The Borgias 2.09
In which the show's love of meaningful ceremonies is only competing with the show's love for certain well known quotes actually sounding fresh in context and twisted family relationships. In conclusion, yay episode!
Well, we all knew it was coming, but before I get to the main event, let me say that the way the Lucrecia and the brothers from Genua thing resolved itself actually makes me feel that screen time has not been wasted, because it gives you the impression that she knew Rafaello (who is a nice guy, unironcially speaking) would not be able to go through sleeping with his brother's intended and later wife behind his back, and therefore by her tryst with him she'd managed to get out of marrying his brother while still keeping the letter of Rodrigo's request/demand, and putting her suitor in the position of having to break off the engagement. (Her "given the choice, I would marry neither", makes it clear, imo.) Neatly maneouvred, and it gives us another of the really good Lucrezia and Rodrigo scenes the earlier part of this season was full off. I love that mixture of anger and affection she has for her father.
Speaking of earlier this season, Giulia, missing for a couple of episodes, is finally back on my screen, and I'm glad, all the more so since her scene with Rodrigo is a good one and about Lucrezia, and in the same episode we get another good so-married-couple scene between Rodrigo and Vannozza. (Basically, the threesome of my heart would be Giulia/Rodrigo/Vannozza, and given earlier precedents, this show is not above giving it to me.) (Btw, no, having waited with the baptism isn't a plot hole; sometimes people even waited a year or two.) Now that the season is almost over, I can say that while Giulia had a far lesser screen presence than last season, which I'm sad about, Vannozza had far more than she did last season, which I'm glad about. So, um, give and take? Anyway: Vannozza's best scene in the episode, though, was with her doomed son, where she's steel and sadness at the same time. She's passed being shocked at Juan's decay (as opposed to her reaction when he went mad at her and Theo last season), but no matter how horrible he is, he's still her son, and so she can't be indifferent to what he became, either.
Bagpedelling a bit in episode time: when Cesare delivered his challenge to Savonarola, I was torn between being delighted and annoyed at the show for cheating again (as I thought they'd let Savonarola die this way, thereby exculpating the Borgias from burning him), but then Savonarola survived his firewalk and was brought to Rome in a cage, and I could settle on being delighted. Because this was a clever way to dramatize the Florentines going from worshipping Savonarola to being disillusioned by him and ready to hand him over to Rome, on both a Doylist (i.e. show writers) and Watsonian (Cesare) level. Letting Cesare turn Savonarola's claim to miracles and direct communion with God against him by going biblical (Elias and his competition with the priests of Baal) and a bit before this period appropriate (trial by fire being more a medieval than a Renaissance thing, but hey) was a brilliant way, and showed the understanding of theatre and ritual which both Savonarola and the Borgias have. (See also: the two Ash Wednesday ceremonies a couple of episodes earlier.) And of course the show couldn't resist showing an excommunication, so intercutting it with Savonarola's fall from grace worked really, really well. Lastly: given this episode's events, this will be the last we'll see of Cesare in his role as Cardinal, so making a showdown with Savonarola the climax and end point of his unwanted eccliastic career is inspired.
The murder of Juan, as expected, happened here, leaving the fallout for the finale. It's the event the season has been building up to from the moment Rodrigo ordered family unity in the season opener, and while I wish they hadn't overdone it with the Juan flaws (including this episode - taunting Lucrezia re: her baby was over the top, and unnecessary at that point) in order to get there, I am on board with several things it accomplished: making Cesare and Lucrezia both guilty of fratricide (in Lucrezia's case, of attempted fratricide earlier this season, and here of wishing to try it again and aware Cesare will if she won't) is a good twist to the traditional storyline and in showverse Rodrigo having to deal with this from both of them, instead of Lucrezia as the innocent and emotional relief, will be that much more messed up and interesting. Also, Juan's opiated rambling monologue to Cesare just before he died reminded me of their earlier night walk scene in the episode where Paolo died, where we had the "do you love me?" "like myself" "Ah, but you don't" exchange; arguably these are the two points in the season where Juan's characterisation (and the one of the relationship between the brothers) is a bit more ambiguous than black-in-black negative and makes it believable it wasn't always only rivalry between them.
There are two biblical pairs of brothers textually invoked by this episode, the New Testament parable when Juan tells Cesare that he, Juan, is the Prodigal Son to Cesare's Dutiful Son, and thus their father will always love him more (and later Cesare casts himself as the Dutiful Son when talking to Lucrezia as well), and the very first Old Testament precedent, Cain and Abel, which Cesare invokes when asking Rodrigo "am I then my brother's keeper?" Which of course was Cain's question to God after the murder of Abel, so Rodrigo really ought to have known then and there this was it and Cesare would go through with it. Maybe he did know and didn't want to admit it to himself. Rodrigo was in an unssolvable dilemma, as in the last episode when he tried to take Juan's offices away he got a suicide threat in return. So what do you do about Juan when you're his father? Writing him off for good would have been the sensible pragmatic thing, but the way Rodrigo loves his family for good and ill, he'd never been able to do that. His solution - that Juan does indeed need a keeper, and asking Cesare to do be that keeper - might have worked last season (where Cesare did that in the episode where Juan kills for the first time), but it's too late now.
