The Musketeers: "Homecoming"
Another Porthos-centric episode! It’s hard to believe that some people were complaining he would be the requisite “politically-correct token” since at this point, he honestly feels like the most well-rounded of all four leads.
The plot came dangerously close to a retread, what with a Musketeer being accused of a crime he didn’t commit and relying on the others to clear his name, (complete with the threat of gunpowder) but it veered away from the specifics when it came to the whys and wherefores of what was really going on. I was kept guessing about the nature of the murder and the identity of the killer, and the way in which they used Protestant/Catholic tension as a front for Emile de Mauvoison’s real plan was clever. Ultimately it all came down to another scheme of the Cardinal, this time to get rid of the Court of Miracles. In this he’s helped by Emile de Mauvoison, an impoverished member of the nobility, who in turn is in league with Charon (the “king” of the court) to blow the whole thing up, having already brought prime real estate all over the area.
That Porthos’s involvement was simply a matter of wrong time, wrong place was maybe a bit of a stretch, and Jean de Mauvoison’s death wasn’t explained all that well (was the fight because Jean had found out what Emile was going to do? And I thought D’artagnan/Aramis established that the body had been moved, though that didn’t seem to be the case in Porthos’s flashback), but as with all previous episodes everything hung together nicely and there were no gaping plot-holes. It’s so refreshing to have coherent storytelling, where various plot-twists and developments actually make sense.
If there was a weak link in the episode, it was Emile de Mauvoison as a villain. Yeah, I get that one-shot guest stars don’t really need to be that nuanced (and the likes of Charon and Flea more than made up for him), but the desire to restore his family’s former glory is rather bland motivation, and his demeanour following his son’s death at his own hands (whether accidental or not) didn’t really ring true. It felt unlikely that he’d be able to maintain such a façade of calm in the wake of filicide. Also, there’s no way that a practicing Catholic in that day and age would commit suicide - a detail that could have been overlooked were it not for the fact that the entire episode drew attention to differing Protestant/Catholic practises.
Heck, after giving him his pistol I was certain that Treville was going to get shot the minute he turned his back on Mauvoison.
But on to the good stuff. If there was a theme to this episode, it was trust, right from the very first scene of Aramis trusting Porthos to shoot that melon from his head. From that point on, almost every beat of the story involved the need for trust in one capacity or another - the other Musketeers must trust that Porthos is innocent (and Aramis reacts badly when D’artagnan suggests that he might be guilty, albeit accidentally), and Porthos must trust that the others will clear his name (he initially cries: “Athos!” when the masked thieves come to his rescue, which was sweet). Charon tries to sow distrust between the separated comrades, telling Porthos that the others have abandoned him and Athos that Porthos doesn’t want to see him, requiring the divided friends have to have unspoken faith in each other.
Then of course, there’s a love triangle. Though Porthos has to trust his old friends to smuggle him out of the Court, he goes ahead and rekindles a romance with Flea who is technically already in a relationship with Charon. At first glance the characters of Flea and Charon played the typical parts: the woman who sleeps with the hero for very little reason, and the black guy who dies, but there’s a lot more going on under the surface. The triangle, such as it was, didn’t impinge much on the storyline, and Flea was far more than just an indecisive “prize” for the boys to dick-measure over.
The real “triangle” between Porthos, Charon and Flea actually revolved around their relationship to the Court of Miracles. Unlike the boys, Flea genuinely loves the place and never wants to leave - even if it means saying goodbye to Porthos. He on the other hand, went in search for a better life for himself, leaving Flea behind but finding his own place of belonging with the Musketeers. That leaves Charon, in the frustrating position of wanting to leave, but staying for Flea - whose heart apparently still lies with Porthos. No one likes to be second best.
So unlike Flea, who is content, and unlike Porthos, who left honourably and worked hard to get where he is now, Charon tries to take a third option, by making a Deal with the Devil and destroying the place on his way out - and though he’s stopped, I wonder if perhaps his decision to stab Porthos in the back (which otherwise felt a little out of left-field) was because of Porthos’s admission that: “I’m not like you - that’s why I left.” Burn.
