modern era, with a contemporary soundtrack and various formal quirks like regular fourth-wall breaks, the new series is reminiscent of everything from Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favorite to Hulu’s recent The Great.
The second episode found Catherine worrying about the potential annulment of her marriage if she couldn’t conceive a child. Here’s what happened in summary:
The Serpent Queen season 1, episode 2 recap:
- In the framing device, Rahima became Catherine’s official maid and earned a nasty rival in the kitchen. At the end of the episode, Catherine gave her some gunpowder to put to the task of blowing her problems to smithereens.
- In the past, Catherine, still not pregnant, worried that her marriage was in danger of being annulled if she couldn’t produce an heir. This meant she had to try and finesse her way around Diane, who continued to cockblock her with Henri.
- Taking matters into her own hands, Catherine had sex with a stable hand in the hopes of getting pregnant, then poisoned him with an apple so he couldn’t tell. In the end, it didn’t matter much anyway since, after discovering him in possession of an illustration depicting King Francis having sex with the Pope, Henri was forced into killing the man after his demented brother, the dauphin, had already shot his wife dead.
- Catherine did manage to bed Henri again, but it was an unsatisfying endeavour.
- The Pope died — apparently of an issue with his digestion.
The Serpent Queen season 1, episode 3 release date
The third episode will be released on Sunday, September 25.
Where to watch The Serpent Queen online
The Serpent Queen is exclusive to the Starz premium cable channel and app.
Preview and predictions for The Serpent Queen season 1, episode 3
While no official synopsis is available, we can make some predictions based on both history and what we’ve seen of the show so far:
- I’m still anticipating a time skip in the past.
- I’m looking forward to Rahima getting more and more power each week thanks to the lessons that Catherine is imparting on her. What’ll be next?
- Looks like we have an alliance between Young Cathering and Suleiman the Magnificent to look forward to.
