S01.E04: A New Era

[Pop Tart]

Quote

Catherine has become a mother. King Francis suffers a fall from his horse while hunting with Henri and Catherine.

Air date: 10.02.2022

[AntFTW]

This is probably my favorite episode so far. I loved it.

[brisbydog]

I'll miss the young Catherine a lot. She was so good. Henri is so weak. I want to smack him

[Constantinople]

Catherine is obviously biased in advising Henry to get rid of Diane, but Catherine is right. A king with mommy issues looks weak.

[PinkRibbons]

Eh, I'm not a fan of the time skip at all. To begin with, after having Liv Hill on screen for the majority, it's too hard to believe Samantha Morton as playing early 30s.

I think what's bothering me most is that they completely fucked the timeline here, keeping the Old King alive for an extra decade. By doing that, Henri will have the throne for only a couple of years as opposed to the decade he had it. Meanwhile, I'm supposed to believe that Catherine De Medici spent 15 years being meek and quiet? In the first episode, the whole kitchen staff was afraid of her. Did she somehow gain her reputation in only a handful of years? And why should I believe the Old King knew how smart she is when the last time we heard of anything she did for the kingdom was a decade and a half ago?

It's just skipping way too much interesting material. Even when she wasn't involved in the government of the realm, Catherine was a unusually loving mother (except to Margo) for the time who put a lot of effort into finding her children good marriages and educating them. Diane did insert herself into their lives, but the children were still close to their mother. The scene when she arrives with sweets struck me as incredibly weird, as they knew their mother had been ill, and for some crazy reason they were just outside the door when she lost their youngest sibling in a traumatic delivery. They should have come running to her the second they saw her. If the show wants to portray Catherine as a distant mother whose children don't particularly care about her (or prefer Diane), well that needed some build-up.

Other things we didn't see that I wanted: the arrival of Mary at court, and how she and Catherine got along through the former's childhood. Why is Mary being such a bitch to the woman who effectively raised her? How about Catherine's relationships with her children as they grew; when she chose her favorites and maybe a bit of why she hated Margo so much? What about her and Henri's reactions to the Protestant/Catholic/Protestant pendulum swing around England? WHAT ABOUT THE MULTIPLE RELIGIOUS WARS ABOUT TO START? They didn't come from nowhere. I know the show is still trying to set them up, but in a much more compressed timeline.

Honestly I think they needed the younger cast for one more episode covering about five years at least, and then they should have gone to Sam Morton as Queen.

Yeah so, to me this episode was a misstep, but there's a good chance they can salvage it. I'm guessing they just wanted to get to Sam as quickly as they could.

[greekmom]

Excellent episode again.  I can't wait till Catherine kicks Diane out.
I wonder with all the mentions of Ruggiri if he's not going to pop back up in a future episode.

So Rahimi is able to read. That makes it interesting.
 

[Spartan Girl]

6 hours ago, brisbydog said:

I'll miss the young Catherine a lot. She was so good. Henri is so weak. I want to smack him

Well, knowing how history goes, we won’t have to deal with him much longer.

[brisbydog]

3 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Well, knowing how history goes, we won’t have to deal with him much longer.

I am looking forward to that joust

[Constantinople]

1 hour ago, greekmom said:

So Rahimi is able to read. That makes it interesting.

I don't know what to make of that. Is Rahima just playing it close to the vest having finally absorbed Catherine's first lesson to never trust anyone? Or did someone plant Rahima as a spy in the hopes she might be made Catherine's maid?

[Haleth]

It finally occurred to me (with a little help from IMDB) where I'd seen Angelina before.  She played sweet, demur Verity on Poldark.  Quite a different character.

9 hours ago, Constantinople said:

I don't know what to make of that. Is Rahima just playing it close to the vest having finally absorbed Catherine's first lesson to never trust anyone? Or did someone plant Rahima as a spy in the hopes she might be made Catherine's maid?

I think Rahima is a quick learner and very cagey.  I wouldn't surprise me to see her take a peek at that letter at some point.  

12 hours ago, PinkRibbons said:

Why is Mary being such a bitch to the woman who effectively raised her?

