Reign "Hearts and Minds" (Part 1)

Last time where we left off on Reign, Bash was sent to save and aid several companies Francis ordered him to protect for Mary and as a result of trying to help Francis, Bash was stabbed in the ribs and was gravely injured riding his horse back to the castle. Francis told Mary that there was going to be no other option to help save Scotland and her crown, so her only choice was to accept Tomas' marriage proposal and head back to Portugal with him and wed him.
                                     
                                      

In the beginning of the episode we are watching Francis and Tomas in an archery contest most of us would predict that Francis would be fairly good at shooting arrows, but to our surprise Tomas wins. At first my response was that oh Tomas was just really lucky to beat Francis, but then I realized that we don't really know Tomas' background very well so we don't know how good his archery really is.

During the contest one of Mary's uncles tells her to go on a stroll with him and during that stroll he mentions to her that it doesn't look very good for a king that his allies walk away freely from their treaties and that she should be begged to be release from the engagement with Francis. She tells him that it doesn't look good for her as a queen to beg to be released from her engagement to Francis so that she could marry Tomas. To be brief, if I were Mary I would hate to be in an engagement to Tomas because of his personality after she promises to be his wife and how he's really possessive and abusive to his subjects, but since the marriage is for their country's alliance she really doesn't have a choice.
                                        
Meanwhile Lola is sent by Mary to go visit Bash in Nostradamus' chambers. Nostradamus tells Lola that the wound is healing, but the illness is so bad that it could kill him. At this point I really don't want Bash to die, but let's think rationally here for a minute, he probably won't die because he's a brave and long lasting character so I don't have to worry about him. Anyways back to Nostradamus tells Lola to leave, but Bash insists that she stays and that looking at her will make him feel better.
Throughout this episode, Tomas does many different deeds to Mary to help strengthen their engagement and one of the kind efforts he does for her is him offering Mary a flower and at the same moment Francis sees him doing that. Tomas asks Francis if he has offended him by doing that and Francis assures him that he isn't offended at all. Mary accepts the flower and says that she's honored.

 Word Count:471

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Reign "Kissed" (Part 2)

When Mary knows that Francis asked Henry and he refused Mary had to think of another plan. Mary then realizes that Tomas is the prince of Portugal so this would be the perfect time for him to lend her armies. So she makes a proposal to Tomas and asks him if he would be willing to lend her some soldiers to send back to Scotland. Tomas agrees to consider her proposal and says that he will meet with her another time to discuss the issue.

Tomas later sends for Mary and says that if she agrees to Mary him, he would send troops right away to Scotland to help her. Mary replies and says that she rejects his proposal because she has to marry a nation not a man at first. Tomas then tells her that he is already be claimed to be the next king of Portugal. Later that night they have a party in the palace and Henry tells Nostradamus to predict the futures of Mary's ladies. He tells Greer that she will fall in love with a man with a white mark on his face. He then tells Mary that the lion will fight the dragon in the field of poppies. Mary gets angry and questions his loyalty against him. Tomas asks Mary to dance with him and both Bash and Francis keep tabs on her. 

After awhile, Francis tells Bash that he should send people to help Mary. But after he comes back Bash is gravely wounded and everyone fears his life for him. He tells everyone that he never made it to the battle and by the time he got far enough he was ambushed by a group of people. Henry condemns Francis and teaches him a lesson for not following instructions. When Mary finally catches up to Francis, he tells her that he should marry Tomas and that it would be for the better because he could actually send troops to Scotland. Mary then goes and finds Tomas and says that she accepts his proposal  and that in the morning his men would set sail for Scotland. Once in the morning she sees one of the ships having a green dragon on the flag and remembers that this was related to Nostradamus' vision.

Word Count: 379

Reign "Kissed" (Part 1)

At the beginning of this episode, Nostradamus predicts that somewhere in the near future there would be war within the outside world at in the castle.