It’s an interesting contrast of motivation, and I think the episode could have easily avoided any explicit love triangle by simply having the three of them as old childhood friends. In fact, it kind of grated that Porthos/Flea not only slept together, but did so whilst a badly injured Charon was recovering in the other room. It seemed a bit out of character for Porthos, and when Flea says “I don’t want to hurt [Charon]”, the immediate response that comes to mind is: so why are you sleeping with Porthos, then?
Still, I’m glad the show didn’t slut-shame her, for when Charon confronts her about it she’s allowed to tell him that she doesn’t “belong”to Charon or Porthos, and by this point her tendency to simply do what she likes is pretty well established. Both times Porthos asks her to go with him, she refuses simply because she’s happy in the world she’s in and doesn’t want to leave it. So perhaps to make up for the fact that our three regular ladies were nowhere to be seen, she was spared the all-but-inevitable Taking The Bullet death scene that reared its ugly head in the climax, and lives on to fight another day. (Though I’m not entirely sure how - she was shot at point-blank range, so I’m assuming the bullet hit one of her belt buckles or something?)
Let’s hope she comes back, for if there was one thing that the show neglected to point out, it was that if Charon was the King of the Court, shouldn’t Flea now be its Queen?
Miscellaneous
Tom Burke is possibly one of the greatest comedic straight-men I’ve ever seen on television. He just OOZES droll nonchalance. Heck, he doesn’t even have to SAY anything. The mere look on his face after Porthos shoots the melon from Aramis’s head is the perfect foil to the two of them.
That was a great depiction of the Court of Miracles, first with their rather intimidating security system (the banging of pots and sticks) and then in the grubby sort of opulence of the inner chambers, contrasting well with the empty grandeur of the Mauvoison family home.
King Louis’s “melon” choly business. Oh you twat.
It wasn’t until my second watch that I realized the assassin that broke into the Court had been hired by Mauvoison to kill Charon - he offhandedly mentions it to the Cardinal later. Still, it was a rather odd sequence that probably could have been explained a bit better. Another mild contrivance: how on earth did the Pastor Ferrand know the difference between the father and the son’s signatures?
I love all the details that the actors, costumers, make-up artists and set designers put into the finished product: here it was Flea’s little flourish when she takes her mask off, Pastor Ferrand’s unexplained facial scar, and that the melon Porthos left in the street is later seen being eaten by children. Even the little old lady that Porthos was chatting to felt like a real person instead of a plot-device to spout exposition. I was left wondering what her life-story was.
Aramis in the Protestant church was a nice touch, complaining that worship without beauty isn’t as “seductive.” And I like that the show namedropped the Huguenots without feeling the need to spell out who they were exactly. In fact, in just a couple of scenes we got a nice capsule of the Protestant/Catholic belief systems (sans the suicide).
It was an interesting choice that it was Aramis who killed Charon, for it was essentially Porthos’s new BFF killing his old one.
Flea’s response to Charon’s description to people “human beings rooting in filth like animals” by saying “they’re just poor, that’s all!” was beautiful in its simplicity, as written and delivered by the actress. She made it sound almost profound. “They’re just poor, that’s all.” I really hope she returns at some point. I’ve seen the actress in an episode of Poirot, and she has a great sense self-assurance and composure about her.
Finally, I came for Santiago Cabrera as Aramis, but I’m staying for Charles Howard as Porthos. He’s stunning, and he gives so many beautiful line readings. In the script, his answer to the court judge on what he was doing: “I admired the beauty and serenity of Paris after dark” was probably written as a joke, but he performs it seriously, demonstrating that that’s exactly what Porthos WAS doing, which in turn sheds further light on the type of man he is. On the birthday that he chose for himself, he went out (slightly drunk) to admire Paris at night.
Next week: Perhaps to make up for Milady, Constance and Queen Anne’s absences this week, next time we get not one but two female guest stars - Marie de' Medici (whoo-hoo!) and Edith from Downton Abbey, who once again has baby troubles. And Constance sword-fighting!