Thursday on the CW’s Reign Season 2 Episode 6, events inside and outside the castle converged in a dramatic installment with wide ranging consequences.
When we begin, Mary and Catherine flee angry peasants, and Francis fears it’s because of his own actions and arranges a search party to look for them.
Bash and Leith tell Francis that Mary and his mother are missing, and Francis, along with Leith and Conde set off to find the pair, whatever it takes.
At the inn, Catherine and Mary discuss their plan of. Figuring that Francis and the royal guard will find them eventually, Cat decides it’s time for a chat instead.
She asks Mary why she was so interested in going off to Beauvais and eventually it comes out that there’s a doctor who specializes in fertility there.
Catherine, understanding Mary’s situation, cuts right to the chase and tells her to give up her romantic ideals about having a perfect marriage with Francis.
They have a heart to heart, until a royal carriage finally arrives. It’s not the real Francis, and not the real Mary though, a twist that only this show would pull off.
If you watch Reign online, you know this sort of thing is par for the course, and as predicted, Catherine is appalled at this display. But what can she do?
The villagers, meanwhile, have no idea that they are bowing down to imposters and hand over all of their valuables when “France needs their help.”
The imposters are called out on one of their stories, but the real Mary steps in and saves her, which Catherine asks why in the world she would do.
Mary says she has a plan. Meanwhile, the real Francis meets an old lady on his road to save them whose entire land has been burned to the ground.
She starts cursing the king and queen, at which point Francis realizes there are shady doppelgangers around and is clued in on what’s going on here.
Mary and Catherine have a word with faux Mary, who exclaims how she’s always wanted to be a lady’s maid and ends up admitting that she’s a fake.
Catherine says she and Mary are professional imposters who will keep her secret if she helps them. Then fake Francis bursts in and everything goes south.
After he hits faux Mary for revealing their secret, Gifford shows up, and reveals that he is an agent evil and a minion of Queen Elizabeth back in England.
He hired faux Francis and Mary to terrorize peasants to ruin the real Francis and Mary’s reputations. Then he kills the fake Francis right then and there.
Faux Mary gets stabbed too, and real Mary and Catherine manage to escape, just as Francis shows up to heroically take his mother and wife safely home.
Upon their return to court, Francis is delighted that Mary is safe and home, but she’s still pretty upset with him so she tells him off, as does Catherine.
Lola, playing her own little game, strips in front of the window. Narcisse watches. Lola walks up behind him and says that it is a beautiful night for a bath.
He’s actually watching her laundress. She said for five gold pieces the entire castle could watch. Narcisse says he’s stopped the transfer of her dowry.
It’s hers. He would be honored to be of further service.
Francis apologizes to Mary, but fails to tell her the truth. Mary agrees to allow him to fix things, but doesn’t seem to believe she knows the whole truth.