The opening scenes shows all of Mary's ladies sitting by the lakeside talking about their kisses. Kenna begins talking about her kiss with a man and not a boy and that how she thinks that boys shouldn't be worth their time. After everyone mentioned their first kisses it was Greer's turn and she says that she's never really had her first kiss. She also mentions that her family can't afford any mess ups she could cause with other people because she was from a commoner family. But Greer does say that she has a thing for Tomas, the prince of Portugal, who is currently visiting France. Aylee warns Greer that she should be careful since she isn't titled. Aylee says that princes only marry for allies. But Greer just ignores Aylee's warning and says that Tomas isn't like a King's bastard and won't ruin her. Suddenly a maid runs towards them and tells Mary that her uncle has come to French Court and would want to speak with her immediately.
                                    
Mary leaves her friends and talks with her uncle about her marriage to Francis. He also requests her to plead with the King and Queen to send more troops to Scotland because they are currently being invaded by the English all the time. He tells her as a Queen she must fix this problem and help her country and by fixing the problem she takes this to King Henry pleading for him to lend her some of his troops. Henry then gives her excuses about how he needs his men to fight off more borders that attack France. He tells her that Scotland only has to worry about England and that France has to worry about Italy, Spain, England and Germany. He does tell her that he would help send materials and supplies for the troops, but no more, no less. Mary leaves the room angrily and Francis runs after her saying that he completely agrees with what she has to deal with and that he will talk peacefully with his father when he has time.

While Mary is still angry with Henry, she goes and plays ball with Charles and just so happened to kick it so hard that it got stuck to the top of the tree branch. She climbs up the tree and finds out that when she finally retrieves the ball, Charles was already tired of waiting for her. But Greer and Tomas just so happen to pass by seeing Mary stuck in the tree. Mary tries to jump down and lands on Tomas and she asks him if he's ok and he says he's fine. He then leaves and Mary tells Greer that she didn't leave a very good impression on him. Greer tells her that it's ok and she tells Mary of her evening plans with Tomas. She says that, that's when she plans to have her first kiss.

Later on in the castle, Bash and Henry are having a fencing duel and Bash continuously lost battles and Henry suspects that there's something on his mind that's not letting him focus. Shortly after they continue to duel Francis comes into the room and begs Henry to send troops to Scotland. He makes a deal with Henry that if he wins the round he will send troops. They begin their duel and Francis wins and say that Henry has to send troops. Henry's reply to Francis was Kings have to always make empty promises and refuses.
                                         


Word Count: 607

Reign "Snakes in the Garden" (Part 2)

Back in Mary's bedroom she sees a woman trying on her dresses, once she sees Mary she begins to apologize and as she's doing that she screams and says that the dress is poisoned. Mary begins head out the door screaming for her guards to help this woman. Once she finds her guards she leads them straight to the bedroom, only to find out that there was nobody in her bedroom anymore. She tells Francis that there wasn't any possibility for her escaping because it was only in a matter of couple of minutes before her returning to the room with the guards. She then starts talking to herself and asks if it was possible in that short amount of time that she could've slipped through the passage door behind her bed and ran through the tunnel before she returned. Francis then reassures her that she will be protected and sends guards to protect and secure the castle grounds.
                                          
Meanwhile Mary is still very frightened of the scene she just witnessed that she decides to see for herself if there was anyone in the secret passage tunnel. She rolls marbles to get Clarissa to answer a few of her questions and to see if she was hurt or ok. Mary rolls the marbles to get Clarissa to answer her if Catherine was behind this mystery and if she had any ties with the English for wanting her head. Both times Clarissa rolled the marbles back as if the answer to her question was a yes. Clarissa leaves a key to a door after she runs down the dark tunnels and Mary happens to then go exploring seeing which door the key she gave her leads to. To her surprise she ends up opening the door to Simon, the English envoy's room and in that room there was the girl who was burning up in the dress. She finds out from Simon that the girl in the dress was a threat to scare her out of France and tell her to move back to Scotland.

