S01.E20: Higher Ground

[ElectricBoogaloo]

MARY GETS BLOOD ON HER HANDS TO SAVE SCOTLAND — Mary enlists a mercenary to help her, which forces her to realize there are sacrifices and lives she is willing to risk to save her country. Francis embraces his role as Dauphin to lead France in a brutal battle against England, and finds a new ally in Leith. Meanwhile, as Lola grows closer to Lord Julien, she gets increasingly suspicious that he is going to betray her.

[leatherface]

 

Francis embraces his role as Dauphin to lead France in a brutal battle against England, and finds a new ally in Leith. 

Hi, I'm new to Previously TV and Reign is my guilty pleasure.

 

Yay to seeing Leith again, I honestly thought he was dead or at least gone forever. I am a huge fan of the Leith and Greer pairing even though I knew they were never going to get a happy ending.

 

I also like Greer with Lord Peppercorn and hope they get married soon, imagine the drama of them getting married and Leith showing back up with wealth, position and favour after saving Francis's life and general bravery on the battle field.

 

As for Lola and Lord Hottie, he's a serial wife killer for profit and Lola should run not walk away from him.

 

 

[faceupandsing]

I enjoyed this episode, you can tell it's all building up to a season finale which I'm sure will be exciting and hopefully tie a lot of these plots together. Mary finally growing a backbone and realizing she'll have to get her hands dirty to save her country was a nice turn of events. She's gone from begging for his husband's army to trying to win the favor a fighting force with a distrustful leader to straight up buying the services of a dozen mercenaries. I don't know if I see her becoming a mini Catherine but she's certainly on her way to becoming a jaded (but hopefully effective) leader. 

 

I knew as soon as Leif showed up in Francis' troops he'd end up with the promise of money and titles if he survives. Now it's just a matter of if he'll make it back to the castle before Greer's wedding (likely the night before to whisk her away) or just after the honeymoon for maximum heartbreak. Both have the potential for high drama. As for the rest of Francis' battle plot, I thought it was the weaker portion of the episode, it's not like the show was going to kill him so it didn't have much suspense.

 

I'm not sure what to think about Lola's plot right now, her husband still seems a little suspect to me, it's one thing to marry a woman for her dowry but the fact that both his previous wives died in childbirth is just too big of a red flag for me. When Lola was pushing so hard to have him in the birthing room I was shaking my head, I'd want a man with his history as far away from my labor as possible!   . 

[Wootini]

Yeah, Lola's man admitting he was just in it for the money didn't quite shake my suspicions that he's responsible for offing his previous wives for the money. I'd like to believe that he's actually developed feelings for Lola that will let her live, but… well...

 

And I was happy to see Leith again, too. Especially since Peppercorn has gone out of his way to turn into a total sweetheart for Greer so now I actually kind of like him. This will help make it more dramatic when Leith returns to woo Greer away. The best love triangles are even.

[atomationage]

I liked all the scenes with Francis The Conqueror taking a castle with four men and a flaming arrow.   It was done well enough to help me ignore that Francis was 14 years old when this happened. 

 

I got confused by everything with Hortense.  It seemed like she was just dropped into the story to provide Mary with a scapegoat, but Catherine  didn't accept it anyway.

 

Helo to Tahmoh Penikett from BSG.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

It was great to see Tahmoh again! I spent half of this season thinking that Quinn on Agents of SHIELD was played by Tahmoh only to learn that it was a different actor, so I made sure to check IMDB to make sure the asssassin was really played by Tahmoh. Loved that he adhered to Mary's rules in his own way. I'd keep him around!

 

And it was nice to see Leith being a brave soldier. I was afraid they brought him back into the story just to make me watch him die. I'm glad that he's still alive but damn, that is going to make for an uncomfortable love triangle when Sir Leith shows up at the castle. Are Greer and Lord Peppercorn married? I remember Kenna's marriage to Bash and Lola's marriage to Julian, but I can't remember if Greer and Julian have actually gotten married yet. I'm guessing no, so that Leith can legitimately pursue her.