TV Review: Reign 2×12 “Banished”

For once, Mary didn’t hold back what she was feeling.

The episode began with her calling Francis out after she caught him and Lola snoozing off together. Even though she knows that nothing is going on between them, seeing them with their son made her realize how happy Francis could have been with someone else. But Francis doesn’t want anyone else. Mary’s reaction to Francis’ affection still isn’t the smoothest. She insists that it’s not just Francis; she can’t handle anyone touching her at all.

At least she does agree to try and help Francis hand out all of Narcisse’s land. Francis is delighted to even be able to stand next to her.

He thinks it’s a good idea to give some land to Protestants who have been faithful to the crown. Mary immediately brings up Conde.

However, Conde wouldn’t like anything to do with Francis or anything that comes from him. He claims he doesn’t agree with the way he has handled certain situations but we all know the real story is that Francis is the husband to the woman he loves, Mary. Not to mention the fact that Francis wasn’t there to protect Mary from her attackers.

Mary tries to convince him to accept the land and Francis sees Mary place her hand on his arm. To say Francis was infuriated, would be an understatement.

The battle is on and it turns quite literal at the Ice Festival.

Conde literally punches Francis in the face, making quite the scene. Conde is extremely bold to fight publicly with the King, so for that I give him props. But besides that, I do think he’s acting extremely out of place.

Everyone notices that there’s more to this fight and Mary’s ladies instantly realize that they’re fighting for Mary.

Francis and Mary are the most public couple in all of the land and so appearances are extremely important for their rule. Francis asks Mary about her feelings for Conde and of course she’s offended. She reacts even worse when he mentions the fact that the paternity of their future child can’t be questioned and so she must be very careful of appearances. She assumes he wants a tighter grip on her but really, Francis is trying to protect her. Living separately will only spark rumors and breed instability for their rule—not to mention their marriage.

She ultimately agrees and allows Francis stay in her room for the night–not in the same bed, but rather a sofa to just keep watch of her. At least Mary is opening up again. All the Frary fans have been agonizing since their separation!

Mary even has the brilliant solution of pairing Conde and Lola together. Though reluctant at first, he agrees once he sees Lola’s feisty side. He clearly has a thing for strongly opinionated and empowered women.

The Ice Festival was about more than just Conde and Francis’ duel. The Catholic nobles were investigating Protestants who funded radicals and Castleroy was on the list. Mary asks Greer to be truthful about her husband’s actions but she’s too afraid to admit the truth. They get ahold of his personal ledger and Greer gets thrown into a dungeon (even though Castleroy funded radicals unknowingly). Mary and Francis pull their strings and are able to save her life but she’s stripped of all he wealth, titles and position as Mary’s lady. So basically, Greer is homeless and must bid Mary and her friends goodbye.

I’m betting she’s regretting not marrying Leith now. Hate to say I told you so Greer!

This episode of Reign brought back some old character and tied up some loose ends.

Diane, Bash’s mother and Henry’s mistress, was back in town.

And isn’t it awkward for Bash that both his mother and wife were the King’s mistresses? Eek.

Anyways, Francis has distributed lands and a new title to Bash. Kenna is elated at the fact that people will finally bow down to her for once. Diane walks in the middle of her excitement towards Bash. She’s come to court from her Chateau because Bash, being the excellent son that he is, has given some of the land that Francis gave him to Diane.

Diane does have some nerve to come back to French court after she was banished by Katherine.

Katherine can’t stand the sight of Diane but she’s very preoccupied with the ghosts of the twin girls and Henry. Reign has shuffled back and forth between the supernatural and reality. Katherine is fully aware of the fact that she may be going mad and creating all these ghosts out of a guilty conscience. Her self-awareness was an interesting concept that the writers took on. Henry went mad but could never bring himself to admit it. On the other hand, Katherine explores the idea of what’s real and what’s not—even though everything she’s experiencing feels very much real. Her rendezvous with Henry’s ghost has continued, he hasn’t much as a ghost. Except for the fact that he’s suddenly very apologetic about all the harm that he did to Katherine. He even says that he realizes now that Diane is getting too old and skinny—at which point we were sure that this is all coming from Katherine and not actual ghosts. Diane may be a lot of things but she is in tip top shape.

It seems that Katherine’s little ghost family just wants to play and for Katherine to enjoy them on the other side. Henry is basically beckoning her. They go outside to play in the snow with twin ghost girls and Henry’s advances leave Katherine asleep in the freezing cold.

Thankfully, Bash finds Katherine just in time.

Once Katherine is safe and warm, Bash breaks the news to her.

Claude had Bash investigate into the murder of the twin girls.

She’s determined to find out if she really was the one to kill her sisters and so they bring in the nanny she had at the time. It turns out that Henry couldn’t keep his hands to himself quite often and seduced her too. She fell asleep in his room and once she woke she ran to the twins’ room; only to find that the windows were wide open causing the girls to freeze to death. She panicked and grabbed the roses from Claude’s dress and stuffed them into the babies’ mouth.

But it turns out that Bash connects the dots and finds out that Henry’s continuous lies and unfaithfulness drove Diane to actually be the one to leave the windows open of the babies’ room. She figured she would get away with harming Katherine and then not get caught by pinning it on the nanny. Bash banishes Diane once again and takes away all the lands he had given her.

Before leaving, Diane drops a bomb on Bash. She tells him about the time that Kenna ratted out Diane’s attempt at legitimizing Bash. It showed him what Kenna was capable of and Bash was heavily disappointed. Her choices are unforgiveable to him because they were at the costs of someone else’s well-being. Things just got very tough for these newlyweds. Thanks Diane!

However, unfortunately for Diana, Katherine was smart enough to connect the dots too. Her rage and more than slight madness causes Katherine to choke her with the necklace she was wearing (a gift from Henry). I wonder if this murder will weigh heavily on her conscience but being its Diane I doubt it.

Or maybe Diane will come back with Henry to haunt her?

Reign did a good job at teetering the lines between reality and the other world. Now that Katherine sent the twin girls and Henry away, I’m wondering if the show will continue to try to use that card. The season did mention a reckoning so I’m wondering when will that be over. The writers need to be careful of not overplaying it.

Let us know what you think might happen next.

Will Francis’ jealousy die down?

Conde and Lola, will they really hit off?

And why does Lola always get the cuties from France? Jelly.

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