Later in the bloodwood, Bash is still in the search of finding Collin. As he's passing by trees he feels blood dripping down and sees that Collin is hanging from the tree upside down with his neck slit. He then hears sounds of tree branches cracking and decides that it's best for him to hide and slowly draws out his sword. He sees Francis and lets a sigh of relief and then he hears another sound and pagan worshippers draw near to them and Bash kills them and tells Francis that he must bring Collin's body back with them so they quickly head out of the forest.
                             
After Francis returns, he and Mary have a talk and Mary tells him that she is no longer safe in the castle and that she must return to Scotland. While finishing their talk Francis goes and talks to his mother and tells her that he knows she's behind all this and if he finds out that she has more plotted against Mary he will never forgive her.

At the end of the episode it shows Nostradomus cleaning the dungeon doors and talks of a red X mark being painted on the wrong door and he's referring to Collin's innocent death. At the same time in Catherine's bed chambers as she's getting ready for bed there lays a red X on her bed...



Word Count: 573

Reign "Snakes in the Garden" (Part 1)

In the beginning of this episode Mary is unsure of whole is plotting to get rid of her and her crown. Of course she knows that the English want her crown and her country, but from information Collin has told Lola it's someone in the French Court that wants her gone.

In the main hall, Queen Catherine is informing her middle son, Charles, about his young engagement to little Madelyn, who is nervous to meet him. Mary offers the King and Queen that she will also accompany Francis and Charles on their way to meet Madelyn. After Mary offers to accompany them, Catherine begins to make up reasons that she shouldn't go and that it wouldn't be a safe journey for her, but Mary tells her that she should go because she was in a similar situation as a young child so she could reassure Madelyn of their marriage.
                                                                                    
They soon depart for the coast and finally meet Lady Madelyn. But all of a sudden they realized they weren't greeted by a French ship, but rather an English warship. Francis begins to freak out and calls for the guards to get Mary out of the area so that she could be safe. Bash arrives in just the nick of time and tells Francis to halt what he's doing and reassures that the English ship isn't bad because Madelyn's French ship took on water and the English were there to help her continue on to her destination.

Fortunately there's a party held in the castle for Prince Charles and Lady Madelyn and it took Mary's mind off things for awhile, at least until she met the English convoy, Simon. He questioned Mary about her engagement and bond between Francis and basically said that he didn't think that Francis would marry her at the end. He also tells her that the English tried to poison her at the convent and threatened her if she doesn't end her engagement with France, England would soon take over Scotland. Luckily, Francis came to the rescue and got Mary out of the conversation. He told her that she was shaking and that she was showing fear in front of the English. He asks her if she could be strong and show the kingdom that she was going to be a strong ruler.
                                     
The next day Catherine tells Mary that Collin was alive and that he was going to sabotage her once he got out of jail. Mary doesn't care because she knew that Collin was being framed for what he did but just requested that Catherine and Henry bring him safely back so that he may question him herself and that he could be a witness/evidence. Meanwhile outside Mary and Francis were watching Charles and Madelyn play a game. Francis is insulted because he has a feeling that Mary was accusing Catherine for putting Collin into jail. After playing a few rounds of the game, Charles leaves and goes over to a narrow, darkened, doorway. Mary finds him speaking into the doorway and asked him who he was talking to. Charles avoids the question but later told her that it was his friend named, Clarissa. Mary tells him that Clarissa might have visited her and helped her before.


Check out this site! There are some funny pictures of what happens throughout the episode and gives out details of what could be revealed in the next episode.
                                           
Word Count: 566

Reign "Pilot" (Part 2)

                                   
Meanwhile Lola is bathing in her room, Collin, her suitor from Scotland surprises her. They ask to meet with the queen a little later about some news and Mary goes back into her room. When she was getting ready for the wedding she notices a hand and a voice telling her that whatever happens at the banquet to not drink the wine. This is a very crucial part that happens next when at the ceremony Collin says that they should all celebrate and hands Mary the cup of wine. She almost drinks it but suddenly remembers that warning, so she kindly rejects. Lola looks in their direction and sees Collin kiss Mary's hand and automatically becomes jealous. Mary can sense her jealously and tells Aylee to come and gather the others so that they can dance. They take off their shoes and begin dancing and other quickly join in. Mary dances happily and sees Bash smiling at her while she's dancing, Francis then catches Bash smiling at her and looks back at Mary.
                                 
