The CW's Reign - Episode 1.22 "Slaughter of Innocence"
When King Henry's madness and cruelty reaches a fevered pitch, Mary and Francis take action. Their choices could change the course of history, but an unforeseen terror brewing in the woods could cost them, and their friends, everything. Mary makes a drastic decision when she learns Lola is going through a life-threatening labor at a location outside of the castle.
It's always interesting whenever Reign reaches for a semblance of historical accuracy. King Henry really did die during a jousting match. So, Reign feels the obligation to have him die in the same way. It can't go about changing the course of history because it really doesn't aspire to get some portions of this period and these characters. They have no problem creating a half-brother that never existed in real life or going for some supernatural mythical beats.The characters are all plotting in one direction but history is propelling them in a different direction. It's a really odd paradox that the show has. Yes, I do believe that there is some value in having characters plot and plot for something to happen - only for it to fail every time - and then something happens beyond their control that gives them exactly what they want. There is value in that structure. But Reign instead decides to take all the randomness out of the situation once it reveals that it was truly Francis who killed his father. That moment wasn't earned. Would Francis realistically be pushed to such extremes after just learning about the incident with the ship? No. It's Mary and Catherine who learn of Henry's plot to kill Francis but Francis isn't made aware of that. The whole truth probably would have been enough to justify Francis being on that horse. But he only had a piece of the puzzle and that wasn't a big enough slice to get him to do this act. But the show did it entirely so Francis could end up at his father's deathbed and learn about the burden he carried his entire life for killing his older brother to get the throne. That's just thematic irony that was way too heavy handed here.
And then comes the whole swelling of the pending devastation to the country. It's suppose to feel grandiose. The music is swelling in the most orchestral way possible. Lola's life hangs in the balance as she's taking way too long to give birth. Bash slays the Darkness only for it to amount to a new grand prophecy of destruction. And because Nostradamus backs up what the beast says, the show automatically just goes all in on it. The stars fall and the plague breaks out and people die all in just the span of a day. It's all building up to doom. But it's actually just establishing stakes so that we can simultaneously feel conflicted and devastated when Francis is riding away from the castle as Mary lowers the gate. It's emotional manipulation that isn't that subtle at all. But none of it especially feels that earnest. It feels like the show wanted to go out on a big note. But instead it went out with kind of a weird whimper.
Some more thoughts:
- "Slaughter of Innocence" was written by Laurie McCarthy & Doris Egan and directed by David Frazee.
- Seriously though, that was one quick pregnancy Lola.
- The amount of time spent on the Greer-Leith-Castleroy love triangle is so awkward and weird and unnecessary. I don't care about any of them - and yet, they all get valuable screentime by themselves for some reason.
- Things it seemed Reign has completely forgotten about - the resurrection of Clarissa and the vision of Francis' death. Yes, the show could really be thinking long-term and simply plotted those seeds for the second season. It just didn't make all of the pieces from this season click in the way that a great season finale should.
