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These next moments of your life will either define you as a victim or a powerful queen, untouched by a failed assassination attempt. They will define who you are perceived to be, your place in history. Do not let them win.

Acts of War is the ninth episode of Season Two and thirty-first episode of the series overall. It aired on December 4th, 2014.

Synopsis[]

IS ANOTHER ROYAL WEDDING IN SIGHT? — With a holiday celebration around the corner, Bash uncovers what could be the answer to Francis finally escaping the oppressive thumb of Lord Narcisse, and the two formulate a daring plan. Meanwhile, Mary proposes the radical idea of marrying the Protestant Condé to the Catholic Claude, a scheme that she believes a viable path forward to peace, but Claude has other plans in store. As preparations are made for the upcoming feast, Greer discovers that she may be more involved with the Protestant movement than she originally thought. Catherine, Leith, Kenna and Lola also appear.

Plot[]

With the Saint Nicholas Feast approaching, Francis is looking to make peace with the Protestants and convince that the minister's death was not the castle's doing. He pledges more supplies for everyone in the spirit of the season, and promises that there will be no talk of faith, just as Condé reaffirms his words.

As Greer, Lola, and Kenna take a break from practicing a new dance, Claude comes in to inquire about Narcisse. The ladies try to explain that he is not a suitable match for her, but Claude is only more intrigued when they mention that he kept his former wife in a cage. Mary comes in and joins them in discouraging Claude from pursuing Narcisse, but Claude is so determined to antagonize her mother and control her own destiny that she is thinking about having an affair with someone notorious and older like Narcisse in order to scare off any potential suitors.

When Francis returns home he is immediately approached by Mary, whose conversation with Claude gave her an idea - getting Claude and Condé to wed. She surmises that an interfaith marriage, especially one with ties to the royals, could help promote the peace that France is in desperate need of while keeping the Protestants from accruing any significant power of their own. However, Francis is too worried about the response of the nobles and backs away from the idea, further driving Mary away.

But Francis can't wallow in his sadness for long, as he meets with Sebastian and goes to see Father Michael, the priest who Catherine tried to bribe to poison Henry. The man was abducted from his home and taken to the castle by Bash with the intention of interrogating him as to the whereabouts of Lord Montgomery. While Father Michael knows nothing about Montgomery, he does know about Balfont, Narcisse's man who had been feeding him for the past several months. With Balfont set to visit Michael at the farmhouse he was living at, Francis comes up with a plan that could help get him out from under the thumb of Narcisse.

The plan involves giving Narcisse a push by agreeing to the marriage between Conde and Claude. When he gives Mary his blessing for the engagement and tells her that he would like to announce it with her at the feast, she is afraid to believe him due to how erratic he has been of late. However, she goes along with it.

Mary first talks to Condé about it, which takes some convincing, especially since he was possibly going to marry a duchess, but hearing about the marriage saving lives, helping France, and granting him a beautiful princess, all told through Mary's voice, proves to be enough to get him to agree to the engagement. Less sure is Claude, who doesn't wish to marry or become the "property" of any man. Catherine agrees with her daughter, pointing out that Condé could snatch the throne thanks to his royal blood. Claude tells both women that she is not a brood mare to be sold to anyone and storms out, after which Mary asks Catherine to help her sway Claude. As Claude would stay at court after marrying Condé, Catherine feels this marriage solves nothing for her.

Greer meets with some of Castleroy's closest confidantes, men with whom he has been collaborating on building a school and whose cause he hopes convinces her to convert, while Condé and Claude's first meeting goes fairly awkwardly, with Claude trying to scare him away with sex talk and Condé attempting to have a serious conversation.

Elsewhere, Narcisse confronts Francis about the Condé/Claude engagement that he heard about and Francis begins acting as if he hasn't slept in a long time, bringing up possibly reversing the edict and writing off Narcisse's threats to his family line. Narcisse simply encourages him to give the decision some time before leaving and it turns out that this is the response that Francis and Bash wanted him to have.

After leaving Francis, Narcisse immediately goes to Claude and warns her that she's merely a test subject to see if a mixed union can survive without one or both of them being assassinated. He offers to marry her in order to protect her, since she would have a huge target on her if she wed Condé, and tries to seduce her into complying. However, Claude merely says that she'll think about it after listing the reasons why she may not want to give up someone of Condé's worth.

Yet Narcisse's words do make an impact on Claude, as she goes to Francis worried about her safety if she agrees to marry Condé. He tells her that everyone in their family is in danger and that this is her opportunity to step up and to feel like one of them after being isolated for such a long time. This prompts Claude to go tell Narcisse that she will marry Condé after all. As a result, Narcisse goes to Balfont, frothing with anger at the rejection and claiming that now is the time to retrieve Lord Montgomery and bring up the regicide charges.