 Then a flashback of Mary and Francis' childhood come back and then feathers start falling from the ceiling. Just when everything was getting so heated up Elizabeth and her husband begin heading to their room for the consummation. Kenna tells them that they should go watch and says that this would benefit Mary so that she'll know what she will have to do when she gets to her marriage.
                                     
They watch the consummation and Aylee is like "We shouldn't watch the rest of it." They all decide to split up and everyone runs to a different part of the castle. Mary goes back into the main hall and finds Francis chatting with some other diplomats. Francis then apologizes for his words and actions said earlier and then he also says that an alliance with Scotland will ruin France and that they shouldn't get married, Mary then replies with, "You're not the only one who has a country to think about." I'm just like You Go MARY!

Later that night Collin sneaks inside Mary's room and attempts to rape her but fails. The next day Mary is questioned by Francis about what Collin was doing in her bed. Francis thinks that Mary was trying to get back at him and almost ruined her reputation. Then Catherine demands the execution of Collin, but little does Mary know that it was Catherine was the one that wanted her dead. Somehow someone saves Collin and he escapes. Later Mary is outside on the castle ledge by herself and thanks the unknown person for saving her life and when she turns around the unknown person is nowhere to be seen.
                                 
Be sure to check out this site in case you get confused on what's happening, trust me I was really confused at first but once I checked this site out it was like a brief summary of important events.


Word Count: 448

Reign "Pilot" (Part 1)

Some may call me a historical geek, but let's be honest, I kind of am. I recently just started watching this show called "Reign" on the CW channel because my friend suggested that since I've been so into historical fiction lately I should probably check it out. So I watch the episode the first time and keep in mind I honestly have no clue on what's going on. The first thing I did was check out some sites that had information on the series and this first site gave me a pretty good overview of how the episode was going to play out.

Danger and intrigue lurk around every dark castle corner in this story of a young, Mary Queen of Scots. Thus begins the story of  Mary's adventures, obstacles, romance, and history in French Court

After spending a childhood of being safely hidden away in a convent, a teenage Mary Stuart arrives in France where she has been sent to Secure Scotland's strategic alliance by formalizing her arranged engagement to the King Henry Valois' dashing son, Prince Francis. While Mary stays at the convent hoping that it will safely keep her away from the English from wanting her crown she witnesses one of the nuns dying from eating the porridge that she suspects the English tried to poison her with. After realizing that she was of age to be married and that the convent was no longer a safe place for her to stay the nuns send her back to French court.
                                     
Upon arriving at French court, Mary reunites with her best friends, Kenna, Greer, Lola, and Aylee. She feels relieved because she doesn't have to deal with the French all by herself. While Mary and Francis get acquainted, Catherine asks Nostradamus about what he saw in his vision and he tells her, "It's all clear now, Francis' union with Mary will cost him his life."Later that day Mary and her ladies in waiting prepare for Elizabeth, Francis' sister's wedding. The girls explore the castle because they haven't been back since they were children so Mary goes back to rooms she remembered being in and just so happened to stumble in on Francis while he was sharpening his swords. She was feeling very unpleasant when she knew that he wasn't the only one in his room and about the phrase he said, "Husbands are not under the obligation to answer to their wives." She leaves his room unhappily and goes over by the lake with her dog. Her dog is scared by a noise and runs towards the woods. Bash just so happens to stop Mary from going into the woods in just the nick of time or else she would have been made a sacrifice to the pagan gods.

                                    

Word Count 453