Summary
“Grand Tour” doesn’t make it easy for returning viewers to settle back in, but it builds to a compelling cliffhanger.
Blessedly, Season 2 of The Serpent Queen opens with a minutes-long recap of the first season. Episode 1, “Grand Tour”, is a reminder of two things, mainly – this is a really good show, and quite a complicated one.
I watched the first season when it debuted and after poring over my recap of the first season finale, I was reminded that a lot is going on here. Recapping it is hard work. So, for simplicity’s sake, here’s what you need to know before we continue:
- Catherine is functionally in charge of France despite the regency having ended, with her son, Charles IX, being little more than a puppet she has deftly manipulated after ousting Diane de Poitiers and Mary (Queen of Scots) from court in Season 1.
- France is very Catholic, but the slow creep of Protestantism is challenging its dominance, and Catherine wants to make France a secular state.
- The Guises are the aggressive Catholic faction and want to reignite religious conflict. The Bourbons are the Protestants.
- Rahima has been recast, along with Montmorency, but we’re not supposed to say anything about this.
Season 2 of The Serpent Queen begins by reminding us – through her to-camera voiceover – that Catherine is willing to do anything to survive, a point she has made consistently throughout. It’s one of the few things we don’t need reminding of.
Welcome Back
This remains a deliberately idiosyncratic show. There are contemporary needle drops and casting choices, fourth wall breaks, and phrasing that doesn’t fit the period (it’s 1572 if you were wondering.) Some characters are explicitly there for comic relief, even if what they’re plotting is politically very serious. If this were a first season I’d be quite concerned, but it isn’t, and the first season was great despite being just like this, so let’s roll with it.
I will concede, though, that the events of the premiere proceed as if we haven’t had a year off between seasons, which combined with the casting changes is a bit dizzying. But I settled back in quickly, so I expect you will too.
The Grand Tour
This episode is titled “Grand Tour”, which is how the characters refer to the royal tour of France, most of which is stuffed with unsatisfied peasants who don’t even have functional sewerage. This, we’re led to believe, is a giant inconvenience for the royals.
It’s important to remember this. We’re following the bad guys, here. Ordinary folks barely factor in at all, unless they’re being discussed as leverage in political matters. At one point Margot tries to make a point that the royals are only different from the peasants insofar as being born under different circumstances, but there’s a genuine feeling that she’s the only one who has ever considered this.
Magic and Romance
It’s worth reminding viewers that Catherine may or may not have condemned her children to death in exchange for power, at least in a magical sense. Like everything else, The Serpent Queen was never quite clear about the extent to which “magic” is present in this universe, but we see in the Season 2 premiere that Catherine still maintains a relationship with Cosimo Ruggieri, the weird soothsayer who lives in the woods.
Thus far, this prognostication seems to be coming true, and “Grand Tour” ends with the suggestion that Charles might have met his end as well, though that’s unconfirmed for now. Either way, it doesn’t do to be especially close to Catherine.
This is not advice that Montmorency seems interested in following, though, and he and Catherine end up in bed together, though admittedly in the most sexless circumstances imaginable. I’d say this is a subplot to keep an eye on, but I suspect it might not be.
Fanning the Flames
Remember, the Bourbons and the Guises are the two contentious factions here, and their respective schemes lead to a fiery conclusion in The Serpent Queen Season 2, Episode 1.
The Bourbons are trying to open trade negotiations with England, using Antoine’s wife, Jeanne d’Albret, as a means to facilitate talks. Jeanne is willing, but not without strongarming Charles into attending a Protestant church service. At the same time, François’s mother blackmails him into burning down a Protestant church to provoke religious war in France. And, yes, it’s the same church.
“Grand Tour” ends with the church on fire, its doors barricaded. We know Aabis is in there, and potentially Charles too. Who will die? Who will survive? What will the political outcome be?
We’ll have to wait and see, but I suspect it won’t be anything positive. Maybe I should live in the woods.
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