On to the finale!
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/787437.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Well, we all knew it was coming, but before I get to the main event, let me say that the way the Lucrecia and the brothers from Genua thing resolved itself actually makes me feel that screen time has not been wasted, because it gives you the impression that she knew Rafaello (who is a nice guy, unironcially speaking) would not be able to go through sleeping with his brother's intended and later wife behind his back, and therefore by her tryst with him she'd managed to get out of marrying his brother while still keeping the letter of Rodrigo's request/demand, and putting her suitor in the position of having to break off the engagement. (Her "given the choice, I would marry neither", makes it clear, imo.) Neatly maneouvred, and it gives us another of the really good Lucrezia and Rodrigo scenes the earlier part of this season was full off. I love that mixture of anger and affection she has for her father.
Speaking of earlier this season, Giulia, missing for a couple of episodes, is finally back on my screen, and I'm glad, all the more so since her scene with Rodrigo is a good one and about Lucrezia, and in the same episode we get another good so-married-couple scene between Rodrigo and Vannozza. (Basically, the threesome of my heart would be Giulia/Rodrigo/Vannozza, and given earlier precedents, this show is not above giving it to me.) (Btw, no, having waited with the baptism isn't a plot hole; sometimes people even waited a year or two.) Now that the season is almost over, I can say that while Giulia had a far lesser screen presence than last season, which I'm sad about, Vannozza had far more than she did last season, which I'm glad about. So, um, give and take? Anyway: Vannozza's best scene in the episode, though, was with her doomed son, where she's steel and sadness at the same time. She's passed being shocked at Juan's decay (as opposed to her reaction when he went mad at her and Theo last season), but no matter how horrible he is, he's still her son, and so she can't be indifferent to what he became, either.
Bagpedelling a bit in episode time: when Cesare delivered his challenge to Savonarola, I was torn between being delighted and annoyed at the show for cheating again (as I thought they'd let Savonarola die this way, thereby exculpating the Borgias from burning him), but then Savonarola survived his firewalk and was brought to Rome in a cage, and I could settle on being delighted. Because this was a clever way to dramatize the Florentines going from worshipping Savonarola to being disillusioned by him and ready to hand him over to Rome, on both a Doylist (i.e. show writers) and Watsonian (Cesare) level. Letting Cesare turn Savonarola's claim to miracles and direct communion with God against him by going biblical (Elias and his competition with the priests of Baal) and a bit before this period appropriate (trial by fire being more a medieval than a Renaissance thing, but hey) was a brilliant way, and showed the understanding of theatre and ritual which both Savonarola and the Borgias have. (See also: the two Ash Wednesday ceremonies a couple of episodes earlier.) And of course the show couldn't resist showing an excommunication, so intercutting it with Savonarola's fall from grace worked really, really well. Lastly: given this episode's events, this will be the last we'll see of Cesare in his role as Cardinal, so making a showdown with Savonarola the climax and end point of his unwanted eccliastic career is inspired.
The murder of Juan, as expected, happened here, leaving the fallout for the finale. It's the event the season has been building up to from the moment Rodrigo ordered family unity in the season opener, and while I wish they hadn't overdone it with the Juan flaws (including this episode - taunting Lucrezia re: her baby was over the top, and unnecessary at that point) in order to get there, I am on board with several things it accomplished: making Cesare and Lucrezia both guilty of fratricide (in Lucrezia's case, of attempted fratricide earlier this season, and here of wishing to try it again and aware Cesare will if she won't) is a good twist to the traditional storyline and in showverse Rodrigo having to deal with this from both of them, instead of Lucrezia as the innocent and emotional relief, will be that much more messed up and interesting. Also, Juan's opiated rambling monologue to Cesare just before he died reminded me of their earlier night walk scene in the episode where Paolo died, where we had the "do you love me?" "like myself" "Ah, but you don't" exchange; arguably these are the two points in the season where Juan's characterisation (and the one of the relationship between the brothers) is a bit more ambiguous than black-in-black negative and makes it believable it wasn't always only rivalry between them.
There are two biblical pairs of brothers textually invoked by this episode, the New Testament parable when Juan tells Cesare that he, Juan, is the Prodigal Son to Cesare's Dutiful Son, and thus their father will always love him more (and later Cesare casts himself as the Dutiful Son when talking to Lucrezia as well), and the very first Old Testament precedent, Cain and Abel, which Cesare invokes when asking Rodrigo "am I then my brother's keeper?" Which of course was Cain's question to God after the murder of Abel, so Rodrigo really ought to have known then and there this was it and Cesare would go through with it. Maybe he did know and didn't want to admit it to himself. Rodrigo was in an unssolvable dilemma, as in the last episode when he tried to take Juan's offices away he got a suicide threat in return. So what do you do about Juan when you're his father? Writing him off for good would have been the sensible pragmatic thing, but the way Rodrigo loves his family for good and ill, he'd never been able to do that. His solution - that Juan does indeed need a keeper, and asking Cesare to do be that keeper - might have worked last season (where Cesare did that in the episode where Juan kills for the first time), but it's too late now.
On to the finale!
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/787437.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.