Reign S1, 14-22
I like Mary’s learning curve as a ruler. As much as she’s been faithful to the idea of Scotland, it wasn’t real to her until she had a bunch of men kneeling in front of her (and who wouldn’t love that, amirite ladies?); while she understands intellectually that she’s responsible for them, she’s not actually prepared to lose. Those are the kinds of things that, even if you are really doing your best, they’re impossible to wrap your brain around in the abstract. Catherine is starting to respect her - but that means taking her seriously, which means much harsher measures as well as drafting her into larger schemes. And after the destruction of the marriage contract, Mary has successfully outplayed Catherine. CATHERINE. I loved how the queens’ attempted regicide fell apart because they punted. Normally with that kind of plot you expect the protagonists either to be successful in their plan, or to be rewarded for backing down. And instead, backing down turned out to be exactly the worst thing to do, and it forced Francis into the corner that Mary ostensibly wanted to keep him out of.
One of you’s probably written more eloquently about this already, but Mary/Francis ends up as a really insightful metaphor for gender relations on a lot of levels. They’re both technically equals as royals - indeed, Mary might appear at first blush to be the more honored one, because she is a queen and Francis is only an heir - but the match is more or less an appropriate one. But Mary’s operating in a foreign country, while Francis has a whole support network behind him (not technically a boy’s club, since his mother is pretty much the captain of Team Francis, but it serves the same purpose) and so when push comes to shove, he assumes he is in charge. France is more secure than Scotland, and so Francis may think of conquest while Mary must worry about protecting what she has. Francis traps Mary in the castle “for her protection” - and it’s not that he’s wrong that she’s in danger, it’s that this “protection” does just so happen to risk her interests while furthering his. Mary’s power, real as it is, seems more and more elusive as the stakes get higher. The business of children is both more crucial and more onerous for Mary than Francis: her value as a person (her very survival) is dependent on being a parent, and getting pregnant seems difficult for her,* while, as we know from Lola, knocking someone up isn’t difficult for Francis. He can swoop in and be the big hero going out of his way for Mary’s sphere of Scotland, while Mary is expected to stay at home. And this is the best-case scenario. Mary and Francis are young, healthy, and wealthy. Mary does have a devoted support network of handmaidens, albeit a small one. Francis does love her and does genuinely protect her interests against all but France, and acknowledges her right to do the same for Scotland. But when they’re up against it, “less unequal” is not the same as “equal.”
IDK, in terms of how positive a relationship comes across, the one I was iffy about was Francis and Bash? Like, their conflicts are…actually pretty above-board, and mostly seem to revolve around Mary. It would be natural if Bash did resent Francis, or was willing to consider scheming against him; I appreciated that at least a part of his consideration was “this will get us beheaded” rather than just “this is wrong!!!” I can’t be too upset, though, because I really like the characterization of both Francis and Bash. Bash’s unpreparedness for his short stint as regent rang very true, as does his comfort in throwing himself into the fight against the darkness. Also I really like Bash and Kenna, do we like Bash and Kenna?!?
Francis, otoh, has developed from pretty-face prince to worthy (ie, terrifying) Medici scion. By the late-middle of the season he’s having the English saboteur tortured - not actually getting his own hands dirty but smiling a little as he’s giving orders and easily switching from bad cop to good cop and back again. It’s actually harder for me to shake that than his (admittedly baller) patricide, which only happened after Henry became an undeniable threat to both Francis and France. It’s worth pointing out how different he is from both Mary and Catherine, who were quicker to act but also willing to back down, in that he just decisively saw a shot and took it.
AAAAAH Catherine and her army of skanks flying squad! Grier! LOLA <3 YES THIS IS SO GOOD.
*I wonder a little if Mary wasn’t being slipped something to mess with her fertility, to keep her valuable and vulnerable until the right moment? Even if she wasn’t using Catherine’s fertility potions (perhaps too obvious a way for Catherine to poison her), some ~pagan herb with contraceptive properties wouldn’t be detected if she ate only from the same dishes as the king, the prince, and the (presumably menopausal) queen.
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