But Francis isn’t crumbling like Narcisse thinks he is; he and Bash are planning to beat Balfont to the farmhouse that Montgomery is staying in, with the king exchanging a stilted goodbye with his queen that includes an awkward touch and one final look at the woman he married. Even with Francis gone into the woods on his horse, the Feast of St. Nicholas continues as planned and while Catherine warns Narcisse to stay away from her daughter, Mary hears that Francis is meeting with the Vatican to smooth over any kerfuffles that might erupt as a result of the engagement. In another corner of the banquet, Greer tells Castleroy that she has decided to convert and Castleroy opts to head home and show Greer just how much he loves her. Mary announces Condé and Claude's engagement to the confusion of the guests, who don't know whether to applaud and whose murmuring sends a negative sign about the engagement's future.

Elsewhere, one of the castle guards makes a run into the village to deliver some supplies, only to be ambushed, killed, and stripped of his armor by a group of rogue Protestants. The men take the guard's carriage back to the castle and convince the man standing guard outside to let them in, all the while Francis and Bash make it to the farmhouse at the same time that Balfont does. Francis kills him with a blade and the two head into the home to find Montgomery dirty and tied up after spending months in seclusion. Francis gets him to sign a confession, saying that it was for an official royal pardon now that he’s the king; though Montgomery insists that he has no idea why he was kidnapped, Bash kills him when he lashes out about Henry.

With Francis now out of the woods for his father's death, thereby removing the greatest leverage that Narcisse had on him, Bash tells his brother to go back to the castle, tell Mary the truth, and kill Narcisse for treason. Shortly after Condé has decided to give up on the marriage and left for his estate to get distance from Mary, the Protestants scour the castle looking for Francis, killing everyone in their path along the way. They find the royal chambers and quickly take hold of Mary, threatening her if she were to scream and proceeding to hold her until they find Francis.

Upon realizing that Francis isn't in the castle after all, a few of the men try to get the group to leave, but one in particular volunteers to kill Mary and smacks her to the ground. He reveals that he's the father of the Minister who was displayed in the middle of town and he blames the royals for letting something like that happen to his boy, so after ranting while Mary recovers on the ground, he gets on top of her and rapes her while another of his people holds her arms down. Mary does manage to get the upper hand, though, when she finds a weapon to knock one of them in the head with before fleeing her chambers.

Luckily, Catherine was just coming in that direction and when she sees that Mary is obviously in distress, she dismisses her guards and takes Mary to her personal chambers. Mary is expectedly distant and sensitive to Catherine's touch before breaking down in front of her. Having learned the reason for her daughter-in-law's demeanor, Catherine assures her that she will get through this and that she knows what this experience is like all too well. However, Mary being a royal, her duty is to her country, so Catherine suggests changing clothes, washing her hair, and doing anything that will get the stench of the night off of her. Not only would it be for her own benefit, it would benefit Francis, France, and Scotland, so she has to pretend like it didn't happen. Catherine pledges to get Mary through this, if for no other reason than to keep those who harmed her from triumphing, and extends her hand out to Mary, who eventually takes hold of it.

Castleroy and Greer are woken up in the dead of night and told about the suspected assassins in the castle. Although Mary and Francis are deemed safe, one of the men Castleroy has been teaming with is awfully shifty, asking for resources that will help him get out of town. It turns out, though, that he wasn't responsible for the men who invaded the castle – it was a third partner, who had been threatened into complying, though he refuses to name the person who strong-armed him. As a result, the school that Castleroy thought he had been helping to build doesn't exist – the money he was giving his partners went straight to funding the men who attacked Mary.

While one of Narcisse's men rationalizes that the Protestants felt as if they had nothing to lose, Mary makes his first public appearance since the rape and reassures her subjects that the royals are untouched and that those who invaded the castle will be caught and executed. Narcisse then goes to Lola while she tends to the baby and tells her that he still thinks about her, that he was worried for her when he learned what happened, that he feels personally responsible for the unrest that is threatening to tear the country apart.

Francis finds Mary and Catherine as soon as he gets home and when Catherine leaves, Mary confesses that she was raped during the altercating. However, instead of letting Francis blame himself, she pleads with him to kill the men who did this to her.


Cast[]

Main[]

Recurring[]

Soundtrack[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The Saint Nicholas Feast took place.
  • A hotline for survivors of rape was shown at the end of the episode because of the rape mentioned in the episode.

See Also[]

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