Maybe Mary's deGuise uncles have poisoned their relationship? 

I enjoyed the episode but cannot wait for Catherine to assert herself more.  She's still letting people walk all over her. 

[Steph J]

I'm enjoying the show a lot (every time I see Samantha Morton in anything, I'm reminded all over again of why I love her as an actress - it's too bad that Colm Meaney is now gone because I enjoyed their brief interactions in this episode), but I'm wondering if someone can enlighten me about why Mary would think she's the "rightful" queen just because she's the widow of the last king. It's France. They fought a century long war that originated with the idea that not only can a woman not rule, but a man can't rule if his claim flows from a female branch of the family tree.

Laying that aside, I can't call to mind a precedent to Mary of a woman ruling in her own right (rather than as regent) just because she was married to the last king. There were the two Catherines of Russia, but they came along well after the events depicted in this series.

So is this just for the drama of it, or was there actually a basis on which Mary could reasonably claim the throne?

[PinkRibbons]

Theoretically speaking if Mary had reason to believe she was pregnant with her late husband's child son, that claim would supercede the claim of Catherine's next oldest son as King of France. And assuming the mother would be the regent for an underage child (as Mary's own mother was at the time for Scotland, and as Catherine is soon to become for Charles), Mary would have control of the throne for about 15 years before her child could rule in his own right.

And that's still a stretch because since both Catherine and Mary are foreigners (despite both of them having noble French mothers), they're on about equal ground with the people of France, even if Mary is already a queen of another country and Catherine is a commoner. There would be just as much of a good reason to elect Catherine the regent for her grandchild, considering by this point she has prior experience regent...ing? Not to mention Mary's Guise uncles trying to grasp for power through her would step forth as regency candidates.

I suppose Mary may be plotting to put herself forth as Regent for her brother-in-law Charles, with the help of her uncles. But she absolutely has no rights to the throne through her childless marriage, and I'm guessing the only argument she would have for being Charles's regent is because...she's there and still a Queen? Of a country she hasn't seen in at least a decade? I'm pretty sure the most Mary got out of being Dowager Queen of France was permission to add it to her coat of arms.

(Incidentally this is another thing that ticks me off about the timeline change. Catherine and Mary were two reigning queens sharing a court the whole time Mary was in France. By not making Catherine Queen until so much later, she as a Princess would have to give precedence to the little girl she was raising with her own children. Their dynamic as two queens in one castle was weird enough already, this story change to Catherine as Princess while Mary was a Queen makes things so very much more weird. Other than the King and Queen, Mary maintained a higher rank than anyone at court including the Royal Children.)

[tennisgurl]

I already miss young Catherine, I feel like we might have jumped a bit too far, we missed so much interesting stuff. Catherine seems even less cunning now than she did as a teenager, which feels off to me. 

I still liked the episode though, Henri should really just listen to Catherine, she makes a lot of really good points. Henri is such a weak willed person, he's not a person suited to be a king.

Rahima is certainly a quick learner. 

[Scarlett45]

On 10/7/2022 at 11:31 AM, tennisgurl said:

I already miss young Catherine, I feel like we might have jumped a bit too far, we missed so much interesting stuff. Catherine seems even less cunning now than she did as a teenager, which feels off to me. 

I still liked the episode though, Henri should really just listen to Catherine, she makes a lot of really good points. Henri is such a weak willed person, he's not a person suited to be a king.

Rahima is certainly a quick learner. 

I miss young Catherine too. 

[andromeda331]

I want to see Catherine being a badass. There's no way she'd be meek all those years. I do like how much the old King appreciates Catherine and know she's got a brain unlike stupid Henri. Why Henri prefers being lead around by Diane I have no idea. I love how he gets mad at that. Ah, that's exactly what you are Henri. Looks like little Francis isn't that different being lead around by Mary.

[iMonrey]

Um . . . according to imdb, Samantha Morton was 45 when this was filmed. She looks about ten years older than that to me. She certainly can't pass for 30. Young Catherine was so much younger than Diane in the first three episodes. Now she looks older than her. And am I to believe she'd actually be thinner after having nine children?

I think they should have kept using the younger actress for the flashbacks and limited Morton to the narration.