‘Reign’ Review: Top 5 Moments from ‘Liege Lord’

Last night, Reign returned from its brief hiatus and Mary Queen of Scots reminded everyone at French Court that she’s more than just Francis’ consort – she’s a queen with a country to protect and she’s not going to let anyone get in her way. But that wasn’t going to stop Catherine from trying.

“Liege Lord” also followed up on some of the major events from the last episode including Henry’s continued downward spiral, his obsession with Penelope, Lola’s desperation to marry Lord Julien before she began to show and of course Bash and Kenna dealing with their new status as husband and wife. Let’s talk about all the good stuff.

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5. Catherine takes control – and has a little fun

Since Henry is still acting like Penelope is his queen, Catherine is free to do as she pleases. Naturally her first order of business is keeping France secure and stepping in for Henry to run the country and make sure that no one finds out that he’s completely lost his mind. Of course we’d expect nothing less from the queen, who could definitely give Olivia Pope a run for her money in the fixer department.

But Catherine also took an opportunity for some personal satisfaction in the episode when an unknowing Scottish man hit on her, assuming she was one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting (Penelope is still wearing her crown). Catherine let the man think that and then she took him to her bed. Afterward, it didn’t take long for him to put the pieces together once he saw how at home Catherine was in the queen’s chambers. She was confident he’d never tell anyone because who would believe him? Once again, we must bow down to Catherine’s perfection.

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4. Lola gets her marriage proposal – and tells the truth

Lord Julien has been wooing Lola, but he still hasn’t popped the marriage question yet. Lola confides in Greer that she’s worried she’s going to start showing any day now and then she decided to step up her game. She sought Julien out for a dance and they talked about the future. But there was one glaring problem – he’d been married twice before, both women had died in childbirth and he planned to take extra precautions to make sure he never had children. Lola accepts his marriage proposal even though she was clearly panicking.

Then she did something surprising. She went to Lord Julien and told him that she was pregnant. She cared enough about him to want him to know the truth or at least part of it because she didn’t say anything about Francis being the father. He was pretty quick to accept their situation and that’s when warning bells started going off in my head. This is the same guy who ended things with Greer because of Leith, but he’s willing to marry a woman carrying someone else’s child? Something is not right and that makes me nervous for Lola.

3. Francis and Mary team up – and go against their parents’ plots

Charlotte, one of Catherine’s ladies, found a way to pull Mary aside and ask for help. Catherine had ordered her to seduce Henry so they could get rid of Penelope (Dear Catherine: Just poison her, please) and since she was afraid of the mad king, she offered Mary some information in exchange for safe passage to Scotland. She told Mary that there was a secret clause in her marriage contract that would give Scotland to France if she died without an heir – it basically put a time bomb on Mary’s head. With some help from Bash and Kenna (more on them later), Mary got the proof she needed and plotted with Francis to find the best way around the decisions their parents had made for them.

They decided to get word to Mary’s countrymen because they knew it would force Marie to burn the contract or face a civil uprising. So Francis and Mary threw a party at the castle, invited as many Scots as they could and then requested a private meeting with a man who had fought battles alongside Mary’s father. He wasn’t exactly impressed with his queen and Francis was ready to draw his sword at a moment’s notice (how cute was that?), but once Mary laid everything on the line and swore that country came before everything else, the men were more than happy to bow to her. This was a pretty cool scene and it was awesome to see Mary and Francis working together against their scheming parents.

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2. Bash and Kenna try to adjust to marriage – and start to bond

Now that Kenna is married, she’s been forced to move into chambers with Bash and it’s definitely not what she signed up for as a lady-in-waiting. Bash wasn’t happy with the situation either, since he doesn’t particularly like her and he definitely does not like being married to a woman who slept with his father. Kenna doesn’t appreciate that he’s in love with Mary. They’re both miserable and then things get worse when they get caught up in helping Mary with her quest. Bash helps get Charlotte out of the castle and Kenna sneaks into Henry’s chambers to find a copy of the contract.

Unfortunately, she gets caught by the king and has no choice but to let him kiss her. Henry mentions it to Bash, which makes things worse since Kenna promised she wasn’t going to be alone with Henry anymore. She’s quick to throw Mary in his face and it seems like these two are never going to find common ground. But then Bash swoops in to rescue Kenna when the king is getting too close and he tells her that she’s not safe at the castle and he’ll always be there to protect her because she’s his wife. Okay, who else swooned at that part? The whole sleeping with his father thing is super icky, but I’m going to ignore that and wait for these two to fall in love. Make it happen, Show.

1. Mary pulls another BAMF move – and possibly alienates Francis

So remember how Mary and Francis came up with this awesome plan, executed it flawlessly and assumed everything was going to be fine? Catherine was not about to sit back and let that happen. As soon as she realized Mary knew about the contract, she was already ten steps ahead of the younger queen. Catherine had all of the Scots who were at the party killed (including her brief lover, which she at least seemed to feel sort of bad abut for a second?). Mary was furious when she learned the truth and she slapped Catherine! I can’t say that I saw that coming. Catherine took it pretty well and then more or less told Mary to grow up and learn how to be a queen because men were going to die for her all the time – that was how it worked.

But Mary was not going accept defeat. She came to Catherine and Francis and told the queen that she’d sent three riders out to let important people know that Henry was losing his mind and France was ripe for the taking. Catherine and Francis were horrified and Mary made it crystal clear that her first loyalty was always going to be to Scotland and if it came down to it, Francis could be her consort there (I repeat: BAMF). Catherine wasn’t going to let her hard work go to waste so she did as Mary asked and burned the contract. Francis was impressed with his wife’s bluff, but then Mary surprised him and said that she’d had every intention of exposing the truth – Scotland is and will always be her priority.

Mary Queen of Scots, ladies and gentlemen – I have to say that watching Mary assert her power to protect her country was all kinds of awesome. I will forever love this show for writing such strong female characters. Unfortunately, Mary’s assertiveness is going to cause some problems in her marriage. The preview for next week shows some major tension between the couple.

Now it’s your turn. Did you enjoy the episode? Were you happy that Mary bested Catherine? Were you surprised Catherine had all those people killed? Will Henry ever recover from his madness? Are you onboard for Bash and Kenna? What’s the deal with Julien? Will Francis be able to love a queen? Hit the comments below and share your thoughts and theories with us!